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Users posing as rightwing Americans are operating internationally, per the platform’s transparency featureMany of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (Maga) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed.The new tool, called “about this account,” became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded. Continue reading...
Users posing as rightwing Americans are operating internationally, per the platform’s transparency featureMany of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (Maga) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed.The new tool, called “about this account,” became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded. Continue reading...
the Guardian
Many prominent Maga personalities on X are based outside US, new tool reveals
Users posing as rightwing Americans are operating internationally, per the platform’s transparency feature
Health minister Ryan Park promises the two closures are ‘just the beginning’ as NSW tries to stem sharp rise in illicit cigarettes and vapesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTwo stores selling illicit tobacco in Sydney have been shut down, the first premises to be closed under new state laws cracking down on black market cigarettes and vapes.The stores on the city’s north shore have been shut down immediately for 90 days and the Minns government can now seek further court orders to close the outlets for 12 months. Continue reading...
Kaja Kallas to issue update this afternoon on progress countries are making towards becoming union memberSpeaking of the marking process, the civil rights group Liberties has also just published its assessment of the EU commission’s separate annual rule of law report, which looks at the union’s member states and their work in this area.In a scathing summary, the assessment found that the EU’s analysis “in key areas was even less comprehensive, with key issues neglected and no consequences for non-compliance with recommendations,” with some parts of the report literally “repeated verbatim, regardless of the level of progress, the seriousness of the violation, or the implications of continued inaction” from previous years. Continue reading...
Raids by rival hives aren’t rare after a dry, hot summer, but Christine McDonald was surprised to find her store besieged by beesA Canadian beekeeper has described fending off thousands of “robber bees” as they raided her shop in a brazen attempt to steal honey.Christine McDonald, who owns Rushing River Apiaries in the British Columbia city of Terrace, said she entered her shop to find it overrun by the swarm. Continue reading...
Temperatures in Lytton and Ashcroft climb to 40C, while a powerful hailstorm lashes Kansas and OklahomaA spate of extremely hot weather in British Columbia has broken Canada’s national maximum temperature record for September.On Tuesday, it reached 40C (104F) in Lytton, matching the previous all-time high. This is only the third time that temperature has been recorded in the country in September. Continue reading...
Two such groups claim they persuaded Alberta to institute sweeping public school book banSocially conservative “parents’ rights” groups that have emerged as powerfully political lobbying groups in the US are quickly gaining ground in Canada, academics and free speech advocates say, after two such groups claimed they had persuaded Alberta to institute a sweeping public school book ban.Alberta recently directed schools to purge library books from shelves that fit its definition of “explicit sexual content” by 1 October. If the policy is applied precisely as outlined, a host of books face being purged, including George Orwell’s 1984 due to passages in the text that discuss sexual intercourse and rape. Continue reading...
Rain helped cool Flat fire that destroyed homes in Oregon, while the Pickett fire has charred 10 sq miles of Napa countyA wildfire that destroyed four homes in central Oregon has started to stabilize, while a blaze in northern California wine country has so far spared some of the state’s most famous vineyards.Moisture helped the 1,200 firefighters battling Oregon’s Flat fire, but more work needed to be done, authorities said. Dry, hot weather had fueled a rapid expansion of the blaze across of rugged terrain in Deschutes and Jefferson counties since the fire began late Thursday. Continue reading...
Assessment suggests cost of project to store 700,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste could reach £54bnThe UK’s proposal for a new underground nuclear waste dump has been described as “unachievable” in a Treasury assessment of the project.Ministers have put new nuclear power at the centre of their green energy revolution. But the problem of what to do with 700,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste – roughly the volume of 6,000 doubledecker buses – from the country’s past nuclear programme, as well as future waste from nuclear expansion, has yet to be solved. Continue reading...
Canada’s response to the extreme weather threat is being upended as the traditional epicentre of the blazes shifts as the climate warmsRoad closures, evacuations, travel chaos and stern warnings from officials have become fixtures of Canada’s wildfire season. But as the country goes through its second-worst burn on record, the blazes come with a twist: few are coming from the western provinces, the traditional centre of destruction.Instead, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces and the Atlantic region, with bone-dry conditions upending how Canada responds to a threat that is only likely to grow as the climate warms. Continue reading...
Russian president’s remarks come as Kyiv rescuers find more than a dozen dead in apartment block after strikesVladimir Putin has said he wants a “lasting and stable peace” in Ukraine but given no indication that he is willing to make any concessions to achieve it, after a week in which Russian missiles and drones again caused death and destruction across Ukraine.“We need a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries,” said Putin, speaking to journalists on Friday, a week before a new deadline imposed by Donald Trump for hostilities to cease. Continue reading...
Government source confirms decision that will help meet net zero targets and £300 energy bills pledgeMinisters have decided not to cut Labour’s landmark £13.2bn fund to fix draughty homes and install heat pumps and solar panels in next week’s spending review, it has emerged.A government source confirmed Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, would not be making cuts to the flagship warm homes plan. The decision, which was first reported by the Daily Telegraph, marks a victory for Ed Miliband in his negotiations with the Treasury over the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s budget. Continue reading...
This year’s tiny harvest casts doubt on the spirit’s recent resurgence, once a bright spot in the island’s economy It’s a crisis that would have sent a shiver down Ernest Hemingway’s drinking arm. Cuba’s communist government is struggling to process enough sugar to make the rum for his beloved mojitos and daiquiris.As summer rains bring the Caribbean island’s 2025 harvest to an end, a recent analysis by Reuters suggests that Cuba’s state-run monopoly, Azcuba, is likely to produce just 165,000 metric tonnes of sugar this year. That compares with harvests of 8m in the late 1980s. Continue reading...
Democratic senator calls on voters to get creative in pushing back against Trump at town hall in New JerseyThe Democratic senator Cory Booker took a version of his record-breaking Senate floor speech on the road Saturday to a town hall meeting in a New Jersey gymnasium, calling on people to find out what they can do to push back against Donald Trump’s agenda.Booker took questions at suburban New Jersey’s Bergen Community College the same day that more than 1,200 “Hands Off” demonstrations took place around the country. The town hall event was punctuated both by celebratory shouts of “Cory, Cory” as well as at least a half-dozen interruptions by protesters. Continue reading...
Amnesty International describes legislation as ‘full-frontal attack’ on country’s LGBTQ+ communityMPs in Hungary have voted to ban Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attenders and potentially fine them, in what Amnesty International has described as a “full-frontal attack” on the LGBTQ+ community.The legislation – the latest by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his rightwing populist party to target the community – was pushed through parliament on Tuesday. Believed to be the first of its kind in the EU’s recent history, the nationwide ban passed by 136 votes to 27 after it was submitted to parliament one day earlier. Continue reading...
Case brought during Biden presidency accused space company of refusing, unlawfully, to hire certain immigrantsThe US Department of Justice on Thursday said it would drop a case accusing Elon Musk’s space technology company SpaceX of refusing to hire certain immigrants.The justice department last month signaled it could back away from the case, brought during Joe Biden’s term. Musk, a top adviser and donor to Donald Trump, is leading a commission tasked with identifying waste in the federal government, dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency”, or Doge. Continue reading...
Labour’s ‘devolution revolution’ aims to simplify local authorities but will force some to combine with others in financial distressPeople in areas neighbouring bankrupt councils in England risk seeing their council taxes rise and services cut under Labour’s plans for the most radical shake-up of local government this century.Under plans championed by Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, for a “devolution revolution”, the government is pushing to merge dozens of small district and county councils to streamline services. Continue reading...
Largest US department store chain delays release of quarterly earnings report to investigate ‘erroneous accounting entries’Macy’s revealed on Monday that a single employee was responsible for hiding up to $154m in expenses over the course of nearly three years, prompting the company to delay the release of its quarterly earnings report.The US’s largest department store chain, which owns other brands such as Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, found so many internal accounting irregularities that they were forced to conduct an independent forensic accounting investigation. Their full quarterly earnings report, originally planned for release on Tuesday, will now not roll out until 11 December. Continue reading...
