Duke of Sussex urges advertisers to demand companies do more to curb hate speech online
Prince Harry has hit out at social media companies for creating a “crisis of hate” and called for “meaningful digital reform” after an unprecedented advertiser boycott of Facebook.
In an opinion piece for the US business magazine Fast Company, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he and his wife, Meghan, had begun campaigning for change in social media “a little over four weeks ago”.
Continue reading...Revenue collapses by 16% in Australia and 13% in the UK, while Foxtel loses 12% of its subscribers in Australia
News Corp has posted a US$1.5bn loss, with its Australian and United Kingdom newspaper businesses suffering sharp declines in revenue and its Foxtel pay-TV business in Australia bleeding subscribers, new financial results for 2019-20 show.
The global media giant released its financial results for 2019/20 on Thursday in the US. The reports paint a grim picture across the last quarter and year, with the exception of its Dow Jones business.
Continue reading...Mulan is first blockbuster to go straight to streaming in response to Covid-19 shuttering cinemas
Disney’s decision to bypass cinemas and offer its latest big budget film Mulan directly to streaming subscribers for $29.99 could signal the beginning of the end for the traditional movie-going experience – and forever change the long-established business model underpinning the Hollywood blockbuster.
The surprise move has stunned cinema owners, who had been banking on the film, along with Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Tenet, to jump-start box office takings as theatre chains struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Court rules in favour of Duchess of Sussex in latest stage of legal action against Associated Newspapers
The Duchess of Sussex has won a high court bid to keep secret the identities of five friends who gave anonymous interviews to a US celebrity magazine, in the latest stage of her legal action against the owner of the Mail on Sunday.
Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, over an article that reproduced parts of a “private and confidential” handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.
Continue reading...President floundered in conversation with Axios, claiming Covid-19 was ‘under control’ and attacking mail-in voting
Donald Trump stumbled through his second damaging interview in as many weeks, floundering in a conversation with the news website Axios over key issues he is tasked with responding to as president.
It’s been just over two weeks since the president made a series of shocking statements in a one-on-one interview with Fox News, but he packed another host of extraordinary claims into a 37-minute interview released on Monday night by Axios.
Continue reading...Press groups have called for justice after unidentified gunmen killed a journalist in southern Mexico, along with a police officer assigned to protect him after a 2016 attack.
Pablo Morrugares was the fifth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year, in attacks which are increasingly killing police guards assigned to the victims. More than 140 journalists have been killed over the past 20 years.
Continue reading...The footballer is recognised for his activism in the magazine among 40 ‘faces of hope’
Marcus Rashford’s inspirational, policy-changing campaign against child poverty has garnered him accolades aplenty. Now it has also propelled the footballer on to the front cover of British Vogue’s September issue.
The Manchester United striker, who forced a government U-turn on the granting of free food vouchers for the poorest families over the summer, headlines a special edition dedicated to activism.
Continue reading...Architect of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign reveals admiration for Boris Johnson’s aide in interview on dark politics
Steve Bannon, who has previously backed a range of notorious far-right political figures, has publicly endorsed Dominic Cummings for the first time, calling him a “brilliant guy”.
Donald Trump’s former chief strategist also said that Boris Johnson will become an increasingly populist prime minister after jettisoning his political positioning as a “globalist” to “opportunistically jump on Brexit”.
Continue reading...Reporters for independent outlets, many in rural areas, say pressure won’t deter them from covering embarrassing stories
Facing a continuing upward trajectory in Covid-19 cases, the Indian government is clamping down on media coverage critical of its handling of the pandemic.
More than 50 Indian journalists have been arrested or had police complaints registered against them, or been physically assaulted.
Continue reading...A portrait of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician shot dead by police in her own home earlier this year, will appear on the cover of the latest issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
It is the first time in the magazine’s 20-year history that the cover will not feature the magazine’s namesake: Oprah Winfrey.
Continue reading...Duchess of Sussex suing owner of Mail on Sunday and Mail Online in privacy battle
Lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex have claimed five female friends who spoke anonymously to a US magazine to defend her against British tabloid bullying are entitled to a “super-charged right of confidentiality” as she fought to protect their identities in her privacy battle against the Mail on Sunday.
Forcing her to make public their names was an “unacceptable price to pay” for pursuing her legal action over publication of extracts from a private letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, 75, the high court in London heard.
Continue reading...High court hears closing remarks in three-week libel case exposing couple’s relationship
Amber Heard has spoken of her trauma at reliving the breakup of her marriage, saying she is “placing her faith in British justice” as Johnny Depp’s lawyer branded her a “compulsive liar” and the “abuser” in the couple’s relationship.
As the libel action brought by Depp against the publishers of the Sun newspaper ended on Tuesday, Heard was booed and heckled by Depp fans who have gathered daily outside the high court in London for the proceedings over allegations that the Pirates of the Caribbean star had been violent towards her.
Continue reading...Sinclair Television said on Saturday it would delay airing an interview with a conspiracy theorist who claims baselessly that Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, created the coronavirus behind the current pandemic.
Related: A disgraced scientist and a viral video: how a Covid conspiracy theory started
Continue reading...Heard became ‘nervous wreck’ at auditions, fearing Depp’s reaction, acting coach says
Johnny Depp wanted Amber Heard “barefoot and pregnant – and at home”, her acting coach told the high court in London as she outlined her growing suspicions that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was hitting his wife.
Kristina Sexton, Heard’s friend and then acting coach, said she had not seen Depp “hit, kick or throw anything” at Heard, but she was aware of the “volatility” of their relationship and had “overheard some serious fights” while waiting to start her coaching sessions.
Continue reading...Hopewell Chin’ono arrested after reporting on alleged profiteering in deals for coronavirus supplies
Lawyers for a prominent investigative journalist in Zimbabwe who was arrested this week have accused authorities of persecution after magistrates postponed a decision on bail for 24 hours, blaming a Covid-19 curfew.
Hopewell Chin’ono, an internationally respected reporter, recently published documents raising concerns that powerful individuals in Zimbabwe were profiting from multimillion-dollar deals for essential supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Makeup artist says she concealed Heard’s cut lip and bruises after alleged attack
Amber Heard had a cut lip and bruises that she said had been inflicted by Johnny Depp, who she said had tried to suffocate her with a pillow, Heard’s regular makeup artist has told a court.
Giving evidence via video link from California, Mélanie Inglessis said she was called by Heard to the Hollywood couple’s penthouse apartment in Los Angeles in December 2015 and helped to conceal the injuries so that Heard could appear on a US chat show the next day apparently unblemished.
Continue reading...Actor tells court she feared Depp would push her sister down the stairs like he allegedly did to Kate Moss
Amber Heard has admitted punching her ex-husband Johnny Depp, saying it was to prevent him from pushing her sister down a flight of stairs and claiming he had previously done this to his ex-girlfriend Kate Moss.
Giving evidence for a second day at the high court in London, Heard recalled an incident in March 2015 in the couple’s Los Angeles penthouse when she struck Depp because, she said, she wanted to protect her younger sister Whitney.
Continue reading...Two women have come forward with explosive new allegations of sexual misconduct at Fox News, claiming in a lawsuit that the former chief national correspondent of the cable channel, Ed Henry, subjected one of them to rape and sexual assault.
The federal lawsuit, lodged on Monday in the southern district of New York, accuses management at Fox News of failing to act over allegations of sexual impropriety against Henry dating back to as early as 2017. The channel fired its co-anchor earlier this month after details of the complaint surfaced.
Continue reading...Court hears testimony from actor’s ex-wife, who says he was abusive and violent
Johnny Depp threatened to carve and disfigure Amber Heard’s face if she left him, repeatedly demeaned her and often physically attacked her, she has told the high court.
Opening the defence case in the libel trial initiated by the Pirates of the Caribbean star, Heard said her former husband insulted her and on one occasion told her: “I’m going to have to watch you get raped.”
Continue reading...Video-sharing app suspends building plans, with British ban on Huawei 5G kit seen as factor
The Chinese social media firm TikTok has pulled back from talks to site the headquarters for its non-China business in the UK, threatening the creation of 3,000 jobs, as fears grow of a tit-for-tat trade war between London and Beijing.
Its parent company, ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, had spent months in negotiations with the Department for International Trade and No 10 officials to expand operations in addition to the near 800 employed by TikTok.
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