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Panic as US federal workers scramble to find out if they’ve been fired: ‘I don’t have email access’

Panic as US federal workers scramble to find out if they’ve been fired: ‘I don’t have email access’

Education department staff say they can’t access work emails amid the shutdown to check for layoff notices Federal workers are scrambling to figure out if they still have a job after the Trump administration launched a fresh wave of layoffs amid a federal government shutdown, prompting widespread confusion and panic. A hearing is scheduled to take place today after labor unions sued to block the latest firings, setting the stage for another legal battle over Donald Trump ’s efforts to drastically cut back the federal workforce. Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth’s attempt to gag journalism is a resounding failure | Margaret Sullivan

Pete Hegseth’s attempt to gag journalism is a resounding failure | Margaret Sullivan

Hegseth wants journalists to only publish ‘explicitly authorized’ information. That is not how the free press works Tom Bowman of National Public Radio recalls one of the many times in his decades covering the Pentagon when the real story wasn’t the officially approved story. Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was “ecstatic” after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, insisting publicly that it showed the resounding success of the US invasion of Iraq, Bowman wrote in an NPR opinion piece this week. But through informal conversations with officers, Bowman soon found out that the truth was much more complicated – that more American troops would have to be deployed to Iraq to guard the supply lines that were under attack from Saddam Hussein’s supporters. Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie review – sunny, wholesome cat-obsessed tale that knows its audience

Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie review – sunny, wholesome cat-obsessed tale that knows its audience

Kristen Wiig goes all Cruella as the evil cat lady pitted against Gabby and her grandma, Gloria Estefan, desperate as she is to get her hands on that doll’s house If you have children of the appropriate age you will be familiar with the cat-obsessed Netflix show Gabby’s Dollhouse . It’s sunny, sweet and wholesome; a crafting bonanza packed with kitty catchphrases like “pawesome!” and “ab-so-cat-a-loutely”. The series’ super-likable star Laila Lockhart Kraner plays Gabby, a girl who shrinks down to become a tiny cartoon version of herself to play in her doll’s house. The movie comes just in time for Lockhart Kraner, who is 17 and won’t be able to pull off playing with doll’s houses for much longer. (The ending of the film gives a strong hint where the producers might be taking their franchise in the post-Lockhart Kraner future). It begins with Gabby visiting her grandma (Gloria Estefan), taking along her doll’s house and its inhabitants, including magical Kitty Fairy who cries sprinkles as tears. Continue reading...

The not-so secret language of fascist fashion

The not-so secret language of fascist fashion

Today’s rightwingers want their message to go mainstream, so it’s coming to a store near you Fascism is back in style. Forget the old symbols: swastikas, nooses, Confederate flags, skinheads’ shaved heads and combat boots. Extremism has a new look, and it is as fashionable as ever. Today’s extremist styles are more diverse and more subtle. Beyond T-shirts that advertise blatant racism, polo shirts with coded symbols create a shared in-group identity and signal support of violence to other believers. Tradwife-style prairie dresses and beauty regimens promote conservative visions of family. Clothing is a powerful tool to spread fascist ideas to promote authoritarianism and recruit new members to this cause. Continue reading...

Where do babies come from? Robert F Kennedy Jr doesn’t seem to know | Arwa Mahdawi

Where do babies come from? Robert F Kennedy Jr doesn’t seem to know | Arwa Mahdawi

Science tells us that foetuses develop in the uterus, rather than the placenta – but the US health secretary has a different take. Why are Republicans so clueless about women’s bodies? Robert F Kennedy Jr is the father of six children. He’s also the US health secretary. Two facts that might lead a reasonable person to assume he possesses a basic understanding of how foetuses develop. In a shocking development, however, it seems that Kennedy – an anti-vaxxer who says his brain was partly eaten by a parasitic worm – may not know what he’s talking about. During a cabinet meeting last Thursday , Kennedy reasserted unproven claims that taking the common painkiller acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol or paracetamol, while pregnant causes autism . Doubters of this theory, he said, were motivated by Trump derangement syndrome. To underscore his point, he referenced a TikTok video he’d seen of a pregnant woman “gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta”. Continue reading...

Nursing unions call for UK to back prosecutions for war crimes against health workers

Nursing unions call for UK to back prosecutions for war crimes against health workers

Calls come as report shows number of health workers killed in conflicts has risen five-fold in less than a decade War crimes targeting health workers, patients and facilities should be prioritised for international criminal prosecution, senior nursing and medical leaders have urged. The number of health workers killed annually in conflicts has jumped five-fold in less than a decade, and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and British Medical Association (BMA) have called for action from the UK government to fully back international criminal court (ICC) prosecutions of perpetrators. Continue reading...