Game of Thrones author also has a Netflix film on the way, but there is still no word of his finishing the fantasy series that made his name
After the huge success of HBO’s adaptations of his Game of Thrones books, George RR Martin has signed a deal to develop several television series for the network and its streaming arm, HBO Max.
Related: George RR Martin: ‘Game of Thrones finishing is freeing, I’m at my own pace’
Continue reading...The Stranger Things star is still in her teens, but has moved beyond new kid on the block to be a Hollywood power broker
It was clearly a moment designed to perplex. Fans of the hit Netflix show Stranger Things were left speculating at the end of season three as to how and why Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, had suddenly lost her supernatural power to move things around with her mind.
Theories have ricocheted across social media during the long wait for the return of the show. But Brown, an English actress who is only 17, has already made such an impact with her Stranger Things role that this spring the question seems something of a side issue, even among her many devotees.
Continue reading...Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand
Continue reading...Company accuses some of network’s biggest personalities ‘and their chosen guests’ of spreading ‘defamatory falsehoods’
The North American voting machine company Dominion has hit Fox News with a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit, accusing the network of spreading election fraud lies in a misguided effort to stop an exodus of enraged viewers after Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The complaint accuses some of Fox’s biggest personalities Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro “and their chosen guests” of spreading “defamatory falsehoods” about Dominion.
Continue reading...Schoolgirl’s fake cosmetics site helps hundreds of women as domestic violence rises during Covid
In April 2020, weeks after Poland went into its first Covid-19 lockdown, Krysia Paszko, a 17-year-old high school pupil, watched a TV report about Europe’s surge in domestic violence cases, which had increased by up to 60% on 2019, according to the World Health Organization. Poland’s largest women’s rights centre, Centrum Praw Kobiet (CPK), had reported a 50% increase in calls to its domestic violence hotline in March.
Learning from the report that France had implemented a scheme in pharmacies that women could use to report domestic violence using the codewords “Mask 19”, Paszko had an idea. With help from a graphic designer friend, she created a Facebook page for a fictitious cosmetics company.
Continue reading...Blogger argued he had ‘merely shared’ an article without changing content or adding comments
The Singapore high court has ordered a blogger to pay S$133,000 (US$98,825) in damages in a defamation case to the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
Lee sued Leong Sze Hian, a financial adviser, after he shared on Facebook an online news article .
Continue reading...Exclusive: public figures considered to be permissible targets for otherwise-banned abuse, leaked moderator guidelines show
Facebook’s bullying and harassment policy explicitly allows for “public figures” to be targeted in ways otherwise banned on the site, including “calls for [their] death”, according to a tranche of internal moderator guidelines leaked to the Guardian.
Public figures are defined by Facebook to include people whose claim to fame may be simply a large social media following or infrequent coverage in local newspapers.
Continue reading...Christian Porter is suing the ABC for defamation over an article reporting that an anonymous senior cabinet minister had been accused of rape in 1988. Porter later identified himself as the minister in question and strenuously denied the allegation. Paul Karp explores how this case could play out, and whether Porter can continue to do his job while fighting to clear his name
The crisis support and suicide prevention service Lifeline can contacted on 13 11 14. Support for sexual assault is available at 1800RESPECT.
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Donald Trump will soon use “his own platform” to return to social media, an adviser said on Sunday, months after the former president was banned from Twitter for inciting the US Capitol riot.
Related: 'His new business': Trump seeks personal political brand as he grips Republican base
Continue reading...A new account of life at the fashion bible claims that female staff have been undermined and humiliated for decades. The author reveals why she wrote it
As a fashion-obsessed teenager, I dreamed of working for Vogue. What girl didn’t? This was in the 2000s, and smartphones weren’t everywhere yet, so we’d leaf through the latest copy hungrily at the back of the class. I loved the pictures, the clothes, even the adverts. But most of all I loved the masthead and the index. Who were these glamorous humans with lovely-sounding names and exotic job titles?
Mostly, of course, they were women. That’s the thing about a place like Vogue. It’s a huge global corporation with a lot of soft power, yet unlike most such companies, it has always had women at the top. But not right at the top.
Continue reading...As the popular BBC drama returns, a former crime reporter takes a look at the reality of fighting police corruption
Last week, an officer from South Wales police received formal notification that they were under investigation regarding their dealings with a man who had been arrested and held overnight in a cell in Cardiff.
The suspect had been released from custody the following morning then found dead shortly afterwards. The investigation is to focus on whether the level of force used by the officer was “necessary, proportionate and reasonable” in the circumstances.
Continue reading...The creator of the rapidly growing ‘Sabmyk Network’ is said to be a Berlin art dealer with a record of media manipulation
The mysterious individual behind a new and rapidly growing online disinformation network targeting followers of QAnon, the far-right cult, can be revealed as a Berlin-based artist with a history of social media manipulation, a prominent anti-racism group claims.
Since Donald Trump left the White House, QAnon’s vast online community has been in a state of flux as it comes to terms with the reality that its conspiracy theories – such as the former US president being destined to defeat a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles – amount to nothing.
Continue reading...Dan Hanks claims he compiled 90-page report about actor early in her relationship with Prince Harry
A private investigator employed by the Sun has said he illegally accessed the Duchess of Sussex’s private information shortly after she met Prince Harry.
Dan Hanks, who lives in Los Angeles, told the website Byline Investigates that he compiled a 90-page report on the future member of the royal family in October 2016, shortly after the tabloid newspaper first became aware of her relationship with the prince.
Continue reading...Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was scoffed at for suggesting there ‘aren’t any bands any more’ – but if you look at the numbers, he’s right. Wolf Alice, Maximo Park and industry insiders ask why
“The moment that we started a band was the best thing that ever happened,” sings Matty Healy on the 1975’s recent single Guys. The song is an ardent love letter to the band, and to the romance of bands in general: the camaraderie, the solidarity, the joyous fusion of creativity and friendship. It’s an old sentiment but an increasingly rare one.
“It’s funny, when the first Maroon 5 album came out [in 2002] there were still other bands,” the band’s frontman Adam Levine told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this month. “I feel like there aren’t any bands any more … I feel like they’re a dying breed.” Levine was quick to clarify that he meant bands “in the pop limelight” but the internet doesn’t really do clarification, so his remarks sparked bemusement and outrage among the literal-minded, from aggrieved veterans such as Garbage (“What are we Adam Levine? CATS?!?!?”) to fans of newcomers such as Fontaines DC and Big Thief.
Continue reading...Ban on Khodorkovsky-founded outlet follows Kremlin threat to block entire social network
Russia’s media watchdog has told Twitter to delete the account of an opposition news outlet following threats from Moscow to block the social network entirely if it did not remove “banned content” within a month.
The moves are part of a wider crackdown on social media and the opposition after protests supporting the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, which were organised via online platforms.
Continue reading...Studies have pointed to a gender gap and dating coaches agree – but researchers’ findings don’t always match stereotypes
It’s 2021, and despite some great advances in space exploration, we are no closer to really knowing whether men are from Mars and women are from Venus. In fact, the growing consensus is that we’re all from Earth, and people are more complex than we usually give them credit for.
But what if there were a way of unlocking some of the hidden trends that exist among men and women, which reveal how they think, see themselves and communicate? And what if it were ... emojis?
Continue reading...No 10 intends the studio, hosted by Allegra Stratton, to be focal point of new media strategy
After £2.6m and a seven-month wait, the curtains have finally opened on a studio based inside Downing Street where the prime minister’s press secretary will address the nation in new White House-style TV briefings.
The first glimpses of the room revealed by ITV showed the podium that Allegra Stratton, a former BBC and Guardian journalist who also worked as communications director for the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will stand behind as she fields questions from journalists.
Continue reading...Ex-editor of Guardian steps down after former columnist said he had supported IRA use of violence during the Troubles
Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian, has stepped down from a commission on Ireland’s media industry following controversy over his employment of a columnist who it has emerged supported the IRA.
Roy Greenslade, a former senior editor at the Sunday Times, the Sun and the Daily Mirror, recently revealed that he had supported the IRA’s use of violence during the Troubles and had concealed that fact to protect his employment.
Continue reading...Ulta Beauty ‘paused’ advertising campaign with the magazine because of Alexi McCammond’s tweets
Controversy around the new Teen Vogue editor in chief Alexi McCammond continues after she apologized for tweeting anti-Asian remarks in 2011.
McCammond apologised for the tweets in 2019 and again this week, calling them “offensive, idiotic” posts. On Thursday she posted a new statement to Twitter in which she said: “I’ve dedicated my career to giving a voice to the voiceless, and the last thing I’d ever want is to make anyone – especially our Asian brothers and sisters in particular – feel more invisible,” she wrote. “And I know that that is a unique source of pain in all of this, too: That historically the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community has been left out or ignored in critical conversations around race, racism, justice and equality. I am determined to play a part in changing that.”
Continue reading...The broadcaster, who was the voice of Formula One on British television, has died aged 97. His career spanned more than 50 years at the BBC and ITV before he retired from commentating in 2001
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