by Richard Luscombe, Lauren Aratani in New York and a on (#6JPYC)
His primary opponent suggested the ex-president will raid Republican National Committee coffers to pay his legal feesDonald Trump awoke on Saturday facing a stark new reality of legal obligations in excess of half a billion dollars after his stunning civil fraud trial defeat a day earlier, and questions swirling over his ability, or intention, to pay.Yet the former president remained defiant late on Friday, insisting in a vitriolic rant from his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida that he would win an appeal against a New York judge's ruling that he must pay more than $350m for intentional financial fraud stretching more than a decade. Continue reading...
The man behind ChatGPT is wooing the UAE to invest in energy-hungry AI. But if it turns out his tech can't fix the world, he's got his escape planOnce upon a time, nobody outside tech circles had heard of Sam Altman. But then his company, OpenAI, launched ChatGPT, and suddenly he was everywhere - touring the world, giving interviews to gushing journalists, granting audiences to awestruck politicians etc. Whiplash-thin, with a charmingly wide-eyed baby face, he instantly became the acceptable face of digital capitalism.Then the OpenAI board abruptly fired him, apparently on the grounds that he had not been, er, entirely candid with them. When Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO (who had invested $13bn in OpenAI), heard about it, though, he was mightily pissed off. And in no time all, Altman was unsacked and reinstated in the OpenAI driving seat. And the world was transfixed by the drama of it all. Which only goes to show that appearances can be deceptive. Continue reading...
Samuel Moreno-Carranza's grandmother posted about boy's condition, who was injured when police killed the shooter - his motherA boy who was shot in the head at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch on 11 February has lost a portion of his frontal lobe" while recovering at the hospital, according to his grandmother.In a Facebook post three days after the shooting, Walli Carranza said her seven-year-old grandson - Samuel Moreno-Carranza - has lost a major part of what makes us who we are" after half of his right skull [had] to be surgically removed during two surgeries done in less than 24 hours". Samuel had endured cardiac arrest multiple times, and no one can determine whether he has significant brain activity because his scalp tissue is too friable" to let doctors attach electroencephalogram wires to him, Carranza added in a post that doubled as a criticism of the US's lack of meaningful gun control. Continue reading...
President pledged to get cleanup job done and pushed for protective measures as protesters held anti-Biden' rallyJoe Biden on Friday surveyed the federal cleanup in East Palestine, Ohio, more than a year after an explosive fire from a derailed train carrying hazardous chemicals - and the president saw up close the lingering hostility from victims still angry that he waited so long to visit.The White House has said Biden was waiting for the right moment to visit. The mayor invited him. Continue reading...
The murky depths of the rightwing mind have turned up conspiracies lately on Taylor Swift and the former first ladyI hope you're not squeamish, because we are about to journey into the murky depths of the rightwing mind where brain worms abound. Continue reading...
Emma Brown, 30, is executive director of Giffords and plans to mobilize Americans for the 2024 elections around gun safetyEmma Brown was five years old in 1999, when news broke that two student shooters had attacked Columbine high school. She was in elementary school when the federal assault weapons ban expired, and she was a high school student when a gunman shot then congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 18 others outside a grocery store in Arizona.Now, at 30, Brown has taken over as the executive director of Giffords, the gun-safety group founded by the former congresswoman. As she looks ahead to the crucial US elections this November, Brown hopes she can help mobilize the millions of Americans who, like her, have never known a time when mass shootings were not a common occurrence. Continue reading...
Donald Trump, his eldest sons and associates have been ordered to pay over $350m by a New York judge who found them guilty of intentionally committing financial fraud over the course of a decade. The ruling marks the conclusion of a case that has been years in the making. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, has been investigating Trump's business since 2019. James hailed the ruling as a 'massive victory'. 'No matter how big, how rich, or how powerful you are, no one is above the law. Not even Donald Trump,' she said. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and is likely to appeal against the decision
Even the giant fortune Trump inherited from his father did not stop him from steering the family's dynasty on to the rocksJudge Arthur Engoron's ruling on Friday concludes the nearly century-long history of the Trump Organization in New York in disgrace and ruin. For his financial fraud, Donald Trump must pay $355m in fines. He is suspended for three years from doing business in New York. His sons - Donald, Jr, and Eric, executives of the company - are barred for two years. New York means business in combating business fraud," the judge stated in his decision. The Trump brand is now adjudicated to be synonymous with fraud and failure.In order to borrow more and at lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements," the judge wrote in his decision. When confronted at trial with the statements, defendants' fact and expert witnesses simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences ... Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological." Continue reading...
In 2022, Otero county became the first place in over 100 years to remove a politician using section 3 of the 14th amendmentWhile the US supreme court appears poised to allow Donald Trump to remain on the ballot this year, a small New Mexico county on the Texas border may stand alone as the only place where the 14th amendment has been used in recent times to remove a government official from the ballot.Couy Griffin, a county commissioner until 2022 in Otero county, which has a population of around 69,000 people, became the first official in more than a century to be removed from office under a little-used provision in the 14th amendment that bans insurrectionists from holding office. Griffin, the founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, had been convicted of illegally entering the US Capitol grounds on January 6, a misdemeanor. Continue reading...
Until the president stops Israel's violence, an evil-looking Biden looks less like a clever joke and more like a statement of factNot long after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers for this year's Super Bowl title, President Biden sent out a bizarre post on his X account. In the post is a picture of Biden in a blue suit with his arms crossed and an affable smile on his face. But the picture is odd because you can't see the president's eyes. They've been replaced by what look like red laser beams. Joe Biden (or someone on his media team, presumably) also attached a description to the picture, one that simply read Dark Brandon", and above the picture is the caption Just like we drew it up."If you don't get the reference, the picture looks creepy. If you do get the reference, the picture looks, well, even creepier, especially considering what was happening in Gaza at the moment this post was sent out into the world. Continue reading...
So you want to build an MLS champion? No mean feat given the league's notoriously byzantine roster regulations. But take heed of these four rules and you'll be on your waySo you, dear reader, want to build a great MLS roster.You want to catapult your team to the top of the league, winning Supporters' Shields and MLS Cups along the way. Maybe you'll even contend for a US Open Cup or two - if MLS will let you play in it, that is. Continue reading...
Former president's business fortune risks slipping from his grasp after ruling, while he marches closer to the Republican nominationFrom Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to the Trump Building on Wall Street, the Trump World Tower by the United Nations to the Trump International overlooking Central Park, Donald Trump has stamped his name in golden letters on skyscrapers across New York City.This real estate empire was the springboard for Trump's ascent from tabloid fodder to reality TV stardom, and ultimately the presidency, all built on his self-projected image as America's most famous businessman. Continue reading...
Hungary's president quit over the fallout of a child abuse case, but the pro-family' prime minister still has questions to answerAfter nearly 14 years running Hungary, Viktor Orban's regime is crumbling under the weight of its own hypocrisies. The country's president, Katalin Novak, a close Orban ally, was forced to resign in disgrace earlier this month for issuing a pardon to a man convicted of helping cover up a sex abuse case at a children's home. The former justice minister, Judit Varga, who approved the decision, also quit. This followed a tumultuous week of public outcry and protests in Budapest.The scandal has not only rocked Orban's autocratic government to its core, it has laid bare the phoney nature of his self-declared Christian, family-values agenda. It has also exposed what little power even high-ranking political figures wield under Orban's de facto one-person rule: at the drop of a hat, he appears ready to dispose of close allies, even the supposedly independent president of the republic, to avoid accountability himself.Katalin Cseh is a Hungarian member of the European parliament for the Renew Europe GroupDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
A British right to disconnect' law like those in Australia and Europe would help me kick my bad habit, and make life better for everyoneI have a secret that I need to own up to: sometimes I'm a bad boss. After spending a couple of decades studying management and leadership, during the last couple of years I have been leading a large business school in London. When I took on the role, I wanted to try to bring an evidence-based approach to my leadership position, and initially I used the relevant science to guide my actions. Over time, however, I found myself falling into bad habits that I knew were a no-no, according to the research.One of these was contacting my co-workers out of working hours. I knew there was plenty of research that finds that out-of-work-hours communication is generally bad for employee wellbeing, and can also be bad for productivity. However, this didn't stop me. Some mornings, I would find myself sending colleagues emails at 5am. In the evening, I would be messaging at 10pm. During the weekends, I would find myself firing off documents to colleagues and asking for comments. Continue reading...
Colorado police issued a warrant for Miles Harford, 33, at whose house they also discovered the body of a womanColorado authorities issued an arrest warrant Friday for a former funeral home owner they say kept a deceased woman's body in a hearse for two years at a home where police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people.
The ex-president was ordered to pay $355m and banned from leading a business in New York. He's on the worst kind of rollThe week-that-was will likely weigh heavily on the 45th president for the months and years to come. On Friday, Arthur Engoron, a New York judge, found Donald Trump and his businesses liable for conspiracy and ordered them to pay $355m. On top of that, the court banned Trump and his two adult sons from serving at the helm of any New York company for three years, while imposing a $4m penalty on both of the boys.In a 92-page decision, Engoron also lacerated Trump's pretensions of credibility. He repeatedly tagged Trump for his allergy to the truth. Continue reading...
Trump's co-defendants in Georgia racketeering case over attempts to overturn 2020 election seek to disqualify Fulton county DALawyers for Donald Trump's co-defendants charged over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia struggled on Friday to undermine the credibility of the Fulton county district attorney and her top deputy, with whom she had a romantic relationship, in order to disqualify them from bringing the case.The district attorney, Fani Willis, and her deputy, Nathan Wade, both previously testified there was no financial conflict of interest (the defendants alleged Willis hired him to benefit financially) because the relationship started after Wade was retained as a special prosecutor. Continue reading...
Officials say juveniles are being detained on gun-related and resisting arrest charges' after a woman was killed and 22 injuredTwo juveniles have been charged with crimes connected to the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl rally, authorities said on Friday.A news release from the Jackson county family court said the juveniles are being detained in the county's juvenile detention center on gun-related and resisting arrest charges". The release said additional charges are expected in the future as the investigation by the Kansas City Police Department continues". Continue reading...
The opposition leader was jailed after bravely returning to Russia. Now he is the latest name on a long, grim list of dead activists and dissidentsAs I became more famous, I was sure my life became safer ... It would be problematic for them just to kill me," Alexei Navalny once told a film-maker, drily adding: I was very wrong."Yet the official announcement of the death of the 47-year-old, who remained Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponent even from behind bars, was profoundly shocking. Many feared he would die in the notoriously brutal Arctic penal colony where he was incarcerated. Fewer expected it so soon or so suddenly, perhaps because of his apparently indomitable spirit. He seemed in reasonably good health, though gaunt, when he spoke via video link to a court hearing on Thursday, and cheerfully mocked the system.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The US president said his government was not aware of whether or not Alexei Navalny was killed by the Russian government but that Vladimir Putin was responsible for his death. Other world leaders have also laid responsibility for the opposition leader's death firmly at the feet of the Russian president
Centrist Democrat of West Virginia says he has chosen not to run because democracy is at stake right now'Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has announced that he will not be launching a presidential campaign, ending speculation about a run for the White House that would have thrown more chaos and confusion into an already tumultuous 2024 election season.Manchin, a centrist Democrat from a deep red state, has long been a thorn in the side of his party and especially its left wing. Since announcing his decision not seek re-election to the Senate, Manchin, 76, has toyed with the idea that he might launch an independent or third-party bid for the White House. Continue reading...
Tropes in a Labour meeting, antisemitism incidents up 589% - try to imagine what it is like to be Jewish in Britain right nowJews dread the news. Maybe the entire population feels that way these days: waking to a morning bulletin consisting of wars abroad, recession at home and Donald Trump would make anyone want to turn off the radio and pull the duvet over their head. But for many Jews, the current news comes with a particular sting. They can hardly bear to hear it - not least because they're in it so often.On Thursday, they woke to new figures showing that late 2023 brought a 589% increase in antisemitic incidents in Britain compared with the same period in 2022. Overall, 2023 saw more than 4,100 episodes of anti-Jewish hate across the country - at least one recorded in every police region in the UK. Most of that huge spike came after 7 October, following the Hamas attacks on southern Israel and Israel's subsequent bombardment of Gaza. Some of the incidents involved knives, others saw Jews struck with metal bars. Some victims were punched or kicked or spat on, others had stones, bricks or bottles thrown at them. Some had religious clothing - say, the kippah, or skullcap - forcibly removed. Some of the abuse happened online; some of it was physical and personal. Some of it comprised attacks on buildings, slogans daubed on walls, windows smashed; hundreds of incidents involved children, whether making their way to or from school or inside it. The numbers, gathered by the Community Security Trust - the same body that helps organise the volunteer guards who've long been required to stand outside every synagogue and Jewish school in Britain - are the highest since the CST began collecting data four decades ago.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Robert DuBoise, sentenced over a 1983 rape and murder he did not commit, says he hopes others in his position now get justice'A Tampa, Florida, man who has been authorized to receive $14m for spending nearly four decades in prison over a rape and murder which he did not commit says he hopes his case makes it easier for the unjustly convicted to achieve justice before it's too late for them.I'm just grateful," Robert DuBoise told the New York Times of the compensation that Tampa's city council voted to pay him to settle a lawsuit over his wrongful conviction. He said he hoped others in his position now get justice and can move on without having to spend the rest of their life fighting the system that has already wronged them". Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#6JP95)
From its lavish launch parties to a 2019 accounting scandal, the UK challenger bank has been beset by controversyIn early 2008, inside the Seashell fish and chip shop in Marylebone, west London, Anthony Thomson was about to make a deal.Sitting with the American billionaire Vernon Hill over cod and chips, he revealed plans to import the tycoon's template for a US-style, consumer-focused bank to the UK. Hill gave Thomson his blessing, and ultimately, a chunk of his money, joining him as co-founder. Continue reading...
The Internationalists details how the president was determined to leave a country in which 2,324 US troops were killed since 2001Joe Biden is privately defiant" that he made the right calls on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in summer 2021, a new book reportedly says, even as the chaos and carnage that unfolded continues to be investigated in Congress.No one offered to resign" over the withdrawal, writes Alexander Ward, a Politico reporter, in large part because the president didn't believe anyone had made a mistake. Ending the war was always going to be messy." Continue reading...
Request comes six weeks after lawmakers grilled school president Claudine Gay, who lost her job in aftermath of contentious hearingRepublicans in Congress have escalated their fight with Harvard University by issuing subpoenas to university leaders, six weeks after hearings into antisemitism on campus set in motion the resignation of Harvard's president, Claudine Gay.Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina who heads the House education and workforce committee that held hearings into the issue last year, ordered Harvard's trustees to produce documents related to the issue. Continue reading...
Test questions will be sent to 480,000 households for possible inclusion in the American Community SurveyThe US Census Bureau this year plans to test questions about sexual orientation and gender identity for its most comprehensive survey of American life.The test questions will be sent to 480,000 households, with the statistical agency expecting just over half to respond.Gender question one: What sex was Name assigned at birth?Possible answers: Male; female.Gender question two: What is Name's current gender?Possible answers: Male; Female; Transgender; Nonbinary; and This person uses a different term" (with a space to write in a response). Continue reading...
Of course the PM will make light of Labour's byelection victories. And of course those who want him out will plot using their grid of shit'Confusing news from the byelections in Wellingborough and Kingswood, given that Downing Street has spent recent weeks explaining Britain is pointing in the right direction" and has turned the corner". Someone should probably tell Britain, which is now officially in recession, and where Wellingborough just went Labour on the second biggest swing of its kind since the second world war. Kingswood likewise turned the corner" away from the Conservatives to the tune of a 16.4% swing, also making the postwar top 10. Furthermore, it was an eye-catching night for Reform, the Tories' Jill Stein. Or as Rishi Sunak put it this morning: Our plan is working." In which case, could there possibly be an argument for adopting George from Seinfeld's iconic do the opposite" strategy?Entertainingly, the small hours saw a remarkable number of secretaries of state for cope out there in the wild. I clocked up several sightings of the phrase hardly a ringing endorsement", with special mention to the chairman of one Conservative association, who judged of Labour's pitiful" performance: This is not a victory, but a calamitous defeat." Regrettably, even accounting for this historic trouncing of Labour, the expectation in many quarters is that these results will prompt Tory plotters to fully activate their much-trailed grid of shit" in an attempt to destabilise Sunak. Continue reading...
The 10% of voters who could decide the race are swayed more by policies than by age concerns in the likely presidential matchNext week, Frank Stovall turns 103. The retired Lockheed engineer has until recently been a lifelong Atlantan, is a veteran of two wars, and is old enough to remember when Republicans were rare in Georgia.Well, yes, I think they're both healthy," Stovall said, when asked at the Church at Wieuca in Buckhead about the mental fitness for office of President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump. I'm a Republican, but I'm not going to vote for Trump, if I can help it. I hate to say this, but I think he was a traitor to the country on January 6. Continue reading...
One aid organisation has said a ground offensive in Rafah would be a bloodbath'. Plus, an FBI informant is charged with lying in Hunter Biden case Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Western leaders are hoping that a round of meetings at a security conference in Munich will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah, which aid organisations have said would have catastrophic consequences. One NGO said it would cause a bloodbath".What terms does Hamas want for a ceasefire? Hamas is no longer holding out for a permanent ceasefire but wants a six-week humanitarian pause leading to a ceasefire.What is Benjamin Netanyahu saying about the ceasefire talks? Negotiations appear to be stalling. The Israeli prime minister said on Friday: Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state."What has been the human cost of Israel's war on Gaza so far? The offensive has killed more than 28,500 people, displaced more than 85% of Gaza's population and reduced more than half of the territory's infrastructure to rubble. The World Food Programme says one in four people in Gaza are facing extreme hunger. Continue reading...
"I don't know if you can really script it any better," said Iowa's Caitlin Clark after she brok the NCAA women's basketball scoring record after scoring 49 points in her team's 106-89 win over Michigan. Clark, who needed eight points to break the record previously held by Kelsey Plum, reached the threshold with a three-pointer from 35 feet. The 22-year-old only needed two minutes and 12 seconds to break the record before going on to set a single-game points record for Iowa. Clark now has 3,569 points in her career and can break more records with the AIAW major-college record of 3,649 being held by Lynette Woodard.
Willis and Nathan Wade testified on their relationship, with Trump lawyers distracting from core issue: attempt to overthrow democracyFani Willis spent Thursday morning pacing in her office.Nearby, in courtroom 5A in the Fulton county justice center, Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor, was testifying about their romantic relationship as part of a high-stakes hearing over whether or not Willis should be disqualified from handling the wide-ranging election-interference case against Donald Trump and 14 co-defendants. Continue reading...
As someone treated for bowel cancer, I think attitudes must change but also the language. Some of it is tactless, some ridiculousKing Charles has cancer. Coverage of this story in the days since the announcement has been funereal. Daily bulletins are issued. Heads of state send condolences. Pictures portray the monarch ashen-faced. The global media pitch camp outside Buckingham Palace, and wait.Will the cancer taboo never vanish? Half of Britons who have had cancer" do something called survive, and live with it". The current 10-year survival rates of skin, prostate, breast and testicular cancer are now running at 75-98%. Rates for pancreatic, brain and lung cancers remain lower, and mortality is obviously much higher for older people. But like most illnesses, if diagnosed early most cancers are now removable and/or curable. They are no longer as they once were: a death sentence. Continue reading...
Iowa's electrifying basketball savant isn't just re-writing the NCAA record books. She's front and center of a boom time that is lifting the women's game to uncharted commercial heightsCaitlin Clark, the University of Iowa basketball star, became the NCAA women's career scoring leader on Thursday night in classic Caitlin Clark fashion: pulling up from parallel to the logo at center court and launching a three-pointer that went straight through the rim. She did it barely two minutes into the game, and fittingly, her basket made the scoreline Clark 8, Michigan 6.Eventually, Clark's teammates scored a few baskets, too. Because Clark is a completist, she only kept scoring after that. She finished with a career-high 49 points, 46% of Iowa's total, in a 106-89 home victory over Michigan. It was the most points any Iowa player has ever scored in a game, breaking a record Clark set earlier this season. Continue reading...
Before the season we were high on the Bills and Trevor Lawrence. But one of us did get the Super Bowl match-up correct ...As we headed into the 2023 NFL season, Taylor dominated the headlines. Colts running back Jonathan Taylor was holding out for a contract extension, to build his own generational wealth and alter the running back market as we know it. By season's end, the most notable Taylor in the NFL was a global icon showcasing her gaga phase with Travis Kelce during Chiefs games. You never know which road the NFL will take from year-to-year but it's never boring.On-field outcomes have become a little easier to predict in the era of Patrick Mahomes. After three Super Bowls wins in five years, it's now safe to say that anyone betting against Mahomes is a fool. Yet when we glance at our Guardian NFL picks from last September, it turns out some of us writers were a little off, not only in doubting Mahomes's ability to overcome his lack of a supporting cast but on many of our predictions across the board. Then again, one of us got the lineup for the Super Bowl spot on. Let's, squeamishly, take a look (you can read the full predictions here) at how we saw the season playing out. Continue reading...
Tyson Fury is svelte compared to four other men who fought for (and in two instances, won) the world heavyweight titleTyson Fury, whose fight against Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world has now been rescheduled for 18 May, would be an anomaly under most circumstances. His thought processes are - shall we say - different. And in today's world of sculpted elite athletes, his body type runs against the norm.Fury is 6ft 9in tall and has fought at weights as high as 277lbs. The flesh around his waist jiggles when he is in combat. Usyk refers to him as greedy belly". Continue reading...
All life is there. The nourishing community utilising and sharing, and the conniving set with their rivalries and stratagemsThere was a snowstorm in New York this week, triggering the shutdown of schools, the excitement of children and, in my case, a flurry of activity on what has become a small but central drama in my life, Facebook Marketplace. There are better forums for buying and selling, and worthier ways to donate your old stuff. But for sheer theatre, it is hard to beat the personalised exchanges of a platform where you can low-key stalk the woman haggling for a 50% discount on your kid's old snowsuit, to discover she has her apartment on the market for $5m. No deal, madam!It goes without saying that the joy of the Marketplace has little to do with the money it generates. Facebook knows this, as it knows everything about us, starting with how venal we are. The thrill of the game is all, the slight but real satisfaction of offloading a clapped-out old scooter for actual cash money - as long as none of your Facebook friends see you doing it. To this end, there is a hide listing from your friends" button that you are invited to hit when you publish a listing, which ensures that no one whose eyes you've ever looked into knows you are trying to flog a used colander (strand of spaghetti still stuck to the side) for $4.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Brussels is ditching green measures as EU leaders panic over rural protests, upcoming elections and the threat of the far rightUrsula von der Leyen surrendered to angry farmers last week faster than you could shake a pitchfork or dump a tractor-load of manure outside the European parliament. The European Commission president, expected to announce her candidacy for a second term heading the EU executive next week, told lawmakers that the commission was withdrawing a bill to halve the use of chemical pesticides by 2030 and would hold more consultations instead.The proposed measure was a key plank in the commission's European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork strategy, intended to make the EU carbon-neutral by 2050, make agriculture more environmentally friendly and preserve biodiversity. Continue reading...
Azhar Ali's parroting of anti-Israel conspiracy theories is not a warning just for Labour - there's a lesson in it for everyoneWhat kind of idiot falls for a conspiracy theory? Somebody gullible, you might imagine: at best someone vulnerable or mentally unwell, and at worst someone actively malicious. But mostly, to be blunt, not perfectly normal people like you and me. We are too rational, we tell ourselves smugly, to fall for some old guff about lizard people running the world, or Bill Gates wanting to microchip everyone, or the royal family secretly bumping off Diana, Princess of Wales. We go where the evidence takes us, follow the news closely, exercise our own judgment.The bad news for those of us who like to think we're immune, however, is that, according to the kind of research we probably pride ourselves on reading, intelligent people who consider themselves open-minded and curious enough to work things out for themselves can be surprisingly vulnerable to some strains of conspiracist thinking - at least where these tap into existing fears or prejudices. Which brings us to the festering mess of the Rochdale byelection, and its broader implications for British political parties.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
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