Exposure to 'fake news' during the 2016 US election has been overstated: study

by Dartmouth College 
MARCH 2, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, debates have raged about the reach of so-called "fake news" websites and the role they played during the campaign. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour finds that the reach of these untrustworthy websites has been overstated.


To assess the audience for "fake news," researchers at Dartmouth, Princeton and the University of Exeter measured visits to these dubious and unreliable websites during the period before and immediately after the election using an online survey of 2,525 Americans and web traffic data collected by YouGov Pulse (Oct. 7—Nov. 16, 2016) from respondents' laptops or desktop computers. This method avoids the problems with asking people to recall which websites they visited, an approach that is plagued with measurement error.

According to the findings, less than half of all Americans visited an untrustworthy website. Moreover, untrustworthy websites accounted for only six percent of all Americans' news diets on average.

Visits to dubious news sites differed sharply along ideological and partisan lines. Content from untrustworthy conservative sites accounted for nearly 5 percent of people's news diets compared to less than 1 percent for untrustworthy liberal sites. Respondents who identified themselves as Trump supporters were also more likely to visit an untrustworthy site (57 percent) than those who indicated that they were Clinton supporters (28 percent).

The data also revealed that Facebook was the most prominent gateway to untrustworthy websites; respondents were more likely to have visited Facebook than Google, Twitter or a webmail platform such as Gmail in the period immediately before visiting an untrustworthy website.

Finally, the study demonstrates that fact-checking websites appeared to be relatively ineffective in reaching the audiences of untrustworthy websites. Only 44 percent of respondents who visited such a website also visited a fact-checking site during the study, and almost none of them had read a fact-check debunking specific claims made in a potentially questionable article.

"These findings show why we need to measure exposure to 'fake news' rather than just assuming it is ubiquitous online," said Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth. "Online misinformation is a serious problem, but one that we can only address appropriately if we know the magnitude of the problem."


Explore furtherLSU professor relaunches fake news and disinformation resource website
More information: Andrew M. Guess et al. Exposure to untrustworthy websites in the 2016 US election, Nature Human Behaviour (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0833-x
Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour


Provided by Dartmouth College

Is there a technological solution to aquatic dead zones?

by Carnegie Institution for Science
MARCH 2, 2020

Downwelling field experiment at Searsville Reservoir in Woodside, California, which shows the pipes through which oxygenated surface water is pumped into the depths to prevent the formation of dangerous, low-oxygen dead zones. Credit: Nona Chiariello.

Could pumping oxygen-rich surface water into the depths of lakes, estuaries, and coastal ocean waters help ameliorate dangerous dead zones? New work led by Carnegie's David Koweek and Ken Caldeira and published open access by Science of the Total Environment says yes, although they caution that further research would be needed to understand any possible side effects before implementing such an approach.

When excessive nutrients from agriculture and other human activities wash into waterways, it can create a dangerous phenomenon called eutrophication. This can lead to low-oxygen dead zones called hypoxia.

"Low-oxygen dead zones are one of the most-pervasive problems plaguing both marine and freshwater systems around the world and a major problem for communities that depend on fishing," Koweek said.

Efforts to fight hypoxia often focus on reducing agricultural runoff and on preventing nutrients from being overloaded into waterways. But this is a very slow process that involves changing farming practices, upgrading wastewater treatment facilities, and altering home fertilizer usage.

Koweek and Caldeira led a team that investigated a proposed technological remedy, called downwelling, which could complement nutrient-reduction programs. This involves pumping naturally more-oxygenated water from the surface down into the depths of the affected body of water.

"In theory, downwelling would create vertical mixing in the water, distributing oxygen and preventing hypoxic conditions from taking hold," Koweek explained. "We wanted to test this idea and see if it would really work."
r to fight dead zones. Credit: Clara Garcia-Sanchez

The team built models to compare downwelling to the two most-commonly used technological techniques for preventing dead zones—bubbling oxygen from the bottom and spraying fountain water across the surface. Their models indicate that downwelling would be three to 100 times more efficient than bubbling and 10,000 to a million times more efficient than fountains.

They then did a field experiment at the Searsville Reservoir in Woodside, California, which demonstrated that downwelling could increase oxygen saturation in the immediate area surrounding the pumps by between 10 and 30 percent, enough to alleviate hypoxic stress for many marine organisms. However, this did not extend for more than a handful of meters beyond the vicinity of the pipes through which the surface water was pumped. This means that an extensive network would be necessary for any major effort to fight dead zones in an economically important or ecologically sensitive area.

The researchers conducted a downwelling field experiment at Searsville Reservoir in Woodside, California. Oxygenated surface water was pumped into the depths to prevent the formation of dangerous, low-oxygen dead zones. Credit: Nona Chiariello.

According to the researchers, their work indicates that downwelling technology may show potential to scale up to larger areas in which annual dead zones create great ecological and economic distress, such as the Chesapeake Bay or the Gulf of Mexico. They estimate that the energy required to power the pumps could cost tens of millions of dollars each year. Operating downwelling pumps year-round in the Chesapeake could cost between $4 and $47 million; In the Gulf, the same could cost between $26 and $263 million.


But these price tags are relatively small compared to the costs of upgrades to wastewater treatment facilities and fertilizer-reduction programs that limit nutrient inputs to the water bodies. This suggests that downwelling technology could be used alongside longer-term plans to reduce nutrient pollution.

"Reducing nutrient pollution is the only way to eliminate hypoxia permanently," Calderia said. "However, our work shows that downwelling is a technological solution that could mitigate the risk of low-oxygen dead zones while nutrient management strategies are put in place."Warming climate will impact dead zones in Chesapeake Bay

More information: David A. Koweek et al, Evaluating hypoxia alleviation through induced downwelling, Science of The Total Environment (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137334

Half of world's beaches could vanish by 2100

by Marlowe Hood MARCH 2, 2020 

Even if humanity sharply reduces the fossil fuel pollution that drives global warming, more than a third of the planet's sandy coastlines could disappear by 2100

Climate change and sea level rise are currently on track to wipe out half the world's sandy beaches by 2100, researchers warned Monday.

Even if humanity sharply reduces the fossil fuel pollution that drives global warming, more than a third of the planet's sandy shorelines could disappear by then, crippling coastal tourism in countries large and small, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"Apart from tourism, sandy beaches often act as the first line of defence from coastal storms and flooding, and without them impacts of extreme weather events will probably be higher," lead author Michalis Vousdoukas, a researcher at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, told AFP.

"We have to prepare."

Some countries, such as the United States, are already planning extensive defence systems, but in most nations such massive engineering schemes will be unfeasible, unaffordable or both.

Australia could be hit hardest, according to the findings, with nearly 15,000 kilometres (more than 9,000 miles) of white-beach coastline washed away over the next 80 years, followed by Canada, Chile and the United States.

The 10 countries that stand to lose the most sandy shoreline also include Mexico, China, Russia, Argentina, India and Brazil.

Sandy beaches occupy more than a third of the global coastline, often in highly populated areas.

But new construction, sea level rise, storm surge from hurricanes or typhoons, and reduced sediment from dammed rivers are all eroding these shorelines, threatening livelihoods and infrastructure.

To assess how quickly and by how much beaches might disappear, Vousdoukas and colleagues plotted trend lines across three decades of satellite imagery dating back to 1984.

From there, they projected future erosion under two climate change scenarios.

The "worst case" RCP8.5 pathway assumes carbon emissions will continue unabated, or that Earth itself will begin to boost atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations—from, for example, permafrost—independent of human action.

Global sea levels are on track to rise by about 84 centimetres by 2100, according to the IPCC

'A landmark advance'

A less dire scenario, called RCP4.5, would see humanity cap global warming at about three degrees Celsius, which is still far more than the "well below 2C" limit called for in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Under RCP8.5, the world will lose 49.5 percent of its sandy beaches by 2100—nearly 132,000 kilometres of coastline.

Even by mid-century, the loss would be more than 40,000 kilometres.

The increasingly likely RCP4.5 outlook would still see 95,000 kilometres of coastline shorn of its sand by 2100, most of it within the next 30 years.

The UN's science advisory group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), projected in a major report last September a sea level rise of a half metre by 2100 under the more optimistic scenario, and 84cm under RCP8.5.

Many climate scientists, however, say these estimates are too conservative, and have predicted in peer-reviewed work that the ocean watermark will rise twice as much.

Experts not involved in the new findings said they should sound an alarm.

"The study's linkage of global coastal degradation to (fossil fuel) combustion is a landmark advance," said Jeffrey Kargel, a senior scientist at the Planetary Research Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

In Asian delta regions that are home to hundreds of millions, sediment from Himalayan glacier-melt that could rebuild sand deposits is trapped in downstream reservoirs. "Coastal erosion of the Indus and Ganges delta areas of South Asia is expected to be extremely rapid," Kargel noted.

The impact of receding coastlines that still maintain a thinning ribbon of sand should also be considered, said Andrew Shepherd, director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds.

"Between a quarter and half of the UK's sandy beaches will retreat by more than 100 metres over the next century, depending on how rapidly polar ice sheets melt," he said.

"Unfortunately, ice losses from Antarctica and Greenland are both tracking the worst-case climate warming scenarios

New research predicts a doubling of coastal erosion by mid-century

---

More information: Sandy coastlines under threat of erosion, Nature Climate Change (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0697-0 , https://nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0697-0

UN predicts above-average temperatures even without El Niño

Global warming caused by humans as powerful as weather phenomenon, say experts

A man catches a fish in a drought-stricken lake on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. El Niño is linked to warmer temperatures and drought. Photograph: Mak Remissa/EPA


PA Media
Published on Mon 2 Mar 2020

Many parts of the world are likely to experience above-average temperatures over the next few months, even without a natural El Niño effect, according to weather experts.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the signal from human-induced climate change was now as powerful as the natural phenomenon, which drives warmer temperatures.

It said there was a 60% chance of a neutral situation without an El Niño or its opposite, La Niña, between March and May. There was a 35% chance of an El Niño developing and 5% for a La Niña.

The El Niño southern oscillation (Enso) is a naturally occurring phenomenon in the Pacific with a warming influence on global temperatures. It is also linked to heavy rain, flooding and drought.

Despite the expected absence of an El Niño, the WMO forecasts there will be above-average sea surface temperatures in many parts of the world, which will lead to higher than normal land temperatures. Climate change would contribute to these conditions, the WMO said.

The WMO’s secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said: “Even Enso-neutral months are warmer than in the past, as air and sea surface temperatures as well as ocean heat have increased due to climate change.

“With more than 90% of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases going into the ocean, ocean heat content is at record levels. Thus, 2016 was the warmest year on record as a result of a combination of a strong El Niño and human-induced global warming. 2019 was the second-warmest year on record, even though there was no strong El Niño.

“We have just had the warmest January on record. The signal from human-induced climate change is now as powerful as that from a major natural force of nature.”

THE GUARDIAN 

Public Enemy fire Flavor Flav after clash over Bernie Sanders rally

Spat brings one of rap’s longest partnerships to an end, as Chuck D says his former bandmate is motivated by money and ‘better find rehab’

Chuck D, right, and Flavor Flav in white, in 1987. Photograph: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images


Ben Beaumont-Thomas
@ben_bt
Published on Mon 2 Mar 2020

Public Enemy have fired founder member Flavor Flav following a dispute over the group performing at a Bernie Sanders rally, bringing to an end one of the most colourful partnerships in rap history.

A statement said the group would be “moving forward without Flavor Flav. We thank him for his years of service and wish him well.”

Chuck D, the group co-founder and core member, added on Twitter that he had been sued by Flav’s lawyer on Friday, “so now he stays home & better find rehab”.

The rally performance took place on Sunday with core member Chuck D performing as Public Enemy Radio. Following the announcement of the show last week, lawyers for Flavor Flav said the rapper “has not endorsed any political candidate in this election cycle”, adding that Sanders was not authorised to use the group’s image without Flav’s permission: “While Chuck is certainly free to express his political view as he sees fit – his voice alone does not speak for Public Enemy.” Flav appended the letter with a handwritten note reading: “Hey Bernie, don’t do this.”

In the wake of the legal letter, but before the dismissal, Chuck D had said: “Flavor chooses to dance for his money and not do benevolent work like this. He has a year to get his act together and get himself straight or he’s out.”

Following the dismissal, Chuck D argued that Flav’s decision was about money rather than politics. “My last straw was long ago,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s not about Bernie with Flav … he don’t know the difference between [American football player] Barry Sanders or Bernie Sanders … So I don’t attack Flav on what he don’t know.

“If there was a $bag, Flav would’ve been there front & center. He will not do free benefit shows.” He complained of a lack of support from Flav for an earlier fundraiser by Harry Belafonte for the social justice organisation Sankofa, calling Flav “ungrateful” and accusing him of judging a bikini contest instead.

Chuck D performing at the Bernie Sanders rally on Sunday. Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

The dismissal ends an enduring and characterful partnership, where Chuck D’s withering political screeds were offset by Flav’s animated punchlines and outlandish image, featuring outsize clocks worn around his neck.

The pair met on the New York hip-hop scene in the mid-1980s, Chuck D initially getting Flav a job moving furniture for his father’s delivery company. After teaming up with production outfit the Bomb Squad, and adding strikingly martial choreography by peripheral members the S1Ws, Public Enemy recorded tracks including Fight the Power that pushed rap music into political territory while remaining commercially successful.

The group’s DJ, Terminator X, left in 1998 and was replaced by DJ Lord. Supporting member Professor Griff left in 1989 after causing outrage with homophobic and antisemitic comments.

Chuck D and Flav previously clashed in 2017, when Flav sued Chuck D and the group’s management company, Eastlink, over unpaid earnings. The case against Chuck D was dismissed in January 2019; the Eastlink case was also dismissed but is being appealed. Flav’s latterday fame has mostly been from reality TV, in the shows The Surreal Life, Strange Love and Flavor of Love.

On the day of the Sanders rally, Chuck D offered muted support for the potential presidential candidate. “I dig aspects of Bern,” he wrote on Twitter. “Hate the party Bulsht. But can relate to half the issues & get forward. Use your minds & be ready to fight whoever in office … Wake the fcuk up get off your asses make yourself important where you live.”
Flavor Flav fired by Public Enemy after he refused to back Bernie SandersHype man jettisoned after 37 years with hip-hop groupAnnie Lord @annielord8
Monday 2 March 2020 09:16

Public Enemy have parted ways with Flavor Flav after he refused to back 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

A statement said the hype man would no longer be working with the group after 37 years as a member.

“Public Enemy and Public Enemy Radio will be moving forward without Flavor Flav,” the statement to Pitchfork said.

“We thank him for his years of service and wish him well.”

The news comes after Public Enemy founder and frontman Chuck D led a concert for the Sanders campaign in Los Angeles, without the involvement of Flavor Flav.

Flav, whose real name is William Drayton, responded by sending a cease and desist letter to Mr Sanders, who is currently frontrunner in the contest to face Donald Trump in the presidential election in November.

In the letter, he said he objected to the use of Public Enemy as a tool for political endorsement. It accused Sanders' campaign of advancing a “misleading narrative” that Public Enemy has endorsed him.

The letter also claimed that the Sanders campaign circulated “the unauthorised use of [Flavor Flav’s] likeness, image and trademarked clock in promotional materials”.

“Those who truly know what Public Enemy stands for know what time it is,” he said. “There is no Public Enemy without Flavor Flav.”

On Saturday, 29 February, Chuck D and his attorney issued a statement saying he was the sole owner of the Public Enemy trademark.

“From a legal standpoint, Chuck could perform as Public Enemy if he ever wanted to; he is the sole owner of the Public Enemy trademark," the statement said.

“He originally drew the logo himself in the mid-Eighties, is also the creative visionary and the group’s primary songwriter, having written Flavor’s most memorable lines.”

Rufus Wainwright: ‘Me and my father almost killed each other’


The singer-songwriter talks to Roisin O'Connor about trying to emulate the ‘older, wiser’ albums of Sinatra and Leonard Cohen on ‘Unfollow the Rules’, deciding to be a proper father to his daughter, and the ‘pretty hairy times’ he had with Loudon Wainwright III

‘I had this sense of nostalgia matched with a new-found wisdom from turning 40’ ( Tony Hauser )


Two decades ago, Rufus Wainwright was a cult singer struggling with addiction to everything from crystal meth to ketamine, ecstasy and cocaine. Being the son of two famous folk artists – Loudon Wainwright III and the late Kate McGarrigle – didn’t seem to make much difference to cool New York, where he lived, and where his Oscar Wilde eccentrics didn’t go down so well either. On one infamous night, he took so many drugs that he went blind. For an hour, when he could neither see or speak, he thought it was the end.

But look at him now. At 46, with a career spanning eight studio albums and two operas, Wainwright – now based in LA with his husband, German art director Jörn Weisbrodt – has a full head of dark, glossy hair and a carefully groomed beard the colour of burnished silver. I struggle to find anything but the faintest of laughter lines around the corners of his eyes, which are grey-green and set beneath expressive, copper-coloured eyebrows. I’m actually annoyed at how clear his skin is.


He’s feeling great, too. “What I’m realising right now is that in your forties, there’s this wonderful movement if you’ve taken care of yourself, which I have,” he says, sprawled on a sofa at his publicist’s office in St John’s Wood, London. “I’ve worked on that – I got off the highway and here I am, in this very sweet spot. You know death is coming, you can sense it. But you’re in good health, you’re still vaguely attractive, one of your parents is alive, people buy tickets to your shows, and your husband’s still gorgeous.” The forties are where it’s at, apparently, I say. He chuckles: “That’s because I’m here.”



Rufus Wainwright performing in Los Angeles in 2019 (Rex)

Wainwright wanted his ninth studio album, the just-announced Unfollow the Rules, to emulate classic periods of artists such as Leonard Cohen and Frank Sinatra, who redefined themselves as “older, wiser and (as a consequence) more attractive individuals”. Wainwright is certainly a wiser man these days. Pulling himself up from his hard-living twenties, he went to rehab on Elton John’s advice. Today, he is regarded as one of the finest songwriters of his generation – a baroque-pop artist with a penchant for opera and French chanson; the human incarnation of a velvet smoking jacket.


The new album title suits Wainwright perfectly, but it was actually his nine-year-old daughter, Viva, who came up with it. (“She just walked into the living room and stated to everyone she would like to unfollow the rules, and then promptly marched out. I immediately took my quill and scribbled it down.”) She was conceived during a tumultuous time in Wainwright’s life, when his mother was dying of cancer. Viva’s mother is Lorca Cohen, daughter of Leonard Cohen, meaning she is heir to a rather extraordinary musical dynasty (Weisbrodt is “deputy dad”).

McGarrigle had actively encouraged Wainwright to have a child, having apparently “caught wind” of his growing broodiness – “I think she knew she was on her way out and she wanted me to have someone,” he says with a smile. “The other thing was the thought of having a Wainwright-Cohen union was kind of formidable.” It was Lorca’s idea to have a child together, he says. “She was the driving force behind it, and I thank her every day for that. I’m really, really indebted to her.”


While he is clearly a doting parent, Wainwright was living with Weisbrodt between New York and Toronto when Viva was with her mother in LA – until he had what sounds like a stern talk from Chrissie Hynde.

“I went on this rather lavish trip to Vietnam with Chrissie and a bunch of people – we were on this ship and it was all very Fellini,” he drawls, waving one hand with a flamboyance that recalls the Italian film maestro himself. “At one point I was talking to her extensively about the situation with our daughter, what to do next and so forth, and at the end of it she said: ‘Rufus, you have to move to LA. You have a child there, you have to be a father. That’s what you need to do, there’s no ifs, and or buts about it.’ It clicked. So, Jörn and I packed up and bought a house in Los Angeles.”

It proved to be a positive transition for the family but also creatively, as Wainwright decided he wanted his next record to mark the end of an era: “I had this sense of nostalgia matched with a new-found wisdom from turning 40.” It dawned on him, as he drove down Sunset Boulevard, that this had to be “a great LA record” in a similar vein to his first. Having moved to the New York club circuit from Montreal, where he’d lived with his mother for most of his youth, Wainwright settled in LA in 1996-98 for what he describes as a “torturous” experience making his self-titled debut. Dreamworks executive Larry Waroncker, who signed Wainwright, paired him with musician and producer Jon Brion; together they spent around two years working on more than 50 songs. The cost of recording was reported to be between $700,000 to $1m.

“I admire Jon wholeheartedly as an artist,” Wainwright says. “As a producer he was a total nightmare, and had no concern for budget whatsoever.” Brion, whose other production credits include Fiona Apple, Kanye West, and film soundtracks such as 2017’s Lady Bird, has previously admitted that he found working with Wainwright to be difficult, telling The New York Times: “Rufus had all these beautiful songs but every time the vocals would kick in, he’d write some complicated keyboard part, so you couldn’t hear them. He wasn’t interested in listening to ideas about simplifying arrangements.”


Wainwright and his husband Jörn Weisbrodt (Rex)

The opening track, “Trouble in Paradise”, was initially composed for a musical Wainwright was working on with Dutch designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren; this particular song was inspired by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. “I had this quasi-villainous person who, in the end, everybody loves,” he says. “But Viktor and Rolf didn’t want to piss off Anna.” He’s met Wintour before, and is convinced she won’t mind: “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s slightly flattered as well.”


The video, which shows Wainwright dressed as Wintour and gradually removing his wig, pearls and sunglasses, concludes with an eerie shot of the hills above a city on fire. Wainwright asked his team to pick some stock footage of a train crash or some kind of disaster, “so they picked the fire footage at the end [of the video], and it was right when LA was on fire”.

He’s concerned about climate change: “Being an Angelino… we live on the forefront of the climate question, in a way, and wildfires have been part of our lives for three years.” He worries about his daughter’s future, but frets just as much about his own, “because it’s happening a lot faster than we all expected”.

“I worry about my daughter with the political landscape in America,” he adds suddenly. He’s aghast at an abortion bill passed last year in Oklahoma, where women are informed they have the right to listen to the fetal heartbeat before having an abortion: “How traumatic that must be for someone who’s in that predicament, I can’t imagine.”

Wainwright performing in New Jersey in 2019 (Rex)

Since Viva was born, Wainwright’s relationship with his own father, songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, has shifted dramatically. “We had periods where we almost killed each other,” he says. “I wish I was speaking figuratively but it was pretty hairy at times.” He says they’ve had therapy together, but also thinks Viva has given him a new perspective of “what it’s like when your kid refutes you, or doesn’t want to give you a hug, or is lost in their own world”.

“It’s frightening as a parent,” he says. “[My father and I] were hanging out not too long ago, just a couple of years ago, we went for this walk and then at the end of the walk I said: ‘You know dad, being a dad now myself, I’m aware of how wonderful it is when a child voluntarily hugs their parent. Yeah, so I’m going to do that to you now.’ And I gave him a big hug and a kiss, and I think it was a good move.”

I interviewed Loudon in 2017 for his brilliant, no-holds-barred memoir, Liner Notes, in which he admits to being jealous of his children for their own musical talents, something Wainwright has noted about his father in the past. I ask him what he made of the book.


“I am constantly blown away by my father’s ability to resurrect himself from some fairly dark places,” he begins. “It’s funny being in England because he lived here for 10 years [after he and McGarrigle divorced in 1976] and I think he was fairly depressed, and I didn’t see him that much. But he managed to pull himself out of it, and with this book as well, I think it shows he’s an example of a sturdy individual.

“He wrote the book that he wanted to write, he didn’t want to upset anybody, yet it’s very entertaining and it is very revealing. There are many other stories, which may or may not be told, and that is either his choice or my choice or Martha’s choice.”
Rufus Wainwright, Elton John and Loudon Wainwright III in 2001 (Rex)

“He’s still Loudon,” he decides with a shrug. “You got to understand, Loudon is one of the great WASP-y father figures of all time. He has firmly implanted his persona in this male, white, heterosexual zone.”


I tell him I’ve been enjoying his “robe recitals”, Facebook videos of him playing the piano in his dressing gown. These rare glimpses of Wainwright at home are genuine, he says, but as a general rule social media is something he steers clear of, “unlike certain social media… I want to say ‘whores’…” He makes a passing reference to Kim Kardashian.

“You can’t focus on anything else [on social media],” he explains. “You don’t write songs that are good. You don’t make great art. All of your energy is spent managing your so-called private life. It’s a total distraction and even I can admit to being a victim to that situation. You look at your phone, and you’re like, ‘How much time have I spent on here, how many hours?’”

At the end of Unfollow the Rules, there’s a wildcard of a track called “Hatred”. It throws you out of the groove of the previous songs, gathering speed as the piano and violin race one another before colliding into a dystopian space-opera. All as Wainwright sings in that rare tenor, with its strange tipsy beauty, as though he’s only just mustering the strength to sound the words.


“I want people to listen to that song, then go and vote,” he says, referring to the forthcoming 2020 presidential race. He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections, then Hillary Clinton. “I think it’s going to get really wild.”

He feels there’s a sense of discouragement around this election, which is “troubling”. Hope scares him. “Someone once told me, on a Greek island in the middle of the night, that hope is the same thing as fear,” he says. “They are synonymous. I stay away from hope, for now, but I am emboldened nonetheless to fight.”

‘Unfollow The Rules’ is released on 24 April on BMG. Wainwright will play two intimate shows at Islington Assembly Hall on 27 April

BRISTOL POST OUTS MEN THREATENING GRETA THUNBERG!

The abuse and threats made to Greta Thunberg by people (MEN) from Bristol

By grown men, many who appear to have children of their own


When teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg announced she would be coming to Bristol more than a week ago, it created a huge buzz in the city.

Tens of thousands of people turned out to hear her speak on College Green and join a march around the city centre calling for greater action from governments and corporations around the world to do more to tackle rising global temperatures.

Bristol Live, the BBC and a host of other media devoted pages and pages on their websites to cover the preparations for this event - with everything from practical information about roads closing and timetables of the day to more in-depth articles about why the event is happening.

Every time articles by Bristol Live and other media organisations were posted on social media - particularly Facebook - they attracted hundreds, sometimes thousands of comments.

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It didn’t matter whether the articles or information posts were placed onto community Facebook pages or the media’s own Facebook pages, they attracted comments by their bucketload.

And, the vast majority of these were from people who were not happy the monthly School Strike for Climate event on College Green would be bigger than usual.

The thousands of negative comments were on familiar themes - questioning the validity of climate science, questioning the rights of children to go ‘on strike’ from school, questioning young people’s use of technology, transport and general carbon footprint and complaining about the disruption of the city centre’s roads being closed.

(Image: Bristol Post)

But most of the more furious ire was reserved for Greta Thunberg herself. Many other articles in other media have examined why a slight, tiny 17-year-old schoolgirl from Sweden triggers such anger and hatred from, mainly older people, but the kind of fury that follows the campaigner around the world arrived in Bristol with a vengeance.

READ MORE
Greta Thunberg In Bristol

As it happened

Her speech in full

How Greta got here

Visit in pictures

Most of that abuse was just that - abuse, sharing unkind memes about her, calling her a ‘puppet’, questioning her own actions travelling the world, or just calling her names.

These comments came in their thousands, day and night, filling Facebook pages and groups - faster in greater volume than anyone moderating those pages or groups, or Facebook itself, could hide or delete.

But some people went even further - further than just abusing Greta Thunberg and the young people taking part in the school strike.

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The extra step they took was to appear to call for, encourage or incite people to take physical action against either Greta Thunberg or those taking part.

The people who were appearing to make those suggestions of physical actions and violence were very often parents and grandparents themselves. Some had even called for people on social media to ‘be kind’ following the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack.

The following is a fraction of the apparent calls for violence or violent intent against Greta Thunberg or the school strikers, and those apparent calls for violence or violent intent are a fraction of the general, non-violent but not kind statements made.
Kev Bennett

Kev Bennett called for Greta Thunberg to be 'Ms Trunchbulled'

Kev Bennett's contribution to the news of the arrival of Greta Thunberg was to appear to ask for someone to physically assault her.

"Can someone grab her pigtails and ms trunchable her over the fence," he wrote.

When questioned by other Facebook users on the thread, Kev Bennett said she was 'not a young child' and 'also a product of Antifa parents'.

Kev Bennett called for Greta Thunberg to be thrown over a fence

Kev is referring to the character Miss Trunchbull from the Roald Dahl story Matilda, who brutally assaults the children in her class.
Stevie Ralph-Taylor

Stevie Ralph-Taylor's Facebook profile

Commenting under a Facebook post outlining the route of the march about climate change in Bristol, Stevie Ralph-Taylor said of Greta Thunberg 'She should be burnt at the stake!'.

Stevie Ralph-Taylor called for Greta Thunberg to be burnt at the stake
Max Poncho Morgan

Max Poncho Morgan

Max Poncho Morgan responded to a Facebook post about the School Strike for Climate by saying: 'milkshakes at the ready'.

While this remark is open to interpretation, it could well refer to the practice of throwing milkshakes over political figures, which emerged in the General Election campaign last year.

Max Poncho Morgan's Facebook comment about Greta Thunberg and young people's climate change campaign

Max recently changed his Facebook profile to include a 'Be Kind' filter - a phrase of advice much-used following the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack.
Kevin Bird

Kevin Bird's Facebook profile picture

As the event drew closer this week, the police and Bristol City Council issued safety advice.

Both the authorities said they were concerned the sheer size of the crowd could cause problems - and one of the phrases used by the police and the council was there could be the potential for crushes in the crowd - a common sense warning.


Kevin Bird, pictured above, read this council warning and responded on Facebook: "Crush the b***h. Sounds good to me. Send her home"


Ash Ashfaq (and Spencer Trump)

Ash Ashfaq's Facebook picture

In a thread on Facebook in which the changes to the bus routes and road closures was discussed, Ash Ashfaq called for Greta Thunberg's parents to physically assault her.

The father of young children wrote: "Her parents need to slap her with a brick."

Under this, another man, Spencer Trump, commented: "Send her back the way she should be in flat pack as that's what Sweden is famous for."

Ash Afhaq and Spencer Trump commenting on Greta Thunberg coming to Bristol
Anthony Hoskins

Anthony Hoskins' Facebook profile

As the week leading up to the School Strike for Climate continued, it became clear tens of thousands of people would be attending.

Anthony Hoskins' response was to claim if he could, he would deploy water cannon - something which is illegal even for the police to use in Britain - on the children attending the rally on College Green.



The comment said: "If i had a chance i would borrow a fire engine on friday and spray the lot of the morons with water cannon, the people are turning on these morons, read all the comments on here" [sic]

TRUMP HAS SEX WITH AMERICAN FLAG AT CPAC AGAIN

TRUMP HAS SEX WITH AMERICAN FLAG AT CPAC 
AGAIN

Trump says getting rid of “bad” people made him successful

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
(AP)--Donald Trump kisses the Amrrican flag after speaking at Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2
020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) 

(AP) — President Trump said Saturday that his “journey” in the nation’s highest office would have been a failure had he not be able to rid the government of people he says are “bad.”

Trump came into office railing against what he and his allies call the “deep state” — career government employees and political appointees held over from prior administrations — claiming it was out to undermine him.

He said he has been replacing them with “people who love our country.”

“We have such bad people and they’re not people who love our country,” Trump told several thousand cheering and chanting supporters at the the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. “We’re getting people who really love our country and it’s so important,” he said.

“And if I wasn’t able to fulfill that, no matter what other things we’ve done, I would not consider this journey to be a success,” he said. “So just remember that.”

Trump didn’t call anyone out by name in his remarks, but he has spoken negatively about the previous FBI leaders during other public appearances. Since being acquitted on two articles of impeachment and being allowed to stay in office, he has reassigned individuals who testified against him during the proceedings or whom he perceives as disloyal to him.

He also has brought back to the White House trusted aides who had departed earlier in the administration.

The Republican president, who is seeking reelection, sought to fire up his audience during the wide-ranging, nearly 90-minute speech with talk against state and local policies that shield undocumented immigrants, the number of conservative federal judges who’ve been confirmed by the Senate, his increased spending on the U.S. military and creation of a new branch of the military known as the Space Force.

Trump also touched on an agreement signed Saturday between the U.S. and the Taliban aimed at ending war in Afghanistan, and he pledged to protect the health and safety of Americans “with vigor” amid an outbreak of coronavirus, which overnight had claimed its first victim in the U.S.

Trump flew to a Maryland hotel to address the annual gathering of conservatives after he called a news conference at the White House to announce a ban on travel to Iran in response to the virus outbreak. He also announced elevated U.S. travel warnings to affected regions of Italy and South Korea.

The president closed with a promise to his fawning supporters to “be here next year, OK?”

In a reprise of his appearance at last year’s conservative conference, Trump then hugged and kissed an American flag before he left the stage.

SOME PEOPLE SAY THIS IS DISGUSTING OR SO I HAVE BEEN TOLD

Trump met with off-color jokes after

‘groping’ American flag: 

‘So Ivanka wasn’t available?’

February

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) February 29, 2020


Someone replaced the Adderall with Bath Salts again.
— Trumpy Trumpy (parody) (@outofcontroljb) February 29, 2020


This is not normal and it's beyond creepy. #25thAmendmentNow
— D Villella (@dvillella) February 29, 2020

That flag had to sign a Non disclosure agreement

— Michael P (@mike_prid15) February 29, 2020

How can anyone not be completely horrified that this man is our president. He's insane.
— MoreSkyPlease (@Moreskyplease) February 29, 2020

Grab 'em by the stars and stripes. It's super awkward watching Trump feel up that flag just like he does Ivanka.
— Guillotine Enthusiast  (@brimstonejack) February 29, 2020

Trump molesting the American flag again. So Ivanka wasn't available? https://t.co/68sFiDJMlQ
—  

Joey Poirier (@realjoeypoirier) February 29, 2020


Mental illness fully on display and no one who could do something, will
— I Am Marie R (@alt_ramsey) February 29, 2020


No one needs anything other than that vid clip to prove how ridiculous he truly is.
— Dissent.Is.Patriotic. (@MarkIKendrick) February 29, 2020

Flag desecration.
— OfDonald (@OfDonaldJ)  February 29, 202

Somebody needs to have Ronan Farrow get out

 to talk to that flag. #FreeToo https://t.co/CeZMpLA4qb

— Sean Ryan (@seanryan4) February 29, 2020

Trump molesting the American flag again. So Ivanka wasn't available? https://t.co/68sFiDJMlQ

— Joey Poirier (@realjoeypoirier) February 29, 2020

Greta Thunberg says young must ‘be the adults in the room’ in rallying cry to 30,000 climate protesters in Bristol

‘Words and promises’ from politicians not enough to avert environmental catastrophe, teenager tells crowds

Vincent Wood @wood_vincent THE INDEPENDENT

Greta Thunberg has said it is up to young people to “be the adults in the room” over climate change as she issued a rallying cry to 30,000 environmental protestors in Bristol.

The 17-year-old warned that, despite the “beautiful words and promises“ from elected officials, not enough was being avert a climate catastrophe.

“I will not be silenced when the world is on fire,” she told the crowd at the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate Change.

The teenager was greeted to chants of her name from the crowd, many of them school pupils who have been taking part in regular walkouts to protest government inaction on global warming.

Greta, who arrived at Bristol Temple Meads train station on Friday morning, went on to join protestors in a march through the city centre.

Police had initially warned the event could be overrun by supporters, leading to safety issues. In a response, the youth strike’s organisers said they had “no time to be patronised”.

Taking aim at politicians, Greta added: “Once again, they sweep their mess under the rug for us – young people, their children – to clean up for them.

“But we must continue and we have to be patient. Remember that the changes required will not happen overnight since the politics and solutions needs are far from sight.”

The teenager said she had chosen to appear in the southwest city due to the environmental movement being “particularly strong here”.

More people would join Greta Thunberg if they could afford it
Her speech marked the high point of the 10th youth strike to be held in the city, a format emulated across the globe and inspired by Greta’s initial protests in which she sat in solitude outside the Swedish parliament in 2018 to pressure the government into action.

“We will not be silenced because we are the change, and change is coming whether you like it or not,” she told the crowd.

“This emergency is being completely ignored by the politicians, the media and those in power.

“Basically, nothing is being done to halt this crisis despite all the beautiful words and promises from our elected officials.

“So what did you do during this crucial time? I will not be silenced when the world is on fire.”

She was preceded on stage by Mya-Rose Craig, the 17-year-old birdwatcher and environmentalist who earlier this month became the youngest person to receive an honourary doctorate from the University of Bristol.

“We have to engage with all of our communities in order to properly fight climate change.” she said.

“An unequal world can never be a sustainable one.”

Additional reporting by PA



Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures

Show all 12

More people would join Greta Thunberg to protest climate change if they could afford it

I wanted to join the protests last year and be in Bristol this week but I can't take time off work or risk losing my job

Last year, I wasn’t able to go down to London to join the International Rebellion or even the Northern Rebellion in Manchester, where I live. I contemplated pulling a sicky after failing to get my weekend shifts swapped but, as a student paying extortionately high rent, I couldn’t afford to take time off work or risk losing my job.

My point is if I had more money, I’d be down in Bristol today supporting 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as she joins a large number of people who have been inspired to take to the streets and take their futures into their own hands.

Greta’s impact, as well as that of Extinction Rebellion, has been massive in creating a culture of peaceful protests and striking around the globe. With a collective aim of pressuring the government through civil disobedience, we’re seeing people from all walks of life getting up and actually doing something for their own futures, the futures of their grandkids and the future of the world as we know it.

However, while striking and protesting are massively important in making any kind of change, it’s becoming clear that there is a significant amount of inaccessibility in terms of joining the fight.

XR came under fire during the International Rebellion of October 2019 when two activists climbed on top of a tube carriage in Canning Town, before being dragged off by angry commuters. This unfortunate blunder shone a light on the movement’s class problem, with the Telegraph stating, “After all, who suffers most when they stage these protests? It is not the government, or the capitalist giants… but those on low wages.”

Such tactics clearly work. Last year’s April Rebellion was successful in putting the climate emergency at the top of the UK’s agenda, and pushing the government to legislate for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In her upcoming book, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Christiana Figueres, the former UN Climate Chief, urges the public towards civil disobedience writing, “It’s time to participate in non-violent political movements wherever possible.”

The operative phrase here being, “wherever possible”.

People are often told (usually by critics of climate activism, obviously) that if they cared about the planet so much, then they’d make sacrifices in order to save it. While that’s all well and good, the fact is that not everyone can afford to miss days of work, or risk being unfairly dismissed because they want to tackle an issue we should have tackled years ago. Make no mistake, the climate emergency is one of the most pressing issues in the world right now, and it will be for many years to come, but for some – especially those with families – looking past the immediate concerns of paying rent and putting food on the table just isn’t possible.

When you can’t attend a protest, it’s not uncommon to feel powerless and even hopeless in the face of the disastrous consequences of inaction. It seems easy enough to focus on your own action and make greener choices in your buying habits and daily life, but it’s harder in practice. Sustainable brands which sell necessities like clothing, toiletries and menstrual products certainly know how to sell climate justice, and maybe if they were even slightly affordable, they would entice more customers like me.

When only the middle and upper classes (half of whom couldn’t care less about the effects of climate change on those who won’t be able to afford to escape it) are able to really afford to make an impact, it leaves a hole in the movement.

We need to act now: there are a huge number of unutilised activists whose voices need to be heard. Climate activism must be made accessible to all – potentially through legislation around striking and unsustainable goods and materials – in order for us to feel its true benefits.

Man dies live on TV while complaining in hospital about life in Iraq
‘People are tired,’ he says before collapsing

Zoe Tidman THE INDEPENDENT
Saturday 29 February 2020 15:57 

A man has died live on-air while complaining about life in Iraq.

He can be seen having an animated conversation before collapsing while still on camera for TV station Alsumaria TV.

“There are no jobs,” he said. “People are tired.” 

The man had a heart attack and died immediately, Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital said.

He had gone to seek medical help at the Baghdad hospital, where he bumped into journalists doing a report there.
When he arrived, he got talking to the TV crew and a medical professional there and reportedly started telling them about his issues. 

Family members claimed he had fallen ill after authorities had taken away one of his shops, the hospital said. 
He started complaining about the situation for people like himself in the country, according to media reports.

The man then grabbed onto the medical professional next to him and collapsed while still live on-air. 

The hospital distanced itself from the man’s death, saying he had not been treated by a doctor before speaking to reporters.

TRUMP-SUPPORTING BILLIONAIRE ‘LOOKING TO OUST TWITTER CHIEF AFTER BUYING SIZEABLE STAKE’ IN COMPANY

Activist investor reportedly plans to push for major changes at social media giant

A Republican mega-donor has purchased a “sizeable stake” in Twitter and is reportedly seeking to oust its founder Jack Dorsey.

Elliott Management intends to push for major changes at the social media company and has nominated four directors to Twitter’s board, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The hedge fund’s billionaire owner Paul Singer was a vocal and paying opponent of Donald Trump – who has accused Twitter of being “very discriminatory” towards him – during his presidential campaign in 2016, but has since become a supporter.

Mr Singer is reportedly hoping to replace Mr Dorsey due to the tech giant co-founder’s role as chief executive on Square, a mobile payments company, and his stated desire to split his time between the US and Africa. 

Mr Dorsey is the only person to simultaneously be CEO of two public companies worth more than $5bn.

Twitter’s share price rose by several points after reports emerged of Elliott Management’s investment.

While the tech giant’s share prices have been unsteady in the past, it recently reported quarterly revenue above $1bn for the first time, according to The Guardian.

Elliott Management is an activist investor – often putting its money into companies in order to affect changes within them. Mr Dorsey is believed to own around two per cent of the company, leaving him potentially vulnerable to such interventions.

Mr Singer is a staunch Republican, and after donating around $1m to a PAC attempting to derail Mr Trump’s election campaign, appears to have changed his mind about the US president.

But after Mr Singer paid a visit to the White House in 2017, Mr Trump told reporters: “As you know, Paul was very much involved with the anti-Trump or as they say ‘Never Trump’ and Paul just left and he’s given us his total support and it’s all about unification.”

Reports of Elliott Management’s alleged investment came days after it emerged Twitter could use red and orange labels to highlight lies and misleading statements made by individuals on the platform.

A spokesperson for Elliott Management said it had no comment on the reports.