German far-right AfD leader defends party's stance toward Russia

dpa
2024/03/24

Co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel speaks during an interview in her office in the German Bundestag. The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) defended her party's stance toward Russia in a weekend interview with dpa, denying allegations that AfD politicians are too cozy with the Kremlin. 

Michael Kappeler/dpa

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) defended her party's stance toward Russia in a weekend interview with dpa, denying allegations that AfD politicians are too cozy with the Kremlin.

"It is simply important to me that a very balanced view of things is not confused with an alleged closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin," Alice Weidel told dpa.

Weidel, however, argued that the German government must strike more "balance" in its relationship with Russia and Ukraine.

Russia launched a bloody full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the German government has been supplying the Ukrainian side with weapons and other aid.

"The glorification of one warring party and the demonization of the other side will not lead us to a solution," Weidel said.

An AfD politician in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, drew criticism several days ago after congratulating Putin on his re-election. Tillschneider praised Putin for having "ensured stability and prosperity in Russia" in recent years.

Weidel's co-chair of the AfD, Tino Chrupalla, attended a reception at the Russian embassy last May despite the Russian war against Ukraine.

When asked whether she was happy that the opposition in Germany was not treated in the same way as in Russia, Weidel replied: "I don't want to judge that because it's a domestic issue."

But she complained about how her party is treated in Germany, including that AfD lawmakers have been excluded from sensitive oversight committees that monitor Germany's intelligence services.

Germany's BfV domestic intelligence service is currently investigating the AfD as a suspected far-right extremist group.

Many Russian opposition politicians and Kremlin critics have been jailed, driven into exile or threatened with harsh punishments for speaking against the regime. Putin faced no genuine opponents in his re-election campaign.

Co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel speaks during an interview in her office in the German Bundestag. The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) defended her party's stance toward Russia in a weekend interview with dpa, denying allegations that AfD politicians are too cozy with the Kremlin.

 Michael Kappeler/dpa

ICYMI

'Good boy!' Dogs do understand us, says new study

Agence France-Presse
March 22, 2024 

Cute Dog (Shutterstock)

Whether dogs truly understand the words we say -- as opposed to things like tone and context clues -- is a question that has long perplexed owners, and so far science hasn't been able to deliver clear answers.

But a new brain wave study published Friday in Current Biology suggests that hearing the names of their favorite toys actually activates dogs' memories of the objects they are associated with.

"It is not so self-evident that dogs would know what a 'ball' is," co-author Lilla Magyari of the Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, told AFP, using an easy example to explain the motivation behind the research.

With a couple of famous exceptions, dogs have fared poorly on lab tests requiring them to fetch objects after hearing their names, and many experts have argued it isn't so much what we say but rather how and when we say things that pique our pooches' interest.

Yelling "Go get the stick!" and having a dog successfully bring the object back doesn't conclusively prove they know what the word "stick" means.

Even scientists who concede that dogs do pay attention to our speech have said that, rather than really understanding what words actually stand for -- a uniquely human trait -- they are reacting to particular sounds with a learned behavior.

- Brain waves -

In the new paper, Magyari and colleagues applied a non-invasive brain imaging technique to 18 dogs brought to their lab in Budapest.

The test involved taping electrodes to the dogs' heads to monitor their brain activity. Their owners said words for toys they were most familiar with -- for example "Kun-kun, look, the ball!" -- and then showed them either the matching object or a mismatched object.


After analyzing the recordings, the team found different brain patterns when dogs were shown matching versus mismatched objects.

This experimental setup has been used for decades in humans, including babies, and is accepted as evidence of "semantic processing," or understanding meaning.

The test also had the benefit of not requiring the dogs to fetch something in order to prove their knowledge.

"We found the effect in 14 dogs, which shows the effect that we see on a group level is not only driven by a few exceptional dogs," co-author Marianna Boros told AFP.

- Case closed? -

Holly Root-Gutteridge, a dog behavior scientist at the University of Lincoln in England, who wasn't involved in the research, told AFP the ability to fetch specific toys by name had previously been deemed a "genius" quality.

She noted the famous border collies Chaser, who had the largest tested memory of any non-human animal, and Rico, who was the first dog found in tests to retrieve toys by their names.

But Root-Gutteridge said the new study "shows that a whole range of dogs are learning the names of the objects in terms of brain response even if they don't demonstrate it behaviorally," adding it was, "another knock for humanity's special and distinct qualities."

The paper "provides further evidence that dogs might understand human vocalizations much better than we usually give them credit for," added Federico Rossano, a cognitive scientist at UC San Diego.

But not all experts were equally enthusiastic.

Clive Wynne, a canine behaviorist at Arizona State University, told AFP he was "split" on the findings.

"I think the paper falls down when it wants to make the big picture claim that they have demonstrated what they call 'semantic understanding,'" he said, though he praised the "ingenious" experimental setup as a new way to test the full extent of dogs "functional vocabulary."

For example, Wynne said, he needs to spell out the word "w-a-l-k" when he's in front of his dog -- lest his pet get excited for an outing there and then -- but he doesn't need to take the same precautions in front of his wife, whose understanding of the word goes beyond simple association.

"Would Pavlov be surprised by these results?" asked Wynne, referencing the famous Russian scientist who showed dogs could be conditioned to salivate when they heard a bell signaling meal time. "I do not think he would be."

Your dog understands that some words “stand for” objects

New Zealand's Maori King calls for whales to be given personhood

Agence France-Presse
March 28, 2024 

Sperm whale © VALERY HACHE / AFP/File

The King of New Zealand's Indigenous Maori people made an impassioned call Thursday for whales to be granted the same legal rights as people in a bid to protect the hallowed yet vulnerable species.

Kiingi Tuheitia Potatau te Wherowhero VII said that majestic marine mammals should be given inherent human rights, such as having a healthy environment, to allow the restoration of their populations.

"The sound of our ancestor's song has grown weaker, and her habitat is under threat, which is why we must act now," King Tuheitia said in a rare public statement.

New Zealand has previously passed laws granting legal status to natural features such as rivers and mountains that are important to the Maori people.

The Mount Taranaki volcano and Whanganui River, both in New Zealand's North Island, are seen by the Maori as both ancestors and of spiritual importance. They were both granted personhood in 2017.

The status has since been invoked to slow or overturn development projects and to force consultation with local groups.

King Tuheitia said granting whales the same status would act as "a cloak of protection for our taonga (treasure), our ancestor -- the whales".

The statement was jointly issued with the high chief of the neighboring Cook Islands, Travel Tou Ariki.

The leaders are advocating for Indigenous knowledge to be combined with science for a "more holistic approach" to whale conservation.

Establishing protected marine areas would be a "crucial" step, they added.

- 'Vital role' -

The leaders want Polynesian nations who share "a love for the vast Pacific Ocean" to help.

"We can no longer turn a blind eye," high chief Travel Tou Ariki said. "Whales play a vital role in the health of our entire ocean ecosystem. Their decline disrupts the delicate balance that sustains all life in Te Moana (the sea)."

"We must act with urgency to protect these magnificent creatures before it's too late."

Whales are some of the largest mammals on earth, with blue whales measuring up to 100 feet (30.5 meters) and weighing up to 200 tonnes, the same as roughly 33 elephants.

Yet their size doesn't protect them.

Six of the 13 great whale species are classified as endangered or vulnerable, according to conservation group the World Wildlife Fund.

The Maori, like other Polynesian groups, are believed to have originated from islands around modern-day Tahiti, but currently make up about 17 percent of New Zealand's population, or about 900,000 people.

The arrival of Europeans to New Zealand in 1642 brought colonization, anti-Maori discrimination and pitched warfare that was eventually stopped through the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

The treaty, signed between the British and hundreds of Maori chiefs, is seen as the founding document of New Zealand and established British control over the country.

But it also granted the Maori the same rights as British subjects and authority over "taonga" or treasures that can be intangible.

 

China ships Tibetan glacier water to climate-threatened Maldives

Agence France-Presse
March 28, 2024 

Rising sea levels threaten to swamp the Maldives and the Indian Ocean archipelago is already out of drinking water 

© Shubham KOUL / AFP

China has sent more than a million bottles of water from melting Tibetan glaciers to the Maldives, officials said Thursday, a gift from the world's highest mountains to a low-lying archipelago threatened by rising seas.

The Indian Ocean nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with salt levels seeping into the land and corrupting potable water, leaving it dependent on desalination plants.

Scientists say glaciers in the Himalayas are melting faster than ever due to climate change.

The Maldives foreign ministry said the water was a gift from Yan Jinhai, the chairman of the Xizang Autonomous Region, or Tibet, lying more than 3,385 kilometers (2,100 miles) away on the far side of the world's highest mountain range.

The consignment of mineral water packed into 90 sea containers arrived last week and had been unloaded in the capital Male, a port authority official said.

"The Chairman of Xizang Autonomous Region announced his wish to donate 1,500 tonnes of drinking water... during his official visit to the country in November," the Maldives foreign ministry said in a statement.

- 'Water shortage' -

The ministry rejected allegations on social media that the imported water was for the consumption of pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu, who came to power last year on an anti-Indian platform.

"The government of Maldives has decided to utilize the water to provide assistance to islands in case of water shortage," it said.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in 2007 that rises of 18 to 59 centimeters (7.2 to 23.2 inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by the end of the century.

Muizzu promises his country -- 80 percent of which is less than a meter (three feet) above sea level -- will beat back the waves through ambitious land reclamation and building islands higher.

The congested capital island of Male has already run out of groundwater for drinking and depends on expensive desalination plants to supply the local population.

A fire at the water purification plant in Male in December 2014 disrupted supplies for almost a week, causing panic.

Both India and regional rival China rushed ships to produce drinking water until the desalination plant was fixed.

Better known for its white sand beaches and luxury tourism, the Maldives also straddles strategic east-west international shipping routes.

New Delhi considers the Indian Ocean archipelago to be within its sphere of influence but the Maldives has shifted into the orbit of China -- its largest external creditor.

Muizzu visited Beijing in January, when he signed a raft of infrastructure, energy, marine and agricultural deals, while India began withdrawing military personnel operating surveillance aircraft this month after they were ordered to leave.

Israel's war budget leaves top scientists in limbo

Agence France-Presse
March 27, 2024 

Saving chocolate: Israel scientist Ellen Graber

 (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP)

Israeli scientist Ellen Graber has spent years researching ways to save chocolate crops from climate change. But with the government slashing spending to fund the war in Gaza, her project is one of hundreds now hanging in the balance.

Graber's research had already been hit by the war -- she had to abandon her cacao plants when the area where they were grown was evacuated after the October 7 Hamas attack.

They survived weeks of drought-like conditions in a greenhouse.

But the state-funded Volcani Institute where she works is now facing huge budget cuts.

The institute specializes in arid and desert environments, increasingly vital areas of study for a planet wracked by extreme weather caused by climate change.

Now the government's war budget means hundreds of the institute's projects are under threat.

- 'Functionally stagnant' -

Israeli politicians approved sweeping cuts to ministry budgets earlier this month to pay for an 82 percent rise in defence spending and some key demands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition allies.

They included controversial measures to boost financing of ultra-Orthodox education programs and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.


The ministry of agriculture was one of the hardest hit, facing a 12 percent cut.

The Volcani Institute is set to lose a fifth of its state money, which it says will effectively bring its research to a halt.

The warning comes days after Israel's state auditor criticized the government's "functionally stagnant" handling of the climate crisis.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid called the budget "the most sectarian, disconnected and reckless" in the country's history.

And economist Itai Ater, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, said the budget "will certainly harm... education, health, welfare and infrastructure".

- 'Whole thing will dry up' -

Volcani's acting director Shmuel Assouline warned lawmakers its revised budget would only cover basic running costs.

He said halting its research could mean a loss of around 100 million shekels ($27 million) in its partnerships with other institutions and corporate partners.

"If we lose our good name, private companies won't come to invest," he added.

Graber, a soil scientist, started growing tropical cacao plants four years ago to devise ways "to increase yields, to increase quality, to deal with pests and pathogens and diseases" plaguing the cacao industry globally.

"I can't buy important chemicals, the equipment that I need, the materials I need to work and to continue this study," Graber said.

"Within one year, this whole thing will dry up."

Volcani's sprawling campus in central Israel has the atmosphere of a kibbutz crossed with a top-secret research facility.

Cows low in barns meters from laboratories where researchers are trying to isolate fungus-killing bacterial strains they hope will replace chemical pesticides.

Its researchers are at the forefront of climate change solutions for agriculture.

They collaborate with universities, governments and private companies around the globe on subjects as diverse as meteorology and water-use to gene-editing and environmental microbiology.

Eddie Cytryn, director of Volcani's Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, said the cuts would have "tremendous impacts" on field research and international collaboration -- and the grants that fund them.

- Cell growth research stunted -

Scientists Hinanit Koltai and Guy Mechrez head a team studying a novel method to accelerate and control cell growth in cows.

Their research, carried out in partnership with an Israeli firm called Nanomeat, aims to overcome a major hurdle for the lab-grown meat industry.

But Koltai echoed Graber and Assouline in saying her team was no longer able to buy materials for their research and warning they could lose their corporate partners.

"Nanomeat will go to somebody else no doubt," she said.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter told Kan public radio that he had "a serious disagreement with the finance ministry" over funds for the Volcani Institute.

He said Netanyahu "promised to intervene" but for the time being the scientists are left in limbo.

Australia battles to save last 11 wild 'earless dragons'

Agence France-Presse
March 27, 2024 

This year scientists counted just 11 grassland earless dragons in the wild, a marked decline (DAVID GRAY/AFP)

Australia's grassland earless dragon is no bigger than a pinkie when it emerges from its shell, but the little lizard faces an enormous challenge in the years ahead: avoiding extinction.

As recently as 2019, scientists in Canberra counted hundreds of grassland earless dragons in the wild. This year, they found 11.

In other areas of the country, the lizard has not been seen for three decades.

The earless dragon -- which is light brown and has long white stripes down its body -- measures about 15 centimeters (the size of a US$1 bill) when fully grown.

It lacks an external ear opening and functional eardrum, hence the name.

Australia has four species of earless dragons. Three are critically endangered, the highest level of risk, while the fourth is endangered.

The critically endangered dragons will likely be extinct in the next 20 years without conservation efforts.

"If we properly manage their conservation, we can bring them back," said University of Canberra Professor Bernd Gruber, who is working to do just that.

- Breeding programs -

Australia is home to thousands of unique animals, including 1,130 species of reptiles that are found nowhere else in the world.

Climate change, invasive plants and animals, and habitat destruction -- such as the 2019 bushfires, which burned more than 19 million hectares (46 million acres) -- have pushed Australia's native species to the brink.

In the past 300 years, about 100 of Australia's unique flora and fauna species have been wiped off the planet.


To save the earless dragons there are several breeding programs under way across Australia, including a bio-secure facility in Canberra's bushlands, which Gruber is overseeing.

On shelves are dozens of tanks that house the lizards –- one to each container –- with a burrow, grass and heat lamps to keep them warm.

The biggest problem is matchmaking, with the territorial female lizards preferring to choose their mates.

This means that scientists must introduce different male lizards to the female until she approves.

If that was not hard enough, scientists must also use genetic analysis to determine which lizards are compatible together and ensure genetic diversity in their offspring.

At any one time, the breeding programs around Australia can have up to 90 earless dragons, which will eventually be released back into the wild.


At the moment, Gruber is looking after more than 20 small lizards that have just hatched. Scientists almost missed the tiny eggs until three weeks ago.

"There is a sense of hope looking over them," he told AFP.

- Habitat destruction -

Despite the efforts of scientists, the lizards are contending with a shrinking habitat and a changing climate.

Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Peta Bulling said the lizards only live in temperate grasslands, most of which have been destroyed by urban development.

Only 0.5 percent of grasslands present at the time of European colonization still exist.

Without the lizards, Australia's alpine grasslands could look vastly different.

"We don't understand everything the grassland earless dragons do in the ecosystem, but we can make guesses they play an important role in managing invertebrate populations. They live in burrows in the soil, so they are probably aerating the soil in different ways too," she told AFP.

Bulling said that while it was important to bring the lizard back, it was also vital to protect their habitats, without which the newly saved lizards would have nowhere to live.


"They are highly specialized to live in their habitat but they will not adapt quickly to change," she said.

Last year, scientists rediscovered a small number of another kind of earless dragons after 50 years in an area that is being kept secret for conservation reasons.

Resources are being poured into understanding just how big that population is and what can be done to protect it.

Quantum computing just got hotter: 

1 degree above absolute zero

The Conversation
March 28, 2024 

Quantum computing (Amin Van/Shutterstock.com)

For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or –273.15°C). That’s because the quantum phenomena that grant quantum computers their unique computational abilities can only be harnessed by isolating them from the warmth of the familiar classical world we inhabit.

A single quantum bit or “qubit”, the equivalent of the binary “zero or one” bit at the heart of classical computing, requires a large refrigeration apparatus to function. However, in many areas where we expect quantum computers to deliver breakthroughs – such as in designing new materials or medicines – we will need large numbers of qubits or even whole quantum computers working in parallel.

Quantum computers that can manage errors and self-correct, essential for reliable computations, are anticipated to be gargantuan in scale. Companies like Google, IBM and PsiQuantum are preparing for a future of entire warehouses filled with cooling systems and consuming vast amounts of power to run a single quantum computer.

But if quantum computers could function at even slightly higher temperatures, they could be much easier to operate – and much more widely available. In new research published in Nature, our team has shown a certain kind of qubit – the spins of individual electrons – can operate at temperatures around 1K, far hotter than earlier examples.

The cold, hard facts

Cooling systems become less efficient at lower temperatures. To make it worse, the systems we use today to control the qubits are intertwining messes of wires reminiscent of ENIAC and other huge computers of the 1940s. These systems increase heating and create physical bottlenecks to making qubits work together.

The more qubits we try to cram in, the more difficult the problem becomes. At a certain point the wiring problem becomes insurmountable.

After that, the control systems need to be built into the same chips as the qubits. However, these integrated electronics use even more power – and dissipate more heat – than the big mess of wires.

A warm turn

Our new research may offer a way forward. We have demonstrated that a particular kind of qubit – one made with a quantum dot printed with metal electrodes on silicon, using technology much like that used in existing microchip production – can operate at temperatures around 1K.

This is only one degree above absolute zero, so it’s still extremely cold. However, it’s significantly warmer than previously thought possible. This breakthrough could condense the sprawling refrigeration infrastructure into a more manageable, single system. It would drastically reduce operational costs and power consumption.

The necessity for such technological advancements isn’t merely academic. The stakes are high in fields like drug design, where quantum computing promises to revolutionize how we understand and interact with molecular structures.

The research and development expenses in these industries, running into billions of dollars, underscore the potential cost savings and efficiency gains from more accessible quantum computing technologies.

A slow burn

“Hotter” qubits offer new possibilities, but they will also introduce new challenges in error correction and control. Higher temperatures may well mean an increase in the rate of measurement errors, which will create further difficulties in keeping the computer functional.

It is still early days in the development of quantum computers. Quantum computers may one day be as ubiquitous as today’s silicon chips, but the path to that future will be filled with technical hurdles.

Our recent progress in operating qubits at higher temperatures is as a key step towards making the requirements of the system simpler.

It offers hope that quantum computing may break free from the confines of specialized labs into the broader scientific community, industry and commercial data centres.


Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney and Andre Luiz Saraiva De Oliveira, Solid State Physicist, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

TikTok disinformation is no more dangerous than this Fox News disinformation

Sabrina Haake
March 24, 2024

RAW STORY

Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Sean Hannity (L) interviews then-President Donald Trump before a campaign rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on September 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images


The U.S. House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to require TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership or be banned in the U.S. because of national security concerns.

The security risks identified by the bill’s sponsors include a Chinese law that gives Xi Jinping legal access to user data, along with China’s ability to meddle in U.S. elections.

The standard First Amendment debate asks: When does one person’s right to spew misinformation yield to another person’s right not to be harmed by it? In the context of elections, if Congress interferes with a foreign-owned media platform such as TikTok in the name of election security, why should a domestic corporation such as Fox News, also guilty of rampant election misinformation, be spared the same scrutiny?
Online disinformation campaigns

Over the past few years, the most aggressive online disinformation campaigns in the U.S. have targeted COVID vaccines, climate science and elections. Millions of Americans are influenced by manufactured information campaigns every day. Pew Research shows that the share of U.S. adults who want the federal government to restrict such false information has risen, from 39 percent in 2018 to 55 percent in 2023.

COVID and climate manipulation can be countered fairly easily since death rates, increasing wildfires and disappearing aquifers can’t lie.

Election misinformation is another story. Of all the disinformation campaigns online at any given hour, election lies are the most difficult to regulate because political speech is afforded the highest legal protection under the 1st Amendment.

Paradoxically, political disinformation presents the greatest threat to the 1st Amendment, as politicians in a position to curb it sometimes become top disinformation purveyors.

Consider that Donald Trump started claiming the 2020 election was rigged months before the first votes were cast. Since then, an initially resistant GOP has begun to see the political expediency in parroting his claims: Republicans have not won the popular vote in a presidential election in decades, and it’s easier to falsely decry “stolen election” than to adjust policies enough to widen their political appeal.

The GOP’s strained relationship with the truth is further complicated by deep-pocket political donors who demand outcomes different from what ordinary voters want — and are willing to finance massive public disinformation campaigns to achieve those outcomes.

As a direct result of widespread election disinformation, 40 percent of Americans still think Trump won the 2020 election, and 64 percent of election officials say their jobs are now more dangerous. Not only does election misinformation weaken domestic political processes, it has been weaponized by lawmakers on the right to justify new voter suppression laws in a self-serving, closed-loop information feed.
Why should Fox ‘News’ be spared?


TikTok may downplay its interest in U.S. domestic politics. But when it encouraged users to flood U.S. representatives’ offices with angry calls, TikTok parent company ByteDance demonstrated both its interest and its ability to influence American political outcomes when it wants to.

Its lobbying force in Washington, D.C., is formidable and growing, and even includes a former professional football player.


Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, departs from the Russell Senate Office Building after meeting with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on March 14, 2024, in Washington, D.C. The House of Representatives voted to ban TikTok in the United States unless the Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance sells the popular video app within the next six months.

 (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

It’s also evident that TikTok’s algorithms suppress themes that aggravate Chinese leaders. As reported by the New York Times, researchers compiled information about popular TikTok videos on topics commonly suppressed inside China, such as the fate of China’s Uyghur population and public protests in Hong Kong. They found that these topics were underrepresented on TikTok compared to other social networks, including Instagram. The research emerged from TikTok’s own “Creative Center,” and after the under-representation was reported, TikTok quietly reigned in its own research tool rather than address the subterfuge.

As Congress grapples with such foreign data manipulation, why should domestic manipulation by Fox News be treated differently? Fox News admitted to peddling massive voter disinformation during the last presidential election, and it appears they are at it again.

Fox News admitted lying about Trump’s 2020 loss

Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox for defamation following Fox News’ rampant election misinformation during the 2020 election. Dominion alleged, with strong evidence, that Fox News orchestrated and published stolen 2020 election claims after it knew them to be false, repeatedly scapegoating Dominion voting machines in the process.

Dominion introduced explosive documentary evidence that key Fox anchors and executives told each other that Trump’s buffoonish stolen election claims were a joke, but told their viewers something quite different.

Fox luminaries texted, emailed or commented to each other that Trump’s stolen election lies and the fraudsters supporting them were “Ludicrous” and “totally off the rails”(Tucker Carlson); “F—g lunatics” (Sean Hannity); “Nuts” (Dana Perino); “Complete BS” (Fox Producer John Fawcett); “Kooky” (anchor Maria Bartiromo); “Mind Blowingly Nuts” (Raj Shah, Fox Corporation VP); and, “There is NO evidence of fraud. None” (Bret Baier).

And yet, these same luminaries continued to promote Trump’s stolen election lies on-air, just to attract low-information viewers.

Carlson didn’t tell Fox viewers that Trump was “off the rails.” Instead, he donned his trademark injured puppy face, poured his hurt eyes into the camera, and cried, “The stolen election was the single greatest crime in American history with millions of votes stolen in a day. Democracy destroyed. The end of our centuries old system of government.”


Fox viewers, believing their votes and democracy itself were stolen, were understandably triggered.
Election threats within

Trump and Fox News continued to goad MAGA voters into believing their votes were “stolen” until they violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The insurrection, during which multiple people lost their lives, was the direct result of election misinformation, leaving Fox News with at least some culpability for the attack.

And yet, even as Congress expresses deep concern over TikTok’s potential for election interference, there has been no discussion about Fox News. The TikTok bill’s lead sponsor, Mike Gallagher (R-WI) told NPR that that the TikTok app had been used to interfere in elections.

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why half of America does not care about Trump's crimes

Post-2020, there is no serious question about whether Fox also interferes in elections or plans to interfere with them again, as Trump and President Joe Biden speed toward a rematch in November.

TikTok has more reach than Fox, as nearly half of America’s population uses TikTok. Fox News, for its part, is the top-rated cable network, averaging 1.85 million viewers daily during primetime hours. Fox & Friends has been the most viewed cable-news morning show for 22 years.

As instruments of social and political manipulation, TikTok and Fox News target similar audiences. TikTok attracts hormonal teens with addictive, homegrown videos, while Fox targets their low-education parents and grandparents. Both outlets manipulate their audience by selling infotainment as news.



In this photo illustration, A man holds a smartphone iPhone screen showing various social media apps including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Instagram and X on March 13, 2024. (Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images)

If the TikTok bill makes it through the U.S. Senate, it will face a stiff legal challenge. Under long-established 1st Amendment precedent, the government will need to show a compelling government interest, and that forced divestment — or a ban — represents the least restrictive means of advancing that interest.

Under any legal analysis, there are few concerns more compelling to the U.S. federal government than preserving free elections and the democratic system. What’s glaringly missing from the debate about online disinformation, at least so far, is why election interference from TikTok is any more dangerous than election interference from Fox News.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Follow her on Substack.

'Why are you yelling?' Fox News MAGA pundit loses it after he's called out by Dem

David Edwards
March 28, 2024

Fox News/screen grab

Fox News pundit Leo Terrell was enraged Thursday after left-leaning contributor Jessica Tarlov pointed out that she was the only Jewish American on the panel.

During a segment about President Joe Biden's fundraiser in New York City, Terrell ranted that there was a lack of support for Israel.

"He has abandoned Israel," Terrell said of Biden. "And you want to know, it's not just Israel. He abandoned Jewish Americans attending universities."

"Joe Biden will do anything to win Michigan," he continued. "Throwing our biggest ally under the bus? Throwing Jewish Americans under the bus at these universities? Shame on Joe Biden! This is ridiculous! It's outrageous."

Tarlov tried to weigh in "as the only Jewish American on the panel."

"Don't do that!" Terrell exclaimed. "That's not the point!"

"You said Jewish American," Tarlov pointed out. "I am a Jewish American."

"OK. You're a big-time Democrat, and you're going to defend Joe Biden, notwithstanding the numbers," Terrell griped. "And you know he's throwing Israel under the bus, and he's throwing Jewish American students under the bus at all these universities. It's sickening."

Tarlov noted that Biden "came out of the gate as the strongest supporter in the international community of Israel."

"And I think that what you're saying, Leo, is very dangerous, just like what President Trump was saying is very dangerous," she added.

"Dangerous?" Terrell screamed. "Dangerous?"


"Why are you yelling?" Tarlov asked.

"To throw Israel under the bus?" Terrell ranted.

"Why are you yelling?" Tarlov asked again.


"Give me a break," Terrell said sourly. "He threw Israel under the bus."

Watch the video below from Fox News or click the link.

Trump Bible could have blank pages and his supporters would never know: op-ed

Sky Palma

RAW STORY
March 28, 2024

Brooks Kraft/ Getty Images


Former President Donald Trump is on the receiving end of backlash after he announced his campaign is selling "God Bless the USA Bibles" for $59.99, but this columnist wants to take a hard look his readers.

Columnist Amanda Marcotte, in an op-ed published by Salon Thursday, said she believes the announcement was a "not-at-all subtle message" that Trump "doesn't believe any of this faith-in-God crap, but he definitely believes in using Christian identity as a weapon to make money and dominate his foes."

Marcotte argues that Trump supporters who identify as Christian will not find the Trump brand Bible offensive, since it signals that they can have the "Christian" identity without the parts they don't like.

"No boring church services or Bible study. No tedious talk about 'compassion' and 'grace,' which only gets in the way of the gay-bashing and racism," Marcotte wrote. "And definitely no need to worry about that Jesus guy, with all his notions about 'loving thy neighbor' and 'welcoming the stranger.'"

According to Marcotte, Trump-supporting Christians have replaced God with Trump himself — which she says is a lot more fun since Trump's message is "kick thy neighbor" and "build the wall."

Marcotte has such little faith in the Christian bonafides of Trump supporters that she argued the pages of the Trump Bible could be blank and they wouldn't even know it.

"In the right-wing publishing industry, books are not made to be read. They are to be displayed on your shelves, unopened, so you can glance at them and feel that somewhere, a liberal is 'owned.'" she writes.

"The point of a Trump-branded Bible is to use it like their Dear Leader does: As a photo prop, not something to turn to for guidance or wisdom."