ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! is nothing short of a political execution carried out under the banner of corporate cowardice and wrapped in a sudden "gotcha" culture that has sinisterly sprung from the murder of Charlie Kirk. This slap at Kimmel is how censorship takes root. It's when a late-night comic delivers a stinging critique. The "informant society" that is howls, then Donald Trump's censorship flexes its arm, and a network folds.
For a moment, the fatal shooting of conservative activist and influencer Charlie Kirk last week pushed an already divided nation to its brink. Members of Congress screamed at each other on the House floor: Democrats blamed Republicans for fostering gun culture and mass shootings, while Republicans blamed Democrats for branding them "Nazis" and "fascists." MAGA influencers posted calls to rain retribution and vengeance on the left, citing dubious reports that the bullets had been carved with "pro-trans" messages.
In the 1960s it was considered a watershed moment of liberation for women. Now, a new generation is being inundated with messages online that birth control is evil and poison. Across social media feeds, influencers are venting about hormonal contraception. Some are spreading false claims that taking synthetic hormones causes infertility, or can even be responsible for bad romantic decisions because you are attracted to different men than you would be if you were off the pill.
However, Channel 4 is dedicating its Wednesday night schedule to unpicking what it describes as the falsehoods expressed by Trump since taking office in a broadcast that insiders said would last several hours. Trump v The Truth, starting at 10pm, is expected to cover everything from the president's false boast that his administration had stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas, to his debunked claim to have sent Ukraine more than $300bn (220bn) in wartime aid.
No, Google Search Console did not add an AI Overviews filter to the Search Performance report. There was a ton of buzz this morning that Google added the ability to filter out AI Overview data in Search Console, but it was a fake and not a real screenshot. As you know, Google lumps AI Mode and AI Overview data with web data in Search Console and has no plans to be transparent about how well or poorly AI search features perform for site owners.
In mid-February, on the day that the Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine activist who had served as the communications director of Kennedy's Presidential campaign, hosted an event at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C. Bigtree was now the C.E.O. of the advocacy group MAHA Action, and the National Press Club event, where members of the media gathered in a modest room with a small stage, was a celebration of sorts.
The reality is, that as someone who receives an inordinate amount of death threats and I know the kind of death threats Charlie was getting and you can break down the death threats and where they are coming from. Shapiro continued, If we are not politically correct, then we understand if there's a shooting at a synagogue, it's very likely to be either a white supremacist or a radical Muslim. If it's the shooting of a Republican politician, then it's very likely to be a trans, ANTIFA, Marxist shooting.
Some of the most urgent films at this year's Toronto International Film Festival aren't here to soothe. Together, Orwell: 2+2=5, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, and Frankenstein play like sizzle reels of caution, and at their best, they're award-worthy symbols of alarm. These films, the first two of which are documentaries, don't just entertain-they confront fractured humanity, closeness and distance under Israel's siege of Gaza, and a creation we've set loose, growing beyond our control.
Arguably the most remarkable aspect of the aftermath of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk's assassination is how irrelevant its actual perpetrator was to the immediate discourse. I saw the finger-pointing online even before I saw the news that Kirk had been shot. At that point, there was hardly any information about the incident-let alone details about the shooter or a motive.
Almost immediately, numerous right-wing commentators and news outlets were very willing to speculate that, given the timing, the shooter must have been trans. Within the hour, former congressman and Fox commentator Jason Chaffetz, giving an "eyewitness account" of the scene, said: "I don't think it was a coincidence that the shot rang out when you have a question about transgender mass shootings. Hopefully I am wrong. I will probably get criticized for jumping to conclusions. ... I don't think that is a coincidence, but we will see."
Utah Governor's Office via AP The viral claim that Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, donated to President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign has been proven false. It was announced this morning that 22-year-old Robinson was in custody, 33 hours after allegedly firing the bullet that killed Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University.
The high-contrast footage was scrutinized for evidence that it had been manipulated by artificial intelligence, and some viewers claimed they found undeniable proof. At one point in the clip, Trump's left pinky finger appears to merge with the others as he clasps his hands on the desk. Conspiracy theorists have seized on this, arguing it showed the president as proof that Trump didn't make the statement at all, or that it was highly doctored.
In the mid-2010s, loosely organized online movements began spilling into the real world, catching popular culture off guard and leaving many journalists flat-footed in unfamiliar internet territory. You know their names. Pizzagate. QAnon. And the most consequential of all, MAGA: a mainstream political movement fueled in part by a fervent online contingent. But before all that came Gamergate, the proving ground where the tactics were tested.
Ben Bergquam, the rightwing internet personality, was with agents, filming and making content as well as getting into altercations with local residents along the way, according to a video the Guardian viewed on X. In the video, he appears to be in the car with Ice agents and nearby as they arrest people; later on he yells at a group of Chicagoans who are gathered to prevent Ice operations that they are the enemy within.
Vernon: No, it's not real. Rogan: Yes, it's real. Vernon: No, it's not. Rogan: Yes, it is. Vernon: It's AI-generated. Rogan: No, no, no. It's real. Vernon: No, look, I can tell it's not real. Rogan: I love it. It's real. It's gotta be real. It has to be real. Dillon: Jamie's compromised. Rogan: Look at him dancing. That is so real, Jamie. Rogan insisted, He slaps his ass. Definitely him. This is 100% real, Jamie.
Engagement is the highest priority of chatbot programming, intended to seduce users into spending maximum time on screens. This makes chatbots great companions-they are available 24/7, always agreeable, understanding, and empathic, while never judgmental, confronting, or reality testing. But chatbots can also become unwitting collaborators, harmfully validating self-destructive eating patterns and body image distortions of patients with eating disorders. Engagement and validation are wonderful therapeutic tools for some problems, but too often are dangerous accelerants for eating disorders.
ADI IGNATIUS: I'm Adi Ignatius. ALISON BEARD: I'm Alison Beard, and this is the HBR IdeaCast. ADI IGNATIUS: All right, so, Alison, did you know there is a social media report that says the lead article in last month's Harvard Business Review is actually a coded prophesy for the end of the world, and this thing is going crazy viral? ALISON BEARD: Wow, that is highly alarming; I didn't know that. ADI IGNATIUS: Well, because it of course didn't happen. ALISON BEARD: [Laughing] ADI IGNATIUS: And that's really the topic of this week's IdeaCast: fake news and how companies can respond to it.
"Survival mode" has become one of those wellness buzzwords-but most people using it have no idea what it really means. In my role as a trauma therapist, I've observed an increasing number of clients who come in believing they're in a state of survival. The source of their thinking? Not medical professionals, but AI chatbots, social media posts, and well-meaning influencers who misunderstand the term.
After I told him I worked for the local congressman, Austin Murphy, he called me "Austin's boy," and that earned me a few freebies of his famously potent drinks. His "frog" voice was legendary, and it came, I assume, from cigarettes, and while it may have been rough around the edges, it was attached to a benevolent, gregarious man. Froggy died way too young, at 62, of emphysema.
Republicans are still pissed that the FDA approved telemedicine prescriptions of the drug in April 2021, following the height of the covid pandemic, and also that, in 2016, the agency approved the pill for use for up to 10 weeks. In 2023, mifepristone comprised nearly two-thirds of all abortions, which the GOP is also obviously pissed about. Project 2025 specifically says that one of its goals is to reverse the FDA's approval of the pill.
But it excels at something far more powerful, and potentially sinister-editing existing images to add elements that were never there, in a way that's so seamless and convincing that even experts like myself can't detect the changes. That makes Nano Banana (and its inevitable copycats) both invaluable creative tools and an existential threat to the trustworthiness of photos-both new and historical.
The one piece of advice I have given all of them is this: "Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!" I give this advice because no one taught it to me; I had to learn it the hard way. When I first started learning public speaking in a Toastmasters club, I was locked to the lectern. I was so nervous that I grasped the sides in a white-knuckle death grip and read my speeches from notes.
Picture this: You ask an AI to show you images of judges, and it depicts only 3 percent as women - even though 34 percent of federal judges are women. Or imagine an AI that's more likely to recommend harsh criminal sentences for people who use expressions rooted in Black vernacular cultures. Now imagine that same AI instructed to ignore climate impacts or treating Russian propaganda as credible information.
