MORE than 9,000 British pubs are at risk of going bust within a year, a shocking new poll shows.

The survey found one in five boozers believes it is unlikely to survive the next 12 months unless the Chancellor reverses last year’s brutal tax hike on spirits. 

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Pub bosses argue the tax cut for draught beer has been a total flop, with only 4 per cent saying it provided any meaningful support.

They are now urging Rachel Reeves to scrap the 10.1 per cent duty hike on spirits at the Budget, which they claim has not only hit pubs and distillers hard but has also cost the Treasury £298 million in lost revenue.

The poll of more than 200 pubs by Survation for the UK Spirits Alliance (UKSA) also found 89 per cent of pub owners have seen boozers in their area close in the last six months.

Another 58 per cent fear a negative outlook for their own business in the next year and  53 per cent say spirits generate a higher profit margin than other drinks.

Megha Khanna, owner of the Gladstone Arms in London, warned: “By choosing to support only beer and cider makers while raising taxes on other products, the previous Government damaged our pubs and bars and targeted those consumers who choose to enjoy a cocktail, gin and tonic or spritz.  

“The Chancellor can back pubs, and the fantastic spirits makers that supply them, by reversing the disastrous decision by the last Government to hike duty by 10.1 per cent, which heaped pressure on pubs, slammed the breaks on the gin-boom, and ramped up inflation.”

Founder of Westminster-based Tamesis Dock Neema Rai added: “This is a sector we should be proud of and invest in. Reversing the last duty increase now at a time of economic hardship is a win-win situation for the Chancellor and businesses alike.”

A Treasury spokesperson said: “Thriving pubs are often at the heart of our communities and play a vital role in supporting economic growth across the UK. That’s why it is important for us to act on the challenges that they face, including through our national growth mission.
 
“Business is at the heart of that mission, which is why we have pledged to cap corporation tax at 25 per cent, make the business rates system fairer, and publish a business tax roadmap so that future investments can be planned with confidence.”

Donald Trump campaigned in Juneau, Wisconsin, on Sunday and at one point rebuked his “stupid” campaign staff for showing the “wrong picture” as he once more hoped to debunk claims about his dwindling crowd sizes.

The Republican presidential nominee told his crowd again that he plans to be a dictator for one day if he regains the presidency and warned that the country is “finished” if he doesn’t.

He also told his audience of working people that he “hated to pay overtime” as an employer, spread paranoia about exploding eco-friendly cars and continued to push the lie that the US government is not helping victims of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern states.

Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent, followed up her tour of storm-hit Georgia and North Carolina with an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, in which she attacked Trump’s running mate JD Vance over his notorious “childless cat ladies” comment.

The Democrat begins a media blitz this week that will see her appear on 60 Minutes, ABC’s The View, Howard Stern’s radio show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert while her deputy Tim Walz visits Trump enemy Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.

Key Points

• Donald Trump berates ‘stupid’ campaign staff and doubles-down on dictator threat at Wisconsin rally

• Kamala Harris hits back at JD Vance’s ‘childless’ attacks: ‘This is not the 1950s anymore’

• Republican nominee falsely suggests rivals ‘tried to kill me’ as he returns to Butler, Pennsylvania

• ‘Dark MAGA’ Elon Musk joins Trump at site of assassination attempt

• Melania says husband has always known her views on abortion

Harris praises Helene responders as ‘heroes in a time of crisis’

10:40 , Joe Sommerlad

If you’re still tempted by Trump’s lies about the government not helping hurricane victims, here’s Kamala herself with the receipts from her recent trips to Georgia and North Carolina as she praises responders for their help.

Truth Social: Trump repeats North Carolina hurricane lie, hawks books and bashes ‘dope’ Jimmy Kimmel

10:20 , Joe Sommerlad

Here’s the Republican’s latest social media offering, a poorly-proofread repetition of his latest serially-debunked claim about the Biden administration ignoring hurricane victims in key swing states:

“The the GREAT people of North Carolina are being stood up by Harris and Biden, who are giving almost all of the FEMA money to Illegal Migrants in what is now considered to be the WORST rescue operation in the history of the U.S. On top of that, Billions of Dollars is going to foreign countries! NORTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN VIRTUALLY ABANDONED BY KAMALA!!! DROP HER LIKE SHE DROPPED YOU – VOTE FOR PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP. MAGA2024!”

Elsewhere, he’s been hawking his friends’ MAGA books (one of his least convincing sales pitches), pushing election lies in good time for November 5 and attacking his old foe Jimmy Kimmel, who will host Tim Walz on his show tonight.

Here’s Kelly Rissman with a further debunking of Trump’s Helene nonsense.

How Trump and his allies spread false claims about FEMA and Hurricane Helene relief

Kamala Harris hits back at JD Vance’s ‘childless’ attacks: ‘This is not the 1950s anymore’

10:00 , Joe Sommerlad

Vice President Kamala Harris followed up her tour of storm-hit Georgia and North Carolina over the weekend with an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, in which she attacked Trump’s running mate JD Vance over his notorious “childless cat ladies” comment.

“Family comes in many forms and I think that increasingly, all of us understand that this is not the 1950s anymore,” Harris said of conservative’s attacks on her.

“Families come in all shapes or forms and they are family nonetheless.”

Here are a few more choice extracts from her sitdown with host Alexandra Cooper:

Kelly Rissman has this report on Harris’s latest pod appearance.

Kamala Harris hits back at ‘childless’ attacks on Call Her Daddy podcast

Trump berates ‘stupid’ campaign staff and doubles-down on dictator threat at Wisconsin rally

09:30 , Joe Sommerlad

The Republican presidential nominee was back out campaigning in Juneau, Wisconsin, on Sunday and at one point rebuked his “stupid” campaign staff for showing the “wrong picture” as he once more hoped to debunk claims about his dwindling crowd sizes.

Trump told his crowd yet again that he plans to be a dictator for one day if he regains the presidency and warned that the country is “finished” if he doesn’t.

He also promised to be as “aggressive” as the flies that assailed him at the lectern, told his audience of working people that he “hated to pay overtime” as an employer, suggested the federal response to Hurricane Helene had been “worse than Katrina” and that its victims would benefit from his buddy Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service – before admitting he does not know what it is – spread paranoia about exploding eco-friendly cars and demanded an apology from 60 Minutes for trying to interview him.

Harris discusses what her mom taught her about ‘agency and autonomy’ on podcast

09:00 , Kaleigh Werner

Kamala Harris attributed everything she knows about “agency” to her mom during her October 6 interview with popular podcast Call Her Daddy, which Spotify has listed as “the most listened-to podcast by women.”

The vice president and Democratic presidential nominee joined podcast host Alex Cooper in Washington DC for an unfiltered interview where they talked about her upbringing as well as sexual assault, abortion rights, and criticisms against her.

Harris discussed her childhood growing up with two divorced parents and being primarily raised by her mom, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. When asked by Cooper what “values” her mom “instilled” in her, she said she learned the importance of expressing her emotions.

Read the full story.

Kamala Harris tells Call Her Daddy podcast what her mom taught her about ‘agency’

WATCH: Republican Senator can’t bring himself to admit Donald Trump lost the 2020 election

08:00 , Kelly Rissman

Trump returned to Butler, the scene of his first assassination attempt. What’s changed?

07:00 , Kelly Rissman

Donald Trump returned to the Butler, Pennsylvania venue where he survived an assassination attempt three months ago — but the 2024 race has dramatically changed since then.

July 13 — the day that a lone gunman opened fire at the Butler rally, killing one, and injuring others, including the former president — marked a pivotal moment in the highly contested race.

Since then, President Joe Biden dropped out, a heavily scrutinized Secret Service identified its failures and underwent sweeping changes, Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate, enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris grew and Trump lost his lead in the polls, and yet another alleged attempt on Trump’s life unfolded on September 15 at his Florida golf course.

Read the full story.

Trump returned to Butler, the site of his assassination attempt. What’s changed?

Trump often touts his economic experience as a successful businessman — but economists worry his plans for a second term would be harmful

05:00 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump’s economic policies are extremely popular with voters and often what supporters cite when asked why they support the former president in his third bid for the White House. But economists beg to differ – and they’re begging the public to differ too.

On the surface, Trump’s vague plans to lower corporate taxes, extend his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, implement tariffs on imported goods, eliminate taxes on tips and increase domestic employment opportunities sound appealing.

Though the former president has not released a comprehensive economic plan, he has consistently said he will lower costs for Americans and restore the nation’s finances back to a pre-pandemic era.

Read the full story.

Economists say Trump’s jobs and tax plans are dangerous. Better tell the voters

ICYMI: Trump reportedly asked Putin for advice about whether the US should help arm Ukraine

04:00 , Rhian Lubin

Donald Trump reportedly asked Vladimir Putin for his advice on whether the US should help arm Ukraine at their first in-person meeting.

The Republican presidential nominee, who has been vocal in his criticism of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, reportedly asked Putin “what do you think?” when the pair met in Hamburg in 2017, according to The New York Times.

Trump has wildly claimed Putin “would never have gone into Ukraine” if he were president and has touted his “very good relationship” with him several times.

The meeting — which took place three years after Russian forces invaded the Crimean peninsula — was “an opening” for Putin to begin exploiting Trump’s “escalating political grudge” against Ukraine in a bid to weaken US support for the country, officials who were privy to the exchange have shared with the newspaper.

Read the full story.

Trump ‘asked Putin for advice’ about whether the US should help arm Ukraine

WATCH: Tim Walz bats down ‘distracting’ Fox News question on abortion

03:00 , Kelly Rissman

VP shares why she became a prosecutor on ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast

02:00 , Kelly Rissman

Kamala Harris opened up about why she became a prosecutor on the mega-popular Call Her Daddy podcast.

“When I was in high school, my best friend, her name is Wanda, I learned was being sexually assaulted by her stepfather. And you know, I knew something was going on because she didn’t want to go home, she just seemed sad. And so she told me, and I immediately said, you have to come and stay with us,” Harris said.

“It upset me so, that someone, where they should feel safe and protected, were being so horribly abused and violated, right? And anyway, I decided at a young age I wanted to do the work of protecting vulnerable people,” the vice president continued.

“I mean, look, I was raised, I’m the eldest of two daughters, I was raised with my mother saying, since practically the day my sister was born, you know, look out for your sister, so maybe it started when I was two, but Wanda and her experience really convinced me and made me realize how this can happen and what we need to do to stand against it,” she added.

“A lot of my career was as a prosecutor. And so it was about really wanting to protect the most vulnerable and where they did not have the power, and it wasn’t of their own choosing, but because they were the subject of abuse, because they were the subject of an imbalance of power, right? And so a lot of the work that I’ve done has been about wanting to restore, to the extent I could play a role in that, their right to have justice, to have a voice.”

Here’s more about her appearance on the hit podcast.

Kamala Harris to appear on ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast

‘Can we try to think of any law that gives the government the power to make a decision about a man’s body?’

01:30 , Kelly Rissman

Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper asked Vice President Kamala Harris during her interview on the podcast: “Can we try to think of any law that gives the government the power to make a decision about a man’s body?”

The vice president asked the same question of Brett Kavanaugh at his 2018 confirmation hearings.

Here is the original exchange.

DeSantis administration threatens local TV station for airing abortion rights campaign ads

01:00 , Kelly Rissman

Ron DeSantis’s administration has appeared to threaten a local TV station with legal action for airing an abortion rights campaign ad.

The features a woman named Caroline who needed to have an abortion and cancer treatments after a brain tumor diagnosis in 2022. She praises Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion access in the state that currently has a six-week ban on the procedure.

An October 3 letter from the Florida Department of Health sent to WFLA TV’s vice president Mark Higgins claiming the ad is illegal under section 386.01 of Florida law that allows the state to remove any “nuisance” that “threatens or impairs” people’s health.

Rhian Lubin has the full story.

DeSantis threatens local TV stations for airing abortion rights campaign ads

Recap: Harris visited North Carolina after Hurricane Helene ravaged the state

Monday 7 October 2024 00:30 , Kelly Rissman

Vice President Kamala Harris visited the state on Saturday and visited Asheville — a city hit by substantial flooding during the storm.

“We’re here for the long haul,” she told a volunteer leader.

The Democratic nominee’s visit juxtaposes Trump’s false claims that the embattled region hasn’t seen “anybody from the federal government yet.”

The internet is in hysterics over Elon Musk’s jump

Monday 7 October 2024 00:00 , Kelly Rissman

Elon Musk spoke at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last night.

But the internet — namely users on his own social media platform — are focused less on his speech and more on his vertical.

An animated Musk leaped on the Butler stage, exposing his belly button.

Some users have even gone so far as to call the Space X owner as “the greatest jumper of all time.”

Elon Musk’s jumping photo at Trump’s rally has the internet in hysterics

WATCH: Melania Trump discusses husband’s near-assassination in Pennsylvania

Sunday 6 October 2024 23:30 , Kelly Rissman

ICYMI: ‘Dark MAGA’ Elon Musk rallies onstage with Trump

Sunday 6 October 2024 23:00 , Graig Graziosi

Elon Musk, the CEO of X and Tesla, spoke during Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, and made the brazenly false claim that Democrats were going to eliminate elections in the US.

Trump — returning to the site where he was nearly assassinated in July— introduced Musk as the man who “saved free speech“ and as a “rocket builder,” claiming his company Space X was the only reason that American astronauts can return to space.

The world’s wealthiest man took the stage in a black “Make America Great Again” hat and told the crowd he was “dark MAGA” — seemingly referencing the fringe far-right meme — before taking a swipe at President Joe Biden.

Read the full story.

‘Dark MAGA’ Elon Musk rallies onstage with Trump in Pennsylvania

North Carolina’s scandal-ridden Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is losing by double digits, poll shows

Sunday 6 October 2024 22:15 , Rhian Lubin

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is trailing his opponent by 17 points in the state’s gubernatorial race, according to a new poll.

Robinson faces an uphill battle as Josh Stein, North Carolina Attorney General, has 51 percent support of voters compared to the Republican’s 34 percent, the High Point University poll revealed.

Robinson, who has been rocked by public scandal in recent weeks, is also trailing Stein by double digits in two other polls released last week. The Washington Post poll puts Stein at 54 percent to Robinson’s 38 percent, while a poll from East Carolina University has the Democratic at 50 percent compared to Robinson at 33 percent.

Read the full story.

Embattled Mark Robinson losing by double digits in North Carolina gubernatorial race

Trump returned to Butler three months after an attempt on his life. But since then, has he changed?

Sunday 6 October 2024 21:45 , Kelly Rissman

On Saturday, Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania — the site of his first assassination attempt.

The political landscape has totally shifted since the July 13 attack.

The ear bandage has come off, he has been named the Republican nominee, and he faces a new formidable rival, yet in the three months since the former president has sustained not one but two attempts on his life, shockingly, nothing about him seems to have fundamentally changed.

Read the full story.

Trump is returning to the scene of his assassination attempt. What’s changed?

Melania gives robotic response when asked why Trump returned to Butler

Sunday 6 October 2024 21:15 , Kelly Rissman

Trump’s return to the site of his assassination attempt on Saturday was politically significant.

But when his wife, Melania Trump, was asked about his visit to Butler, Pennsylvania in a Fox News interview, she provided stiff, canned answers and left her interviewer grasping for more.

John Bowden has the full story.

Melania Trump gives robotic response when asked why husband returned to Butler

Donald Trump demands ‘apology’ from 60 Minutes after he backed out of interview

Sunday 6 October 2024 20:58 , Kelly Rissman

In Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon, Trump asked that the program “apologize” after he took issue with the network’s fact-checking about Hunter Biden’s laptop and crime rates.

Kamala Harris will appear on the program for an election special on Monday.

While the Trump campaign denies ever committing to the interview, CBS has insisted that he had committed to it but backed out on Tuesday.

In photos: Trump returns to Butler, the site of his first assassination attempt

Sunday 6 October 2024 20:45 , Kelly Rissman

Donald Trump is speaking in Wisconsin

Sunday 6 October 2024 20:24 , Kelly Rissman

Speaking in Juneau, Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump is boasting about having the “greatest economy in history” during his term.

While bragging about the crowd size, he said he likes putting the “fake news” reporters to the back of the venues.

He promised a “golden age” should he be re-elected while calling his Democratic rival “a long nightmare.”

Watch here.

Many members of Trump’s party still can’t admit that he lost the last election

Sunday 6 October 2024 20:00 , Rhian Lubin

Many Republicans are still struggling to admit out loud that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Speaker Mike Johnson are the latest Republicans who can’t bring themselves to say that Trump lost the election.

Cotton was put under pressure by Kristen Welker on Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC, where she gave him multiple opportunities to put the issue “to rest.”

Read the full story.

Republicans still can’t say ‘Trump lost the 2020 election’

ICYMI: Elon Musk claims during Trump rally that ‘this will be last election’ if Republicans lose

Sunday 6 October 2024 19:30 , Kelly Rissman

Thom Tillis confronts Hurricane Helene recovery misinformation

Sunday 6 October 2024 19:15 , Kelly Rissman

North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis took aim at his own party.

Members of the GOP, including Donald Trump, have been pushing false claims about the recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene survivors.

“The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort,” he wrote.

Trump’s politicization of the hurricane response has not only earned the wrath of Tillis, but also the second-largest newspaper in North Carolina.

Read more about that saga here.

North Carolina newspaper condemns Trump for ‘spreading lies’ about Helene

Lara Trump pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash about FEMA misinformation

Sunday 6 October 2024 19:00 , Kelly Rissman

CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Lara Trump after her father-in-law Donald Trump repeated false claims about FEMA aid going toward Hurricane Helene survivors.

Referring to the Biden-Harris administration, the former president falsely claimed at the Butler rally on Saturday evening: “They’re offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away. And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of. They’re offering them $750. They’ve been destroyed, these people have been destroyed.”

Earlier this week, the GOP nominee baselessly claimed that Kamala Harris had spent “all of her FEMA” money on “housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country.”

In reality, the White House has clarified that survivors will get an initial $750 after applying to a Serious Needs Assistance program: “$750 is what is immediately available to eligible survivors. In addition, survivors may qualify for more FEMA financial assistance, including to repair storm-related damage to homes and property, find a temporary place to stay, and receive compensation for lost crops and livestock.” Read more here.

Bash asked Lara Trump, who is from North Carolina, whether she is “concerned” about the misinformation about being spread and how it impacts their ability to get help. “Look, Kamala Harris did say $750 per family right now,” she said before comparing the money spent on the “migrant crisis.”

“You are right that FEMA is getting $750. But that is a first step,” Bash explained.

Watch the full clip:

Harris to address Israel relationship in new interview

Sunday 6 October 2024 18:30 , Graeme Massie

Kamala Harris will address the US relationship with Israel in a CBS 60 Minutes interview set to air on Monday.

In a sneak peek, Haris was asked by Bill Whitaker if the White House lacks influence over Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200 ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel,” Harris said.

“When we think about the threat that Hamas Hezbollah presents Iran, I think that it is, without any question, our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks.”

Economists have blasted Trump’s jobs and taxes plans as dangerous. Someone better tell the public

Sunday 6 October 2024 18:06 , Graeme Massie

Though Trump often touts his economic experience as a successful businessman, economists worry his plans for a second term would be harmful, writes Ariana Baio.

Economists say Trump’s jobs and tax plans are dangerous. Better tell the voters

ICYMI: Trump falsely suggests at assassination attempt site that his rivals ‘tried to kill me’

Sunday 6 October 2024 17:45 , Graig Graziosi

Donald Trump returned to the site where he was nearly assassinated this summer, but his brush with death doesn’t appear to have changed him in the slightest.

On Saturday evening, Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania — walking out to a live rendition of “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood — and opened with the words “as I was saying,” referencing the fact that his previous rally at the site ended abruptly when a gunman fired an AR-15 toward the stage, grazing his ear and killing one attendee and injuring two others.

Rather than giving the former president a new perspective on the political temperature in the country, Trump’s rhetoric appears to have become more volatile; during the rally, he suggested that his political opponents “maybe tried to kill me.”

Read the full story.

Trump claims rivals ‘tried to kill me’ as he returns to site of assassination attempt

Howard Stern to interview Harris this week

Sunday 6 October 2024 17:31 , Graeme Massie

Trump falsely suggests his rivals ‘tried to kill me’ as he rallies at site of assassination attempt

Sunday 6 October 2024 17:09 , Graeme Massie

Trump claims rivals ‘tried to kill me’ as he returns to site of assassination attempt

Melania says Trump has always known her views on abortion

Sunday 6 October 2024 16:33 , Graeme Massie

The former first lady gave an interview to Fox News on Sunday in which she said that her views on abortion came as no surprise to her husband.

“Yes, he knew my position and my beliefs since the day we met, and I believe in individual freedom,” she told host Maria Bartiromo.

“I want to decide what I wanted to do with my body. I think I don’t want government in my personal business,” she added.

Melania’s views on abortion have been included in her forthcoming memoir, despite the former president bragging that he brought an end to Roe v. Wade.

Trump insinuates Democrats may have been behind his first assassination attempt

Sunday 6 October 2024 16:28 , Graeme Massie

Trump boasts he does not need teleprompter while flanked by one at Butler rally

Sunday 6 October 2024 16:05 , Graeme Massie

Trump boasts he doesn’t need teleprompter while flanked by one at Butler rally

Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates

Sunday 6 October 2024 15:32 , Graeme Massie

Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates from the 2024 election

Elon Musk falsely claims Democrats will eliminate elections in US during Donald Trump rally in Butler

Sunday 6 October 2024 15:04 , Graeme Massie

Musk falsely claims Democrats will eliminate elections in US during Trump rally

Trump often touts his economic experience as a successful businessman — but economists worry his plans for a second term would be harmful

Sunday 6 October 2024 23:43 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump’s economic policies are extremely popular with voters and often what supporters cite when asked why they support the former president in his third bid for the White House. But economists beg to differ – and they’re begging the public to differ too.

On the surface, Trump’s vague plans to lower corporate taxes, extend his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, implement tariffs on imported goods, eliminate taxes on tips and increase domestic employment opportunities sound appealing.

Though the former president has not released a comprehensive economic plan, he has consistently said he will lower costs for Americans and restore the nation’s finances back to a pre-pandemic era.

Read the full story.

Economists say Trump’s jobs and tax plans are dangerous. Better tell the voters

Butler event site trashed after Trump rally

Sunday 6 October 2024 04:30 , Graig Graziosi

The Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania ended with a lot of cheers, and a lot of trash.

An image posted of the rally site on X showed the area littered with garbage following the event.

X users dunk on photo of Elon Musk jumping for joy at Trump rally

Sunday 6 October 2024 04:15 , Graig Graziosi

A photographer captured an excited Elon Musk leaping into the air after Donald Trump called him on stage to speak to a Butler, Pennsylvania rally crowd.

Another X user shared the photo and likened it to the opening sequence from a “bad 1980’s sitcom.”

Another happy customer of Musk’s X service saw the similiarities between the Tesla CEO and Poochie from The Simpsons.

JD Vance confirms to reporters that second Trump administration would seek to defund Planned Parenthood

Sunday 6 October 2024 04:00 , Graig Graziosi

JD Vance reportedly said that a potential second Trump administration would seek to defund Planned Parenthood.

“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood…our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late term abortions,” he told Real Clear Politics. “That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”

While Planned Parenthood does provide reproductive healthcare services, Vance is lying. The organization does not “fund late term abortions.”

Planned Parenthood does provide women’s healthcare services — like cancer screenings — in addition to abortions.

WATCH: Lara Trump vows to prosecute ‘illegal citizens’ for ‘cheating’ in elections

Sunday 6 October 2024 03:45 , Graig Graziosi

ICYMI: Kamala Harris to appear on ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast

Sunday 6 October 2024 03:15 , Graig Graziosi

Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly sat down for an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week, with the episode set to release sometime next week.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s appearance on the mega popular podcast was confirmed by a campaign spokesperson to Axios, the outlet reports.

Call Her Daddy is Spotify’s second-biggest podcast, coming in just behind the Joe Rogan Experience.

Alex Cooper, the creator and host of Call Her Daddy, recorded her episode with Harris on Tuesday, according to Axios. The outlet reports that the episode will focus on reproductive rights and abortion as well as other issues important to women voters.

White House debunks Trump claim that Hurricane Helene survivors were only given $750 payments

Sunday 6 October 2024 02:45 , Graig Graziosi

A spokesperson for FEMA debunked claims made by Donald Trump during his Butler, Pennsylvania rally on Saturday that “they” — Democrats — only gave $750 to victims of Hurricane Helene. Later claims circulating on social media claimed that the funds were only “a loan,” which FEMA denied.

“This is not true. We do not ask for this money back,” FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg wrote on X.

The White House issued a statement on Friday responding to Trump’s claims.

“More than 6,400 Federal personnel are on the ground, and more than $110 million in Federal assistance has been given to survivors, with more to come. We are sparing no resource as we work to ensure communities across the Southeast have prompt access to Federal resources that will enable them to both purchase essential items and begin their road to recovery and rebuilding,” the White House wrote in its statement.

The White House said the $750 figure is just an initial disbursement for people who immediately need financial assistance.

“It is an upfront, flexible payment to help cover essential items like food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies, medication and other emergency supplies. There are other forms of assistance that you may qualify for to receive, and Serious Needs Assistance is an initial payment you may receive while FEMA assesses your eligibility for additional funds. $750 is what is immediately available to eligible survivors. In addition, survivors may qualify for more FEMA financial assistance, including to repair storm-related damage to homes and property, find a temporary place to stay, and receive compensation for lost crops and livestock.”

Harris, Walz to appear on “60 Minutes” interview that Trump turned down

Sunday 6 October 2024 02:19 , Graig Graziosi

Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz will appear on a special edition of 60 Minutes on Monday.

According to 60 Minutes, the program offered an interview to the Trump campaign, which initially agreed, but then later declined the sit down.

Minor Attractions fair

In June 2023, London gallery owners Jacob Barnes and Jonny Tanna posed themselves a question: “Can two guys get up off the couch and run an art fair?” By October they had proved that the answer was “yes” with Minor Attractions, which launched as a satellite to Frieze. “We refer to last year’s edition as a proof of concept,” says Barnes, “but this year it’s a real art fair.” 

Taking place at The Mandrake, a five-star hotel in Fitzrovia, the week-long event will commandeer rooms as fair booths, “creating a new context for London’s buzzing art scene”. Local exhibitors include Mayfair institution Sadie Coles HQ but also new nomadic gallery Bolanle Contemporary; others are joining from further afield: Tbilisi to Toronto to Seoul. “We want to create a level playing field where exciting project spaces stand alongside major international galleries,” says Barnes. 

The native New Yorker opened art space Season 4 Episode 6 in Marylebone earlier this year, while Tanna runs north-west London gallery Harlesden High Street. Among their fair highlights are an LED light work by German multimedia artist Christian Jankowski, a life-size Plexiglas mannequin by Klara Zetterholm (both from Bucharest-based gallery Suprainfinit), and the deftly distorted paintings of Georgia Semple (with Deptford-based gallery Studio/Chapple). 

Accessibility is key. Tickets are required but are free of charge, while a programme of night-time happenings is being hosted by the likes of dance music collective Touching Bass (which Semple is part of) and performance platform Diasporas Now. “It’s out with the old and in with the new,” says Tanna, “that’s what we’re trying to do.” VW

October 8-13, minorattractions.com

Studio Voltaire, Casa Loewe

This year marks the 30th anniversary of not-for-profit arts and education organisation Studio Voltaire, and its director, Joe Scotland is on a mission. “Like many art organisations, the support we get from the Arts Council is very small — it equates to 4 per cent of our turnover,” he says. “But we’re being very proactive about it. We’ve established the Studio Voltaire Future Fund to support our work over the next five years; thus far we’ve raised half a million pounds.” 

Based in a former Victorian Methodist church in Clapham, south London, Studio Voltaire is centred on a programme of exhibitions and events that champion emerging and under-represented artists. Frieze Week presents an opportunity to celebrate its three-decade output — from career-launching shows to the “Rainbow Plaques” initiative, honouring queer communities across London — but also to add to the pot. 

To that end, Allied Editions is offering a lithograph print by British painter Rose Wylie — “Party Clothes (RW and Cat)”, 2024 — in the main fair, while at Casa Loewe on New Bond Street, the fashion label’s Foundation has collaborated with Studio Voltaire and artists including Alvaro Barrington, Anthea Hamilton and Sheila Hicks on a new series of limited editions.

“Loewe is a really important partner of ours,” says Scotland, highlighting the Loewe Foundation / Studio Voltaire Award that supports an international residency as well as free studio space for London-based artists. “They also have amazing in-house artisans.” This has enabled Barrington to create a “chain wrapped in leather, which can be used as jewellery or a charm”, while Hamilton has conceived a leather fan, de-embossed with the phrases “Che Bello/Che Brutta” (How Beautiful/How Ugly). VW

October 9-13, studiovoltaire.org

Lygia Clark, Whitechapel Gallery

Lygia Clark (1920-88) revolutionised art by making it interactive. Fed up with the rigidity of concrete art, the Brazilian trailblazer created works that were meant to be touched, manipulated and experienced by audiences. Her innovative “Bichos” (“critters”) were hinged geometric forms that viewers could fold and reshape. These feature in The I and the You, a major survey at Whitechapel Gallery that traces her output from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. During this period, Clark experimented with ways to transform art into a shared experience while navigating Brazil’s military dictatorship and, later, exile in Paris. The show includes paintings, works on paper and even performances restaging the artist’s participatory group works. KF

To January 12, whitechapelgallery.org

Marlene Dumas at Frith Street Gallery

Myth and grief swirl through Marlene Dumas’s new exhibition at Frith Street Gallery. Its title, Mourning Marsyas, references Ovid’s tale of a satyr who challenged Apollo to a music competition; his punishment for losing to the god was to be flayed alive. In a haunting painting of the same name, the South African painter transforms this gruesome story into what the gallery calls “a homage to those prepared to die for speaking truth to power”. Drawing from a range of visual and literary sources, other works, with their spectral figures and blurred faces, allude to distressing tragedies or capture dark moods. KF

To November 16, frithstreetgallery.com

Robert Longo at Pace and Thaddaeus Ropac

In Searchers, a two-part exhibition, Robert Longo continues his career-long exploration of diverse visual media. At Thaddaeus Ropac, the American artist builds on his multimedia “Combines” with a seven-metre work, “Untitled (Pilgrim)”, composed of five panels each executed in different media: charcoal drawing, video, painting, sculpture and photography. Inspired by Sergei Eisenstein’s montage theory and John Berger’s seminal book Ways of Seeing, the new work contrasts art-historical images with film stills, ads and news photographs of disasters to interrogate how meaning is created and disseminated. Concurrently, a companion piece, “Untitled (Hunter)”, will also be exhibited at Pace Gallery. KF

October 8-November 20 ropac.net; Oct 9-Nov 9, pacegallery.com

Letizia Battaglia, The Photographers’ Gallery

Letizia Battaglia put her life on the line with her work. Her career as a photojournalist began in the 1970s, and though she frequently captured daily life in her hometown of Palermo, she is remembered for her fearless documentation of the Mafia’s unrelenting grip on Sicily during the 1970s and 1980s. The Photographers’ Gallery will show a wide selection, from arresting images of small children brandishing guns to bodies beneath white sheets and a woman dancing at a New Year’s Eve party. NA

October 9-February 23, thephotographersgallery.org.uk

Yayoi Kusama, Victoria Miro

With decades of era-defining artwork behind her, it is difficult to imagine how Yayoi Kusama will continue to excite attendees at her latest exhibition. Yet with Everyday I Pray for Love at Victoria Miro, the 95-year-old artist does just that. Paintings feature her singular explorations of line and form and signature polka-dot patterning; treelike forms are made from stuffed and sewn fabrics; drawings of women’s profiles are given new life in bronze. But the big draw is Infinity Mirrored Room — Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart, where visitors will find their reflections refracted into infinity in a new light-filled installation. NA

To November 2, victoria-miro.com

Lauren Hasley at the Serpentine

Emajendat is the first UK exhibition of Los Angeles-based artist Lauren Halsey. Her South Central upbringing is an integral source of inspiration in her work, and her mixed-media installations and standalone objects often explore material culture. At the Serpentine, pink plastic tubes are turned into palm trees and luridly coloured signs are emblazoned with brand names in a maximalist vision. Visitors will find themselves wading through technicolour sand dunes and wandering past mirrored walls and floors plastered with discarded CDs. NA

October 11-March 2, serpentinegalleries.org

MILLIONS of households have just hours left to submit their meter readings amid the fresh energy price cap.

After tomorrow (October 8), Octopus Energy customers will no longer be able to backdate their October 1 meter readings, meaning they could risk unexpected charges to their bill.

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Energy suppliers often recommend customers submit their meter readings on National Meter Reading Day, October 1, so they can secure an accurate bill when the price cap changes.

However, some suppliers have allowed customers extra time to submit the reading from October 1 in case they missed the date.

Households on a Standard Variable Tariff (SVT) are affected by the price cap and should submit a meter reading.

Households without an accurate bill could risk being overcharged – or if they are undercharged, they could eventually owe money – so either way it pays to get it right.

The new energy price cap, which limits the amount that can be charged, is now around 10% higher than the previous level which had been in place since July.

According to Ofgem, which sets the limit, this means the average dual fuel bill rises from £1,568 on average to £1,717, though the exact amount you pay still depends on usage and can be higher or lower.

The energy price cap changes every there months – for instance, in June, the cap fell to the lowest level in two years, from £1,690 to the previous rate of £1,568.

Now, a household in England, Wales and Scotland using a standard amount of gas and electricity will see their annual bill rise by about £149.

The price cap makes sure that prices for people on SVTs are fair and reflect the cost of energy.

It is calculated using a range of factors, including wholesale energy prices, as well as network, operating and policy costs, and VAT.

In order to maintain an accurate bill amid the price cap change, customers should have remembered to take a meter reading from the first day of October.

Octopus Energy customers must submit this reading via the phone, website, or mobile app by the end of tomorrow..

Keep in mind that if you are planning to submit your reading via the phone, Octopus phone lines close at 5pm.

If you don’t submit your reading by this date you can still tel the supplier later on, but it may not be applied to your next bill.

Can I backdate my meter reading if I’m with another supplier?

Octopus customers aren’t the only ones with hours to submit – E.on Next is another supplier which has set its deadline as tomorrow.

E.on Next advises that the best way to submit a reading is via your online account – the website also informs customers on how to take an accurate meter reading.

EDF, OVO and British Gas customers have a bit more time, with EDF’s deadline being October 9, OVO’s being October 11, and British Gas allowing another week, until October 14.

EDF customers can submit meter reads through the EDF app, their online MyAccount, or via telephone, email, text or Whatsapp.

Ovo Energy customers can submit their meter readings via the app, online account, phone, Whatsapp or webchat at any time, however the closer to the bill date the customer provides their bill date, the less of the bill will need to be estimated.

For accurate bills, Ovo recommends customers opt for a smart meter.

Meanwhile, back in September British Gas said: “If customers take a read on 1st October, but don’t get a chance to provide it on the day, a form on our website, including on our meter read page, will be available until 14th October.

“This will allow them to submit the read they took on 1st October and we will use that reading to calculate what they pay before the rates change.”

For customers of Scottish Power or Utility Household, the deadline to submit a meter reading has unfortunately closed.

What if I have a smart meter?

If you are on a smart meter, you do not need to submit a reading, as this is automatically sent by your device.

Those on prepayment plans or fixed rates also do not need to worry, as their bill is either predetermined, or their rate is locked in for the duration of their deal.

Only households on an SVT are required to submit a meter reading, so they can avoid any disputes with their energy dealer when their bill comes through.

If you’re unsure what plan you are on, visit your suppliers website or revisit your paperwork from when you began your energy package.

If you’re concerned about the new price cap

If you’re worried about affording hiked up bills this winter, many energy suppliers are opening Support Funds to help struggling customers.

For example, British Gas has reopened its Individual and Families support fund, which in the past has helped over 21,000 British customers with energy debt write off grants of up to £2,000.00.

Over £140 million has been set aside this winter season for those who are struggling financially.

This extends to British Gas customers and non-customers, who live in England, Scotland or Wales.

To find out if you are eligible, visit the British Gas website and search for the Individual and Families support fund – here you will find all the details available.

It is recommended that customers from companies with hardship funds first seek assistance from their own schemes.

For example, Octopus Energy has recently launched a scheme for pensioners after their Winter Fuel Payments were slashed, offering fresh discretionary credit of between £50 and £200.

Scottish Power’s Hardship Fund has also handed out more than £60 million to struggling customers.

And Utilita also offers grants to its customers to help clear of minimise debt, by operating through its charity partner, Utilita Giving.

Utilita Giving also partners with other charities such as IncomeMax, which helps customers make sure they are claiming what they are entitled to, and Let’s Talk, which provides replacement white goods.

E.ON’s Next Energy Fund also provides grants and appliance replacement services to struggling customers.

To find out what support your energy supplier is offering this colder season, visit their website or ring their helpline (which can be found online).

Help can also be accessed from the government via the Household Support Fund, which has renewed a fresh pot of £421 million funding for vulnerable households.

To find out if this is available with your supplier or council, and whether you are eligible, go to their websites and read the terms and conditions of the scheme.

If you’re just looking for simple ways to reduce your bill this winter, each of these supplier schemes, as well as the Household Support Fund also offer free electric blankets as part of their deal.

For example, Octopus have said they will distribute 20,000 electric blankets from Dreamland to its most vulnerable customers, keeping them warm for “as little as 3p an hour”.

The “heat yourself not your home” approach is trending fast, with retailers such as B&M introducing ranges of affordable self-heating appliances.

However, it is important to note that the elderly should not avoid turning the heating on if they are cold – for energy help contact your provider or local council, or read our article here.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories

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By Steve Macek

During the past three years, the country has seen a dramatic increase in book bans at public and K-12 school libraries and in rightwing pro-censorship activism, usually targeting books that address race, gender identity, or sexuality.

In Texas, Suzette Baker was fired from her job as director of a rural public library for refusing to withdraw books about racial justice and the lives of LGBTQ people from circulation. A mob of neo-fascist Proud Boys descended on a Downers Grove, Illinois, school board meeting to demand that school libraries under the district’s control remove Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel that explores non-binary gender identity.

In Florida, a member of Moms For Liberty, the group behind many recent book challenges, actually reported a school librarian to the police for distributing a popular young adult novel the Moms for Liberty activist claimed was “child pornography.”

Meanwhile, in Virginia, one woman, Jennifer Peterson, has filed challenges against some 71 books held by her school district’s school libraries on the grounds that they contain “sexually explicit” passages; Peterson has succeeded in getting 36 titles removed, including Toni Morrison’s classic Beloved and Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name. And all over the country, school librarians have received death threats and school libraries have been shut down by bomb threats over books deemed objectionable by conservative fanatics.

According to PEN America’s September 2023 report, School Book Bans: The Mounting Pressure to Censor, during the 2022-23 school year there were 3,362 reported instances of book censorship in K-12 schools impacting 1,557 different titles.

As PEN America noted, this represents a 33 percent increase over the 2021-22 school year and a dramatic increase from the last time the organization issued a comprehensive report on school book bans in 2016. (The American Library Association, which also tracks challenges to books at public and school libraries, says that library book challenges this year have risen to the highest level since the organization began tracking them more than twenty years ago.)

Books that featured LGBTQ+ characters or themes related to gender identity or queer sexuality—including Fun Home, Gender Queer, All Boys Aren’t Blue, And Tango Makes Three, and I Am Jazz—were singled out as the target of some 36 percent of the book bans from 2021-2023 investigated by PEN America. Roughly 37 percent of the challenges targeted books that “discussed race and racism.”

The majority of these bans have occurred in Republican-controlled states—like Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas—which have passed laws that restrict teaching about race, gender, and sexuality or that empower parents to challenge school library books about such topics. This, in turn, has encouraged school districts to often preemptively purge their libraries of books and other materials that might be seen as controversial.

Indeed, PEN America reports that more than 40 percent of all book bans last year occurred in GOP-dominated Florida, with 1406 bans, followed by Texas with 625 and Missouri with 333.

Florida: A Gulag for Young Minds

Because Florida is by far the worst offender against K-12 students’ freedom to read, it is worth examining the legislation the state has adopted that facilitates this censorship. Although Florida governor Ron DeSantis dismisses news about book bans in his state as “a nasty hoax,” he has signed several pieces of legislation that directly contribute to censorship in his state.

In March 2022, DeSantis famously signed HB 1557, the Parental Rights in Education Act, popularly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, that bans instruction about sexual orientation and gender from kindergarten through third grade. The Act requires that any teaching about these topics in older grades be “age appropriate” and in accordance with state standards.

It also specifies that any teacher found to have violated the Act will have their teaching license revoked. Confusion about whether this legislation applied to school libraries led districts across the state to purge books addressing sexual orientation or gender from their collections simply as a precaution.

Just one month later, DeSantis signed the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, HB 7, which among other things bans teaching in schools about what it calls “divisive concepts”—principally related to race and the history of race relations in the United States—that might make a student feel “guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress” because of their race, gender, sex, or national origin. The law specifically bans the teaching of so-called “critical race theory.”

Tellingly, since HB 7 became law, one Florida school district banned a graphic novel, The Little Rock Nine, which details a well-known episode in the civil rights movement’s struggle against segregation, on the grounds that “its subject matter is ‘difficult for elementary school students to comprehend.’”

In July 2022, DeSantis signed HB 1467 into law. This legislation requires every elementary school in the state to “publish on its website, in a searchable format… a list of all materials maintained in the school library media center or required as part of a school or grade-level reading list.” It orders school librarians to  certify that books in their collections do not “contain pornography or material deemed harmful to minors” without spelling out clear standards for what exactly counts as “harmful to minors.”

It orders districts to develop a policy and a process for resolving any “objection by a parent or a resident of the county” to any library material and mandates that schools report all objections to the Department of Education. The law mandates that all meetings “convened for the purpose of ranking, eliminating, or selecting instructional materials for recommendation to the district school board must be noticed and open to the public,” and that “any committees convened for such purpose must include parents.”

Finally, just this past May, DeSantis ratified HB 1069, a law that makes it even easier to ban books in Florida schools. The law extends the prohibition on instruction about sexuality and gender established by HB 1557 to eighth grade. It would prevent students below the ninth grade from accessing any books through school libraries that contain “sexual conduct.”

It also modifies HB 1467 by specifying that “parents shall have the right to read [out loud] passages from any material that is subject to an objection” at a school board meeting and requires that if a school board denies someone the right to read a passage due to its indecent or inappropriate content, “the school district shall discontinue the use of the material.”

This recent law has many librarians, educators, and opponents of censorship particularly concerned. It could, conceivably, be used to ban from K-8 school libraries the works of William Shakespeare or Toni Morrison. The notion of “sexual conduct” as articulated in the law is so extremely vague and broad that commonly assigned middle school books like The Diary of Anne Frank could be prohibited under its auspices.

HB 1069 certainly has had an oppressive impact on the Sunshine State’s school librarians, forcing them to meticulously screen as many as a million books for any material that might be objectionable to a parent or resident.

Moms For Liberty

In Florida and elsewhere, ultraconservative “parent groups,” such as Moms for Liberty, have exploited these laws to force school boards and individual school administrators to remove hundreds of books that conservative censors frame as divisive or obscene. Founded in Florida in 2021 by a former school board member, Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice, and Bridget Ziegler, wife of the Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler, the organization was originally formed to protest school and library mask mandates and other public health regulations affecting K-12 education during the COVID crisis.

Since then, the group has turned its focus to fighting inclusive curriculum and allegedly “inappropriate” library materials. They claim to have 285 chapters in 45 states and over 100,000 members. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Moms for Liberty an extremist hate group and noted its many ties with fascist and white supremacist groups,  including the Proud Boys.

Moms for Liberty has been training its members to bombard school boards and administrations with complaints about lengthy lists of books. Unlike in the past, when most complaints fielded by schools concerned individual titles or series (such as the Harry Potter or Twilight series), today conservative activists turn up at meetings and demand that lists of a hundred or more titles be expunged.

In fact, according to the ALA, last year eleven states recorded complaints about a hundred or more titles, up from six in 2022 and zero in 2021. The explosion of mass challenges to school library books is best understood as a direct result of the rise of Moms for Liberty and other such groups.

Lawsuits, Anti-Book-Banning Laws, Book Sanctuaries, and Other Signs of Resistance

The good news is that defenders of intellectual freedom are fighting back.

Earlier this year PEN America, Penguin Random House, five authors of banned books, and two parents with children affected by school book bans in Florida’s Escambia County brought a federal lawsuit claiming that by removing several books from school libraries—including young adult books with LGBTQ characters, such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower—the country’s schools were attempting to ”prescribe an orthodoxy of opinion that violates the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendments.”

In Lake County, Florida, the authors of And Tango Makes Three, a children’s book about two male penguins who adopt and raise a chick, brought a suit contesting the county school board’s ban on the book for kindergarten through third-grade students, charging that the board’s actions were unconstitutional viewpoint and content discrimination.

Beyond these isolated legal actions, state legislatures across the country have begun passing laws designed to make the sort of mass book challenges promoted by Moms for Liberty impossible. Illinois has led the way with a law signed in June by Governor J. B. Pritzker that withholds funding for any public library that restricts or bans materials for “partisan or doctrinal” reasons.

It also mandates that Illinois public libraries adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which requires that they “challenge censorship” and resist the exclusion of materials because of the “origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.” In September, California followed suit, with a law that imposes fines on schools that “block textbooks and school library books for discriminatory reasons.”

Libraries and librarians are resisting the right’s current clampdown on the right to read. In September 2022, the Chicago Public Library system declared itself a “book sanctuary” to make heavily censored books available to the public at all 81 of their branch libraries. There are now similar sanctuary libraries across the country, including in “red” states such as Florida, Texas, Virginia, and Ohio.

Educators and teachers unions have staged mass rallies to protest book bans in states like Florida. Civic groups have also battled book bans in often creative ways. For instance, in the summer of 2023, progressive activist group MoveOn launched a “banned bookmobile” that visited states across the South and the Midwest where bans have been enacted or attempted, distributing copies of some of the most frequently challenged books.

In July 2023, the Digital Public Library of America launched the Banned Book Club, an app that allows users to freely access books that have been banned in their area. In November 2023, the popular singer Pink distributed thousands of banned or challenged books at concerts she performed in Miami and Sunrise, Florida.

But perhaps the most inspiring sign of resistance to the assault on young people’s right to read has been the activism of young people themselves. Students are taking the lead in organizing against restrictions on books about race, the LGBTQ+ community, and other subjects abhorred by conservatives.

In Texas, for example, Da’Taeveyon Daniels and other high school students led the battle against censorship of school books as part of a new organization Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT). (For more on teens’ role in the battle against censorship, see Da’Taeveyon Daniels’s Project Censored Dispatch, The Rising Political Battle over Censorship). Across the country, students have formed “banned book” reading groups in one high school after another.

The efforts of groups like SEAT, the ALA, PEN America, and other champions of intellectual freedom like the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Civil Liberties Union deserve our support. The culture warriors of the right know that their toxic strain of hate-filled politics thrives on ignorance, bigotry, and cultural chauvinism.

To defeat them, we should do all we can to promote critical thinking, deep cross-cultural knowledge, and tolerance that is best cultivated through the reading of exactly the sorts of books they seek to suppress.

Steve Macek is a Professor of Communication at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, and co-coordinator of Project Censored’s Campus Affiliates Program.  He is also a contributor to Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2024.