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Christian evangelical institution punished victims ‘for violating the student code of conduct’ as ‘assailants were left unpunished’

Some of the initial content - the article is well written:

Liberty University fined $14m over ‘culture of silence’ around sexual assault

Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating “a culture of silence” around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.

Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a statement that the Christian evangelical institution had punished sexual assault victims “for violating the student code of conduct”, while “their assailants were left unpunished” – a violation of federal law.

Liberty was founded in 1971 by the television preacher Jerry Falwell Sr, the Baptist minister who, eight years later, created the Moral Majority movement that mobilized the Christian right to the cause of the Republican party. The university was notified two years ago by the department that it would be conducting a review of the institution under the Clery Act, which requires the disclosure of campus security information.

Students of the university, which is located near Lynchburg, Virginia, are required to follow The Liberty Way, a student honor code that prohibits sexual relations outside of “a biblically-ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman”.

But signs that aspects of the code – and law – were failing came in 2021 when Liberty spokesperson Scott Lamb was fired for standing up for 22 female students represented in a lawsuit that claimed the university “enabled on-campus rapes” and suppressed complaints of sexual assault and rape, a violation of federal Title IX statutes, in what it said was “the weaponization of the ‘Liberty Way’”.

Linus Torvalds just issued Linux 6.8-rc7 as we close in on the Linux 6.8 stable release in the next week or two.

With prior weekly release candidates there were concerns raised by Torvalds that this might be a cycle needing to go with an extra "-rc8" candidate before declaring the stable kernel. But this week Linux 6.8-rc7 did tick on the smaller side and in turn Linus expressed the possibility of not needing 6.8-rc8, in which case the Linux 6.8 stable release would happen next Sunday on 10 March. But if things don't go smoothly, Linux 6.8-rc8 would come then and then v6.8 the following Sunday.

Statcounter, a website that tracks the market share of web browsers, operating systems, and search engines, is reporting that Linux on the desktop has over 4% market share for the very first time (Statcounter records ChromeOS as a separate operating system despite being based on Linux). Statcounter doesn’t provide any explanation about why the market share has increased but we can speculate what’s going on.

Linux’s march to its 4.03% market share has been a steady process ever since the final months of 2020 when Linux held just 1.53% of desktop market share. One of the biggest contributors to the growth of Linux is likely the stringent hardware requirements of Windows 11.

Overall, the analysis, released as a pre-print, found that RTO mandates did not improve a firm's financial metrics, but they did decrease employee satisfaction.

Drilling down, the data indicated that RTO mandates were linked to firms with male CEOs who had greater power in the company. Here, power is measured as the CEO’s total compensation divided by the average total compensation paid to the four highest-paid executives in the firm.

This is an interesting metric. And the research outcome makes a lot of sense.

Also, RTO policies are garbage - but I'm stating the obvious.

Some context from the top of the article:

Journalism and human rights organizations are calling for police to drop criminal charges against a reporter arrested in Edmonton this month.

On Jan. 10, award-winning Indigenous journalist and author Brandi Morin was arrested and charged with obstructing a peace officer during the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) clearing of an Indigenous encampment at Rowland Road and 95 Street. The criminal charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison upon conviction.

Desperate state of health system means unnecessary amputations being done on kids as young as 1, surgeon says

Before the war started in Gaza, Moustafa Ahmed Shehda would run around and play with his friends. Now, the 12-year-old is one of a growing number of Palestinians in the territory who've lost a limb in a bombing.

Moustafa is from Jabalia in northern Gaza, which has been hit particularly hard in the fighting. Early on in the war between Israel and Hamas, he was visiting his uncle when the apartment building was bombed.

"I was under the rubble. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't breathe," Moustafa told Mohamed El Saife, a freelance journalist in Gaza working for CBC News.

His uncle was killed, and Moustafa was pulled from the rubble. Because of the extent of his injuries, his right leg had to later be amputated below the knee.

"Before the war, I used to play with my friends," he said. "I can't play because of my injury. I can't play, and I don't have friends, and I don't have anything."

Palestinian health officials said on Saturday that 26,257 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began bombing the small enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas-led militants while nearly 65,000 have been wounded.

An oldie, but a goodie - in honor of the news with that Max model losing its Window at high altitudes.

It turns out engineering is important. Who could have known? /s

Signs touting ‘auto workers for Trump’ at Michigan rally found to be fake – report At least two people holding signs saying ‘union members for Trump’ and ‘auto workers for Trump’ turned out to be neither

Martin Pengelly in Washington @MartinPengelly Thu 28 Sep 2023 10.48 EDT When Donald Trump gave a speech in Michigan on Wednesday, seeking to capitalise on the United Auto Workers strike, at least two crowd members holding signs saying “union members for Trump” and “auto workers for Trump” turned out to be neither.

The Detroit News reported: “One individual in the crowd who held a sign that said ‘union members for Trump’ acknowledged that she wasn’t a union member when approached by a reporter after the event.

“Another person with a sign that read ‘auto workers for Trump’ said he wasn’t an auto worker when asked for an interview. Both people didn’t provide their names.”

The paper said between 400 and 500 people attended the event, at a non-unionised automotive parts supplier in Clinton Township.

Trump skipped a Republican debate in California to visit Macomb county. Politico pointed out why, saying Macomb “occupies a unique role on the political map.

“Of the more than 3,000 counties in the US, it’s hard to find one that’s a better barometer of the atmospheric conditions affecting the 2024 election [than] Macomb county, with its high percentage of UAW workers.

“… The blue-collar suburb is often referred to as a bellwether, though … it’s more like an indicator species in biology, offering important clues on the environmental health of an ecosystem.”

One attendee at Trump’s speech who was an auto worker, Doug King, 55, told the Detroit News: “The four years under Trump were the best years that we had in the auto industry.”

Trump told workers negotiations between the UAW and Ford, General Motors and Stellantis “don’t mean as much as you think”.

Railing against the shift to electric vehicles, he added: “You can be loyal to American labour or you can be loyal to the environmental lunatics. But you can’t really be loyal to both. It’s one or the other.”

A spokesperson for Joe Biden, Kevin Munoz, called Trump’s speech “incoherent”, “pathetic” and “recycled”.

Trump went to Michigan a day after Biden. On Tuesday, in a historic moment in neighbouring Wayne county, Biden joined a UAW picket line and expressed support for striking workers.

The president did so at the invitation of the union president, Shawn Fain. Fain did not meet Trump, telling CNN the former president, the Republican presidential frontrunner, “serves the billionaire class”.

“I see no point in meeting with him because I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” Fain said. “He serves the billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong with this country.”

WASHINGTON—In an effort to address voters hurt by recent actions that resulted in her being thrown out of a theatrical performance, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) announced Friday that she would personally jerk off any constituents she offended. “In the past week, I’ve heard from many supporters who were concerned by my behavior in recently released footage, which is why I’m offering to make things good between us by jacking you off,” said Boebert, instructing supporters to contact her office with proof of Colorado residency and she would personally travel to their home to deliver an on-the-house tugjob. “As a disclaimer, I will be wearing a latex glove and you need to wipe yourself off afterwards. I’m not going to do that. I’m serious about making amends, however, so feel free to rest your hand on my breasts, if necessary. Just know that this a one week only deal. So get in touch soon.” At press time, Boebert also warned her constituents that she planned to vape the entire time.

While India waits for the Supreme Court's verdict on legalising same-sex marriage, an LGBTQ couple's recent wedding in the northern state of Punjab has made headlines - and also created controversy.

Dimple, 27 - who uses the pronoun he - and Manisha, 21, married in Bathinda city on 18 September with the blessings of their families - something that's highly unusual in a conservative country like India.

But what was even more unusual was that their marriage was solemnised in a gurdwara - a Sikh temple - with the bride and groom performing all traditional rituals.

The wedding has been criticised by some religious leaders, including Sikhism's highest priest Giani Raghbir Singh who declared that "same-sex marriage was unnatural and contrary to Sikh ethics".

The marriage of two women in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib - the holy Sikh scripture - was "a severe moral and religious violation", he said, and instructed the Bathinda gurdwara committee to suspend priest Hardev Singh, who conducted the marriage, and three others from their duties until further notice.

Hardev Singh has since been removed from his position. In his defence, he said that he couldn't figure out that both the bride and the groom were female as one of the women was wearing a turban.

Dimple has questioned the claim, saying that they had provided copies of their identity proof to the gurdwara so there was no reason for confusion.

Dimple is from Mansa district while Manisha is from Bathinda - both are remote areas where LGBTQ+ rights are rarely ever discussed in public. Dimple, an upper-caste Jatt Sikh, and Manisha, a Dalit Hindu, met at a garment factory in Zirakpur, a town near Punjab's capital Chandigarh, where they both worked.

When I met them a few days after their wedding, they looked like any happy newly-wed couple. The couple told me that their Anand Karaj (or Sikh wedding ceremony) was attended by nearly 70 relatives.

In their wedding photographs and videos, Dimple appears dressed as a traditional Sikh groom with the customary garland of flowers tied to his maroon turban, while his bride Manisha is wearing a maroon and gold tunic, salwar bottoms and a silk scarf and both her arms are covered with red bangles.

Dimple, who mostly dresses in a shirt and trousers and keeps his hair short, says when he told his parents that he had no interest in boys, they understood and "extended their support, expressing joy in his happiness".

An only child, he once contemplated gender reassignment surgery and even consulted a doctor, but decided against it as his parents were concerned about the procedure's outcomes.

It was in 2017 after he moved to Zirakpur for work that he became more aware of LGBTQ+ issues. "There, I met like-minded friends who understood my situation and I also gained awareness from YouTube," he says.

Manisha, says Dimple, wasn't his first love. "I was in a relationship with a girl for five years. Earlier this year, we broke up. Then I dated another girl for three-four months, but that also didn't work out."

Manisha, who was then a co-worker and a friend, often helped him resolve his differences with his girlfriend.

"That's when I realised that Manisha could be a better partner for me. She also enjoyed my company, we grew closer and had long chats. So, we officially became a couple a month ago," says Dimple.

Manisha says he proposed to her over the phone just three or four days after they began their relationship, adding that she readily accepted. "A women needs a life partner who understands her, respects her, showers her with love, and treats her like a child."

But it did take some effort to convince her parents that she wanted to marry Dimple.

"My mother told me it's not possible to marry a girl. Eventually, I convinced her that if she wanted my happiness, then she had to let me marry who I wanted. Once she agreed, she also persuaded my father."

Their parents then met and the wedding date was finalised. As Dimple is a practising Sikh, his parents say he wanted to marry following Sikh rituals so they approached the gurdwara priest.

The couple insist that they never hid their identities and show the marriage certificate Bathinda gurdwara committee has issued them.

India decriminalised gay sex in 2018, but same-sex marriages still lack official recognition. The Supreme Court recently heard a slew of petitions seeking marriage equality and judgement is due soon.

So at the moment, a same-sex marriage is not legal in India which means that Dimple and Manisha cannot access rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples, but at the same time, experts say it is not considered a felony.

But the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the apex religious body of Sikhism says it is investigating if there have been any violations of religious codes.

Alongside a daily ration of gruesome videos of drone strikes and false claims about Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, they share ads for anything from cryptocurrency to fashion.

Known in Russia as "Z-Bloggers" because of their support for a war often symbolised by the letter Z, they are often embedded with the Russian army and post footage from the front line where they call on young Russians to enlist.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, pro-war influencers have gained millions of followers on Telegram, the social media platform many Russians turned to after President Vladimir Putin banned Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

That explosion in users has led to a surge in Telegram's advertising market.

War influencers have taken advantage of this. They sell ad spaces for companies looking to reach their young audiences.

To find out how much they charge, members of the BBC's Global Disinformation Team posed as hotel owners interested in posting ads on their channels.

We reached out to some of the most prominent players.

One of them was Alexander Kots, a veteran correspondent for a pro-government newspaper who became a war influencer, with more than 600,000 followers on his personal Telegram channel.

Alexander Kots said it would cost 48,000-70,000 roubles (£440-£680) per post on his channel, depending on how long the ad was kept at the top of his Telegram feed. WarGonzo quoted us the equivalent of £1,550 per post.

Top war influencers post at least one ad per day, so their potential income dwarfs Russia's average monthly wage of 66,000 roubles (£550).

An advertising agent working with Wagner-linked channels quoted us the equivalent of £260 per ad in Grey Zone, a Telegram channel with exclusive access to Wagner and over 600,000 followers.

To advertise on the channel of Alexander Simonov, a correspondent for the Ria Fan website founded by late mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, the agent quoted £180 per post.

Another Ria Fan reporter, Alexander Yaremchuk, has fewer followers so his rates are lower, at £86 per post.

While some of the Z-bloggers have significant experience of war reporting for state-run media, others like Maryana Naumova have no professional training.

A former powerlifter, she took a reporting course on a Wagner mercenary base and now presents her own show on national TV.

The BBC tried to interview prominent war-bloggers, but Alexander Kots was the only one of them who agreed to talk.

Speaking from the occupied Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, he described himself as a reporter in an information war. Nevertheless he understood Russia's propaganda depended, in part, on people like him.

"The Ministry of Defence often listens to us, and we have a direct channel to privately communicate information to them. It's all behind the scenes, and I do that," he said.

The growing market for the Z-bloggers' material is sustained by a steady stream of exclusive videos. The footage brings them a diverse following, from domestic pro-war audiences to Western and Ukrainian analysts trying to understand what is really going on in the Russian trenches.

However, some of the videos posted by the pro-war bloggers are fake.

Last March, prominent influencers including Alexander Kots posted a dashcam video that purported to show two Ukrainian soldiers stopping a car with a woman and a small child.

The gunmen in the video call the woman "a pig" for speaking Russian and threaten her. Z-bloggers said the video was a perfect example of how Ukraine treated civilians.

But we have geolocated this video to Makiivka, a town near Donetsk. This area of Ukraine has been occupied by pro-Russian proxy forces since 2014. It is impossible that a uniformed Ukrainian soldier could have operated in this occupied territory.

Added to that, the use of dashcams is illegal in Ukraine. The ban was imposed after the full-scale Russian invasion to keep troop movements secret.

And the cross on the vehicle is different from the one used by Ukraine's armed forces. All these elements suggest the video was staged.

It is one of many fakes spread by Z-bloggers to encourage young Russians to support the war, and there is evidence they are succeeding.

In one video a mobilised Russian man says he went to a recruitment centre after watching a number of videos from Vladlen Tatarsky, one of the most vocal bloggers. Tatarsky was killed in April 2023 at a meeting with his fans.

Another Russian man who volunteered to fight in Ukraine told a blogger he did so after watching a lot of WarGonzo reports. "I follow all the military news and analysis on Telegram," he said, referring to the Z-bloggers.

Asked to respond to the rise of pro-Putin war bloggers on the platform, Telegram said it was the "last platform through which Russians can access independent media outlets like Meduza, uncensored international news like the BBC or [President] Zelensky's speeches".

A spokesman said while all parties were "treated equally", Telegram respected international sanctions and blocked Russian state media "where laws forbid it".

Over the course of the war, President Putin has shown his appreciation of the Z-bloggers' efforts.

He appointed Alexander Kots to the presidential human rights council and made Semyon Pegov and several other bloggers members of a working group on mobilisation.

In June, he invited pro-war influencers and state media reporters to the Kremlin for a two-hour long conversation.

"The fight in the information space is a battlefield. A crucial battlefield," he told them. "And I really count on your help."