Category Archives: Media

Guardian to ban advertising from fossil fuel firms

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Move follows efforts to reduce carbon footprint and increase reporting on climate crisis

The Guardian will no longer accept advertising from oil and gas companies, becoming the first major global news organisation to institute an outright ban on taking money from companies that extract fossil fuels.

The move, which follows efforts to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and increase reporting on the climate emergency, was announced on Wednesday and will be implemented with immediate effect. The ban will apply to any business primarily involved in extracting fossil fuels, including many of the world’s largest polluters.

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Human rights report to oppose extradition of Julian Assange to US

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European assembly says WikiLeaks founder’s detention ‘sets dangerous precedent’

Julian Assange’s detention “sets a dangerous precedent for journalists”, according to politicians from the Council of Europe’s parliamentary arm, who voted on Tuesday to oppose the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition to the US.

The words of support for Assange and implicit criticism of the UK government will be contained in a final report produced by the Labour peer Lord Foulkes for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which focuses on upholding human rights across the continent.

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Reporter who wrote book on Saudi crown prince was allegedly targeted by hackers

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State department investigates after New York Times journalist Ben Hubbard says his phone was targeted in 2018

A New York Times reporter was allegedly targeted with spyware linked to Saudi Arabia in 2018, at a time when the kingdom was targeting several Saudi dissidents around the world.

A new report by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School found that Ben Hubbard, who has written a book about Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, was targeted by spyware known as “Pegasus”, which is made by Israel’s NSO Group.

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Ivanka Trump attacks ‘smug elites’ of CNN in row over viral clip

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Rick Wilson, whose joke about Trump playing to his base led to the spat, hits back at first daughter’s ‘breathtaking hypocrisy’

Ivanka Trump has waded into a row over a CNN segment in which host Don Lemon laughed as two guests ridiculed supporters of her father.

Related: How to dump Trump: Rick Wilson on Running Against the Devil

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Sunday People ‘hired detectives to target Milly Dowler family’

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Papers lodged in high court civil case say family was put under unlawful surveillance

Private detectives were hired by the Sunday People newspaper to target the family of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002, it has been alleged.

The claims are made in legal papers lodged as part of a civil action being taken by a range of claimants, including Prince Harry.

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The Fixers review: Trump, Cohen, Stormy Daniels and the porn star presidency

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A guide to ‘the bottom-feeders, crooked lawyers and gossip mongers who created the 45th president’ demands to be read

In February 2019, Jeff Bezos accused David Pecker and the National Enquirer of extortion and blackmail after the tabloid published intimate pictures taken by the Amazon chief. Pecker and co denied being motivated by a desire to aid Donald Trump or receiving a major assist from Saudi Arabia. It was just about gossip.

Related: 'Click I agree': the UN rapporteur says prince tried to intimidate Bezos with message

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NPR host says Pompeo shouted ‘F-word’ tirade when she asked about Ukraine

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Secretary of state screamed obscenities and demanded host Mary Louise Kelly find Ukraine on a map, journalist says

Mike Pompeo is said to have unleashed a foul-mouth tirade at a well known US radio host after she asked him questions about Ukraine in an interview.

Mary Louise Kelly, a respected broadcaster on National Public Radio (NPR), sat down for a pre-arranged interview with the secretary of state on Friday, whose wrath was apparently triggered by a string of questions about Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine. Kelly asked Pompeo whether he owed Yovanovitch an apology for not defending her in the face of a smear campaign orchestrated by Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associates.

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Outrage at whites-only image as Uganda climate activist cropped from photo

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Associated Press says Vanessa Nakate was excised from image, which also featured Greta Thunberg, ‘purely on composition grounds’

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate has called out racism in media after she was cropped out of a photo featuring prominent climate activists including Greta Thunberg, Loukina Tille, Luisa Neubauer and Isabelle Axelsson.

Nakate made the comment in a video which has since gone viral, adding that she now understood “the definition of the word racism” for the first time in her life.

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Former BBC executives criticise Orla Guerin’s Holocaust report

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Michael Grade and Danny Cohen hit out at ‘unjustifiably offensive’ News at Ten piece

The former BBC chairman Michael Grade and Danny Cohen, its former director of television, have joined criticism of the broadcaster over an “unjustifiably offensive” News at Ten report that appeared to link Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust.

Orla Guerin, the BBC’s international correspondent, made the reference at the end of an interview with Holocaust survivor Rena Quint ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

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BBC’s Fergal Keane to step down after revealing he has PTSD

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Veteran war reporter will leave role as broadcaster’s Africa correspondent to aid recovery

The veteran war reporter Fergal Keane is stepping down from his role as BBC News’s Africa correspondent after several years of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, the broadcaster has said.

Keane, who has reported from conflict zones across the world over several decades, including the Rwandan genocide, has decided to move away from the role to help his recovery, according to an internal announcement.

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Johnson met Murdoch on day he signalled general election bid

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News Corp owner was the only media baron the prime minister saw in his first three months

Boris Johnson saw Rupert Murdoch for a “social meeting” on the day he signalled his intention to seek a general election last year, according to new transparency disclosures.

Johnson saw the media billionaire on 2 September, the day when Downing Street briefed that he would be seeking an autumn election if his Brexit plans were thwarted. In the event the election was pushed back to December.

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Harry and Meghan in new privacy row – just hours after Canada reunion

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Couple threaten legal action over press pictures of Duchess of Sussex and baby Archie

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex began their new lives in Canada by firing a warning shot across the bows of the media over paparazzi photographs they said were taken without consent.

Within hours of Prince Harry touching down in Vancouver to join Meghan and their baby son, Archie, the couple’s lawyers were threatening legal action over pictures taken of the Duchess of Sussex while out for a stroll.

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Brazilian prosecutors charge journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes

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Greenwald accused of helping hackers who obtained cellphone messages between leading figures in anti-corruption investigation

Brazilian federal prosecutors have indicted the American journalist Glenn Greenwald for cybercrimes, alleging he “helped, encouraged and guided” a group of hackers who obtained cellphone messages between leading figures in Brazil’s mammoth Car Wash anti-corruption investigation.

The leaks, subsequently published in several stories on the investigative site the Intercept Brazil, which Greenwald co-founded, appeared to show collusion between then judge Sérgio Moro and prosecutors and exacerbated questions of political bias of the investigations. Moro was subsequently named justice minister by the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

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Meghan gets twice as many negative headlines as positive, analysis finds

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Guardian analysis appears to support claim Duchess of Sussex receives more critical treatment than Duchess of Cambridge

The Duchess of Sussex gets more than twice as many negative headlines as positive ones, according to Guardian analysis of articles published between May 2018 and mid January 2019.

The analysis – which appears to support Meghan’s argument that she has faced highly critical treatment in the British press – found that of the 843 articles in 14 print newspapers since mid-May 2018, 43% were negative. Just 20% of the articles were positive, with the remaining 36% remaining neutral.

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YouTube ads of 100 top brands fund climate misinformation – study

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Avaaz says firms are unaware commercials being played alongside misleading videos

Some of the biggest companies in the world are funding climate misinformation by advertising on YouTube, according to a study from activist group Avaaz.

The group found that more than 100 brands had adverts running on YouTube videos on the site that were actively promoting climate misinformation. The brands, including Samsung, L’Oreal and Decathlon, were unaware that their adverts were being played before and during the videos.

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Meghan faces release of more texts in case against Mail on Sunday

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Newspaper defence says it could release further messages between duchess and friend

The potential perils for Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in her high stakes legal battle against the Mail on Sunday have become clear after the newspaper filed a detailed legal defence hinting at the future release of royal text messages.

The case revolves around allegations of breach of copyright, invasion of privacy and misuse of personal data after the newspaper published excerpts from a letter she sent to her father complaining about how he was treating her.

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Mail on Sunday could call Thomas Markle in high court defence

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Newspaper faces legal action from Duchess of Sussex for publishing excerpts from a letter to her father

Thomas Markle could be called to give evidence at the high court against his estranged daughter Meghan, as part of her ongoing legal action against the Mail on Sunday, after it emerged that the paper’s defence appears to rely on his account.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing the newspaper for breach of copyright, invasion of privacy, and misuse of personal data after it published excerpts from a letter she sent her father complaining about how he was treating her.

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James Murdoch criticises father’s news outlets for climate crisis denial

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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Fox cited for ‘frustrating’ coverage of Australian bushfires

Rupert Murdoch’s son has strongly criticised his family’s news outlets for downplaying the impact of the climate crisis, as bushfires continue to burn in Australia.

James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, issued a rare joint statement directly criticising his father’s businesses for their “ongoing denial” on the issue, which has been reflected in the family’s newspapers repeatedly casting doubt on the link between the climate emergency and the bushfires.

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Malta’s new PM has only days to prove himself, says Andrew Caruana Galizia

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Son of murdered journalist says Robert Abela is ‘continuity candidate’ and must break with ‘corrupt legacy’

Malta’s new prime minister, Robert Abela, has a few days to prove whether he will break with “the corrupt legacy” of the past, a son of the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galiziahas said.

Abela, an outsider who beat the favourite to become leader of Malta’s ruling Labour party on Sunday, will be sworn in as the island’s 14th prime minister on Monday.

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‘No debate, no democracy’: journalists in Nepal fight new threat to press freedom

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Bills introduced by ruling Communist party will bring in heavy fines and the threat of jail to stifle debate, say critics

Jail terms of up to five years could be imposed on people in Nepal who post “offensive” comment on social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram in the latest move by the government to crack down on dissent.

The information technology bill, introduced at the end of December, imposes fines of up to 1.5m rupees (about $13,000) for anyone posting content deemed to promote hate crime or ridicule. It would apply to all social networking sites.

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