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Musk tried to ‘punish’ critics, judge rules, in tossing a lawsuit
Wed, 29 May 2024 21:28:45 +0000
A federal judge ruled the lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate was about “punishing the defendants for their speech.”
Match ID: 0 Score: 40.00 source: www.washingtonpost.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 25.00 federal judge(|s), 15.00 judge
Spanish MPs give final approval to amnesty law for Catalonia’s separatists
Thu, 30 May 2024 16:49:39 GMT
Ex-regional president Carles Puigdemont among high-profile beneficiaries after MPs approve law by 177 votes to 172
Spanish MPs have given their final approval to the deeply divisive amnesty law that the country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered Catalan separatists in return for helping him back to power after last year’s inconclusive general election.
The new law, approved by 177 votes to 172 in Spain’s 350-seat congress of deputies, will apply to about 400 people involved in the symbolic independence referendum of November 2014 and the illegal unilateral poll that followed three years later, which triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in four decades.
Continue reading...Follow latest updates after 12 jurors have concluded weighing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records against Trump
Before the jury began deliberations late Wednesday morning, judge Juan Merchan delivered instructions intended to guide them on how to weigh the case.
Merchan said that jurors shouldn’t look to his comments during the trial as suggesting that Donald Trump was innocent or guilty. He said:
It is not my responsibility to judge the evidence here. You are the judgers of the facts.
You may not speculate with matters related to sentencing or punishment.
Continue reading...A Spanish judge has placed former Barcelona player Gerard Piqué under official investigation for his alleged involvement in illegal payments in the relocation of Spain’s Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Judge Delia Rodrigo concluded there were indications of wrongdoing in the deal between Piqué’s company Kosmos and the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF), according to a court document.
Continue reading...Days after co-founder dropped buying bid, the company claims it is set for ‘sustainable, profitable growth’ and to re-emerge next month
A US bankruptcy judge approved WeWork’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, enabling the struggling shared office space provider to eliminate $4bn of debt and handing control over to a group of lenders and real estate tech firm Yardi Systems.
Days after Adam Neumann, co-founder and ex-CEO, confirmed he had shelved a bid to buy the business, WeWork said it expected to emerge from bankruptcy next month.
Continue reading...Western governments condemn verdict in biggest case since introduction of national security law
Fourteen people have been found guilty of subversion by a court in Hong Kong in the biggest case against pro-democracy campaigners – against a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – since China imposed a national security law to crush dissent.
A panel of judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s government found that the convicted people – one organiser and 13 candidates, almost all of them former politicians – had committed the national security offence of “conspiracy to subvert state power” by holding unofficial election primaries in 2020.
Continue reading...Mary Bono had argued that she no longer needed to pay royalties to Cher after invoking a feature of US copyright law, but a judge has ruled otherwise
Cher has prevailed in a long-running lawsuit that she filed against the widow of her former musical partner and husband, Sonny Bono.
Cher had received royalties from her chart-topping song catalogue with Bono since an agreement in their 1978 divorce settlement, that stated publishing revenue would be split evenly between the pair. Bono died in 1998, and his share passed to his heirs.
Continue reading...India’s prime minister encourages a belief in his divinity, leading followers to think it is God’s purpose to spread fear and loathing
“No party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.” So reads the rulebook for Indian elections. Has anyone told Narendra Modi? India’s prime minister has resorted to overtly Islamophobic language during the two-month campaign, painting India’s 200 million Muslims as an existential threat to the Hindu majority. Laughably, the body charged with conducting free and fair polls did issue a feeble call for restraint from “star campaigners”. With the Indian election results out next week, one commentator warned Mr Modi has “put a target on Indian Muslims’ backs, redirecting the anger of poor and marginalised Hindu communities away from crony capitalists and the privileged upper castes”.
Mr Modi’s tirades are meant to distract an electorate suffering from high inflation and a lack of jobs despite rapid economic growth. His Bharatiya Janata party’s political strategy is to emphasise threats to Hindu civilisation, and the need for a united Hindu nation against Muslims. However, Mr Modi has fused this Hindu nationalism with the idea that he was sent by God. The Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi, his main opponent, suggested that anyone else making such a claim needed to see a psychiatrist.
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...Early election count puts African National Congress on 42% of the vote, compared with 57% in final tally in 2019
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party looks set to lose its majority for the first time since it swept to power at the end of apartheid, in a watershed moment for the country, as support for the former liberation movement collapsed below 50% in partial results.
With 41.1% of votes counted on Thursday night, South Africa was on the precipice of an era of national coalition government. The ANC had 42.6% of the vote, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance on 23.8%.
Continue reading...ANC majority in national election at risk for first time since 1990s as unemployment, corruption and power cuts erode support
In the heart of Soweto, at the president’s home voting station, support for the African National Congress (ANC) was everywhere as South Africa went to the polls, with many voters wearing the party’s bright yellow and speaking of their families’ generational loyalty to the movement that fought to end apartheid.
However, even here, there were voters who had turned against the ANC, as it risked losing its majority in national elections on Wednesday for the first time since Nelson Mandela led it to power in South Africa’s first fully democratic vote in 1994.
Continue reading...The star hopes for some more of that Book Club magic although she’s the weakest link in a trio buoyed by Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard
The many gasps that met the $100m-plus box office total for 2018’s Book Club were not quite shared by all. The film, a frothy comedy led by four women over the age of 65, might have been an outlier at the time but it proved that once again, when smartly catered to, underserved audiences will come out en masse, a more inevitable result than many seem to think. When Bridesmaids proved this with younger women back in 2011, the industry was lethargic in its response, a wave of adjacent green lights failing to come as expected but Book Club had an instant impact, a string of grey-hued imitators in its wake.
But luck ran out a little faster than expected. Jane Fonda’s 80 for Brady and Diane Keaton’s Poms both fizzled upon release before even a Book Club sequel couldn’t lure audiences out, making less than a third of what its predecessor made. The reluctance of some older cinemagoers to return to the cinema as a result of the pandemic was an issue but so was positioning – nothing felt like an event compared with Book Club – and quality – nothing felt quite as sparky as it either. Keaton, who recently travelled to the UK for a British spin on the formula with Arthur’s Whisky, is trying her luck again with Summer Camp, a similarly lightweight tale of underused older female actors having fun on a bigger stage than they have become accustomed to.
Continue reading...The backlash to the Bridgerton star’s very normal-sized body is not just because she appears on screen – but because she dares to be desirable and sexual on screen
Every so often a celebrity goes on a publicity tour that is so undeniably charming that it ends up all over the internet. Right now it is Nicola Coughlan, who is travelling around the world talking to people about her saucy starring role in the new season of Bridgerton.
I (queer, fat, middle-aged, horny) am the exact demographic to receive this content. Her turn as straight-edged lesbian Clare in Derry Girls is an incredible component of one of my favourite comedies.
There’s nothing wrong with fat – it’s hardly a moral shortcoming – but a zest for equality and diversity (and in this case good acting) just isn’t enough to make a fat girl who wins the prince remotely plausible.
Continue reading...Platja d’Aro announces fines up to €1,500 for appearing in public ‘with clothing representing human genitals’
A popular resort town on Spain’s Costa Brava has banned inflatable penis costumes and sex dolls from stag and hen night celebrations, with fines of up to €1,500 (£1,276).
Platja d’Aro, whose population of 12,500 can host as many as 300,000 visitors on a summer weekend, is a favourite destination for bachelor and bachelorette nights. Numerous websites offer packages that include accommodation, cruises and male or female strippers.
Continue reading...Rasika, 29, and Varad, 27, met while working in rural India. When Rasika found out she had cancer, Varad gave her the motivation she needed to survive
• Tell us your story of how you met someone special
After studying medicine in New Delhi, Varad, who grew up in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, knew he wanted to make a difference in the world. In 2021, he travelled to the remote forest reserve of Gadchiroli to work for a local NGO while he submitted applications for the next steps of his education. “I was doing community Covid management, supporting the vaccination programme,” he says.
A month after arriving he met Rasika, a physiotherapist from Nagpur, Maharashtra, who’d also come to work for the NGO. “I had been studying in Mumbai but wanted to better understand rehabilitation in rural areas of India,” she says. “While I was being shown around, we went to see the badminton court – which was some mud ground with a net – and that’s where I saw Varad for the first time.”
Continue reading...India is in the final stages of a general election, and almost one billion people are registered to vote. The country's prime minister ,Narendra Modi, has been in power for more than 10 years, and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is seeking a third term.
But critics of Modi and the BJP say his government has become increasingly authoritarian, fracturing the country along religious lines and threatening India’s secular democracy. At the same time, the space for freedom of speech has been shrinking while disinformation and hate speech has exploded on social media.
The Guardian’s video team travelled through India to explore how fake news and censorship might be shaping the outcome of the election
Brian Krebs reports on research into geolocating routers:
Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geolocate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available data from Apple to track the location of billions of devices globally—including non-Apple devices like Starlink systems—and found they could use this data to monitor the destruction of Gaza, as well as the movements and in many cases identities of Russian and Ukrainian troops...
When asked what makes this an “emotional support squid” and not just another stuffed animal, its creator says:
They’re emotional support squid because they’re large, and cuddly, but also cheerfully bright and derpy. They make great neck pillows (and you can fidget with the arms and tentacles) for travelling, and, on a more personal note, when my mum was sick in the hospital I gave her one and she said it brought her “great comfort” to have her squid tucked up beside her and not be a nuisance while she was sleeping.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered...
Thinking about visiting Denmark? From saying hello, to talking about owls in the bog, here’s how learning a little local lingo can enhance your trip and leave you feeling like an egg yolk …
OK, we’ll admit it. Danish isn’t the easiest language to learn – pronouncing certain words involves some invigorating tongue gymnastics and a talent for gulping down glottal stops. With just 6 million native speakers, Danish hardly matches widely spoken Mandarin (941 million speakers) or Spanish (486 million speakers) either.
But mastering a few basics – how to order a coffee or commenting on the weather by talking about windswept pelicans (seriously, read on) – can deeply enrich your experience when visiting Denmark. The Danes are a convivial bunch and will truly appreciate your efforts getting to grips with their Old Norse-descended syntax (no matter how foolish you may feel). Try to speak Danish in a snug cafe or pub and it could lead to some illuminating conversations and lifelong friendships. Heck, you might even be able to watch an episode of The Killing/Borgen with the subtitles off when you get back home too …
Continue reading...From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...
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