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Decision that weakened power of government regulatory agencies sows confusion to already chaotic cannabis lawA recent supreme court decision that weakened the power of US government regulatory agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has added additional confusion to America's already chaotic cannabis law.This month, a federal court was able to overrule the DEA on what qualifies as legal hemp, in part because of a supreme court decision that nullified the Chevron doctrine, which once directed courts to defer to the expertise of federal agencies. But now the reverse will apply and courts may have the final say over even highly technical regulations. Continue reading...

Voters picked Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Winning Saginaw is key to securing Michigan - and the White HouseA local law says that residents of Saginaw Township in Michigan cannot publicly display political signs in support of a presidential candidate until 30 days before the US election, even on their own front lawns.But you wouldn't know it while driving through this neat midwestern township that borders a town of the same name - simply, Saginaw - in the most closely contested county, also called Saginaw, of a battleground state that Donald Trump won in 2016 when he took the White House and then lost in 2020 when Joe Biden wrested it from his control. Continue reading...

If anyone could undo ... the will of Louisiana ... the Catholic church can and will,' says survivor whose case is targetedMonths after Louisiana's supreme court upheld the constitutionality of a state law that let child molestation victims sue for long-ago abuse, despite arguments to the contrary by a Roman Catholic diocese, another church organization is asking the federal government to strike the statute down.Behind the request in question are the Dominican Sisters of Peace and a law firm that boasts about having represented Catholic institutions in Louisiana courts for more than a century. Another of the law firm's clients in question, the archdiocese of New Orleans, is offering clergy molestation victims less than 10% of what they are requesting in a bankruptcy settlement, in part by arguing the so-called lookback window" law doesn't apply to more than 600 abuse claims. Continue reading...

The US presidential election is neck and neck. But only one candidate has been compared to Adolf Hitler. Is it an exaggeration or based in fact?Is Donald Trump really a fascist? It's a question that has been bubbling away since he first announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015 after a years-long campaign to brand Barack Obama an illegitimate occupant of the White House. Back then his questioning of Obama's citizenship appeared overtly racist (When I was 18, people called me Donald Trump. When he was 18 @BarackObama was Barry Soweto"). So were his comments about Mexican immigrants at his campaign launch: They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Trump's early indications that he would not accept the results of any election he did not win made him sound like an anti-democrat. And he told Hillary Clinton in their first presidential debate that if he became president, she would end up in jail, which is where he seemed to think his political opponents belonged. It was plenty. But was it fascism?Before 2016, the closest the US had ever come to electing a fascist as president was in a work of fiction. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, published in 2004, imagines an alternative history for the country in which Charles Lindbergh - real-life aviation hero and Nazi sympathiser - has defeated Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election on a promise to keep the US out of the second world war. In Roth's telling, Lindbergh then initiates non-aggression pacts with Hitler's Germany and Imperial Japan before embarking on a domestic programme of forced Jewish assimilation. Only when the popular radio host Walter Winchell announces he will stand against Lindbergh for the presidency and is shot dead at a campaign rally does the country come to its senses and drive Lindbergh out. Continue reading...

Combs's business empire once seemed to know no bounds. Now he faces abuse allegations and a string of chargesBrooklyn's grim Metropolitan detention center (MDC) is now for the foreseeable future home to Diddy, AKA Sean Combs, one of the most well-known voices in American entertainment whose business empire once seemed to know no bounds.The MDC is 5 miles (8km) from the public housing projects in Bedford-Stuyvesant where Combs's biggest Bad Boy Records star, Biggie Smalls, grew up, but more than 20 miles from the middle-class suburb of Mount Vernon, where Combs himself was raised. Continue reading...

A precursor to Duke University once stripped students of their culture. Cherokee teachers are leading the changeBetween 1882 and 1887, some two dozen children from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians were enrolled in Trinity College's Industrial Indian boarding school. The school, which operated about 20 miles south of Greensboro, North Carolina, alongside the college's traditional liberal arts program, received federal funding in pursuit of its goal to assimilate Indigenous students.The students, who ranged in age from eight to 18, were forced to work and wear western clothing, and were prohibited from speaking Cherokee or otherwise maintaining their traditions, while other students who attended Trinity College were instructed in the liberal arts. Continue reading...

The 80s president known for sunny optimism also has a darker legacy on issues like race and Aids. I don't think you can just say, wow, Trump arrived from Mars,' says Max BootUnderstand this about immigration," Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a staunch Democrat, said in an interview on HBO earlier this month. The best speech on immigration was by President Ronald Reagan."Pelosi is not alone among Democrats heaping praise on the 40th president for his pro-immigration views, defiance of tyranny and politics of optimism - It's morning in America." For many he has come to symbolise nostalgia for a more innocent, less partisan time. Visitors to America's capital often land at Ronald Reagan Washington national airport. A newly released biopic starring Dennis Quaid is the latest burnishing of the myth. Continue reading...

Nate Silver's election model is once again being pored over by millions of anxious voters. The gambler turned statistician talks about the race for White House, the risk-takers redefining our culture, and the probability of GodIs London a little bit tame for Nate Silver? The stats expert known for his hugely influential US election model is in town promoting a new book about risk, and can't help noticing all the ways in which we play it safe on this side of the Atlantic. You go to the tube in London and they have guard doors, which they don't have in the subway in New York." (He's evidently been riding the Elizabeth line). Or, You're in an Uber and you don't put your seatbelt on in the back seat,and there's like the very polite Britishbeeping," he says, with a disarming, high-velocity giggle. Notthat he mindstoo much - you get the impression he's fond of the city, wherehe spent a year as a student, andin any case both countries are making different trade-offs" - the US has less regulation and higher growth, but lower life expectancy: the very definition oflivefast, die young.It's clear, though, where he feels most at home. I spent a lot of time in casinos over the course of writing this book," he confesses in the opening pages of On the Edge, describing one in Florida that boasts 200 gaming tables, 1,275 guest rooms, 3,000 slot machines and a glimmering guitar-shaped hotel that shoots beams of neon blue light 20,000ft into the sky". A far-cry from the sedate charm of the Royal Society ofArts, where he sits, in a baseball capand T-shirt, munching chocolate brought by his PR for a much-needed blood sugar boost (It'seight hours of back-to-back stuff today"). To go by hisnew taxonomy ofcontemporary power, we're very much in The Village"; that dopamine-doused casino he described is part of The River". Continue reading...

Our writers pick the champion, key players and dark horses as the WNBA postseason tips off on SundayObviously there is a large contingent of fervent, passionate WNBA fans that are not new to this whatsoever. But I'm looking forward to the first WNBA playoffs when the rest of the sports world has finally caught up: high-profile national TV coverage, dramatic storylines, podcast hand-wringing - it should all be there this time around. And it's about time. CDL Continue reading...

In besieged Kharkiv, I saw how Ukraine is approaching a perilous moment. To turn the tide, it first needs to decisively knock back RussiaEarlier this week, I started a 3,000km, two-day journey back from the other end of Europe, where I witnessed Ukrainian resilience against Russian terror in the besieged city of Kharkiv. A university lecturer told me that from a 12th storey balcony in a north-eastern suburb she had actually seen the flashes of missiles taking off from launchpads just across the frontier, in the Russian city of Belgorod. An S-300 missile can reach Kharkiv from Belgorod in about 30 seconds, so you have no time to hide. If it's not a missile, it's a glide bomb launched from a Russian warplane - and so, day after day, death rains indifferently down.After more than 900 days of the largest war in Europe since 1945, Ukraine is approaching a perilous moment of truth. The Ukrainian David has courage and innovation, but the Russian Goliath has ruthlessness and mass. In an underground location in Kharkiv, I was shown highly sophisticated, novel military uses of IT and drones. With its Cossack-style innovation, the country has developed more than 200 different kinds of drone.Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Private was sentenced to 12 months of confinement and dishonourably discharged from army but has been released because of time already servedA US soldier who fled into North Korea last year has been sentenced to 12 months of confinement after pleading guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement, his lawyer has said.Because of good behaviour and time served, the soldier was released, the lawyer, Franklin Rosenblatt, said on Friday. Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed. You can read our latest story hereKamala Harris will be in Georgia today and is expected to speak about Donald Trump's role in the abortion bans that now blanket much of the United States, days after news broke that two Georgia mothers died after being unable to access legal abortions and adequate medical care.The deaths of the Georgia mothers, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, were first reported earlier this week by ProPublica and occurred as a result of Georgia enacting a six-week abortion ban. Georgia's maternal mortality review committee looked at both women's cases and deemed their deaths preventable", according to ProPublica.You're looking at a mother that is broken, the worst pain ever that a mother, that a parent can ever feel. Continue reading...

Nominee emphasizes support for abortion rights at rally in key state, and declares herself the underdog in this race'Kamala Harris campaigned in Madison, Wisconsin, the deep blue capital of the state and college town that Democrats hope will turn out enough voters to turn the election in the presidential nominee's favor.We know this is gonna be a tight race until the very end," said Harris. We are the underdog in this race, and we have some hard work ahead of us." Continue reading...

Cal Fire says Robert Hernandez ignited blazes while off duty in forest land in north of stateA California department of forestry and fire protection employee was arrested on Friday on suspicion of starting five brush fires in northern California in recent weeks, officials said.Robert Hernandez, 38, was arrested at the Howard forest fire station in Healdsburg, California, on suspicion of arson to forest land, the state agency said in a statement. Continue reading...

Henry Payne's cartoon of the Palestinian American congresswoman called out as anti-Arab and IslamophobicRashida Tlaib, the Palestinian American congresswoman, has accused a political cartoonist of racism after he depicted her next to a pager exploding days after such devices blew up across Lebanon in what the Arab country has said was an attack by Israel.A statement from the Democratic US House representative also expressed concern that the cartoon by Henry Payne would incite more hate and violence against Arab and Muslim communities". Continue reading...

Republican majority approves requirement for poll managers to hand-count ballots before tabulating votesForty-six days before the election, Georgia's state election board has approved a new rule requiring a hand-count of paper ballots cast on election day before tabulating votes.The three Trump-aligned members that make up the majority on the board approved the rule that would require three people in every precinct to check machine-vote tallies by hand-counting the election results, despite a warning from the state attorney general that this rule and others in consideration very likely exceed the board's statutory authority". Continue reading...

Vice-president speaks after news breaks that two women died after being unable to access procedure legallyIn her first speech dedicated exclusively to abortion rights since becoming the presidential nominee, Kamala Harris spoke on Friday afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia, blaming Donald Trump for the abortion bans that now blanket much of the United States.Harris spoke days after news broke that two Georgia mothers died after being unable to access legal abortions and adequate medical care in the state. Continue reading...

Benny and Susanne Anguiano are back home in California with Rayne Beau, who ran into woods during camping tripFor two months, a California couple was heartbroken, worrying about the whereabouts of their beloved cat after losing him in Yellowstone national park, a wilderness larger than some US states.But as summer came to a close, so did their tragic story. Benny and Susanne Anguiano reunited with their lost feline Rayne Beau last month after an animal welfare group called to let them know their cat had been found in Roseville, California, about 800 miles (1,287km) from Yellowstone. Continue reading...

Mike DeWine criticizes pair in New York Times op-ed for repeating racist claims about Haitian immigrantsOhio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, on Friday criticized former US president Donald Trump and his election running mate, JD Vance, for repeating racist rightwing claims about Haitian immigrants eating other residents' pets in the city of Springfield, Ohio.The conspiracy theories have caused uproar and led to an onslaught of threats and harassment. Continue reading...

Ronald Rowe says lack of diligence' contributed to shooting at ex-president's rally and vows to not repeat mistakesThe US Secret Service had a complacency" problem and was responsible for multiple security failures that preceded Donald Trump being shot by an attempted assassin during an election rally in Pennsylvania, the acting director of the agency said on Friday.Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement and a lack of diligence" hampered the Secret Service's performance ahead of the July assassination attempt on the former US president, according to a new report that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof. Continue reading...

Man was arrested during protest in front of Orthodox synagogue near borough of QueensA pro-Palestinian protester wearing a keffiyeh scarf has been charged with violating a suburban New York City county's new law banning face masks in public, reviving fears from opponents that the statute is being used to diminish free speech rights.Police said the 26-year-old North Bellmore resident was arrested on Sunday afternoon during a protest in front of Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, an Orthodox synagogue near the New York City borough of Queens. Continue reading...

Losing fertility, friends, family, work - midlife for women can be self-altering. But I found liberation on the other side of menopauseIn the first flush of my post-menopausal years, I didn't exactly experience the energy surge that Dr Christine Northrup mentions in her breakthrough book The Wisdom of Menopause. She refers to menopause as the mind-body revolution that brings the greatest opportunity for growth since adolescence". Talk about a positive spin.On one level, I was still mourning the loss of my fertility and feeling a bit like a husk of a person. I longed to get my sexy back, not realising that it would eventually be replaced by something equally as powerful - a lust for life. Continue reading...

Panos Anastasiou allegedly sent hundreds of graphic threatening messages to the court due to decisions he disagreed withA man from Alaska has been arrested and accused of threatening to kill six of the nine US supreme court justices and some of their family members, authorities have said - as a judge in Kentucky was shot dead on Thursday amid rising concerns about violence against public officials.Panos Anastasiou, 76, has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly sending more than 465 messages to the supreme court through a public court website. The messages contained graphic threats of assassination and torture, along with racist and homophobic rhetoric, according to the justice department. Continue reading...

The country's military prowess is obvious, but relying on it has become a way of avoiding the path it must now take: diplomacyThey probably thought the world would applaud. The Israeli planners behind one of the most spectacular intelligence actions in the country's history - targeting thousands of Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon and beyond by exploding the pagers in their pockets - would certainly have expected an ovation for the sheer audaciousness of it.A plan years in the making, seemingly involving a fake manufacturing company that secured the contract to supply communication devices to Hezbollah before discreetly modifying them into remote-controlled grenades - it's the stuff of Hollywood. But I suspect the Mossad wanted to be praised for more than its ingenuity and technical prowess.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...

Big Bear Alpine zoo removed some beasts as the Line fire was raging nearby - now the wildlife is heading back homeWith a major wildfire burning near his mountain town east of Los Angeles, Cowboy the barn owl was unaware of the danger and instead was having the adventure of a lifetime.Perched on the front seat of a truck, Cowboy - along with nearly 50 other animals - was being evacuated on 12 September from the Big Bear Alpine zoo in the face of the advancing Line fire, which blazed through more than 60 sq miles (155 sq km) of the San Bernardino national forest. Continue reading...

New York magazine politics writer profiled Kennedy during his presidential run and says their talks turned personal'A top politics writer for New York magazine has taken leave at the publication after it emerged that she allegedly had a personal relationship with Robert F Kennedy Jr, a scion of the Kennedy dynasty who ran a high-profile independent campaign for the White House before endorsing Donald Trump.Olivia Nuzzi, who has written extensive long-form pieces about US politics, including RFK Jr, violated the magazine's standards around disclosing conflicts of interests, the publication said in a statement. Continue reading...

Fans in Tokyo react after the baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani made history as the first Major League Baseball player to exceed 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. The Japanese player led the LA Dodgers to a victory over the Miami Marlins, hitting three home runs and stealing two bases to land the historic achievement. Already regarded as the best player in baseball whose accomplishments as a pitcher and batter outpaced even Babe Ruth, Ohtani reached new heights as an offensive player while taking the year off from pitching. The 27-year-old signed a $700m, 10-year deal with the Dodgers last December, one of the largest contracts in professional sports.

Deadline passed Friday morning for candidate to leave state's gubernatorial race, following CNN storyNorth Carolina's Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, was still in the race for governor on Friday morning after the deadline passed overnight for him to withdraw or be removed from the ballot.Robinson has faced increasing pressure to drop out from the gubernatorial race after a damning CNN story published on Thursday afternoon reported that he made lewd and sexually explicit comments on the pornography site Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012. Continue reading...

The UN's resolution this week has dramatically changed the legal context of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territoryThe United Nations general assembly's resolution on Wednesday advanced a dramatic legal shift, begun by the international court of justice (ICJ) in July, in how we understand Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. The US government's response suggests a refusal to recognize the new legal reality in which Israel now finds itself.The general assembly resolution, which largely tracked the ICJ ruling, was adopted by an overwhelming vote of 124 to 14, with 43 abstentions. The tally was even more lopsided than the numbers suggest, given that the No" votes were limited to Israel, the United States, a group of small Pacific states, and a handful of outliers such as Viktor Orban's Hungary and Javier Milei's Argentina. Britain abstained. Continue reading...

The Republican candidate for governor's own words have been landing him in trouble long before the latest reportsMark Robinson, North Carolina's tub-thumping Republican candidate for governor, had been trying to extricate himself from problems caused by his own words long before CNN dumped a truckload of dirt on him Thursday afternoon.Robinson has treated outrage over his ever-increasing litany of racist, sexist, homophobic and antisemitic offense as a badge of honor during the course of the campaign and his term as the state's lieutenant governor. But CNN's report tilled his pornographic internet history, unearthing comments that still managed the power to shock. Continue reading...

Company's shares rise on news former executive Elliott Hill will replace John DonahoeNike is bringing back the former senior executive Elliott Hill to replace John Donahoe as chief executive as the sportswear brand attempts to revive sales amid rising competition.Hill, who was at Nike for 32 years, was responsible for helping grow the business to more than $39bn (29bn) in sales, ultimately leading all commercial and market operations for Nike and its Jordan brand, before retiring in 2020, the company said. Continue reading...

Trump's escalating legal threats against lawyers, donors and others raise concern as Project 2025 seeks to curtail DoJDonald Trump's sweeping threats if he wins the presidency again to name a special prosecutor to go after" Joe Biden and take legal action against other foes would subvert the rule of law in America and take the country towards authoritarianism, former justice department officials and scholars have warned.Trump's escalating legal threats have targeted corrupt election officials" lawyers, donors and others he falsely deems out to steal November's presidential election, and have popped up variously on his Truth Social platform, at campaign events and at an elite police group he addressed this month in North Carolina. Continue reading...

The impact of the latest outrage in Lebanon is devastating for the citizens of a country caught between Israel and HezbollahBy Tuesday afternoon, the wails of Beirut - of the country - could be heard not only from its rooftops and balconies but also from its kitchens and living rooms, from its hospitals and coffee houses, from its grocery stores and barber shops, from its cars and pavements. The sirens of ambulances echoed through the city's streets. Emergency vehicles sped past terrorised pedestrians who were caught between calling their loved ones and discarding their electronic devices altogether. One of the first messages I received from a well-meaning friend was a plea to stay away from your phone". She had presumably used her phone to send it, and I had used mine to read it. You too," I texted back.About 4,000 pagers, and a large number of electronic devices, belonging to Hezbollah members were detonated by Israel in civilian and public spaces across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday. The attacks killed 37 people, among them two children, and wounded about 3,000 people. Security sources, according to Reuters, confirmed that Israel was responsible for the attacks, though Israeli officials have yet to comment. As for the mechanism, speculation abounds. Analysts suspect supply-chain tampering or manipulation of the devices before they reached Hezbollah's hands. Continue reading...

Senator Kennedy's remarks were just the tip of the iceberg. It is incumbent upon all of us to call out hate speech when we see itOn Tuesday, Senator John Kennedy told the only Muslim American witness during a committee hearing to hide [her] head in a bag".The intended purpose of Tuesday's historic Senate judiciary committee hearing was to bring attention to the rise in hate against Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian Americans. The rise of antisemitism has sparked many hearings in Congress. In contrast, this was the first hearing since 7 October that addressed hate targeting Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian Americans. Fighting bigotry requires us to condemn it wherever we see it. For far too long, hate speech made against Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans goes ignored.Ilhan Omar is an American politician serving as the US representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district Continue reading...

The Republicans desperately need to distract voters away from abortion. They've now found the perfect new scapegoatAfter Donald Trump's disastrous debate with Kamala Harris on 10 September he decided to center his campaign on a single incendiary issue: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there."When Trump was corrected during the debate by the ABC moderator David Muir, who pointed out that his statement about the Haitian community in the Ohio town was erroneous, he insisted it was factual. Well," he said, I've seen people on television, people on television say, My dog was taken and used for food.'" But there were no such people on television". There were no dogs taken for food. Trump called Muir a foolish fool", and said, He's a guy with good hair, but not as good as it was five years ago." Continue reading...

A number of states have passed laws that force educators to navigate terrifying legal and professional minefieldsStudents across the country are settling into the new school year, connecting with friends and developing new knowledge and skills. Teachers are also hard at work, but in many places, their lesson plans will be far more complicated than they were last year.An alarming number of states have passed laws forcing educators to navigate terrifying legal and professional minefields - laws that restrict forthright lessons about history and current events, policies that make it illegal to discuss identity in our schools, and bans on books written by or about people from diverse backgrounds. More than 30 states have passed or introduced more than 100 anti-diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) bills, and 20 states have passed bills banning the discussion of race and gender in the classroom. In these polarizing times, many teachers are racked with anxiety about whether teaching in ways they know to be appropriate could subject them to discipline, harassment or even termination.Stacey Abrams is the founder of American Pride Rises and former minority leader of the Georgia house of representativesRandi Weingarten is president of the 1.8 million-member AFT, which represents people who work in education, healthcare and public services Continue reading...

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, alongside established stars, have helped the league reach a new level of popularity as the playoffs approachAs the NFL's Colts clashed with the Packers in Wisconsin last Sunday, downtown Indianapolis was alive - but not because of football. Half a mile up the road from the Colts' empty stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse was filled to near capacity for the WNBA matinee between the Dallas Wings and Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever. The game did not disappoint.Clark, this year's No 1 draft pick, scored a career-high 35 points to set the single-season rookie scoring record, and her free throws down the stretch helped preserve a 110-109 victory that locked Indiana into the playoff's sixth seed. The prospect of basketball turning out the masses on a football Sunday isn't a new concept in the Hoosier state, where the local NBA and men's college programs reigned before the Colts rocked up from Baltimore under cover of darkness. But the WNBA's hold on this crowd is new, and a testament to what has been a regular season unlike any other - with new faces and dominant figures pushing the league to new heights. Continue reading...

Test your knowledge of football, boxing, NFL, tennis and more from the past seven days Continue reading...

Julia Roberts and Chris Rock tune in as vice-president attacks Trump on abortion and pledges to sign border billKamala Harris sat down with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday for a virtual rally" that included a wide-ranging sit-down interview, during which Harris attacked her opponent's stance on reproductive rights and pledged to sign a border security bill thwarted by Senate Republicans, but largely kept her guard up with the legendary television interviewer.The event, helmed by one of the all-time masters of the television talkshow, was filled with celebrity cameos and heart-wrenching personal stories. It was live-streamed from Michigan, a key battleground state. Continue reading...

In disjointed Washington speech, nominee tells audience low numbers are because of the Democrat curse on you'Donald Trump has complained bitterly to Jewish donors that a majority of Jews vote against him in US presidential elections, suggesting that the Democratic party has a curse on you".The Republican presidential candidate made the remarks during a speech on Thursday at the Israeli-American Council national summit in Washington, where he used hyperbolic language to warn that victory for his opponent Kamala Harris would result in Israel being wiped off the map. Continue reading...

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Yes, I'm talking about silly clips - but if people think entirely staged pranks are real then I fear for us allWith advances in technology including AI and ChatGPT, and increasingly realistic fake images everywhere, media literacy is diving towards an all-time low. There are many areas where a lack of critical thinking has had and will have devastating effects on society. I'm here to talk about something that is not as serious but that does have one daily impact - annoying me.It happens when I'm scrolling TikTok, or X, or Instagram (or one of the many other apps I use to make sure my brain is never alone with itself), and the algorithm serves me up a video it thinks I'll like. It will be a video that lots of other people have watched, liked and commented on with a series of crying laughing emojis, or LMFAO" or omg so funny". So with this forward sizzle, I click, excited and open-hearted, ready to laugh. Continue reading...

Springfield mayor Rob Rue says the order will allow city officials to acquire resources to address potential threats'The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, has issued an emergency proclamation following the continued rise in public safety threats over false rightwing rumors about the city's migrant communities.On Thursday, Rob Rue released a statement, saying: Ensuring the safety of Springfield's residents is our top priority." He added: We are addressing these threats with the seriousness they warrant and are taking immediate steps to ensure the security of both our community and our employees. Our commitment to preventing harm is unwavering." Continue reading...

Six Rankin county officers known as Goon Squad' were convicted for hours-long attack involving racial slursThe US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff's department whose officers tortured two Black men in a racist attack that included beatings, repeated use of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth, officials said Thursday.The justice department will investigate whether the Rankin county sheriff's department has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force and unlawful stops, searches and arrests, and whether it has used racially discriminatory policing practices, according to assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke. Continue reading...