“They’re just trafficking in hate,” Ellis added. After a brief conversation, a producer said to Ellis he is being too hard on himself. “Are you Jesus?” the person who was not named said. “What are you gonna fix everybody? Come on bro. You’re there to tell jokes,” he added. Ellis responded: “I’m not here to fix people, but I’m certainly not here to like further divide the country.”

You have a right to free speech as long as you are saying what conservatives want you to say. Early December might have marked the first time anyone ever asserted a First Amendment right to see the president’s son’s penis, an argument that the Framers likely did not anticipate. In November, the billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter, proclaiming himself a “free speech absolutist,” in defiance of a rather extensive record of retaliating against speech he opposes. A month later, Musk, citing five tweets that had been deleted at the Biden campaign’s request in October 2020, asked, “If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?” The tweets in question included explicit pictures and video of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter—unambiguous violations of the platform’s standards. Nevertheless, the Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson called their deletion a “systemic violation of the First Amendment, the largest example of that in modern history.” There are some problems with this assertion. One is that Twitter is not the government and so is not bound by the First Amendment. Another is that the Biden campaign was not the government and was also not bound by the First Amendment. Still another is that there is no constitutional obligation for private actors to host images of a candidate’s son’s penis, and indeed, rather than a violation of the First Amendment, the choice not to host such images is itself an exercise of free speech.

Making the federal judiciary's online court records system known as PACER free under a pending bill in the U.S. Senate would not add to the federal deficit as initially presumed, but would actually cut it by $14 million over a decade, according to revised estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

The Munns became a national curiosity after five of them were indicted for participating in the insurrection. But the full scope of their malignant behavior is little known—including to the federal prosecutors tasked with investigating their crimes.

Since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, a Reuters investigation has found. Many had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants. Resisters were beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance, witnesses say.

Ortiz told investigators he had been a customer of most of the women, but he also expressed disdain for sex workers, referring to them as "trash" and "so dirty" and insisting he wanted to "clean up the streets."

It’s a personal air filtration system designed for situations when a standing air filtering fan is useless, like a daily commute through a car-clogged city.

Reporters won’t write stories or interview sources. Photojournalists will stay home. And if a spate of unsavory language breaks out in the online comments thread posted below a New York Times story, there might not be anyone on hand to delete it. That’s the expected scenario at the Times on Thursday, after more than 1,100 employees began a day-long work stoppage at midnight in one of the most dramatic labor disputes at the company in decades. Members of the New York Times Guild — the union that covers about 1,400 Times workers, including non-newsroom departments such as advertising and security — have said the walkout is the culmination of months of frustration over contract negotiations on a range of issues, particularly compensation. The previous employee contract expired in March 2021. In a letter to members this week, union organizers wrote that “we cannot get to a deal until the company makes wage and benefit proposals that truly share the company’s gains with its employees.” They accused the company Wednesday evening of failing to “bargain in good faith.”

One in three Black children in Maricopa County, Arizona, faced a child welfare investigation over a five-year period, leaving many families in a state of dread. Some parents are pushing back.

Italy’s new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has inspired a surge of far-right threats and attacks against journalists and critics.

Griner was detained by Russia in February and sentenced to nine years in prison for having vape cartridges with cannabis oil.

For years, the three Roman Catholic dioceses operating parishes in Maryland have successfully lobbied lawmakers to keep sexual abuse survivors from filing lawsuits against the church, a Baltimore Sun review of lobbying records shows.

Cruise ships: not even once.

Supporters of Tusitala “Tiny” Toese put up $85,000 in cash in June to bail the 26-year-old out of detention.

Vanguard Group Inc is pulling out of a major investment-industry initiative on tackling climate change, the world's biggest mutual fund manager said on Wednesday, explaining it wants to demonstrate independence and clarify its views for investors. Top investors including Pennsylvania-based Vanguard, face mounting pressure from Republican U.S. politicians over their use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in picking and managing securities. One focus of criticism has been the effort known as the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, launched in late 2020 to encourage fund firms to reach net zero emission targets by 2050 and limit the rise in global temperatures. As of Nov. 9, NZAM counted 291 signatories representing some $66 trillion in assets under management. The exit from the initiative of Vanguard, which manages about $7 trillion in assets, is a blow to efforts to organize industries to move away from fossil fuels even though the fund manager insisted it "will not affect our commitment to helping our investors navigate the risks that climate change can pose to their long-term returns."

Initial agreements worth $29bn will be signed at a Saudi Arabian-Chinese summit this week, official news agency says. Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Saudi Arabia for a three-day visit that is likely to focus on energy ties as Beijing strives to revive its economy and Riyadh looks to expand its global alliances beyond its partnerships with the West, especially the United States. Xi touched down on Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Chinese and Saudi state media reported. The visit marks only his third trip abroad since the coronavirus pandemic began and his first to Saudi Arabia since 2016.

Peru swore in a new president on Wednesday after a day of political drama that saw leftist leader Pedro Castillo arrested after his ousting from office in an impeachment trial following his last-ditch bid to cling to power by dissolving Congress.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal grand jury indicted Republican Florida state Rep. Joe Harding on six counts after authorities said he illegally obtained $150,000 in pandemic-related small business loans by allegedly using the names of two dormant companies. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday night, alleges that between Dec. 1, 2020, and March 1, 2021, Harding used the dormant companies on applications for loans on the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications, including using false bank statements as supporting documentation. The indictment accuses Harding of using two companies on loan applications: The Vak Shack, which according to its website, sells discounted vacuum sealer bags, and Harding Farms, a 46-acre horse and cattle far facility. Both companies had not been active in Florida from between May 2017 to December 2020.

When the media enable authors to conceal credible allegations against them, it isn’t only individual survivors that they harm.

Unions are fighting to ensure solar workers are skilled tradesmen, not just exploited temps. Gary Bylander has spent the last four years traveling the country in his camper installing solar panels, mostly through the temp staffing agency Aerotek. His last job was in San Antonio, where he worked for $18 an hour at an array owned by Korean subsidiary OCI Solar Power. Every job for a temp agency in solar ends with uncertainty. After the San Antonio gig ended in October, Bylander thought he had talked his way into an upcoming project in Wisconsin. This is typical in solar, where the next temp job could be hundreds of miles away. Still, Bylander’s mind was at ease until, over dinner, his wife felt a sharp pain in her abdomen and grew hot to the touch. “I’ve seen her sick, but I’ve never seen her how she was that day,” he told the Prospect. She was soon bent over from cramps; he raced her to the hospital. As Bylander sat in the waiting room while his wife underwent tests, his phone beeped with a message from his Aerotek recruiter. She was requesting him the following day, a Friday, in Wisconsin, a 26-hour drive away. He couldn’t make it tomorrow, he said, but could be there on Monday. Later that same day, when Bylander tried to log in to the company website, which contains insurance information, he couldn’t access his account. The security questions were changed, he said, with a new question about the name of his firstborn son; he doesn’t have children. Meanwhile, the hospital quoted them $32,000 for emergency gallbladder removal surgery. Bylander was already doubtful that Aerotek insurance would have covered the operation. The apparent lockout from the web interface clinched it: The family couldn’t afford the surgery. They decided to drive across the border to get his wife the surgery in Mexico. The Wisconsin job was in the back of his mind. “I thought, it’ll be fine. I’ll just handle this, and then I’ll talk to my recruiters.” After a two-and-a-half-hour drive from San Antonio, his wife underwent the surgery in Piedras Negras and recovered safely. But when he texted recruiters and his old superintendent, asking them to confirm that he could still start on Monday, he received no response—and he still hasn’t. The only communication he has received from Aerotek since then, he told the Prospect, is an automated message asking how he enjoyed the experience with the company. He was never even issued a termination notice. (Aerotek did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Prospect.)