MTV VMAs 2020: Lady Gaga dominates during unusual pandemic broadcast

Singer reigns supreme in awards show filled with calls for social justice and recognition of Covid tragedy

Lady Gaga dominated an unusual year for the MTV Video Music awards, winning five awards in a strange and disconcerting evening.

The singer, who led the evening with nine nominations and wore a variety of masks through the night, accepted awards for artist of the year, song of the year, best cinematography and best collaboration for Rain on Me and the inaugural Tricon award, which recognizes an artist who is highly accomplished across three or more disciplines.

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Rivals plan Fox News-style opinionated TV station in UK

Groups pitching to perceived desire for alternative output as trust in BBC falls

Rival efforts are under way to launch a Fox News-style opinionated current affairs TV station in Britain to counter the BBC.

One group is promising a news channel “distinctly different from the out-of-touch incumbents” and has already been awarded a licence to broadcast by the media regulator, Ofcom, under the name “GB News”. Its founder has said the BBC is a “disgrace” that “is bad for Britain on so many levels” and “needs to be broken up”.

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Belarus deports Swedish journalist amid media crackdown

Paul Hansen one of 50 reporters, including BBC Moscow’s Steve Rosenberg, detained by police

A Swedish photojournalist has been deported from Belarus, amid a crackdown on local and foreign media and ahead of further mass protests planned for this weekend against the president, Alexander Lukashenko.

Paul Hansen was given 24 hours to leave the country and banned from Belarus for five years. He was one of 50 reporters rounded up by riot police on Thursday and taken into custody, ostensibly so their documents could be checked.

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Netflix portrayal of female Indian Air Force pilot flies into flak

Gunjan Saxena was one of the first women in the IAF, but her biopic has drawn rebukes from fellow officers over sexism claims

Former and current members of the Indian military have criticised a Netflix film for portraying the armed forces as rife with gender discrimination.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has written to an Indian censor board, as well as Dharma Productions, which produced the film, and Netflix to complain that Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl “presented some situations that are misleading and portray an inappropriate work culture especially against women in the IAF”.

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New Zealand media put Christchurch gunman in his place with focus on victims

New Zealanders and media embody Jacinda Ardern’s approach to deny gunman publicity, muting coverage until life sentence delivered

On the first day of sentencing, New Zealand’s public broadcaster TVNZ put out its nightly news bulletin. The legal process unfolding in Christchurch made it to fourth spot, behind three domestic Covid-19 stories.

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) focused its attention on the victim impact statements. The gunman himself barely warrants a mention, beyond the briefest physical descriptions from journalists in the room.

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Hong Kong Free Press journalist denied visa amid fears for media freedom

Irish journalist Aaron McNicholas’s visa was rejected in what’s believed to the first such case at a local title

After months of reassurance that Beijing’s national security law would not affect Hong Kong’s free press, the government has denied a visa to local media outlet, the Hong Kong Free Press.

The English-language outlet had sought to employ a new editor, Aaron Mc Nicholas, an Irish journalist already based in Hong Kong. However the immigration department rejected an application to transfer his work visa after an almost six-month wait, without giving an official reason.

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Melania Trump taped making derogatory remarks about Donald and Ivanka – report

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff reportedly taped the first lady’s ‘harsh comments’ and plans to share them in a book, Melania & Me

Melania Trump will speak at the Republican national convention on Tuesday night, in the shadow of an extraordinary report that she was taped making derogatory comments about her husband’s adult children and even Donald Trump himself.

Related: RNC 2020: a two-hour glimpse into the upside-down world of Trump TV

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Danbury, Connecticut will name sewage plant after John Oliver

  • British-born comic abused city in recent segment on juries
  • Mayor says plant is ‘full of crap just like you, John’

Officials in Danbury, Connecticut, say they will name their sewage plant after the comedian John Oliver, in retaliation for an expletive-filled rant about the city on his HBO show.

Related: John Oliver: US is 'making a mockery of the phrase a jury of your peers'

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Your data is not destined for China, assures TikTok’s UK boss

The controversial app’s users are ignoring geopolitical battle over its digital security, says Richard Waterworth

TikTok’s UK chief has strenuously denied the video-sharing app, which Donald Trump has threatened to ban, shares data with China.

Richard Waterworth told the Observer that the UK and European arm of TikTok was growing quickly, despite the “turbulent” geopolitical battle in which the Chinese-born app has found itself.

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Trouble for Trump as Fox News praises ‘enormously effective’ Biden speech

Republican pundits accept success of Biden’s convention address as Trump’s bid to portray Democratic rival as radical leftist falls flat

Under pressure on the last day of the Democratic convention, Joe Biden “hit a home run” with an “enormously effective” speech that blew “a big hole” in Donald Trump’s efforts to paint him as a mentally faltering captive of his party’s left wing.

And that was to hear Fox News hosts Dana Perino and Chris Wallace tell it.

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Facebook restricts more than 10,000 QAnon and US militia groups

Move is part of a broad Facebook policy shift toward movements with links to violence such as baseless internet conspiracy Qanon

Facebook has taken down or restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon, US-based militia groups, and organizations that promote violent acts at protests. The moves are the result of a shift in the company’s policy toward movements with links to violence that do not meet the criteria for an outright ban.

Facebook will still allow people to post content that supports these movements, but “will restrict their ability to organize” on the platform by removing them from recommendation algorithms, reducing their ranking in news feed and search results, and prohibiting them from using features such as fundraising and advertising, the company said. Facebook will also remove pages, groups and accounts that discuss violence, and said it will study the terminology and symbolism that groups typically use to disguise their intent.

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Newsweek apologizes for op-ed that questioned Kamala Harris’ citizenship

Magazine’s opinion editor and editor-in-chief ended note by saying op-ed would remain on the site

Newsweek has apologized for an op-ed that questioned the California senator Kamala Harris’ American citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden’s running mate, a false and racist conspiracy theory which Donald Trump has not dismissed.

“This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,” read Newsweek’s editor’s note on Friday, which replaced the magazine’s earlier detailed defense of the op-ed.

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‘The press has to go on’: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai defies Beijing

Apple Daily founder and pro democracy activist says his case will likely be a ‘litmus test’ of Hong Kong’s legal system

Wary but defiant, Jimmy Lai is determined to keep fighting for a democratic Hong Kong, even as he acknowledges that China’s goal is to take full control of the region.

Speaking to the Guardian five days after his arrest on foreign collusion allegations – he is currently out on bail - media tycoon Lai argues the press must keep going. But he also believes that Monday’s round up was a warning from Beijing.

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Bob Woodward obtains letters between Trump and Kim Jong-un for new book Rage

Bob Woodward’s second book on the Trump White House has a title, Rage, and promises to reveal the secrets of “25 personal letters exchanged between [Donald] Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that have not been public before”.

Related: It Was All a Lie review: Trump as symptom not cause of Republican decline

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Hero’s welcome for Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai after release on bail

Apple Daily founder and pro-democracy activist returns to office following arrest under national security law

The Hong Kong pro-democracy figure and media mogul Jimmy Lai received a hero’s welcome as he returned to his newspaper after being arrested on allegations of foreign collusion, while Chinese state media labelled him a “genuine traitor”.

Lai, his sons, senior executives from his Next Digital media company and others including the activist Agnes Chow were detained under Beijing’s national security law on Monday. Hundreds of police officers also raided the offices and newsroom of Apple Daily, the popular tabloid Lai founded, in a move decried as an assault on press freedom.

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BBC and Sky accused of ‘voyeurism’ in coverage of migrant boats

Live footage of people crossing Channel to UK is like ‘grotesque reality TV’, says MP

Britain’s television news broadcasters have been criticised by opposition MPs and campaigners over their coverage of migrants crossing the Channel, with claims that some of their reports dehumanise those taking the risk to make the journey.

Footage of Sky News and BBC Breakfast teams approaching and filming small boats trying to navigate the busy waters of the Dover strait was widely condemned on social media. The Labour MP Zarah Sultana said: “We should ensure people don’t drown crossing the Channel, not film them as if it were some grotesque reality TV show.”

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Hong Kong’s Apple Daily vows to fight on after arrest of Jimmy Lai

Readers queued for hours to get a copy of the pro-democracy tabloid, as US secretary of state says China has ‘eviscerated Hong Kong’s freedoms’

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily tabloid has responded with defiance to the arrest of owner Jimmy Lai under a new national security law imposed by Beijing, promising to “fight on” in a front-page headline above an image of Lai being detained..

Readers queued from the early hours to get a copy of the pro-democracy paper a day after police raided its offices and took Lai into detention, the highest-profile arrest so far under the national security law.

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Donald Trump denies asking how to add face to Mount Rushmore

White House reportedly asked South Dakota official about expanding monument

Donald Trump has denied that his team ever approached South Dakota’s governor about adding his face to the iconic monument depicting four presidents at Mount Rushmore. However, he added that it sounded like a good idea.

The New York Times reported a Republican party official source on Saturday stating that a White House aide reached out to Kristi Noem’s office with the question: “What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?”

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BBC apologises for N-word in television broadcast after DJ Sideman quits

Director general admits mistake following 18,000 complaints

The BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, has apologised after the N-word was used in a TV news broadcast, following mass complaints and the resignation of one of the corporation’s radio DJs.

“Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here,” Hall said in an email to all BBC staff.

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Presenter quits after BBC defends use of N-word in report

Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman says he can no longer work for broadcaster after ‘slap in the face’

A BBC radio presenter has quit his job after the corporation defended its decision to broadcast the N-word in a television news broadcast.

Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman said he no longer felt comfortable working for the national broadcaster after it stuck by the decision to broadcast the language in a report on a racially motivated hit-and-run attack.

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