TikTok’s algorithm is pushing out extremist and violent content to 13-year-olds

TikTok’s algorithm is flooding teens with extremist content, including videos explicitly promoting suicide and violence, according to new research by corporate accountability group Ekō.

Even low-level engagement with harmful content for 10 minutes can lead to accounts encountering videos that promote suicide and violence, the report found. Oftentimes such content can influence users to take action, which can result in real-world violence.

Ekō set up nine different accounts listing the ages as 13 years old, which is the youngest age users can join the platform. After engaging with videos either promoting or suggesting suicide, the accounts’ For You Pages surfaced videos of guns being loaded and text suggesting suicide.

“Toxic algorithms force users down a deadly spiral and keep them there by feeding them harmful content,” said Ekō campaigner Maen Hammad. “This is especially concerning when we think about kids, who require important safeguards while navigating an online life. Even more alarming is how easy it is for kids to fall into this spiral.”

Hashtags that held suicide content readily available for children on the platform amassed over 1.43 million posts and 8.8 billion views, their research found.

The real social media crisis: Teen mental health, not Hunter Biden’s laptop

Even though much of the content that’s being pushed out to teenagers breaches TikTok’s own community guidelines, little has been done to limit it from spreading.

The platform does not allow users from sharing content depicting suicide, involving suicidal ideation or behavior and it also prevents the spread of hateful ideologies that praise, promote, glorify, or support misogyny, according to TikTok’s community guidelines.

And yet, this type of content continues to circulate on TikTok, where two-thirds of American teenagers congregate.

“The experiment this report is based on does not reflect genuine behaviour that we see on TikTok,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Salon in response to the Ekō report. “The safety of our community is a top priority, and we work hard to prevent the surfacing of harmful content on our platform by removing violations, publishing regular transparency reports, adding permanent public service announcements on certain hashtags, and surfacing helpful resources with guidance from experts. We also balance these efforts by supporting people who come to TikTok to share their personal experiences in a safe way, raise awareness and find community support.”

“We have to stop treating some of this content like it’s free speech,” said Jill Garvey, chief of staff at Western States Center. “They should be following their own guidelines for removing harmful content and they should be putting up those guardrails so that people who are so young and vulnerable can’t access that.”

Ekō’s researchers identified a network of harmful suicide, incel and drug content being easily accessible to a 13-year-old account, some of which can be found in as little as three clicks.

“We know that when people are exposed to this content online, younger folks are more likely to translate that to some sort of real-life harm,” Garvey said.

In several instances, extremist or violent content spreads quickly on social media platforms, gaining thousands of views before it is taken down.

More than 25 videos and accounts were taken down from the platform after Ekō flagged them for breaking the community guidelines, Hammad said. Some of these videos had been up for months and amassed millions of views, “highlighting real failures to protect TikTok’s users.”

Since automated content moderation is challenging for platforms to incorporate, much of the moderation relies on human moderators, whose time and bandwidth can be limited, pointed out Gianluca Stringhini, a professor at Boston University who studies cybersecurity and online safety.

“Recommendation algorithms are designed to maximize the time that users will spend on the platform and their engagement, and unfortunately that type of content fits the bill,” Stringhini said.

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Even as platforms are doing their best to remove and demote content that does not comply with their terms of service, some of the most dangerous types of content are still spreading online.

TikTok is filled with content related to the incel and “manosphere” communities that are easily accessible for a 13-year-old account, Ekō found.

Incels, or “involuntary celibates,” are an online community comprised of men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic and sexual success. A subset of the online misogynist manosphere, incels believe that women have too much power and ruin their lives by rejecting them.

“Incels are the most violent sector of the manosphere, and have perpetrated a range of deadly attacks against women,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Ekō found that TikTok was full of videos celebrating individuals popular in these communities, like Elliott Rodgers, who killed six people in a stabbing and shooting spree in Isla Vista, California, in May 2014, and Andrew Tate, a retired kickboxer and online influencer who was arrested on allegations of human trafficking, rape and organized crime.

“There’s a whole economy built up around this,” said one researcher who spoke with Salon on background. “There are a lot of influencers who have just kind of made their bones by speaking to male resentment.”

This became especially damaging during the coronavirus pandemic when younger users lacked access to social interaction, the researcher pointed out.

“There is this kind of an opportunity for those incel manosphere influencers to tap into, to young boys especially because [younger users] are not hearing any kind of counter-arguments from people in their spheres,” the researcher said. “They’re seeing what they see online and it’s very easy to find more of it.”

TikTok offers an ecosystem of dark and depressing content around themes of death, toxic relationships, sexual abuse, mental health, and misogyny, Hammad said.

The platform’s algorithm provided “highly misogynistic” content that amplified hateful messages and rhetoric suggesting “women are evil” and that “modern women are cowards,” Ekō found.

“What our research has shown is that the platform’s algorithm does not differentiate between a cute cat video or a video offering at-home suicide concoctions,” Hammad said. “So if a young user has even minimal engagement with a potentially harmful video, the algorithm will be triggered to serve up more of this content – no matter how dangerous it is.”

By introducing some of these extremist ideas slowly, like suggesting women have more power than men in society, influencers like Tate are able to push users down the rabbit hole toward content that promotes violence.

Ekō found a network of videos that targeted young boys with highly misogynistic and oftentimes violent content. While other platforms like Reddit have recognized the toxicity of the incel movement and banned it from the platform, incel content is still widespread on TikTok.

But this is not a TikTok problem, it is a Big Tech problem, Hammad argued. He added that banning the app won’t change anything, but comprehensive legislation to hold all platforms including Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook accountable would.

As remedies, state lawmakers should pass the multiple Age Appropriate Design Code Bills to keep young people safe, Hammad suggested. He added that Congress also pass comprehensive laws to rein in Big Tech using the European Union’s Digital Services Act as a blueprint.

about TikTok

GOP is seeking rich, self-funding candidates as party is outraised by Democrats

As the Republican Party veers further into fascism, the party is facing an election fundraising problem: Democrats in competitive Senate races are consistently outraising Republican candidates, and the party has lost control of the chamber.

The party’s solution? Turning to ultra-rich candidates who can afford to fund their own campaigns, according to new reporting from Politico, after the party has spent years slashing taxes for those same ultra-rich individuals.

As Politico’s Ally Mutnick reported this week, Republicans are considering running at least 10 extremely wealthy candidates across over a half dozen swing states, including places like Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate candidate fundraising arm, is reportedly emphasizing recruiting self-funded candidates or looking for candidates who are talented at fundraising.

Because candidates are allowed to contribute unlimited amounts of money to their own campaigns, running wealthy candidates is a way to get around campaign contribution limits that otherwise restrict — albeit somewhat ineffectively — the amount of money that rich donors can contribute directly to campaigns.

Both major parties have made use of self-funding candidates before; Donald Trump is a famous example of someone who self-funded their candidacy. But the tactic “has taken on increasing importance” with Republicans having been outraised by Democrats in Senate races in the last two election cycles, Mutnick wrote.

“In politics as in life, money doesn’t buy happiness, but poverty doesn’t buy a damn thing,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., told Politico. “So if you’ve got a candidate who can self fund, you can spend your money elsewhere.” He added, “Democrats are always going to outraise us.”

Potential candidates include people like Eric Hovde, the CEO of a real estate company and a $1.4 billion bank holding company, in Wisconsin; West Virginia’s richest man, Gov. Jim Justice, a coal baron; David McCormick, the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, in Pennsylvania; and former owner of a string of car dealerships in Michigan, Kevin Rinke.

Several of these potential candidates have run and lost previous bids for various offices after injecting millions of their own funds into those runs. Some of them have been courted by the NRSC to run because of their wealth.

These ultra-wealthy Republicans have held varying views in terms of their actual politics, agreeing generally on their contempt for the poor, but slightly disagreeing about Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, for instance. What these candidates have in common is their wealth: wealth that has been majorly bolstered by Republican efforts to slash taxes for the ultra-rich in the past years.

Republicans and conservative Democrats have spent decades skewing the tax code in favor of the rich. The most blatant recent example of this was the party’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a Donald Trump-era bill overhauling the tax code to give yet more massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy that the GOP is now trying to make permanent.

These efforts appear to now be perpetuating a cycle that not only allows the rich to have more influence on elections than ever before — largely benefiting Republicans — but also allows them to run for office based on their wealth, taking even more influence out of the hands of the public and further empowering the wealthy.

In other words, if Citizens United is allowing the rich to have huge influence over elections, tax cuts for the wealthy and the continued funneling of money from the working class to the richest Americans are allowing the rich to completely control some campaigns and elections. An increased reliance on self-funded candidates could even further entrench the growing grip of the ultra-rich on elections.

Cozy ricotta gnudi is a restaurant-worthy dish that only looks complicated

Easily one of the best days of my 2020 — a year with very few best days to speak of — was the one in which I spent a relaxed afternoon playing Nino Rota, drinking red wine and making homemade pasta with the KitchenAid attachment I’d splurged on impulsively.

It was one of the most relaxed, meditative experiences of my culinary life, and the fresh fettuccini I produced was extraordinary. “I’m going to make this a regular thing,” I told myself. And if by “regular thing,” I meant two more times in three years, I absolutely succeeded.

Look, pasta is fun, but pasta is work. You need to block out time for making the dough, resting it, cutting it and drying it. You need to buy a piece of equipment you will maybe never actually use and then feel guilty about. And you may, as I found with my first few turns through the crank, find yourself with an unyielding dough that doesn’t want to be turned into noodles. No wonder the process seems so intimidating; it kind of is, actually.

This crispy, buttery sun-dried tomato and rosemary gnocchi is the perfect fall dinner

So, before spending money on a pasta roller and blocking out a Chianti-lubricated afternoon for dough preparation, why not ease into the experience with a much less complicated, pasta-adjacent project? Let me make the case here for gnudi.

Gnudi is gnocchi’s even simpler cousin. Made with flour and ricotta and little else, these doughy pillows are simultaneously delicate and substantial. They are also beautifully achievable, with no special ingredients or fancy techniques required. The only tricky part is figuring out how to choose your own gnudi adventure.

There are a lot of recipes for the dish out there, and they all seem to disagree about the type of flour you should use — semolina, cake flour, all-purpose — as well as the perfect amount. Some recipes require up to three eggs; some use none at all.

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After spending far more time researching gnudi than I had any intention of spending actually making it, I decided to stride down the middle and pretty much wing it. I cobbled together a gnudi that seemed to me the most streamlined for a weeknight dinner or an understocked pantry. The end result? Supremely delicious, little ricotta nuggets that I then finished in a simple sauce of brown butter.

Sure, it was a little more labor intensive than boiling a box of dried pasta, but it was still easy enough to put a really special meal on the table in well under an hour. “I need to make this a regular thing,” I told my family as we tucked in one still chilly early spring evening. And this time, I think I meant it.

* * *

Inspired by D elish and S avoring the Good

Hearty Ricotta Gnudi

Yields

4-6 servings

Prep Time

10 minutes, plus chill time

Cook Time

15 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup AP flour, plus more for dusting
1 15-ounce container full-fat ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

On a sheet pan lined with a few layers of paper towels, spoon out the ricotta. Top with more paper towels and blot out the excess moisture.
Add the ricotta to a large bowl, then stir in the flour, cheese, egg and salt and pepper.
Wipe off the sheet pan and line it with parchment. Sprinkle a little more flour on it to keep the gnudi from sticking.
There are many ways to shape your gnudi, including rolling it into a log and cutting off pieces, or piping it through a pastry bag. I say just use a spoon to scoop out evenly sized pieces, then roll them into balls. (I made mine tablespoon-sized.)
Once you have rolled out all the gnudi, sprinkle the tray with more flour.
Place the tray in the refrigerator to chill for about 20 minutes (or longer if you want to prepare ahead). While the gnudi is chilling, set a large pot of water to boil.
Lay out a clean kitchen towel or a pan with a few paper towels. Using a kitchen spider or similar, lower the gnudi into the water one or two at a time. As they bob to the top of the water, remove them to the towel to drain.
In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the butter until just browned and nutty smelling. Add the gnudi and gently pan fry until just golden. Serve with chopped herbs and more grated cheese, if you like.

Cook’s Notes

Don’t feel like making brown butter? Skip the pan frying. Simply drain the gnudi and stir through with your favorite pesto.

easy pasta dishes

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The 6 most shocking revelations from Netflix’s latest docuseries “Waco: American Apocalypse”

Between February 28 and April 19, 1993, the largest — and most infamous — massacre took place on American soil leading to the death of 86 people. The 51-day standoff, known as the Waco siege, became the most brutal news story of the year, as law enforcement, members of a religious cult and their supreme leader fought to a bitter end.

In 1993, the United States government served a search warrant for machine guns against cult leader David Koresh, who led the apocalyptic religious movement called the Branch Davidians. Koresh preached a brand of apocalyptic prophecy — which included interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the Seven Seals — and convinced his followers they would soon be under attack by the federal government.

“The big lie”: 30 years later, right-wing extremists are still fueled by Waco siege

Under the helm of Koresh, the Branch Davidians illegally stockpiled guns and ammunition, which led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to launch a raid on the group’s Mount Carmel compound located 20 miles outside of Waco, Texas. What was anticipated to be a single day affair became an almost two-month-long siege filled with violence, rage and death.

Now, almost 30 years later, Netflix is revisiting the horrific events in its latest true crime installation “Waco: American Apocalypse.” The three-part series attempts to recreate the bitter siege and underscore its lasting impact through interviews with law enforcement, surviving Branch Davidian members and the journalists who were at the scene.

From Koresh’s child sexual abuse allegations to his cult’s unabashed devotion, here are six shocking revelations from the series:

The Branch Davidian’s ruthless preparation for a near “apocalypse”

Lee Hancock from “Waco: American Apocalypse” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

In addition to convincing his ardent followers that he was the Messiah, Koresh persuaded them to follow him into a fiery ending to the world.

“The government’s gonna roll up in tanks, and it’s going to be this big shootout, and a big fiery ending,” explained Lee Hancock, a veteran investigative journalist and former enterprise reporter for The Dallas Morning News. “He and all of his followers are going to go up in flames and be translated instantly, and then come back with him leading God’s avenging army.”

To prepare for impending doom, Koresh and the Branch Davidians amassed “enough armaments out at Mount Carmel to outfit a small army.” They violated several federal gun laws. They converted semi-automatic assault rifles to automatics. They made live grenades and were in possession of approximately 40 to 50 machine guns and about 100 hand grenades.

On February 28, 1993, law enforcement sieged Mount Carmel Center ranch, the compound that belonged to Koresh and his religious cult. Prior to the siege, the U.S. government served a search warrant for machine guns against Koresh.

Koresh’s violent takeover of the Branch Davidians

David Koresh from “Waco: American Apocalypse” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Koresh was born to Bonnie Haldeman, a teen mother, and Bobby Wayne Howell. As a child, Koresh was sexually abused, which led him to drop out of middle school and seek “people who could help open the Bible up,” said Hancock. It was through a friend that Koresh joined the Branch Davidians, a religious group that had been in Waco since the ’30s.

While at Mount Carmel, Koresh allegedly seduced the group’s leader, Lois Roden, who was 50 years his senior. When Roden passed away, a battle ensued between Roden’s son, George, and Koresh for the group leadership. Koresh was subsequently charged with attempted murder after he and a group of his followers got into a gunfight with George inside the compound.

“A jury actually hung on whether to convict, and so there was no retrial,” Hancock explained. Koresh then took over the Branch Davidians.

Koresh’s marriage to his 14-year-old wife Rachel Jones

David Koresh from “Waco: American Apocalypse” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

In the late ’80s, Koresh introduced his teaching called the “New Light,” which allowed him to dissolve the marriages of all his followers and claim multiple wives as his own. Koresh’s first wife was 14-year-old Rachel Jones, who was the teenage daughter of a longtime Branch Davidian.

It’s also believed that Koresh had sex with children, some as young as 10 years old. Girls between the ages of 10 to 13 would enthusiastically talk about being one of Koresh’s wives in the future.

“People think that a man having sex with a bunch of under aged girls is a crime,” said Kathy Schroeder, a Branch Davidian. “And in conventional wisdom, that could be very well true. However, these weren’t underaged girls, because you come of age at 12. So, all these girls were adults…in our belief system.”

Koresh’s fake promise to end the standoff

Bob Ricks from “Waco: American Apocalypse” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Forty-six days after the initial siege, Koresh said he and the remaining Branch Davidians would finally surrender after Koresh finished writing his religious manuscript. This wasn’t the first time Koresh had made such a promise. But despite their doubts, many law enforcement officials were hopeful that the standoff would finally come to an end this time.

When Koresh failed to make his promise, law enforcement planned their next moves in the siege. The FBI also reached out to Janet Wood Reno, who had just been sworn in as attorney general, to get permission to use tear gas.

“I don’t believe it’s true that anybody manipulated Janet Reno into making a decision,” asserted Bob Ricks, the former Special Agent in Charge of the Oklahoma City FBI. “I think she was given the facts about David Koresh, what he had done in the past, and this was abhorrent to her, that a grown man would have been having sex with underage children.”

The FBI’s merciless assault of Mount Carmel Center

Waco: American Apocalypse (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

On April 19, 1993, law enforcement took extreme measures to infiltrate Mount Carmel Center. They placed tear gas in the building and issued a command for Koresh and the surviving Branch Davidians inside the compound to surrender. Tanks also rammed into the building before shots were fired from inside.

In a shocking turn of events, the building caught on fire, causing a few people to jump out from the windows and off the roof. It’s still unclear who started the fire — the FBI asserted it was the Branch Davidians, per video evidence, but the latter claimed otherwise.

“All of a sudden, a rifle round goes right between our heads,” recounted Chris Whitcomb, a former member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team. “Somebody in that building, as it was burning to the ground, fully engulfed in flames, stayed behind a sniper rifle to the bitter end, and their last act on Earth was to try to shoot me in the head. That’s commitment.”

Only nine members of the cult survived the 51-day-long siege. Heather Jones was the last child to come out of Mount Carmel alive. In total, four federal agents and 82 Branch Davidians, including 28 children, died in Waco.

The Branch Davidian’s extreme devotion to Koresh

Jim Cavanaugh from “Waco: American Apocalypse” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“We tried everything, but we could not overcome the hold he had on their minds,” Jim Cavanaugh, an ATF special agent, said of Koresh’s influence on his followers. “You could not convince them to come out, because that would be repudiation of the person they believed was…God.”

On the final day of the siege, Koresh died from a gunshot wound as Mount Carmel went up in flames.

“I think of Waco everyday. Every day for 30 years,” said ATF special agent Bill Buford. “For Koresh, you’re the most worthless individual on this Earth, or you were, that you would do that to people. And I hope you’re rotting in hell, burning in hell. ‘Cause that’s what you deserve.”

“Waco: American Apocalypse” is currently available for streaming on Netflix. Watch a trailer for it below, via YouTube:

about Netflix:

“Never seen anything like this”: U.S. librarians report book bans hit record high in 2022

Librarians from across the United States released a report showing that pro-censorship groups’ efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and stories about people of color have driven an unprecedented rise in the number of book challenges, with right-wing organizers pushing library workers to remove works ranging from the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale to children’s books about foods enjoyed in different cultures.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), a record-breaking 2,571 unique titles were challenged in 2022, a 38% increase from the previous year.

The organization recorded 1,269 demands to censor books from various groups and individuals, compared to 729 challenges counted in 2021.

“Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. “The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police.”

Book challenges nearly DOUBLED in 2022: https://t.co/VOmx2pF5ak. Take action. Join the #UniteAgainstBookBans campaign and find tools to fight for the freedom to read at https://t.co/4QvE5QMdr5. pic.twitter.com/faDEY87VMZ

— Unite Against Book Bans (@UABookBans) March 23, 2023

The Office for Intellectual Freedom said that starting in 2021, a rising number of challenges began targeting large numbers of titles, suggesting they were coordinated efforts from national groups like Moms for Liberty. Previously, the vast majority of book challenges were focused on a single book to which a parent or group of parents objected.

In 2022, 90% of the books challenged were part of attempts to censor multiple titles, the ALA reported.

“A book challenge is a demand to remove a book from a library’s collection so that no one else can read it. Overwhelmingly, we’re seeing these challenges come from organized censorship groups that target local library board meetings to demand removal of a long list of books they share on social media,” said Caldwell-Stone. “Their aim is to suppress the voices of those traditionally excluded from our nation’s conversations, such as people in the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color.”

In Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has led a nationwide effort by conservatives to keep public school students from learning accurate American history and discussing issues regarding the LGBTQ+ community, one county removed from school library shelves 176 books which have been held in storage since January 2022. The books include the children’s books Hush! A Thai Lullaby, featuring a Thai mother and child, and Dim Sum for Everyone!, about a family eating in a Chinese restaurant.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Caldwell-Stone told the Associated Press. “The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage-inducing.”

People for the American Way called the association’s data, collected from media reports and library professionals across the country, “shocking but not surprising.”

“The far right wants to turn back the clock on the freedom to read, teach, and learn,” said the group. “We won’t stand for it.”

The ALA report comes four months after voters in at least two U.S. towns voted to cut or eliminate funding for their public libraries in the wake of campaigns to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes.

People in Jamestown Township, Michigan voted for a second time against a millage to fund 84% of their library’s budget, dooming the facility to a likely closure in 2024. The vote followed a push by a local conservative group to remove the book Gender Queer: A Memoir.

Craighead County Jonesboro Library in Arkansas lost 50% of its funding after “librarians and library workers were labeled pornographers and pedophiles because of the books on their shelves” that dealt with LGBTQ+ themes, as EveryLibrary Institute executive director John Chrastka toldPublishers Weekly in November.

A poll commissioned by the EveryLibrary Institute last year found that 75% of respondents were opposed to efforts to ban books, and across 16 states last fall, a majority of initiatives to pull funding from libraries failed.

“While a vocal minority stokes the flames of controversy around books, the vast majority of people across the nation are using life-changing services that public and school libraries offer,” said ALA President Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada on Thursday. “Our nation cannot afford to lose the library workers who lift up their communities and safeguard our First Amendment freedom to read.”

Republican who rails against student loan “bailout” got $1.5M of loans forgiven

On Thursday, Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, who has declared personal bankruptcy five times and had $1.5 million of his debt discharged, held a hearing aimed at attacking President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan to forgive up to $20,000 of debt for borrowers.

In the hearing by the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, Owens railed against the concept of student debt forgiveness, saying that it was unfair for those who pursued higher education to seek forgiveness and place the burden of their loans on the public — an argument that debt forgiveness activists have long disputed.

“Many people in this room probably have student loans. However, the blanket bailout that turns loans into target grants and saddles future generations with someone else’s debt is not a solution,” Owens said in his opening statement.

He railed against individuals for taking on loans that created “short-sighted, self-centered and intergenerational debt,” and complained that the education that borrowers received is “low quality,” perpetuating a thread of right-wingers attacking higher education for spurious reasons while disregarding the fact that the vast majority of jobs now require a college degree.

However, debt activists are pointing out that Owens is a raging hypocrite. During his first campaign for office in 2020, it was revealed that Owens filed for personal bankruptcy five times between the 1990s and 2000s. Records show he filed twice under Chapter 7 and three times under Chapter 13.

Under Chapter 13, a debtor creates a plan to repay debts between three to five years, after which point some debtors get their remaining debts discharged. Creditors then can’t come after the bankruptcy filer — unlike for student debtors, who are ruthlessly hounded by creditors even when it would be nearly impossible to pay off the debt in full.

Under Chapter 7, debtors don’t create a plan to repay debts but rather have non-necessary assets sold to pay off creditors. The rest of the debt is discharged, which happens to the vast majority of people who successfully apply for Chapter 7.

There aren’t court records available for Owens’s Chapter 7 filing in New York from 1991. However, as The Salt Lake Tribune uncovered, records show that Owens filed for Chapter 7 in 2005 for $1.7 million in debt. $200,000 of the debt was paid, and the rest, along with his three Chapter 13 bankruptcies, were dismissed — meaning, essentially, that Owens had $1.5 million in debts discharged by courts, per the Salt Lake Tribune.

Student debt is one of the types of debt that is almost explicitly carved out of Chapters 7 and 13. Some student debtors have been successful at using these methods to have their debts discharged, but it is extraordinarily difficult, and judges have even condemned people who think that it’s possible; student debt used to be fully dischargeable under bankruptcy, but lawmakers changed that under Ronald Reagan in the late 1970s. (Still, debt activists encourage people to try, especially if they are facing loans that they will never be able to pay off.)

The bankruptcies weren’t Owens’s only financial trouble during his campaign. During his campaign, it was found that Owens had accepted at least $135,500 in contributions that were over legal limits, which amounted to about 40 percent of the funding that his campaign had on hand during the last stretch of the contested run. Later, he was handed a fee by the Federal Election Commission for failing to report $34,000 in contributions to his campaign.

Debt activists also pointed out the hypocrisy of other Republicans on the subcommittee. As the Debt Collective pointed out in a fact sheet, tuition at the University of Miami, which Owens attended on a football scholarship between 1968 and 1972, is now three times as expensive as it was when Owens graduated. The federal minimum wage then was higher than it is now, adjusted for inflation.

For Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), the chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, tuition at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was $310 when she graduated in 1968, or about $2,700 in today’s dollars. Now, tuition there is about $7,000, or an effective increase of 258 percent. Minimum wage then was $14 in today’s dollars — a large contrast to the current minimum wage of $7.25 federally and in North Carolina.

Indigenous leaders demand a seat at international water negotiations

World leaders are gathering in New York this week for the United Nations Water Conference to negotiate a Water Action Agenda, the first in almost 50 years, as countries struggle with drought and water pollution. The conference serves as a midway check-in point for the International Decade for Action “Water Sustainable Development”. Since 1977, when the first UN Water Conference was held in Argentina, the Earth’s population has nearly doubled, and access to clean water is one of the top risks facing the planet.

During the conference, nations will be discussing items like the Sustainable Development Goal on Water and Sanitation, international water cooperation, and resilience and disaster risk reduction. The hope is leaders will create a workable water action agenda that can then be implemented and kept in check.

But Indigenous leaders have demanded a seat at the table, citing historic exclusion of Indigenous voices in international decision making. In a declaration sent to the UN this week, representatives from Indigenous nations, communities and organizations have requested attendees address additional points of discussion to their agendas, including violence against water protectors and protesters, the monetization and capitalization of water, and the inclusion of Indigenous leaders in water-based decisions that affect their lands and communities.

“I want governments to understand and be open to negotiations with Indigenous peoples and including Indigenous peoples through the framework of the UN declaration of Indigenous People’s Rights and all of the UN applicable declarations,” said Juan Leon Alvarado, who is Maya K’iche from Guatemala, and a human rights and biodiversity consultant for the International Indian Treaty Council. “We want Guatemala and other governments to respect Indigenous people’s rights instead of killing and criminalizing them.”

Nearly a quarter of the world’s population doesn’t have access to clean drinking water, and between 2007 and 2014, UN human rights treaty bodies addressed mining, oil and gas extraction, and logging projects with adverse effects on Indigenous communities in 34 countries, with almost half of those cases having serious impacts on water.

More than a fifth of the world’s basins have recently undergone rapid fluctuations in surface area. Additionally, over the past 300 years, over 85% of the planet’s wetlands have been lost. Wetlands are critical pieces of the world’s delicate ecosystems, are considered to be the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, and are breeding grounds for 40% of the world’s plant and animal species. The UN reports these changes in basins and wetlands are due to population growth, changes to land cover and land use, and climate change. Leon Alvarado said Indigenous peoples worldwide should be in the conversation to address these issues.

“Most Indigenous peoples guard water and other resources, like mountains, biodiversity and other knowledge,” Leon Alvarado said. “The government doesn’t respect the knowledge, practice, organization and the old ways that Indigenous peoples use and other measures they take to have clean water.”

Leaders at the UN Water Conference will discuss how to substantially increase water-use efficiency, how to ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater, and how to strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.

In North America, more than 900 water protectors and rights defenders in the U.S. and Canada still face legal action for protesting oil and gas pipeline developments.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/article/indigenous-leaders-demand-a-seat-at-international-water-negotiations/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

“An unforgettable talent”: The cast and crew of “The Wire” reflect on the legacy of Lance Reddick

A week ago today, we lost Lance Reddick, a true legend. More importantly to me, he was a Baltimore legend.

Reddick, known for his roles in “Fringe,” “John Wick” and “The Wire,” died in his apartment last Friday. I was fortunate enough to meet him a few times and amazed at how different he was from some of his most memorable characters, which is why his work is so important to me. He was an actor’s actor, a true talent with remarkable range.

True “Wire” fans know that before Reddick played Lt. Cedric Daniels on “The Wire,” he played Fran Boyd’s boyfriend Marvin on “The Corner.” Daniels was a straight-laced cop with a complicated past. Marvin was a guy Fran Boyd met in rehab, who signed up to be a fellow soldier with her on the road to sobriety; however, he fell off the wagon and tried to drag her down with him. Reddick was spectacular in both roles.

What many true “Wire” fans don’t know about Reddick is that he initially read for the role of Bubbles, played by Andre Royo. We loved Royo’s portrayal of Bubbles in “The Wire,” so it’s tough imagining another person playing the part.

All the pieces of “The Wire” still matter: From cops, corners and Omar to the systems that fail us

But it was almost Reddick. I learned this during a writing session with one of the creators of “The Wire,” former Baltimore City Public Schools teacher and retired police officer Ed Burns. We would often be the first two people in the office. There, he would school me on how everything used to be in the streets back in the day, and I would happily listen, as I quickly learned that Burns was a walking encyclopedia. In between some of his rants, I would poach him for old “Wire” stories.

“You know Andre wasn’t the original Bubbles,” Burns told me one morning.

“Yeah, right,” I replied, “Dre was meant for that role. He crushed it.”

“He was such a profound energy — it was almost like watching an eagle or a lion walk amongst men.”

“He did, but Lance Reddick, who played Daniels, was the guy I had in mind because the informant who the Bubbles character is based on looks just like Lance,” he said. “Same build and all.”

Initially, I laughed, but I would come to realize that Reddick had the acting chops to do anything. We all witnessed this over the years.

As a community, we’re going to miss Reddick and his work. In honor of his memory, I asked some of the producers, cast and crew members of “The Wire” to reflect on his legacy.

The following comments have been lightly edited for clarity.

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“What I remember about working with Lance is how curious he was. He showed a genuine interest in every person he met, whether a fellow actor, a producer or a neighbor on location. And he didn’t need a reason to be kind — he just was.” — Nina K. Noble, executive producer

“With a massive amount of ‘I run sh*t’ swag, Lance embodied Black excellence in all of his characters, and we felt his vulnerability and humanity equally as much. His generosity of spirit as a kind, warm-hearted father and husband will endure in the hearts and minds of his family and artistic community forever.” — Chad Coleman, Dennis “Cutty” Wise

“He was such a profound energy — it was almost like watching an eagle or a lion walk amongst men. Although we never had scenes together, all my encounters with him were extremely genuine, and he always had kind things to say. Being able to see him in an environment was a rare opportunity I will never take for granted.” — Nathan Corbett, Donut

“Lance Reddick was a powerful human being. Lance could walk in a room and wouldn’t even have to say anything — you just felt his positive energy. He was always such an amazing warm-hearted brother, who always gave me great advice about this business. He will truly be missed.” — Tray Chaney, Malik “Poot” Carr

“A scholar and a gentleman, an exceptional artist, but an even better friend. I’ll miss Lance dearly, and so will the world.” — Julito McCullum, Namond Brice

“Lance was a beautiful soul and an unforgettable talent. What I will remember most about him is that he was always kind. Always.” — Jermaine Crawford, Duquan “Dukie” Weems

“Lance was always such a calm presence, a gentle soul, polite and a consummate professional. I was so shocked and saddened — as was everyone — to learn of his sudden and all too soon transition from this life. Truly a loss. ‘The Wire’ equals family — ask anyone who worked that show.” — Dona Gibson, costume designer

“Lance was a delightful person, so very gifted and so very smart. As an actor, he was powerful, truthful, simple and direct. He was an absolute joy to work with and to be around. He will be dearly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. Peace and love.” — Delaney Williams, Sgt. Jay Landsman

“An avid dog lover, he wore the most serious face as Daniels, but he always used to light up when he talked about what he loved: video games and his family. Long live Lance.” — DaJuan Prince, Snot Boogie and costume designer

about Lance Reddick and “The Wire”

The IPCC says we need to phase down fossil fuels, fast. Here’s how the US could do it

On Monday, a panel of the world’s top climate scientists released a grave warning: Current policies are not enough to stave off the most devastating consequences of climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, climate pollution from the world’s existing coal, oil, and gas projects is already enough to launch the planet past 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, and world leaders must abandon up to $4 trillion in fossil fuels and related infrastructure by midcentury if they want to keep within safe temperature limits.

Instead, rich countries like the United States are going in the opposite direction. Just last week, President Joe Biden approved ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, a so-called “carbon bomb” that could add some 239 million metric tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, about as much as the annual emissions from 64 coal-fired power plants.

A new report released this week, “An Economist’s Case for Restrictive Supply-Side Policies,” argues that bans, moratoria, and similar measures are sorely needed to keep the United States from extracting more fossil fuels. It highlights 10 policies that can complement clean energy investments to help the country achieve the goals of the IPCC while also prioritizing the health and economic security of America’s most vulnerable communities.

“The IPCC shows that restrictive supply-side measures have to be part of the policy mix,” said Mark Paul, a Rutgers University professor and a coauthor of the report. “We actually need to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels, there’s just no way around it.”

Until quite recently, most American economists and policymakers have focused on demand-side solutions to climate change — primarily a carbon price that would leave curbing greenhouse gas emissions up to market forces. Supply-side policies, on the other hand, are concerned with suppressing the amount of fossil fuels available for purchase. They come in two flavors: supportive and restrictive. Supportive supply-side policies include some of the tax credits and subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate spending law that Biden signed last year, which support renewable energy to displace fossil fuels. Restrictive policies more actively seek to constrain fossil fuel development.

Some of the most aggressive policies recommended in the new report would use congressional authority to stop new fossil fuel projects, whether by banning new leases for extraction on federal lands and in federal waters or by outlawing all new pipelines, export terminals, gas stations, and other infrastructure nationwide. Other measures would use economic levers to restrict fossil fuel development. For example, taxing the fossil fuel industry’s windfall profits could curtail supply by making oil and gas production less profitable. Requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their climate-related financial risks could also accelerate decarbonization by making polluters without credible transition plans unattractive to investors.

The benefit of these policies, Paul said, is that they can directly constrain carbon-intensive activities and therefore more certainly guarantee a reduction in climate pollution. That’s not the case with demand-side policies, where lawmakers have to hope that consumers’ behavior will lead to less fossil fuel being produced and burned. (The Inflation Reduction Act included some of these policies, like consumer subsidies for electric vehicles and other low-emissions technologies.)

Restrictive supply-side policies in the U.S. can also support international decarbonization. If the U.S. were to only reduce domestic demand for fossil fuels while keeping supply high, it could reduce the price of oil, gas, and coal abroad — incentivizing other countries to use more of those fuels.

That said, not all restrictive supply-side policies are an easy sell. Some, like nationalizing the fossil fuel industry — which would effectively neutralize the sector’s outsize political influence and allow it to be dismantled in an orderly fashion — have not yet entered the political mainstream. Others, however, are closer to reality, and five have previously been introduced in congressional bills. The Keep It in the Ground Act, for example, introduced in 2021 by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, from Oregon, sought to prevent public lands and waters from being leased for fossil fuel extraction. The 2021 Block All New Oil Exports Act, sponsored by Democratic Senator Ed Markey, from Massachusetts, proposed reinstating a ban on exporting U.S. crude oil and natural gas, which was in place for 40 years before Congress lifted it in 2015.

Philipe Le Billon, a geography professor at the University of British Columbia who runs a database on restrictive supply-side policies to curtail fossil fuels around the world, said ending federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry is the policy most likely to garner bipartisan political support. “It would be so easy to say, ‘Come on, you made $200 billion last year, so no more subsidies,'” he told Grist. The End Polluter Welfare Act, introduced in 2021 by Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, from Vermont, and Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, from Minnesota, sought to do just that, in addition to stopping public funds from being used for fossil fuel research and development.

The fossil fuel industry gets somewhere between $10 and $50 billion in U.S. subsidies every year.

Paul said it’s hard to imagine any of the policies being enacted while the House of Representatives is under Republican leadership, but he highlighted the climate-related financial risk disclosure policy as a candidate for bipartisan support, since it seeks to inform action from investors. “Even the staunchest capitalist should be on board with this,” he said. Outside of Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, an independent federal agency that protects investors from financial fraud and manipulation, has proposed such a policy.

Subnational “fossil-free zones” — areas that are off-limits to some or all types of fossil fuel development, like oil and gas drilling, gas stations, or export terminals — could be promising too; they’ve already been declared in many communities, and they demonstrate how combined demand- and supply-side interventions could play a role in a more comprehensive fossil fuel phaseout.

To gain momentum for restrictive supply-side policies, Paul said it’s crucial to educate policymakers about “the actual math” behind U.S. and international climate goals. Investments in clean energy are a good start, Paul said, but they’re just “the first bite out of the apple. We need many more bites to limit emissions and preserve some semblance of a habitable planet.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/economics/the-ipcc-says-we-need-to-phase-down-fossil-fuels-fast-heres-how-the-us-could-do-it/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

Senate Ethics Committee hits Lindsey Graham with rare public admonishment

The Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday publicly admonished Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., after he appeared on a nine-minute Fox News segment last year during which he solicited campaign contributions for former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker on Capitol grounds.

Ethics Committee Chairman Christopher Coons, D-Del., and vice chairman, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., sent a letter to Graham explaining that he violated Senate rules and conduct by soliciting campaign contributions in a federal building.

While the committee issued a public admonition, there have been no sanctions in response to Graham’s actions.

In the interview conducted on Nov. 30, Graham spoke with Fox News in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building and spent four out of nine minutes talking about Walker’s campaign, the committee’s investigation found.

The Senate committee concluded that the South Carolina Republican “directly solicited campaign contributions on behalf of Mr. Walker’s campaign committee, www.teamherschel.com, five separate times.”

Ethics panel launches Santos probe — critics say it’s “too little, too late for the MAGA majority”

Graham self-reported his actions to Coons and Lankford, the letter states.

“It was a mistake. I take responsibility. I will try to do better in the future,” Graham said in a statement on Friday.

However, the committee said that this is not the first time Graham violated Senate rules regarding fundraising on federal property.

On Oct. 14, 2020, the letter obtained by the Washington Post states, right after a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Graham was part of an “unplanned media interview” in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, during which he “directly solicited campaign contributions” to his reelection campaign committee after a reporter asked about his fundraising efforts.

The Judiciary Committee at the time was in the midst of confirming now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Graham was the chair of that committee, and when asked if the Coney Barrett hearings would affect his standing in an upcoming Senate race, Graham simply made a fundraising appeal.

“I don’t know how much it affected fundraising today, but if you want to help me close the gap — LindseyGraham.com — a little bit goes a long way,” Graham said. “I feel really good about my campaign.”

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Instead of taking action on this issue, Coons and Lankford said they dismissed the 2020 complaint and issued a private warning to Graham because his violation was the result of “inadvertent, technical, or otherwise of a de minimis nature.”

The Ethics Committee rarely takes public action. The last public letter of admonition came in April 2018, when Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was reprimanded after a months-long bribery case against him.

However, Coons and Lankford said in their Thursday letter that after already receiving a private warning about his 2020 violation, Graham broke another senate rule on fundraising in 2022.

“The public must feel confident that Members use public resources only for official actions in the best interests of the United States, not for partisan political activity,” Coons and Lankford wrote. “Your actions failed to uphold that standard, resulting in harm to the public trust and confidence in the United States Senate.”

“You are hereby admonished,” they wrote.

about the GOP and ethics rules

“She remains angry”: Melania reportedly not sweating Trump’s possible arrest in Stormy Daniels case

Former President Donald Trump is awaiting a possible indictment over an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, but his wife is uninterested in discussing it.

Despite the legal troubles her husband might face, Melania Trump is going on with her life at their Palm Beach home, a source told People.

“Melania is leading her own life, and still feels happy being at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by people who love her and who never talk about reality, or bad things about her husband,” the source told the outlet.

However, the source says Melania Trump is far from supportive of her husband’s role in the alleged affair. Daniels claimed that her extramarital affair with the former president happened just four months after his wife gave birth to their son Barron in 2006.

Trump lawyer floats “Melania defense” in Stormy Daniels case — and claims he’s the real “victim”

“She remains angry and doesn’t want to hear [the alleged hush money payment] mentioned,” the source told People. “She is aware of who her husband is and keeps her life upbeat with her own family and a few close friends.”

The source also mentioned that Melania has been upset about the accusations since 2018 when the Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump sent a $130,000 payment to Daniels a month before the 2016 presidential election so she wouldn’t talk about their alleged affair.

Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of the affair, but Cohen later admitted to The New York Times that there was a payment made to Daniels, a “private transaction” that Trump never reimbursed him for.

Melania Trump, the source tells People, “wants to ignore it and hopes it will pass, but she doesn’t sympathize with Donald’s plight.”

Melania and Donald Trump live in separate quarters of their Mar-a-Lago estate, the source says, but they are still often seen attending events and dinners at the club.

“She does very well with all of her socializing duties,” the source added. “They still see friends for dinner at the club, but live separately and do what they want on their own. They don’t spend that much time together.”

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The source says that Melania Trump keeps busy with her mom, dad, and son Barron, who turned 17 on Monday.

“Barron is a sweet boy who has a loving family around him,” the source said. “He is older now and handsome. His mom is protective of him but he is free around Mar-a-Lago. They are low-key with their socializing.”

The source also added that the family likely still celebrated Barron Trump’s birthday despite Trump’s looming indictment decision, claiming, “they would not skip his birthday over legal issues.”

If the former president is indicted, another Palm Beach source told People that Melania will be fine.

“Melania loves the beautiful weather and resort town atmosphere of Palm Beach,” the source said. “She is happy when she is in Palm Beach. She has her son and other close family members. They are tribe-like and usually stick together. Despite what happens to Donald, she will be fine. She is well taken care of.”

about the Stormy Daniels case

Seven unexpected ways that climate change is affecting the planet

Even the most horrible tragedies can have their upsides. Take climate change: While it is causing mass extinctions and will, within decades, displace millions of people in coastal areas, it is also helping western dairy farmers keep their farms free of pests. Lending a helping hand? Local bald eagles.

This was the discovery made by the scientists behind a new study in the journal Ecosphere. They found that, as salmon carcasses become more scarce due to climate change, bald eagles seek new food sources. And the ravenous raptors often flock to nearby dairy farms. While farmers usually do not welcome avian intruders, the researchers learned to their surprise that dairy farmers saw advantages to the bald eagles’ presence. Because they feed primarily on cow afterbirth and calf carcasses, they help clean up messes and reduce labor time. Just as importantly, they kill and deter unwanted pest species like mice and rats.

Global warming is boiling our testicles, suggesting a new animal fertility crisis looms

“Despite a long history of conflict between farmers and eagles, we found that dairy farmers and eagles are able to co-exist, and even benefit from one another,” explained Ethan Scott Duvall, a Cornell University ecologist and PhD student, who led the research and spoke to Salon by email. “While farmers supply eagles with an abundant food source, eagles, in turn, discard the unwanted byproducts while simultaneously deterring unwanted ‘pest’ species on farms.”

While the relationship between eagles and farmers might have improve, the salmon are not doing as well. Climate change has, evidently, wreaked havoc on that aspect of the ecosystem. Duvall explained that climate change affected the “availability” of salmon carcasses for the eagles, and also oddly “increas[ed] the speed at which salmon carcasses decompose before they can be consumed.” Moreover, climate change “may also substantially alter other prey resources for eagles year-round, forcing more and more eagles to seek refuge in human-dominated landscape, potentially leading to increased human-eagle conflict in other areas,” Duvall noted.

The eagle-salmon-farmer situation is merely one of many unexpected ways that climate change is changing the world. Here are some other unforeseen consequences of having more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere messing with the climate.

Insects are going to relocate

Tick (Getty Images/fhm)

According to a 2021 article in the Journal of Medical Entomology, ticks are going to expand their territorial range as the planet continues to warm. This makes sense: As the regions near the equator overheat, ticks will venture farther and farther north in order to survive.

This is not good news for humans. Ticks carry a number of dangerous diseases including Lyme disease, babesiosis and Powassan virus disease. Indeed, a 2021 study in the Rhode Island Medical Journal revealed that cases of Lyme disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis are increasing in the United States — and each one of those diseases is vectored by deer ticks.

Bearded dragons are more likely to be born as male-female hybrids

Young bearded dragon (Getty Images/Shinedawn)

For certain fish, amphibians and reptiles, the sex of their embryos can be altered by the external temperature. For instance, bearded dragons — a lizard species indigenous to Australia — need to keep their eggs in cooler temperatures so that only the chromosomes determine the lizard’s sex. If the temperature is too warm, those chromosomes can be overridden and a partial male turned into a female.

This is why, according to a 2016 study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, warming temperatures are messing with bearded dragon sexes.

“Although they are reproductively female, sex-reversed dragons resemble genetic males rather than females in morphology, general behaviour, and thermoregulatory tactics,” the authors explained. They later added that just one period of high temperatures “can produce functionally female individuals with male-like (or novel) traits that enhance individual fitness.” Over time, the genes that code for this “temperature-dependent sex-determining system” might replace the previous genes.

Animals are changing their body shapes

Australian King Parrot (Getty Images/PDerrett)

Bearded dragons aren’t alone among animals whose bodies change with the increasing heat. A 2021 report by the World Economic Forum found that — in accordance with Allen’s rule, which holds that warm-blooded animals have smaller appendages in colder climes and larger appendages in warmer climes — various species are getting bigger.

The great roundleaf bat, which is famous for having a nose that looks a bit like a mess of intestines, had seen its wing size increase by 1.64% since 1950. Masked shrews have seen their legs and tails increase in length significantly within that same period. Meanwhile the beak sizes of Australian parrots like gang-gang cockatoos and red-rumped parrots have increased between 4% and 10% since 1871.

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Our testicles are boiling

Sperm (Getty Images/SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

It is a well-known fact of biology that human testes are outside of the abdominal cavity because sperm can only be produced at a temperature cooler than that of the main body.

Therefore it should not have come as any surprise when a 2021 article in Nature Climate Change revealed that, among 43 species of fruit flies all over the world, population distribution across the globe was closely correlated to the temperatures at which males would be rendered infertile by rising temperatures. This suggests that, as temperatures continue to increase, animals that need their testes to remain cool in order to produce sperm will suffer — potentially including humans. The challenge, of course, is that this is one hypothesis that is notoriously difficult to test.

“There is no visible sign that an organism has become infertile — you have to heat them at a specific temperature then give them opportunities to mate,” explained Dr. Thomas Price, a senior lecturer of evolution, ecology and behavior at the University of Liverpool and co-author of the study.

There will be more pandemics

Ill woman looking at thermometer (Getty Images/Guido Mieth)

The COVID-19 pandemic was an inflection point, or a moment in history that profoundly changes the world in a number of ways. Unfortunately, as climate change worsens, humans are likely to see many more pandemics. According to a 2022 paper by the journal Nature, animals who are forced to move out of their now-unlivable habitats due to climate change will bring their foreign viromes with them. Viromes, or the ecosystems of viruses that exist within living bodies, will then have more opportunities to interact with both humans and other unfamiliar animals.

“Our findings highlight an urgent need to pair viral surveillance and discovery efforts with biodiversity surveys tracking species’ range shifts, especially in tropical regions that harbor the most zoonoses and are experiencing rapid warming,” the authors concluded.

There will be fewer microchips

Microchip (Getty Images/Narumon Bowonkitwanchai)

Unlike the other items on this list, microchips are not an item found in nature. Yet that does not mean they will not be vulnerable to climate change. These little sets of circuits hosted on flat pieces of silicon are extremely complex, and as such difficult to manufacture. They require a sophisticated supply chain in order to be churned out at the rate necessary for us to have functioning computers, cars, mobile phones, home appliances and virtually all other electronic equipment. As climate change worsens, supply chain disruptions are apt to become more frequent — and all of the technology which relies on microchips will suddenly be put at risk.

Expect more lightning strikes

Lightning striking over the city (Getty Images/Natalya Mamaeva)

Lightning is both awe-inspiring and terrifying, associated with everything from the Greek god Zeus to creepy moments in horror movies. Yet just it would not be a good thing for humans if lightning strikes became more common, and that is just what will happen as climate change worsens. As reported in the journal Science in 2021, there will be a 12% increase in lightning activity as the Earth increases by 1°C. As recently as last month, a study in the journal Nature Communications revealed that each single degree of warming will increase by 10% the frequency of hot lightning (officially known as Long-Continuing-Current or LCC lightning) — or bolts that channel an electrical charge for an extended period of time — and this, in turn, will increase the frequency of wildfires.

“We find a 41% global increase of the LCC lightning flash rate,” the authors wrote, adding that they expect the largest increases “in South America, the western coast of North America, Central America, Australia, Southern and Eastern Asia, and Europe.”

about climate change

The genius chopped salad everyone’s (still) talking about

Why does everyone keep talking about this chopped salad?

It started making waves in 2006 when Nancy Silverton put it on the menu at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles. Thirteen years later, Food52 community members are still writing to me to tell me how genius it is. It even, briefly, stormed Sweetgreen fast-casual counters nationwide last year.

Not since Caesar Cardini has a restaurant salad had such good branding. On the Pizzeria Mozza menu, it’s Nancy’s Chopped Salad—even though ostensibly most other dishes on the menu are also Nancy’s. When I asked Silverton over the phone if she’s made any changes since codifying her recipe in The Mozza Cookbook in 2011, she replies, “Nancy’s Chopped Salad will always be that recipe. That’s a recipe that needs no fiddling.”

So what makes it tick? Or rather, what in it makes us tick? Is it the tang, the crunch, the color? The leather-and-lace dance of opposites like bitter radicchio and sweet iceberg? The fact that it’s just riddled with crowd favorites like salami, salty cheese, and chickpeas, the darling of the canned bean aisle? Is it, as many viral recipes often begin, because Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen wrote about it one time?

All of those things have certainly helped, but none are so powerful a wedge in our brains as nostalgia, plus Silverton’s cheffy tricks to make it even better than you remember. “It’s supposed to remind people of my generation of that antipasti plate that they had at Italian-American restaurants,” Silverton told me. The one with the salami, the cheese, the spicy pepperoncini.

Or as Perelman wrote, “If you grew up eating Good Seasons ‘Italian’ dressing from the seasonings packet, you’re going to have something of a Proustian moment (but so much better).”

Perhaps the crispest takeaway here is her powerhouse dressing, with red wine vinegar and garlic and enough dried oregano that you’ll think it’s a mistake (1). Silverton even marinates the oregano together with the garlic, acid, and salt for five minutes to help the herb travel further, before whisking in the olive oil.

But beyond this super-powered memory-box dressing, there are a few other thoughtful tricks Silverton’s been honing since the 1970s that cement this salad’s icon status:

She lightly salts the tomatoes on their own first, so they taste riper and more tomatoey. “When I’m giving a cooking demonstration, I always talk about the need to layer food with seasoning as you go,” Silverton told me. “It makes a difference in the end.”
She brings in two different types of garlic—a mellow smashed clove and potent grated one. Squashing that extra clove adds another layer of flavor without piling on the raw garlic.
She de-layers and slices the onion (she calls this “petaling”), then washes the funk away with ice water so all that’s left are pert, sweet curls.
She finishes this salad, like all others, not just with salt to taste but also lemon(so the oregano vinaigrette recipe that looks light on acid flips to bright and balanced at the end).

Thirteen years in, the good branding doesn’t show any signs of slowing. Along with Pizzeria Mozza’s famed Butterscotch Budino (2), Silverton told me, “I can’t tell you how many times people have said, ‘I was just at a restaurant in Minnesota and they had Nancy’s Chopped Salad!'”

Nancy’s Chopped Salad

Yields

4-8 servings

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

0 minutes

Ingredients

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE

2 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons dried oregano
Freshly squeezed juice from 1/2 lemon (1 tablespoon), or more to taste
2 medium cloves garlic, 1 smashed flat and 1 grated
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

FOR THE SALAD
1/2 small red onion, cut in half from top to bottom
1 head (22 ounces) iceberg lettuce
1 head (11 ounces) radicchio
1 pint small, sweet cherry tomatoes, such as Sun Golds or Sweet 100s, cut into quarters
Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups no-salt-added chickpeas, drained
1/4 pound aged provolone, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices, then cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
1/4 pound Genoa salami, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices, then cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
5 pepperoncini (stems discarded), cut into thin slices (about 1/4 cup)
Freshly squeezed juice from 1/2 lemon (1 tablespoon), or more to taste
Dried oregano (preferably Sicilian oregano on the branch), for sprinkling

Directions

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE: Whisk together the vinegar, oregano, lemon juice, the smashed garlic and grated garlic and the salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes (to marinate the oregano). Add the oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly to form an emulsified vinaigrette. Taste for seasoning, and add salt or lemon juice as needed. The yield is a generous 1 1/2 cups; you’ll use up to 1/2 cup for this salad, and the remainder can be refrigerated for another use (up to 3 days).
FOR THE SALAD: Separate the layers of the onion and stack two or three layers on top of one another, then cut them lengthwise into 1/16-inch-wide strips. Repeat with the remaining onion layers. Place the onion in a small bowl of ice water to sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Drain the onion and pat dry with paper towels before adding to the salad.
Cut the iceberg lettuce in half through the core. Remove and discard the outer leaves, and discard the core. Separate the lettuce leaves, stack two or three leaves on top of one another, then cut them lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Repeat with the remaining leaves; thinly slice the radicchio in the same way. Cut the tomatoes in half, season them with salt to taste, and toss gently.
Combine the lettuce, radicchio, tomatoes, chickpeas, provolone, salami, peperoncini and onion in a large, wide bowl. Season with salt to taste, and toss to thoroughly combine. Drizzle 6 tablespoons of the vinaigrette over the salad, then sprinkle with the lemon juice; toss gently to coat the salad evenly. Taste, and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette, plus salt and/or lemon juice as needed.
Transfer the salad to a large platter or divide it among individual plates, piling it like a mountain. Sprinkle the dried oregano leaves on top and serve.

(1) Silverton says with this much oregano, be sure to get the good stuff from Penzey’s or another store that specializes in dried herbs.

(2) Were you wondering if that Butterscotch Budino is in Genius Desserts? Of course it is.

Infant formula shortages forced some parents to feed their babies in less healthy ways

The big idea

One third of families who relied on formula to feed their babies during the COVID-19 pandemic were forced by severe infant formula shortages to resort to suboptimal feeding practices that can harm infant health, according to our research published in the journal Maternal and Child Nutrition.

Infant formula shortages left 70% of U.S. store shelves bare in May 2022, with 10 states reporting out-of-stock rates of 90% or greater.

As psychology researchers who study breastfeeding, this situation left us concerned for the safety of infant nutrition. With two colleagues who focus on public health, we conducted an online survey of over 300 infant caregivers in the U.S. to understand how many families had trouble obtaining infant formula and what they fed their babies when they did.

Considering the scope of the formula shortages, we were not surprised that 31% of the formula-feeding families we surveyed reported challenges obtaining infant formula, the most common being that it was sold out and they had to travel to more than one store.

But their babies still needed to eat. Being unable to get their hands on infant formula pushed caregivers to potentially unhealthy or even dangerous stopgaps. For example, 11% of the formula-feeding families surveyed said they practiced “formula-stretching” — diluting infant formula with extra water to make formula supplies last longer, which provides a baby with less nutrition in each bottle.

Furthermore, 10% of formula-feeding families reported substituting cereal for infant formula in bottles, 8% prepared smaller bottles and 6% skipped formula feedings for their infants, which all provide infants with less nutritious meals.

Exclusively breastfeeding families were insulated against these supply disruptions. Almost half of breastfeeding families surveyed reported that COVID-19 lockdowns actually allowed them time to increase their milk supply.

Why it matters

Our study suggests that the waves of formula shortages from 2020 to 2022 in the U.S. were more than just an inconvenience for parents. Instead, this study is the first to document that formula shortages likely had real and widespread adverse impacts on infant nutrition, given that a large proportion of parents surveyed resorted to feeding their baby in ways that can harm infant health.

For instance, studies have shown that adding extra water to “stretch” formula can result in infant malnutrition, growth and cognitive delays and even seizures and death in extreme cases. Adding cereal to bottles increases the risk of choking-related deaths and severe constipation. Moreover, feeding infants age-inappropriate foods can have lifelong consequences for cognitive development and growth, leading to a higher risk for chronic illnesses like obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Given that approximately 75% of infants in the U.S. are fed with infant formula in the first six months of life, formula shortages could put roughly 2.7 million babies each year at risk for suboptimal feeding practices.

What’s next

A perfect storm of formula recalls, ingredient shortages and shipping delays contributed to COVID-19-related formula shortages in the U.S. Although President Joe Biden’s administration has taken some steps to improve distribution infrastructure, the U.S. does not currently have infant nutrition disaster plans in place beyond common-sense recommendations for individuals.

Unfortunately, climate change will likely increase the risk of formula-supply disruptions over the next century because of the increased frequency of natural disasters.

The best way to protect infant nutrition from supply chain issues is to promote and support breastfeeding, which provides optimal infant nutrition and insulates infants from those disruptions. Since not all babies can be breastfed, though, governmental policies could help prevent and address acute formula shortages and ensure equitable formula access for all.

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

Jessica A. Marino, Doctoral Student in Health Psychology, University of California, Merced and Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of California, Merced

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Nebraska Dem with trans son vows to block all bills: “No one in the world holds a grudge like me”

Nebraska Democratic state Sen. Megan Hunt vowed to filibuster every bill for the rest of the legislative session after the Nebraska Legislature advanced a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for people under 19.

The legislation, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kathleen Kauth, would ban minors from seeking gender confirmation surgery and hormone treatments — issues that could impact Hunt’s transgender son. She discussed her son and his testimony in committee on Wednesday and to the wider body the next day.

“My son is trans,” Hunt said of her 12-year-old child, who she says has been unable to attain gender-affirming care. “And this bill, colleagues, is such an affront to me personally and would violate my rights to parent my child in Nebraska.”

The bill is one of many anti-trans policies rolled out this year, according to Trans Legislation Tracker.

“I will burn this session to the ground”: Neb. Dem filibusters for 3 weeks to block anti-trans bill

“If this bill passes, all your bills are on the chopping block, and the bridge is burned,” Hunt warned the chamber.

“We have made it clear that this is the line in the sand,” Hunt said to lawmakers on Thursday.

“People have said, ‘What if we go after your bills? What if we put a bunch of bills introduced by progressives up on the agenda? Are you going to filibuster those, too?’ Yes, because we’re not like you,” Hunt explained. “We have a principle and a value that actually matters that much to us that we’re willing to stand up for.”

Hunt was scolded over her stance by Republicans, who said her pushback set a bad precedent.

“You really don’t get it,” Hunt said to Republican state Sen. R. Brad von Gillern. “You’ve crossed a line and you’ve gone too far.”

“Don’t say hi to me in the hall, don’t ask me how my weekend was, don’t walk by my desk and ask me anything. Don’t send me Christmas cards ― take me off the list,” Hunt warned. “No one in the world holds a grudge like me, and no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don’t care. I don’t like you.”

State Sen. Megan Hunt (D), speaking directly to Republicans, reaffirms vow to filibuster all legislation if #NEleg anti-trans bill passes:

"No one in the world holds a grudge like me. And no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don't care. I don't like you." pic.twitter.com/IBvOV3g5ey

— The Recount (@therecount) March 23, 2023

“This hateful bill is not about policy. It is a basic human rights issue. The vote today will show us exactly which senators value the dignity, autonomy, and personhood of Nebraskans,” Hunt added on Twitter. “Do not cross this line. Do not violate our rights”

This hateful bill is not about policy. It is a basic human rights issue. The vote today will show us exactly which senators value the dignity, autonomy, and personhood of Nebraskans. Do not cross this line. Do not violate our rights. #TransRightsAreHumanRights #NELeg pic.twitter.com/UUoG0Au6ab

— Senator Megan Hunt (@NebraskaMegan) March 23, 2023

Hunt joins Democratic state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh in her promise to filibuster the remainder of the legislature’s 90-day session, which ends on June 9.

“I will burn the session to the ground over this bill,” Cavanaugh warned.

“I will not give up on Nebraska children,” she tweeted. “Failure isn’t an option because, if I fail, I’m failing children, and I’m not going to fail children.”

I will not give up on Nebraska children.

Failure isn’t an option because, if I fail, I’m failing children, and I’m not going to fail children.

Are you with me? #DontLegislateHate pic.twitter.com/AygTyPYwro

— Senator Machaela Cavanaugh (@senatormachaela) March 23, 2023

“I am going to make it painful”: Neb. Dem vows to filibuster all bills to defeat anti-trans crusade

State senators Danielle Conrad and Jen Day also joined the team in filibustering all legislation.

On Wednesday, Day cried in the chamber while reading a letter from a psychologist who said the bill “will result in the deaths of transgender and gender diverse adolescents, likely before the end of the school year.”

“I want all of you to go into the rotunda and look into the eyes of those parents and tell them that you’re voting for this bill knowing that it could potentially kill their child,” Day said with tears.

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Sen. John Fredrickson, the first openly gay man elected to the Nebraska Legislature, also cried in the chamber before reading a letter from a constituent who said that without gender-affirming care, her son would likely have taken his own life as a teenager.

Kauth — who has another bill that would ban trans people from using bathrooms and locker rooms or playing on sports teams that don’t align with the sex listed on their birth certificates — accused her Democratic opponents of using “obnoxious hyperbole” and said they were being “self-serving and childish” with the filibuster.

“We want to get these kids every opportunity to let their body grow, to let their brain grow, to let things develop more fully and work through the issues they’re experiencing,” Kauth said in an interview Wednesday.

The bill has another round of debate before its third and final round of voting, Nebraska’s KLIN reports. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, has said he would support the bill if it reaches him.

about GOP’s anti-trans legislation

“Save some children”: Lauren Boebert brought a photo of a fetus to endangered species hearing

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Thursday displayed pictures of what she claimed were human fetuses during a House hearing on endangered species, asking her Democratic colleagues if they would put babies on the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Boebert attended the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee hearing to try and get gray wolves removed from the list of at-risk species so they can be hunted.

However, the anti-abortion activist began her remarks by suggesting that Democrats who favor abortion rights should want babies on the protected species list, Colorado Public Radio first reported.

Lauren Boebert trashes sex-ed — then announces teen son is making her a “36-year-old grandmother”

“I do want to say before my opening remarks, you know, since we’re talking about the Endangered Species Act, I’m just wondering if my colleagues on the other side would put babies on the endangered species list,” she said, holding up the images of what she claims are American babies with what appear to be birth defects.

“These babies were born in Washington, D.C., full term,” Boebert claimed. “I don’t know, maybe that’s a way we can save some children here in the United States.”

Lauren Boebert brought photos of human fetuses to a hearing on endangered species. pic.twitter.com/IpXCI14cWT

— David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) March 23, 2023

She then shifted her focus to the gray wolf, saying it’s, “an Endangered Species Act success story, and it shouldn’t languish,” on the ESA anymore.

Boebert claimed the ESA has been “weaponized by extremists, extremist environmentalists, to obstruct common sense multiple-use activities that they disagree with.”

“On the right, we want to be good stewards of our land and the wildlife and our waters,” she said, promoting her bill, titled Trust the Science Act. “We want to be a part of that managing process with wildlife, not have wildlife manage itself.”

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Stephen Guertin, deputy director for program management and policy at U.S. Fish and Wildlife, said that Boebert’s bill “would put congress in control of delisting species without the benefit of using the best available scientific and commercial information and without considering current conditions.”

“They’d supersede ongoing scientific analysis being conducted by the service regarding the status of wolf and grizzly populations right now,” he added.

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the panel, said these “bills ignore science, rather than trust it. They bypass science.”

about Lauren Boebert

“John Wick 4” is both stunning and exhausting in its aesthetic action excess

Will John Wick (Keanu Reeves) ever find peace? That is one question in “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the latest installment in the franchise that began in 2014, when the titular ex-hit man, grieving for his late wife, sought revenge on the men who killed his dog and took his car.

But a better question may be: How cool is “John Wick: Chapter 4”? And the answer is pretty damn cool. There is some stunning cinematography — one shot of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by fog is breathtaking — and the art direction from sleek hotels to a terrific tracking shot through a museum are pretty fabulous. The film just looks incredible.

John Wick is practically indestructible, which perhaps strains credibility, but it also makes him more mythical.

Yet an even better question — and the one most on the mind of fans of the series —is: How is the action? It is kinetic and spectacular, with some truly amazing fight sequences — many of which are bloodless. There most violent moment involves a character removing his hand from a knife (not the other way around).

Why do women love John Wick? (It’s not just the puppy)

To recap for those who haven’t seen the previous films, in “Chapter 2” John Wick was ex-communicated by The High Table, a group of underworld bosses. And “Chapter 3 — Parabellum” ended with John shot by Winston (Ian McShane) and falling off a building. That is about all one needs to know as “Chapter 4” opens with John heading out to kill The Elder (Geoge Georgiou) in an effort to gain his freedom from the High Table. Instead, an $18 million (and rising) bounty is placed on his head. Tracker (Shamier Anderson) and his dog hope to collect this fee.

Meanwhile, a decree from the High Table forces New York Continental hotel — a safe space where no killing can take place — to close. The aggrieved Winston wants his hotel and his position back, so he is motivated to find John Wick to make this happen. However, the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård in dandified mode) wants Wick dead, and gets Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind assassin in the Zatoichi mode, out of retirement to do the deed.

“John Wick: Chapter 4” spends it first reel setting up all these players so they can fight, fight and fight some more for the next two and a half hours. The first action sequence unfolds in the Osaka Continental Hotel where John is hiding out. Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama) and their team go to battle, arrows against guns, and the velocity and the ferocity is kicked into high gear. One moment, where Akira bests a man twice her size by knifing a man who is crawling up a flight of stairs in the back multiple times — like a mountain climber finding purchase on a cliff face — is especially impressive.

An equally exciting set piece takes place in a glass-filled room where John uses nunchaku when his guns are unavailable. Set to some industrial music, the episode features an almost endless series of men trying to kill John Wick (‘natch) until Caine goes mano a mano with him.

Of course, John Wick is practically indestructible, which perhaps strains credibility, but it also makes him more mythical. This was evident from his being shot and falling several stories that ended “Chapter 3.” John suffers some painful injuries in this installment, too. A segment where he falls down dozens of flights of stairs outside Sacré Coeur is particularly punishing.

But much of “Chapter 4” is step and repeat.

“John Wick: Chapter 4” fills in a bit of plot as John learns he can gain his freedom if he duels the Marquis, but to do that he needs to get the Ruska Roma to sponsor him. To get their assistance, John has to go to Berlin and dispatch Killa (an unrecognizable Scott Adkins) who fights with him in a nightclub with stylish waterfalls. Why throngs of people are dancing as a knock-down, drag-out brawl — John is dragged up a flight of stairs by his tie — as well as gunplay is taking place around them is a mystery. But, as Winston says, “Such is life.”

John does not get much in the way of development here as he just kills and kills and kills some more.

The film rarely concerns itself with logic, which is great when John is doing donuts while shooting and killing a group of would-be assassins in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe. (It’s both amusing and astounding). But perhaps less so during an extended overhead shot of John going from room to room in an old building killing all comers like a sequence from a video game. This episode may boast great camerawork, but it feels tiresome, and the film can be a bit exhausting, even though it stops for a breather in a church so John and Caine can wax philosophical.

Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen in “John Wick 4” (Lionsgate)John does not get much in the way of development here as he just kills and kills and kills some more. (Keanu Reeves doesn’t give much in the way of a performance either, but his stunt double acts overtime.) Even after he arranges the duel at sunrise with the Marquis, who has chosen Caine to be his proxy, John goes out the night before, with a $40 million bounty on his head, so he can kill, kill and kill some more. Sure, it sets up some nifty action sequences, such as an exciting sequence in with John fights all comers in heavy traffic set to some key needle drops. But one has to question — is any of this necessary?

Donnie Yen (his political controversy aside) is too cool for school here, and Shamier Anderson steals his every scene as the Tracker, a man who is loyal to his dog, but his allegiance to people keeps shifting. The dog is a great character, too, and especially amusing when he attacks Chidi (Marko Zaror), one of the Marquis’ henchmen. Zaror is a great Chilean martial artist, who showed promise in his 2007 film “Mirageman” and it is fun to see him keep popping up to kill John.

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In support, Ian McShane is wonderfully droll, and franchise characters the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) and Charon (the recently passed Lance Reddick) are reduced mostly to cameo appearances.

But the ultimate question here is: Is more better? “John Wick: Chapter 4” feels a bit bloated at 169 minutes, and while it is never boring, it does not seem to justify all its excess.

Yet as with any duel, especially one where pistols are drawn at 30 paces at dawn, someone gets satisfaction. Fans of the series are sure to appreciate this action-packed chapter, even it is more, more and more of the same.

“John Wick 4” is currently in theaters nationwide. Watch a trailer via YouTube.

about Keanu Reeves movie sequels

“He’s threatening prosecutors”: Trump floats “death & destruction” in 1 am Truth Social rant

Former President Donald Trump warned early Friday morning of “potential death & destruction” should he be charged in the Manhattan “hush-money” criminal case.

Trump on Truth Social raised the specter of violence ahead of potential criminal charges from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whom Trump said is a “degenerate psychopath that truly hates the USA.”

“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?” Trump wrote at 1 am.

“Threatening a prosecutor is a crime”: Experts say Trump’s Truth Social post could badly backfire

“Why and who would do such a thing?” Trump asked his far-right base. “Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!”

While you were sleeping, Donald Trump went and threatened “death and destruction” if he’s indicted.

He’s not being subtle, he’s threatening prosecutors with violence. pic.twitter.com/DvI4XiKxjh

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) March 24, 2023

Friday’s post is the latest in Trump’s messages to his followers that have drawn comparisons to his rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Over the weekend, he urged a “PROTEST” for Tuesday — the date he falsely claimed he was going to be arrested — and on Thursday, he criticized calls for peace.

Many critics have compared the posts to his calls to supporters ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection, which resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries of 140 police officers.

“Be there, will be wild!” Trump wrote to his followers to stop the certification of the election for President Joe Biden.

The Manhattan special grand jury is not scheduled to meet again until at least Monday and Bragg is aware of the threats coming his way. In an email to his staff this past week obtained by the Washington Post, Bragg wrote that the district attorney’s office “will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate.”

“We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York,” he added.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said on Friday that he had not heard Trump’s comments, but that “there’s no place in America for political violence of any kind.”

“I’ve been saying that for years, and I think everybody ought to take that position,” Scalise said.

While House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has criticized Bragg’s investigation, he also said Trump’s supporters should not protest if he is indicted.

“Nobody should harm one another,” McCarthy said on Sunday after Trump called for protests. “We want calmness out there.”

However, Democrats took a much stronger approach to the situation.

“If you still support Donald Trump, you are supporting an individual who has called for chaos and violence, and continues to call for chaos and violence,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., wrote in a tweet.

If you still support Donald Trump, you are supporting an individual who has called for chaos and violence, and continues to call for chaos and violence. #fridaymorning thoughts https://t.co/QyKwbyWLMz

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 24, 2023

Trump continued to talk about the case on Truth Social eight hours after his initial post.

“PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!” he wrote in all caps just a few hours later.

The D.C. watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said on Twitter that Trump is “not being subtle, he’s threatening prosecutors with violence.”

“Trump got his supporters to attack the government once. He’s making it clear that if he’s arrested, he’s going to try to do it again. And let’s just drop this nonsense now about Trump actually wanting to be arrested, that it will somehow help him,” the group said.

“You don’t go on social media rants after 1AM threatening chaos if you’re arrested if you’re not terrified of it. And, of course, all his social media threats are admissible in court. So it’s probably not the last you’ve seen of this post,” the group added. “Even though he doesn’t mention January 6th, he references what everybody knows: he can wield his supporters to do violence.”

about Trump’s threats

Critics say DeSantis move to expand “Don’t Say Gay” exposes law’s true intentions

Florida’s Republican governor and presumed 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is moving to expand his state’s prohibition on classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity to all grades.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday denounced DeSantis’ effort to broaden what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law, describing it as “completely, utterly wrong.”

Passed last year by Florida’s GOP-controlled Legislature, the law forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3. The DeSantis administration’s proposed rule change, first reported Tuesday by The Orlando Sentinel, would extend the ban on such lessons to grades 4-12, except when they are required by state standards or as part of a reproductive health course from which parents can choose to exclude their children.

The proposal, introduced by DeSantis’ Department of Education, goes even further than right-wing Florida lawmakers’ current push to expand the law through grade 8 and does not require legislative approval. The state Board of Education—controlled by appointees of DeSantis and his predecessor, U.S. Sen Rick Scott, R-Fla.—is set to vote on the measure at its April 19 meeting.

“Everything he does is about what can further his own career ambitions,” Brandon Wolf of Equality Florida told The Associated Press on Wednesday, referring to DeSantis. “And it’s clear he sees the anti-LGBTQ movement as his vehicle to get him where he wants to go.”

Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law has been widely condemned since it was first introduced last year. Opponents—including President Joe Biden, who called the measure “hateful”—contend that it marginalizes LGBTQ+ people.

“Everything he does is about what can further his own career ambitions. And it’s clear he sees the anti-LGBTQ movement as his vehicle to get him where he wants to go.”

DeSantis’ proposed expansion has confirmed critics’ warnings that the law was never intended to “protect kids,” as proponents claimed, but rather to undermine support for LGBTQ+ rights and sow mistrust in public education to facilitate privatization.

“It was never about ‘protecting children,'” Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, wrote Wednesday on social media. “It was always about eliminating LGBTQ people from public life and making it illegal to even discuss our existence.”

That message was echoed by former Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-49, who tweeted: “It was never, ever, ever, ever about kindergarten through third grade. It was always about demonizing us and censoring LGBTQ people out of existence in our schools.”

During her Wednesday press briefing, Jean-Pierre alluded to growing attacks on LGBTQ+ people and said that DeSantis’ proposal reflects “a disturbing and dangerous trend that we’re seeing across the country.”

Last month, PEN America revealed that GOP officials across the United States unveiled 84 educational gag orders during the first six weeks of 2023.

As the free speech organization previously documented, Republican lawmakers introduced 190 bills designed to restrict the ability of educators and students to discuss the production of and resistance to myriad inequalities throughout U.S. history—including several proposals to create so-called “tip lines” that would enable parents to punish school districts or individual teachers—in dozens of states in 2021 and 2022. Over the past two years, 19 laws limiting the teaching of gender, sexuality, and racism were enacted in more than a dozen GOP-controlled states, plus eight measures imposed without legislation.

This year alone, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law has spawned at least 27 copycat bills in more than a dozen states, including several measures that would, as DeSantis is now proposing, censor instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity at all grade levels.

Opponents of Florida’s law argue that “its language—’classroom instruction,’ ‘age appropriate,’ and ‘developmentally appropriate’—is overly broad and subject to interpretation,” AP reported. “Consequently, teachers might opt to avoid the subjects entirely for fear of being sued, they say.”

In an opinion piece published last year, Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent argued that the nationwide surge in restrictive education legislation has “an obvious purpose: to make teachers feel perpetually on thin ice, so they shy away from difficult discussions about our national past rather than risk breaking laws in ways they cannot themselves anticipate.”

“But there’s another, more pernicious goal driving these bills that might well succeed politically precisely because it remains largely unstated,” Sargent continued. “The darker underlying premise here is that these bills are needed in the first place, because subversive elements lurk around every corner in schools, looking to pervert, indoctrinate, or psychologically torture your kids.”

The “combination of… vagueness and punitive mechanisms such as rights of action and tip lines” is intentionally designed to promote self-censorship, wrote Sargent. “Precisely because teachers might fear that they can’t anticipate how they might run afoul of the law—while also fearing punishment for such transgressions—they might skirt difficult subjects altogether.”

He added that “calls for maximal parental choice and control in schools have been used by the right for decades as a smoke screen to sow fears and doubts about public education at its ideological foundations.”

National Education Association president Becky Pringle similarly argued last month that DeSantis’ attack on a new high school Advanced Placement African-American studies course is part of the far-right’s wider anti-democratic assault on public schools and other institutions aimed at improving the common good.

“For DeSantis, blocking AP African-American studies is part of a cheap, cynical, and dangerous political ploy to drive division and chaos into public education debates,” Pringle wrote.

“He seeks to distract communities from his real agenda, which is to first whitewash and then dumb down public education as an excuse to privatize it,” she added. “His ultimate goal? The destruction of public education, the very foundation of our democracy.”

“I’ve been a little harsh on it”: Brian Cox mocks hatred of Method acting in fake MasterClass video

In addition to playing patriarch Logan Roy on HBO’s hit series “Succession,” Brian Cox is known for being a vocal critic of Method acting. So much so that he roasted his own hatred of the unconventional acting approach in a fake MasterClass video.

During a recent visit to “The Tonight Show” to promote the upcoming fourth and final season of “Succession,” Cox admitted that he’s “been a little harsh” about his criticisms on Method acting.

“I’m sorry about that… in fact, I’ve been trying to set the record straight in a MasterClass series of acting that I’ve been doing,” Cox told host Jimmy Fallon. “Well actually, I brought a clip. I think this more eloquently explains my feelings about acting. Can we show it?”

In the clip, Cox introduced himself and his parody MasterClass, which is on the craft of acting. He then offered his first tip, saying, “Just f**king do it! Act! Say the f**king lines and don’t bump into the f**king furniture.”

“Succession”‘s Brian Cox felt “silly” for turning down “Game of Thrones” role

Looks like Cox hasn’t changed his views on Method acting after all.

Cox’s ardent disapproval of Method acting garnered media attention in 2021, when the New Yorker published a now-viral profile on Jeremy Strong, who plays Cox’s onscreen son Kendall Roy. In it, Strong’s unwavering devotion to the acting approach portrays him as an intense — and often difficult — actor to work with.

“I think you have to go through whatever the ordeal is that the character has to go through,” Strong said, adding that he refuses to rehearse with his co-stars on the show. “If I have any method at all, it is simply this: to clear away anything — anything — that is not the character and the circumstances of the scene … usually that means clearing away almost everything around and inside you, so that you can be a more complete vessel for the work at hand.”

Back in February, Cox was asked about Strong’s Method acting for a “Town & Country” cover story. In response, he said, “Oh, it’s f**king annoying. Don’t get me going on it.”

“He’s a very good actor,” Cox said of Strong. “And the rest of the ensemble is all okay with this. But knowing a character and what the character does is only part of the skill set. He’s still that guy, because he feels if he went somewhere else he’d lose it. But he won’t! Strong is talented. He’s f**king gifted. When you’ve got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?”

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Oddly enough, Cox’s “Town & Country” cover story published on the same day that Strong graced the cover of GQ’s March issue. Strong addressed Cox’s comments, saying “everyone’s entitled to have their feelings.”

“I also think Brian Cox, for example, he’s earned the right to say whatever the f**k he wants. There was no need to address that or do damage control…,” Strong continued. “I feel a lot of love for my siblings and my father on the show. And it is like a family in the sense that — and I’m sure they would say this, too — you don’t always like the people that you love. I do always respect them.”

In a recent interview with Variety, Cox doubled down on his hatred of Method acting, saying, “It’s really a cultural clash. I don’t put up with all that American s**t. I’m sorry. All that sort of ‘I think, therefore I feel.’ Just do the job. Don’t identify.”

“Succession” returns for its final season on March 26.

about “Succession”:

A brief history of brunch, America’s most indulgent yet over-praised weekend meal

It’s the midday meal you enjoy for endless platters of chicken and waffles, fresh pastries and omelets. It’s the perfect time to share hot gossip while sipping on bottomless mimosas. And, it’s typically eaten as a recovery meal on weekend mornings to cure the hangover from the night before.

After all, it’s brunch we’re talking about! For many, brunch is more than just a meal or a weekend pastime — it’s a tradition, a routine and a lifestyle. But how exactly did brunch come about? And how did it rise to popularity over the years?

The portmanteau of “breakfast” and “lunch” was first coined in 1895, thanks to Guy Beringer, a British writer who penned an article titled “Brunch: A Plea” in Hunter’s Weekly. Beringer envisioned brunch to be a time for good food — eggs, coffee and sweet desserts, just to mention a few — and good company. Essentially, it would be a meal that sparked nothing but joy. He wrote:

“By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well. Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”

Brunch is overrated: On reclaiming the practical joy of a sensible breakfast

In the United States, the term “brunch” was first used in an 1896 edition of the New Oxford Item. Brunch was known as “the latest ‘fad'” and “a repast at 11 o’clock a.m.” A few years later, brunch was described by New York newspaperman Frank Ward O’Malley as “the typical mid-day eating habits of a newspaper reporter.”

By the 1920s — amid prohibition — brunch became associated with daytime drinking culture. Cocktails, which easily masked the presence of alcohol with juices and other sweet beverages, quickly became staple drinks of choice. Thus inspired the creation of several signature brunch cocktails, including the Bloody Mary, Bellini and Mimosa.

“In the early to mid 1900s, brunch offered a platform for people to drink during the day in a socially acceptable fashion,” per The Washington Post. Even though drinking culture was initially reserved for the upper class, that changed in the 1970s, when daytime drinking “loosened the negative stigma,” making it more normal for members of the middle class and women to partake in.

By the 1930s, brunch became a major hit nationwide, encouraging The New York Times to declare Sunday “a two-meal day.” Brunch was also commonly served during transcontinental train trips, which included a customary transfer in Chicago and a “glamorous meal in the late morning/early afternoon,” as mentioned by Bustle. A 1983 New York Times article added that brunch was especially popular at the famous Pump Room in Chicago’s Ambassador Hotel in 1933. There, brunch “was as much a scene as lunch at the Four Seasons is today,” according to food writer and “American Food: The gastronomic story” author Evan Jones.

Soon enough, brunch-specific cookbooks began cropping up. And by the twentieth century, Americans began brunching on both Saturdays and Sundays.

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Today, brunch remains a pricey yet popular affair, particularly in cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Denver. But amongst chefs and former brunch-goers, the meal is deemed a nuisance. As food and drink journalist Maggie Hennessy wrote for Salon, “Brunch by definition bridges breakfast and lunch, meaning no sane person would ever meet for brunch at 9 or 10 am, before it scientifically starts existing. (Let’s face it; even 10:30 feels optimistic.)”

“Thus, I find myself starving on a Saturday or Sunday morning, playing breakfast roulette while on a text chain with my slow-moving friends who swear we’re meeting at 10 this time,” she added. “Should I sneak in a bowl of cereal in case one of these loafers doesn’t make the reservation?“

Perhaps brunch has indeed become overrated. But there’s no denying that it’s also quite tasty — and a great excuse to enjoy drinks before the start of a new week.

about brunch foods:

From cultured to clarified, we break down 12 types of butter

A favorite Julia Child quote: “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”

In her heyday— “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was published in 1961—a lot of people were afraid of butter. When margarine was invented in the late 1800s, it was made with, of all things, beef fat. But by Child’s time, margarine was made with vegetable oils. And that was its claim to fame: Animal fats are “bad” (because they contain cholesterol). Vegetable fats are “good” (because they don’t). Easy-peasy. End of story.

Or, not. Today, we know it’s (a lot) more complicated. Margarine’s once-adored plant-based oils, it turns out, are hydrogenated and often chockfull of trans fats. And butter is being patted on the back for being vitamin-rich. (Oh, how the pendulum swings!) This is all to iterate what Julia tried to tell us years ago: We don’t need to be afraid.

Except now, we’re afraid of picking the wrong type. Saying butter in a recipe is a lot like saying flour (as in, totally unclear). They both have defaults—respectively, unsalted and all-purpose—but the supermarkets and farmer’s markets are overflowing with this type and that type and what if you substituted one for another? Would the world implode if you use salted instead? What’s the difference between American and European? Or between clarified butter and ghee?

Fear not! We’re about to clear up all that and more.

Every Type Of Butter, Explained

1. Unsalted

Today’s default butter, made from pasteurized cream from cows. Ideally, the only ingredient will be “sweet cream,” but “natural flavoring” often tags along. Rely on this buddy for all baking and some sautéing. It begins to brown at 250°F and burn soon after. (For some context: Peanut oil’s smoke point is 450°F.)

2. Sweet Cream

A cuter way of saying unsalted.

3. Salted

The original default butter. Pre-refrigeration, salt was added not for flavor, but as a preservative. Today, it’s optional. The amount of salt varies by brand—hence why baking recipes often encourage you to avoid it, for the sake of consistency—but figure a scant ¼ teaspoon per 4 ounces of butter (1 stick). I keep salted butter in a dish on my kitchen counter for breezy toast-slathering.

4. Cultured

Another original default butter. When butter was handmade on outdoor farms—not in temperature-controlled factories—in the time that it took the cream to rise and separate, lactic acid bacteria began to ferment the dairy, imparting a sour tang. Like salting, this step is now optional. But it’s a beautiful, funky flavor boost. Since the standard in the States is uncultured, labels draw your attention to the detail. But in Europe, where it’s more common, you’ll have to check more carefully. (For instance, Kerrygold’s package reads “pure Irish butter” and “milk from grass-fed cows” on the front. “Cultured” only appears in the ingredients.)

5. European-Style

That said, “European” doesn’t refer to culturing—it refers to the fat content. In the U.S., butter must have a fat content of at least 80%. In Europe, the minimum is higher: at least 82%, and up to 86%. This is oh-so-welcome in butter-forward recipes, like pound cake, puff pastry, or brioche. A few percentage points difference in fat content can noticeably affect the chemistry of a recipe. If you’re adapting a recipe from an American- to European-style butter, do a trial run first (read: not at that holiday dinner you’ve been planning for weeks).

6. Compound

Essentially, flavored butter. In old-school steak houses, this might mean a slowly melting, herby medallion atop a ribeye. But if you DIY, the sky’s the limit. Use plastic wrap to shape into small logs and freeze; slice whenever your steak (or pasta or rice or broccoli) wants a pick-me-up.

7. Whipped

The name says it all: whipped, while nitrogen gas or air is added. What it doesn’t say is that this turns into up to 60% of the final volume. Translation: 1 cup unsalted butter weighs 8 ounces; 1 cup whipped butter, depending on the brand, will likely weigh less than 6 ounces. Which means you’re paying for air. If you prefer the texture for toast, whip away. But don’t cook or bake with this.

8. Drawn

Some people say this is synonymous with clarified. Others say it’s synonymous with melted. Either way, you’ll usually find it hanging out in tiny, plastic cups at seafood shacks, for lobster claw dunking and the like.

9. Clarified

Butter, sans water and milk solids—wait, except, isn’t butter pretty much just fat, water, and milk solids? Ding, ding! Which means clarified butter is pure fat. This extends its shelf life and increases its smoke point to over 400°F. It’s a must for classic French hollandaise. Or just a handy trick for extra-buttery popcorn (start the kernels in clarified butter, then add more clarified butter at the end). Caveat: It becomes grainy when chilled, so this is a cooker, not a spreader. And because its other components are gone with the wind, it is not baking-friendly, either. I like Marion Cunningham’s method from “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook“: Melt butter in a big glass measuring cup in a warm oven. Strain the clear liquid on top through a cheesecloth.

10. Ghee

Not quite the same as clarified, though many assume it is. Ghee is a type of clarified butter—so, same longer shelf life and higher smoke point. It originated in India and is integral to the country’s cuisine. To make ghee, you start out the same as clarified butter—by melting—but take it farther, so the milk solids start to brown, then strain. This creates a rich, nutty flavor.

11. Brown

The French know this as beurre noisette, or hazelnut butter. Not because it contains any hazelnuts, but because it smells like them. The process here is similar to ghee —melt butter until the milk solids fall to the bottom of the pan, then begin to toast—but instead of straining, you keep them around for all their flavor. Just be mindful of timing, since butter goes from brown to burnt in an eye-blink. Keep a cool, heatproof vessel nearby to pour the butter into to halt the cooking.

12. Butter

I would be remiss to not mention my favorite kind of butter—my cat, Butter! Sweet, sometimes salty, depending on the day. You can’t turn her into pound cake or spread her on toast, but she sure is cute!

Note: If you feel like we could talk about this forever—and we could!—check out “Butter: A Rich History” by Elaine Khosrova. It covers all this and so much more.

Principal fired over parent complaints on “pornographic” lesson showing Michelangelo’s “David”

A principal of a Florida charter school was forced to resign from her position after parents of children in a classical art class complained about their kids being exposed to one of the most famous pieces of classical art, Michelangelo’s “David.”

The sculpture, which depicts the biblical character in the nude, was part of a sixth-grade class’s art lesson. Ordinarily, a letter is sent to parents warning them of the lesson’s content before it is given, but Hope Carrasquilla, the school’s former principal, said that a “series of miscommunications” led to the letter not reaching parents in time.

After just three parents complained about the lesson — including one who described the masterpiece as “pornographic” — the Tallahassee Classical School board of directors called for Carrasquilla’s resignation, which she submitted earlier this week.

Carrasquilla is the third principal the school has had since its opening in 2020. Other parents and faculty members have confided in her that they were dismayed that she was forced out of the position, but Barney Bishop, who serves as head of the charter school’s board, claimed that “parental rights are supreme.”

“That means protecting the interests of all parents, whether it’s one, 10, 20 or 50,” he told HuffPost.

The school has more than 530 students, with 56 students enrolled in the sixth grade. Assuming that only three parents took issue with the curriculum that led to Carrasquilla stepping down, just 5.3 percent of sixth-grade parents (and around just half of 1 percent of all the parents of students in the school) lodged complaints about the lesson.

Parental complaints to schools have become a mainstay in Florida, thanks to a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year that allows parents and guardians to issue complaints or even file lawsuits against schools for curriculums they disagree with. Charter schools are generally exempt from the provisions of that law, but Tallahassee Classical School is known to have far right connections.

The public charter school is one of many across the nation that is affiliated with Hillsdale College, a far right Christian school system that has pledged to fight what they claim are “leftist” and “distorted” teachings of American history. The Michigan-based institution opposes factual teachings of history that focus on marginalized groups, including the 1619 Project, which explores the history of slavery, racism and the oppression of Black Americans in the U.S.

Indeed, Hillsdale College helped formulate former President Donald Trump’s “1776 Report,” which many respected historians have condemned for its nationalist themes and for whitewashing wrongs that have taken place in U.S. history.

“It does not take long to read this report as the last great lie from a Trump administration of great lies,” Black and antiracist historian Ibram X. Kendi wrote of the report when it was released in early 2021, adding that it depicts Black people as having “been given ‘privileges’ and ‘preferential treatment’ in nearly every sector of society, which is news to Black people.”

Hillsdale College has connections to other far right figures, including several members of the Trump administration, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and former Vice President Mike Pence, all of whom have given commencement speeches at the institution’s graduation ceremonies. Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results (and who is married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas), worked for Hillsdale as the associate director of the college’s Washington D.C. operations for two years.

“Hillsdale serves as a laboratory and political advocate for fascistic ideas,” a report from The World Socialist Web Site noted last summer. “These include: ‘herd immunity’ in the COVID pandemic, massive US military rearmament and preparations for war with China, anti-immigrant xenophobia, abolition of the separation of church and state, the claim that diversity is ‘unpatriotic’ and threatens ‘national unity,’ opposition to ‘radical gender ideology,’ claims that global warming is a hoax, and the abolition of public education through charter schools and vouchers.”

As a publicly funded charter school in Florida, Tallahassee Classical School receives taxpayer funding to operate.

“Top Chef: World All Stars” goes on a pub crawl and elevates the best of London’s classic dishes

The third episode of “Top Chef: World All Stars” kicks off with Sylwia humbly and sweetly thanking her competitors for their prowess and their friendship, noting that “the world is getting crazier” and how closely affected — as a resident of Poland — she was by the conflict in Ukraine. She notes the importance of respecting other cultures and religions, acknowledging how “some people don’t have a home,” and how honored she feels to be on the show and to learn so much. It’s a sweet, honest moment and just as quickly, Sylwia immediately reverts to her kooky, “Potato Girl” persona, but it was refreshing to see both her genuine appreciation for her being on the show as well as her lamenting over the state of the world.

“Top Chef: World All Stars” cooks with sugar and spice (and everything rice)

Gail and Tom rush into the stew room to let the cheftestants know that there is no quickfire challenge and they’ll actually instead be going on a pub crawl.

Now, this is a reality show in 2023 chockfull of international winners and finalists, so obviously, everyone knows this is leading up to an elimination challenge including dishes found on the pub crawl. I enjoyed seeing that reality laid bare on a show that — 15 years ago — would’ve pretended the cheftestants were in for a stress-free, loosey goosey afternoon, when obviously every viewer knew that that wasn’t the case.

Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons in “Top Chef” (David Moir/Bravo)

Pub crawl!

The first stop is the Lamb and the Flag, which is noted as “the most traditional pub on [our] pub crawl,” and after going upstairs, the cheftestants eat fish and chips, fisherman’s pie and Sunday roast as they’re told about the history of that pub itself. They go on to visit another two pubs and try a sampling of other British pub classics, from toad in a hole (complete with a super funny Victoire confessional on that silly name) to bangers and mash.

The segment is levied by some fun quips from Tom (the cheftestant, not Collicchio, who’s oddly quiet throughout and very much lets Gail take the forefront), a wise observation from Charbel about not drinking too much beer — since the collective understanding was that this would certainly impact the elimination challenge — and an inordinate amount of “potato girl” jokes. Sylwia also talks about her eduction, her background and her father, which immediately makes me anxious for how well she’ll fare later in the episode since we are given so much Sylwia content.

Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Charbel Hayek, Sylwia Stachyra and May Phattanant Thongthong in “Top Chef” (David Moir/Bravo)

We also get our first mentions (foreshadowing!) about the incredible importance of ensuring any and all fried food is extremely crispy, deeply browned and well-seasoned. Buddha mentions his knowledge of these classics since Australian pubs also often sell similar items. I thought Charbel’s inquisitiveness towards Gail as she so expertly tells the group about the ins and outs of all of these foods was sweet.

We also get our first mentions (foreshadowing!) about the incredible importance of ensuring any and all fried food is extremely crispy, deeply browned and well seasoned

The pub crawl ends at Trafalgar Tavern, when Gail tells cheftestants that there are “few things as institutionally British as pub food, so we couldn’t come to London without celebrating this cuisine.” The group is tasked with creating elevated versions that are modernized and reimagined iterations of the classics. The chefs each have numbers under their coasters that will pair them up in teams of two for the elimination challenge. We wind up with Tom and Sara, Begoña and Gabri, Ali and Amar, May and Dale, Luciana and Buddha, Victoire and Sylwia and Charbel and Nicole.

Nicole Gomes and Charbel Hayek in “Top Chef” (David Moir/Bravo)

Teams and menu planning

Literally instantaneously, though, the first pair is off to a rocky start: May and Dale cannot seem to align on a dish to pick, even when they have first pick and this sets the stage for a pairing that truly never gets off on the right foot, unfortunately. They eventually wind up going with Scotch eggs.

Literally instantaneously, though, the first pair is off to a rocky start: May and Dale cannot seem to align on a dish to pick . . .

Charbel and Nicole aim for the Sunday roast, mainly because of the Yorkshire pudding (which Nicole refers to as a “yorkie” approximately 378 times throughout the episode), while Ali and Amar pick fish and chips. Gabri and Begoña select bangers and mash, while Victoire and Sylwia go for “toad in a hole. Tom and Sara opt for shepherd’s pie and, lastly, Buddha and Luciana pick the fish pie. The chefs have two hours to cook before service starts and find out that their guest judge is Brett Graham, “the director for London’s only Michelin-starred pub.”

Also . . . it’s a double elimination, so one entire team will go home.

Buddha Lo, Tom Colicchioa and Gail Simmons in “Top Chef” (David Moir/Bravo)

Dale and May continue to have an oddly negative dynamic, now disagreeing on how to serve the Scotch eggs. Dale’s attitude is pretty obstinate and almost reads bitter, which is weird. Dale has has seemed very capable and generally good natured thus far, so I was surprised the shift in mood the instant he was paired with May, who, unfortunately, then just kind of had to work with what was there. She notes that Dale seems to want to just stay pretty safe and not expand to anything interesting or out-of-the-box. The tension between the pair is apparent through the episode; while the rest of the cheftestants are seen jovial and talking in their respective cars, the camera lingers on a silent Dale and May sitting in the backseat.

Regardless, all of the teams strategize for the shop and the cook for the next day, with lots of delicious-sounding plans abounding throughout.

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Working and cooking together

Amar and Ali discuss their malt vinegar chips and are so incredibly supportive of one another, with Amar even saying they were “meant to be together from day one,” and you can’t have “one without the other,” conflating fish and chips to the pairing of Ali and Amar. Sweet!

Victoire’s sauce is full of cream and mustard and she incorporates African spices into the sausage while Sylwia works on a traditional potato dish called lemieszka, which is essentially a little potato cake, as the base of the team’s “toad in a hole.” The two are a joy to watch and stay very positive throughout.

Luciana and Buddha run into a bit of tension over an improperly made potato puree, with which Luciana sees no issue with but to which Buddha is very adamantly opposed. His skills are on full display here with gorgeous zucchini “scales” on his fish and he also takes the time to remake the potatoes that he deems lacking in some capacity. Gabri and Begoña’s dish of pork belly with bangers, mashed potato foam and onion crackers looks terrific, while Dale and May’s egg yolks seem to be perfect.

Guest judge Brett Graham and James Cochran join our favorites for the tasting at Trafalgar Tavern, noting that these foods are a real departure for some of the chefs, perhaps even feeling “stodgy or heavy” to some. Sylwia and Victoire’s dish is up first and gets top marks from the judges, which was a pleasant surprise for me. Tom though it was a bit too sweet, but the dish garners no other negative feedback at all. Begoña and Gabri’s beautiful dish comes next, which prompts lots of positive comments from both the diners and the judges. Padma even notes that she “practically licked the plate clean.”Ali and Amar’s dish sounds terrific, with seaweed battered cod, minted peas, tahini and malt vinegar chips. Everything is great, but unfortunately, the batter isn’t crispy at all and is too dense.

Luciana Berry and Buddha Lo in “Top Chef” (David Moir/Bravo)

Sara and Tom breezily work together, producing a truly lovely dish consisting of lamb dust, pea gel, pea puree (which obviously immediately made me think of the “pea pureee scandal” of season 7), fresh peas, lamb stock and infused carrots.

Buddha and Luciana’s dish is a stunner and they each reference the “progression” of the deconstructed dish, which looks nothing like a fish pie but tastes precisely like one. Nicole and Charbel’s dish of seared pork tenderloin with leek fondue, celeriac potatoes, glazed carrots and Yorkshire pudding, as well as a brown butter pork jus with apple cider is not especially celebrated, with a mention that it’s more of a Monday stew than a Sunday stew, but Nicole’s “yorkie” saves the day. Charbel’s efforts, unfortunately, aren’t applauded. May and Dale present their Thai-style Scotch egg with mint and cilantro aioli and Thai fish sauce dressing, which again has a striking, runny yolk, but the judges aren’t bowled over. Yet again, a fried item is just simply not crispy enough.

Sara and Tom also deliver probably my favorite joint confessional of the episode as Tom shakes out the tricks “up his sleeve.”

Judges’ table

Moments later, Padma enters the stew room (looks like a formal dining room elsewhere in the tavern) and lets the cheftestants know that she’s very full, but would like to see Dale and May, Luciana and Buddha, Ali and Amar and Gabri and Begna. Interesting! It’s also fun when Padma mixes up the top and bottom group announcements, but I also really thought Sara and Tom would be part of that top group. Obviously, Dale and May and Ali and Amar are our bottom, leaving Luciana and Buddha and Begoña and Gabri as the top. Begoña is on the verge of tears and is so proud of Gabri.

The judges say that the sauce was amazingly intense for only two hours, that the dish could’ve transported you back to a childhood memory and that the flavor was “familiar,” which the guest judge fund really terrific. Buddha and Luciana’s fish pie was an amazing display of technique, with beautifully cooked fish and perfectly pickled onions. Padma says that she dislikes fish pie but this dish may have singularly converted her. Gail, in a moment that perfectly encapsulates why I adore her, says that the dish “fanned out the deck of cards of fish pie flavors to really show off what they are.”

Gail, in a moment that perfectly encapsulates why I adore her, says that the dish “fanned out the deck of cards of fish pie flavors to really show off what they are.”

Brett announced that the winning team is Luciana and Buddha, which Buddha celebrates by noting that he is such a fan of Brett’s and he “aspires to be him,” which was such a meaningful moment and I’m sure resonated so much with Graham, who looked a bit verklempt after Buddha’s glorifying admission.

Brett Graham, Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons in “Top Chef” (David Moir/Bravo)

On the flip side, unfortunately, are the bottom teams. Dale and May make their way through a predictably awkward discussion with the judges in breaking down the dish, especially when May says that she wanted to deconstruct the original dish and Dale says “we never talked about that.” This line of questioning is then immediately dropped and the judges move right over to Ali and Amar, which seemed strange to me not to further explore the tension between Dale and May. Ali and Amar talk about how things went well and they were comfortable and happy and the judges remind the bottom teams that no one was bad and everyone properly approached the challenge — the singular issue for both dishes was improperly frying their main component. The judges remark that perhaps Amar’s batter should’ve only contained egg whites and not whole eggs, which may have added to the heavy nature of the batter.

Back in the stew room, Ali remarks that he’s disappointed and embarrassed in his silly mistake, especially after his win last week. May notes that she would feel “okay” if she went home. Of course, as I stated, last week was both Ali’s and May’s breakout episode, so it’s a bummer to see both of them in position to go home. The judges discuss how Ali and Amar’s chips were so good and crunchy; their decidedly un-crispy fish was cooked fine, but wasn’t anything special, especially since it was somewhat soggy. In regards to May and Dale, the judges loved the flavors of the salad but wanted a crispier egg.

The bottom teams shuffle back to the judges’ table (with a very cinematic shot of Ali walking up the stairs). Tom notes that both teams are there for the same reason: good dishes with basic technique issues, but one dish was a little less successful than the other.

Padma then tells May and Dale to PYKAG and they both accept defeat, heading back to the stew room to say their goodbyes to their fellow cheftestants. Dale wanted to set an example of how to lead for his son and his staff, which he thinks he did and Begoña cries when saying goodbyes to May, who says “I didn’t show them all of my talent, all that I have.” As the sun shines through the windows and slightly blurs the lens, the vibe of the room is on full display, with many cheftestants visibly unhappy to have to bid adieu to the losing team. May says she’s still proud of herself, though and that it felt good to “stand amongst great chefs of the ‘Top Chef’ world.” She thanks us and bows as the episode ends.

Final notes

This episode was not as “fun” as the first two and seemingly had intrinsic limits just in terms of the breadth of the London pub classics with which the cheftestants were working. At the same time, though, Tom has quickly become one of my favorites and Sara is probably my #2, so I loved watching them work together! The editing is very sharp this season. I thought the Male/Day focus would end up being a diversion from an Ali/Amar boot, but I overthought it and May and Dale did eventually go. Their egg was gorgeous with a perfect yolk, but it was clear to me (and then reiterated by the judges) that the frying was off, with an unappetizing, mealy-looking coating that blended the bread crumbs and the sausage. Also, such an oddly Padma-lite episode? I love Gail and could listen to her all day long, but I wonder if that’s a conscious decision made by production this season.

Also, such an oddly Padma-lite episode?

I’m glad that Ali was able to stay, though! I’m still rooting for Dawn in LCK, but certainly wouldn’t be disappointed with a May win.

“Top Chef: World All Stars” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo and streams next day on Peacock.

about “Top Chef” and pub food: