5 h. ago How the US rightwing is taking over news media and choking press freedom

Takeover of broadcast companies by Donald Trump’s allies is harbinger of media capitulation to authoritarian leaningsThe US right has appeared to increase its influence on mainstream media in America in recent weeks, especially in television news which has been a major target of the Donald Trump administration.CBS News – once home to legends of US journalism like Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow – installed a Trump ally as its ombudsman, weeks after the family of Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, and a friend of the US president, sealed control over Paramount, the owner of CBS. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Global press freedom suffers sharpest fall in 50 years, report finds

The International IDEA’s survey of democratic markers finds US is offering ‘encouragement’ to populist leadersPress freedom around the world has suffered its sharpest fall in 50 years as global democracy weakens dramatically, a landmark report has found.According to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), democracy has declined in 94 countries over the last five years and only a third have made progress. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Why this moment of rightwing racism feels so different – and how we can resist it

Gary Younge discusses the ‘whitelash’ that fuelled another summer of riots in the UK and beyondDon’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt has been a second summer of riots in the UK targeting asylum seekers and immigration. And while there is something stomach-sinking about the mood and the rise in racist rhetoric, it is also worth remembering that we are in the middle of a global phenomenon, and that there is resistance. I spoke to the author and former Guardian columnist Gary Younge about why this moment feels different to those before it. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Rightwing influencer accompanied Ice agents during raids in Chicago

Ben Bergquam was with Ice agents during a raid on Sunday and yelled at protesters that they were ‘the enemy within’A rightwing influencer accompanied officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in Chicago on Sunday as the agency ramps up arrests in the city. Ice agents arrested four people on the city’s south-west side.Ben Bergquam, the rightwing internet personality, was with agents, filming and making content as well as getting into altercations with local residents along the way, according to a video the Guardian viewed on X. In the video, he appears to be in the car with Ice agents and nearby as they arrest people; later on he yells at a group of Chicagoans who are gathered to prevent Ice operations that they are “the enemy within”. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago The Noel Clarke judgment was a victory for the freedom of the press – but it should also act as a warning | Nik Williams

Embedded within Clarke’s legal action was a new threat to public interest reporting, despite his emphatic defeatNik Williams is a policy and campaigns officer at Index on CensorshipThe high court’s ruling in favour of the Guardian struck a powerful blow for the free press and for holding those accused of sexual misconduct to account. While across the globe, we have seen the courtroom as the venue of choice to push back against the legacy of the #MeToo movement, this victory sent a clear signal that the voices of those affected have lost none of their power, impact or poignancy.Noel Clarke is an actor, screenwriter, producer and director who is best known for the Hood trilogy, as well as acting in Doctor Who. In 2022, he sued the Guardian for its reporting based on the testimony of 20 women who accused him of “sexual harassment, unwanted touching or groping, sexually inappropriate behaviour and comments on set, professional misconduct, taking and sharing sexually explicit pictures an...

Events

6 d. ago Israel used to lie about killing journalists; now it barely bothers to do so. What happened? | Meron Rapoport

The ‘most moral army in the world’ has killed at least 248 journalists in Gaza, seemingly without any shameMeron Rapoport is an Israeli journalist for +972 magazine and Local CallIn September 2022, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published the results of an internal investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin four months earlier. “There is a high possibility that Ms Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen,” read the summary of the investigation. The IDF expressed “its deep condolences” over her death. “The freedom of the press and maintaining the safety of journalists are part of the primary components of Israeli democracy, which the IDF is committed to upholding,” it added.This statement had little to do with the facts. Not only did numerous independent investigations indicate that Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli soldiers (a claim which the Israeli army initially denie...

Events

7 d. ago Rightwing preppers should be the biggest boosters of this climate solution

We’re beyond Mel Gibson’s Mad Max era. We no longer need oil to make it through the apocalypseAs I write these words, the No 1 trending story on the Guardian is titled: “The history and future of societal collapse”. It is an account of a study by a Cambridge expert who works at something ominously called the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk; he concludes that “we can’t put a date on Doomsday, but by looking at the 5,000 years of [civilisation], we can understand the trajectories we face today – and self-termination is most likely”.I can’t claim to have done a study, though I have been at work on climate change for almost 40 years and I gotta say: seems about right. So it’s maybe not the worst moment for a bit of worry about how you would fare in the case of a temporary breakdown of our civilization. Perhaps you have noticed that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and violent. Or you read the stories that Donald Trump was shutting down the Federal Emergency Man...

Politics

7 d. ago The climate solution both the right and the left can get behind | Bill McKibben

We’re beyond Mel Gibson’s Mad Max era. We no longer need oil to make it through the apocalypseAs I write these words, the No 1 trending story on the Guardian is titled: “The history and future of societal collapse”. It is an account of a study by a Cambridge expert who works at something ominously called the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk; he concludes that “we can’t put a date on Doomsday, but by looking at the 5,000 years of [civilisation], we can understand the trajectories we face today – and self-termination is most likely”.I can’t claim to have done a study, though I have been at work on climate change for almost 40 years and I gotta say: seems about right. So it’s maybe not the worst moment for a bit of worry about how you would fare in the case of a temporary breakdown of our civilization. Perhaps you have noticed that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and violent. Or you read the stories that Donald Trump was shutting down the Federal Emergency Man...

Politics

9 d. ago Authoritative to authoritarian: rightwing radicalisation is blurring the Conservatives’ political red lines | Andy Beckett

Listen to the inflammatory language around immigration, multiculturalism, press freedom – that old notion of British ‘moderation’ has gone for everSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreWhile British rightwing politics has never been exactly a gentle pursuit, there is a longstanding assumption that its tone and content have limits. Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech, Oswald Mosley’s embrace of fascism, Keith Joseph’s 1974 speech apparently in favour of eugenics: each of these transgressions was punished and became infamous.According to believers in this country’s political moderation, the mainstream British right does not make overt appeals to prejudice, encourage political violence, form alliances with the far right, or advocate authoritarianism here or abroad. Unlike in other democracies, such as interwar Germany, our conservatism has always had red ...

Politics

1 week ago Newsmax files suit against Fox News for using ‘exclusionary’ tactics to block competition

Antitrust lawsuit accuses the Murdoch-owned outlet of stifling competition in the rightwing TV news marketNewsmax, the conservative cable network run by Christopher Ruddy, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet of stifling competition in the rightwing television news market.The antitrust lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the US district court for the southern district of Florida, names both Fox News Network and its parent company, Fox Corp. It claims the broadcaster carried out “an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for US right-leaning pay TV news”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Women’s groups hail Noel Clarke libel defeat as victory for victims and press freedom

Campaigners say judgment shows powerful men cannot hide behind money and libel laws to silence accusersWomen’s groups have said a high court judgment dismissing a libel claim against the Guardian by actor Noel Clarke marks a victory not just for his victims, but for press freedom and public interest reporting as a whole.They said too often “wealthy and abusive men” have been able to use the courts to try to silence victims, hiding “behind injunctions, NDAs, [and] threats of defamation suits”. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Voices: Britain’s shameful inaction on Jimmy Lai could cost him his life

In deteriorating health in a Hong Kong jail, the businessman’s detention is now a test of Keir Starmer’s seriousness about human rights – and the government’s willingness to defend its citizens and values abroad, says Jodie Ginsberg

Politics