LaMonte McLemore, the bass voice behind some of the most joyful pop music of the late 1960s, has died at 90. He passed away Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas, surrounded by family, after suffering a stroke, reports the Guardian. — Read the rest

The post LaMonte McLemore, founding member of the 5th Dimension, RIP appeared first on Boing Boing.

On October 24, 2011, venture capitalist and Bill Gates advisor Boris Nikolic emailed Jeffrey Epstein about a meeting with 4chan founder Christopher Poole. "How did you like moot?" he asked, using Poole's username. "I liked him a lot. I drove him home, he is very bright," Epstein replied. — Read the rest

The post Epstein met 4chan's founder the day before /pol/ launched appeared first on Boing Boing.

Gavin Newsom is California's slickest retail politician and conservative media's favorite coastal elite. The Daily Show covers Newsom's highly probable rise, family ties, and bulletproof hair.

The Daily Show doesn't crown Gavin Newsom as a savior or condemn him as a menace. — Read the rest

The post The Daily Show explains Gavin Newsom to people outside California appeared first on Boing Boing.

As the trial finished at Woolwich Crown Court of the six Palestine Action activists who entered the Filton factory to destroy Israeli killer drones, Starmer, Cooper, Lammy and Mahmood are left bereft of a single guilty verdict in the case on which they relied heavily to label Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

I could not, on pain of imprisonment, tell you this during the trial. One item produced by the prosecution as evidence was the notebook of Charlotte Head, on which she had written details from her training session with Palestine Action and of the proposed direct action against Elbit's drone factory.

The first ten pages of her notes were about the Israeli weapons company Elbit, their footprint in the UK, their corporate structure and the weapons they manufacture, and the evidence of the use of their weaponry in the genocide in Gaza.

The jury were shown the notebook but were specifically not allowed to see the first ten pages. Throughout the trial anything that referred to the crimes of Elbit, their role in the mass killing and mutilation of women and children, and their cosy relationship with the British government, was excluded from the jury. The judge continually stopped the defence lawyers from asking or saying anything about who ELbit are or why their property was being attacked.

The defendants were not permitted therefore to explain to the jury why they did what they did, which you might have believed was a pretty fundamental right. The jury were additionally in effect instructed by Judge Johnson to convict on the least serious charge, that of of criminal damage.

But despite the state taking every possible precaution to ensure that the state got its convictions in this show trial, the jury refused to find that trying to stop Genocide is a crime.

This trial was fundamental to the government's argument that Palestine Action is a terrorist organisation. And the key to that was the accusation that Palestine Action intended from the start harm to people, not just to property. That is why these defendants were all charged with "aggravated burglary".

Aggravated burglary is an extremely serious charge, carrying a potential life sentence. It is the offence of breaking into a property with the intent to use a weapon. On aggravated burglary, all six defendants were found resoundingly Not Guilty.

So the attempt to portray Palestine Action as an organisation involved in violence against persons has fallen flat on its face. Because the jury could see it was stupid and obviously untrue.

When it comes to events after the activists were attacked by security guards, three of the six were found not guilty of the charge of "violent disorder". On three others the jury could not reach a verdict.

Most interesting of all perhaps was the charge of criminal damage to Elbit's machinery and instruments of genocide. Here Judge Johnson to all intents and purposes had instructed the jury to convict. Yet enough of the jury could not accept that stopping Genocide is a crime.

The final question was the charge against Samuel Corner of Grievous Bodily Harm with Intent. This was the famous incident where the security guards attacked the defendants with weapons and there was a melee as they defended themselves.

It is worth stating that the tabloid stories and right wing meme of "a policewoman's spine was fractured" was always utter nonsense. As the defence closing speech stated:

The prosecution have said it was a fracture to the spine, a deliberate choice of words which although technically accurate, conjure up a break, a snapping of the spinal vertebrae. Maybe that's what the jury had in mind until they saw the CT scan - it was actually an injury that wasn't obvious. The doctors looking at the first X-rays didn't identify any bone damage, nor in an MRI later.

The injury didn't require surgery and Sergeant Evans was advised to take painkillers and do physiotherapy. The agreed facts state from medical evidence that you'd expect such a fracture to heal in six to twelve weeks, with full healing in three to six months, and no long-term consequences.

The unfortunate policewoman suffered no damage at all to her spinal cord. She had a possible hairline fracture to the wing of one vertebrae. That there was any fracture at all was never definitive from the X rays and MRIs.  Whether it reached the bar of grievous bodily harm was disputed, how it was caused was disputed and whether there was any intent to harm was disputed. The refusal of the jury to convict was completely consistent with the evidence heard in court.

This has driven right wingers into a frenzy with completely false claims about the extent of the injury, and continued reference to a highly edited brief video clip.

That video clip is extremely important because it represents the height of the state's attempt to use this incident to demonise Palestine Action. The police were permitted, during the course of the trial, to release a single and highly edited clip of video said to represent the injury of Sergeant Evans by a sledgehammer. A great deal of other video evidence was not released. This resulted in a massive media frenzy.

Even before this, Yvette Cooper and Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley had caused massive prejudice by stating that a policewoman had been attacked with a slegehammer.

None of these deliberate attempts to affect the trial was censured by the judge nor resulted in any proceedings for contempt of court. Yet we were strictly told we absolutely could not mention that the judge was withholding the evidence about Elbit from the jury, as that would prejudice the trial, and we would face contempt of court proceedings.

On Sergeant Evans, she has become a cause celebre for the right, but I should say there is no evidence she is herself whipping this up. Her behaviour on the night was admirable. She was not herself involved in the excessive use of force, and despite her own painful bank tended to others after the event quietened.

In my view this prosecution was doomed by the overcharging and exaggeration used by the government to demonise Palestine Action. The "aggravated burglary" charge was ludicrous. To attempt to claim that the activists entered the factory with the intent of using weapons against people, went so far against the evidence it was bound to fail.

The massive over-exaggeration of the extent of Sergeant Evans' injury has successfully whipped up right wing hysteria, but did not really meet the threshhold of grievous bodily harm, and the decision to add intent to that charge was again not backed by evidence.

On criminal damage, the jury plainly refused to accept the destruction of weapons of genocide was a crime. For that, I salute them. For the rest, they simply applied robust commonsense to the evidence before them.

The "policewoman attacked with a sledgehammer" nonsense of course featured heavily in the English judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. In the Scottish judicial review, they cannot really use this - not without a caveat that a jury did not agree with them.

The Filton result is great news for the Scottish judicial review. We have to submit all the paperwork for that, in just seven working days. I hate to say this, but we are now desperately short of funds to continue this action. I cannot keep asking the same supporters to give more, but if you know people who can afford it and will contribute please activate them.

You can donate through the link via Crowd Justice, which goes straight to the lawyers, or through this blog.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/scottish-challenge-to-proscription/

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Or crypto:

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Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a

The post Filton Acquittals Demolish Starmer and Cooper Lies About Palestine Action appeared first on Craig Murray.

According to new reporting from NPR, the U.S. Public Health Service has been quietly sidelined inside ICE detention centers, leaving medical care understaffed, unaccountable, and increasingly outsourced to the lowest bidder.

Unsurprisingly, medical care at ICE "detention centers," or more accurately, concentration camps, has been eroded from its previously thin levels to a system so frustrating that the medical staff are quitting. — Read the rest

The post ICE detention centers are now a public health hazard appeared first on Boing Boing.

Asked a simple and humane question: why she thought it was appropriate to use people freed from Hamas captivity to promote her movie, Melania Trump once again demonstrated her soulless grift and deflected, treating human trauma as set dressing for a personal brand op. — Read the rest

The post Melania uses hostages freed by Hamas to promote her movie appeared first on Boing Boing.

What happens when learning English stops being a bridge into society and starts to feel like a test of belonging you can fail? That is the question raised by the the UK government's proposed new immigration policy, which would raise English-language requirements for most visa routes, with the aim of improving integration and workforce readiness. This represents an increase in emphasis on language proficiency. Applicants would have to demonstrate higher proficiency in speaking, reading, writing and listening. There would be stricter testing standards and fewer exemptions, aligning immigration with strong communication skills for employment and community participation.

Ministers say the proposed policies will promote "integration" and "opportunity". But it risks doing the opposite, by turning English for speakers of other languages (Esol) into a tool of surveillance rather than inclusion.

We are part of the Coalition for Language Education, a network of academics, teachers and organisations. The group argues that the proposed policy treats the ability to speak English less as a means of empowerment and more as a mechanism of immigration control.

By tying long-term residence and citizenship to staged progress in learning English, the policy reframes language not as a shared public good, but as a condition of acceptance. In effect, English becomes a kind of border.

Language shapes how we live together. It's how people build relationships, find work, take part in communities and participate in democracy. But it can also be used to divide and exclude.

For non-native speakers, learning English has long been about helping people navigate everyday life, express themselves and feel at home. The government's proposals, however, position English proficiency as a test of belonging - something to be proved, measured and monitored.

Under the plan, migrants seeking settlement or citizenship would be required to show staged progress in English, moving from basic to upper-intermediate levels over a ten-year period. Language attainment would be linked to a points-based system that also tracks employment and civic participation.

Language acquisition, however, is not linear. Progress is shaped by trauma, health, caring responsibilities, work patterns and previous education. For refugees and others who have experienced displacement or interrupted schooling, the expectation of steady, testable improvement can be unrealistic and punitive.

Reducing these complex learning journeys to tick-box benchmarks turns learning English into a compliance exercise. Linguistic ability becomes confused with effort, morality and even loyalty. Passing tests is seen as proof of trying hard, so failure implies laziness. Fluency becomes linked to being a "good" or "deserving" migrant. High proficiency signals commitment to national identity, while lower ability is framed as resistance.

This is not just a UK issue either. Around the world, language education has increasingly been tied to immigration control. What is new with this proposal is how openly English is framed as something to be audited.

In the UK, attendance, test results and progression targets risk becoming data points used to monitor behaviour, rather than tools to support learning. Teachers are pushed to prioritise performance indicators over dialogue, confidence-building and community connection.

When language becomes a tool of control, it reshapes citizenship itself, testing people against a narrow linguistic ideal and eroding democratic values. Equality, fairness, inclusion and participation erode when language becomes a gatekeeping tool. Narrow linguistic standards exclude diverse speakers, denying equal access to citizenship and civic rights.

Beyond its ideology, the proposed policy also fails on practical grounds. Esol provision across the UK is already underfunded and uneven. Community and voluntary providers, who support many of the most marginalised learners, are expected to deliver high-stakes outcomes with limited resources.

But there are no commitments to teacher training, pay, or access for women, refugees, or rural learners. There is little recognition of the barriers many learners face, including trauma, caring responsibilities or lack of access to childcare and transport. Nor is there any serious engagement with trauma-informed or learner-centred teaching approaches. Instead, the policy doubles down on a technocratic model that values what can be measured over what actually matters in the classroom.

Language should help people connect, not police their right to stay. Integration cannot be engineered through fear of failure or threat of exclusion. It grows when education is welcoming, well resourced and rooted in respect.

Linguistic diversity is not a problem to be solved. It is a public resource that enriches communities and strengthens democracy. Teaching English works best when it builds on what learners already know, rather than treating their languages as obstacles to overcome.

Instead of tethering language learning to immigration enforcement, the government should invest in trauma-informed, learner-centred provision that meets learners' needs. Assessment, too, needs rethinking. It should prioritise real-world communication and participation, not abstract benchmarks that silence voices.

Most importantly, integration must be understood as a two-way process. Host communities have as much to learn as newcomers.

If the government believes in empowerment, then education should amplify voices, not diminish them. Language policy should open doors, not lock them.

By replacing the language of rights and participation - teaching English not just for jobs, but to empower migrants to understand, claim and exercise their rights and engage in civic life - with conditional belonging, the proposed policy risks reinforcing inequality rather than reducing it. Presenting linguistic mastery as proof of national worth corrodes the democratic values language education should uphold.

Language should unite, not divide. When the English language is turned into an instrument of control, the very medium through which democracy operates is weakened. The task ahead is not to "restore control" over language, but to restore trust - in learners, in teachers and in the power of linguistic diversity to bring people together.

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

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post English lessons shouldn't be an immigration test first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

The body count keeps rising. Brad Karp, chairman of elite law firm Paul Weiss, resigned last night after his correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein surfaced. Peter Mandelson, former British ambassador to the U.S., quit the House of Lords as London's Metropolitan Police opened an investigation. — Read the rest

The post Young girls "were viewed as disposable people." Epstein files reveal not just crimes, but how elite society actually works appeared first on Boing Boing.

Shaped by glaciers, earthquakes, and fires, Yosemite National Park will also survive influencers treating it like a personal stunt show. Especially when the influencers' clips make it obvious who was BASE jumping without a permit.

Federal prosecutors allege that Jack Matthew Propeck violated park rules by using a parachute to descend into Yosemite Valley on Oct.

— Read the rest

The post Another influencer mistakes Yosemite for their personal content playground appeared first on Boing Boing.

James Comer has spent months demanding the Clintons testify about Jeffrey Epstein. Now that Hillary Clinton has agreed to a February 26 deposition, she's added a twist: put it on live TV.

"You love to talk about transparency," Clinton wrote on X, directly tagging the House Oversight Committee chair. — Read the rest

The post Clinton to Comer: you want transparency? Put my deposition on live TV appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tourists have been defecating in private gardens in Fujiyoshida, Japan, and "raising a fuss when residents pointed this out." That behavior, along with trespassing, littering, and opening strangers' doors to use their bathrooms, has prompted the town to cancel its annual cherry blossom festival. — Read the rest

The post Japanese town cancels cherry blossom festival after tourists defecate in residents' gardens appeared first on Boing Boing.

AI datacenters are gobbling up all the RAM and the storage and the graphics chips too, and gamers get stung hardest. Not only is the cost of building a system soaring, but the forthcoming Steam Machine from Valve is being delayed. — Read the rest

The post Valve's Steam Machine delayed after part prices soar appeared first on Boing Boing.

A 45-year-old MAGA hat wearer has been arrested after getting out of his truck to fight teenage girls at an anti-ICE protest in Buda, Texas.

Chad Michael Watts was charged with two counts of assault causing bodily injury after police determined he was the "primary aggressor" in a confrontation with students from Johnson High School on Monday, reports KXAN. — Read the rest

The post 45-year-old Chad Michael Watts loses fight with teenage girl at Texas anti-ICE walkout, gets arrested appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hey, so last time I had a new phone I was able to download an older version of BlackPlayer EX by following a link on this subreddit, but that link no longer works and all the other app sites I've found have been super sketchy and the downloads never work. Can I ask if anyone on here is willing to share their installer of a pre-20.6 BlackPlayer EX? Much appreciated, thank you.

TL;DR: For just $34.97 (reg. $219.99), Microsoft Office Professional 2021 gives you the desktop Office apps for one Windows PC, with no monthly fee.

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows is only $34.97 (reg. $219.99), and it's for anyone who's tired of software turning into a subscription treadmill, especially when all you need is for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to open correctly, edit cleanly, and export without drama. — Read the rest

The post Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for $34.97 is the cleanest way to get the classics appeared first on Boing Boing.

The greenback is down double digits against the euro, Mexican peso, Brazilian real, and a long list of other currencies since January 20 last year. So where can Americans travel internationally where their money is not automatically worth 15% less than it was a year ago? Well, thanks to some dollar pegs, governments in big fiscal trouble, and irrational exchange oddities, we do still have some options. Here are the best places to travel in 2026 if you earn dollars and want to still find a great deal. (If you earn in euros, book a plane ticket to anywhere already!)

It's been a long time since I've encountered bedbugs in a hotel where I've stayed, but a few friends have woken up to the tell-tale lines of bites after a stay. Sometimes it has been at places that are going for more than $1,000 a night. If you're worried about what's lurking under the sheets where you're going, check this BedbugReports.com public database where past guests can report a problem. Unfortunately it's limited to the USA only, so hit me up if you know of one that's wider in scope.

Want to feel better about how much you're spending on rent? Check out this chart for a visualization of what monthly rent prices are like around the world for major cities and either rejoice or weep. This pulls data from Numbeo and some prices seem high until you realize that they use "3BR apartment in the city center" for comparison, even in cities where few people live in places that big. Still, it's fun to gasp at rates in NYC, Singapore, and London, then realize you could live large for less than $1,000 in Rio, Bogota, Cairo, or Bangalore. Or less than $1,500 for three bedrooms in Cape Town, Athens, Budapest, or Kuala Lumpur.

I haven't dug too hard into the data on this Global Digital Nomad Report released this past September from Global Citizen Solutions, but it's an admirable effort to evaluate which countries are doing the right things to attract digital nomads. They must have given taxes very little weight though since Spain shows up at #1 despite its double taxation status for non-EU members at 183 days forward. Most of those in the top-10 are expensive too, but maybe it doesn't matter since they say of these nomads, "79% earn >$50k; average salary ~$124,416." Here's another stat: "The 1-year visa is the global standard (~66%), and 76.6% of programs are renewable."

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World's Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

New York wants to put a kill switch on your 3D printer. The state's 2026-2027 executive budget bill (S.9005 / A.10005) would require all 3D printers sold in New York to include "blocking technology" — software that scans every print file through a "firearms blueprint detection algorithm" and refuses to print anything flagged as a potential gun part. — Read the rest

The post New York bill would require kill switches on all 3D printers appeared first on Boing Boing.

Bobby Campbell's latest newsletter has an announcement that I think deserves a separate blog post, so that it can get a little attention: " I have set my sights on an in-person Maybe Day event in Berkeley, California on July 23, 2026. We'll see!"

I hope this comes together, and of course as I learn more, I will share here. 

Bobby of course is the founder of the annual Maybe Day celebrations on July 23, and the more recent midwinter Maybe Night events. At first, these were online celebrations, but recently Bobby has shifted more toward in-person events, such as his Wilmington Comic Fest conventions. 

I am a big fan of the possibilities of the internet, but there also is something to be said about in-person meetups. I certainly loved my time with Gregory Arnott and Bobby at Confluence in Pittsburgh, and I got to meet up with Gregory and his wife at another Confluence. 

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, is among the many powerful people who appear in the Epstein Files, which detail (among other things) their meetings and communications with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. For Bill, they also describe unpleasant outcomes, including a sexually transmitted infection, a putatively diseased penis, and a suggestion (from Epstein) that Bill considered feeding his then-wife, Melinda Gates, medication without her knowledge. — Read the rest

The post Bill Gates explains the lesson of Jeffrey Epstein appeared first on Boing Boing.

Back in 1817, philosopher Jeremy Bentham created a table showing how the same human impulse could be described in wildly different ways depending on your perspective. In one column, he'd write "gluttony" - harsh and judgmental. In the next, "love of the pleasures of the social board" - suddenly it sounds rather civilized, doesn't it? — Read the rest

The post The 1817 table that reveals how words manipulate our thinking appeared first on Boing Boing.

Famed actress Lauren Bacall was the longtime face of High Point instant coffee, a decaf brand from Folgers, and appeared in numerous advertisements volubly enjoying it. The clip below compiles the moments of maximum appreciation.

Instant decaf enjoyers haven't been able to get High Point since the 1990s, but here you can watch all seven TV spots in their entirety. — Read the rest

The post Lauren Bacall enjoying coffee appeared first on Boing Boing.

Well, here's something you don't see every day — an opera-singing doggo! Meet Charlie, a Golden Doodle, who goes by "Super Famous Charlie" on social media (where he's described as "Your Fav Singing Goldendoodle"), who sings opera alongside his human mom, who is a bona fide opera singer herself. — Read the rest

The post Watch as this opera-singing doggo tackles famous arias appeared first on Boing Boing.

This June, Oni Press is releasing Mind MGMT: New & Improved #1, a fresh, stand-alone gateway into Matt Kindt's paranoid psychic-espionage universe.

Former Mind MGMT agents (the ones who survived the extra-governmental agency) are living quiet, fabricated lives underground. — Read the rest

The post Matt Kindt's paranoid psychic-espionage comic book series "Mind MGMT" returns this June appeared first on Boing Boing.