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Irish Examiner
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Elaine Loughlin: Trump's ICE attacks on free speech do not stop at US borders
Humiliation is just another minor consequence of Donald Trump's latest chilling move against freedom of speech, which threatens the entire bedrock on which the US was founded. This week I toyed with taking a look back at some of the best years of my life. Thankfully, the demise of Bebo meant I couldn't find a way to log in to see what ultimately would have been an embarrassing stream of blurry pictures, apparently funny comments, and hot takes on the world that would have left me cringing for days. Thoughts are no longer private The years that straddle adolescence and adulthood is a time in which most people are navigating the world, making mistakes, and forming their own opinions, many of which will change as lived experience alters what can be idealistic and naive interpretations. The current generation of third-level students, who have no recollection of Bebo, are now finding that what could have been a fleeting opinion or throwaway remark may have a lasting impact. Under new rules, all applicants for F, M, and J visas to the US will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to 'public'. Running contrary to everything from John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty' through to the US constitution itself, Donald Trump, 'is denying the space and freedom to allow truth prevail'. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP Irish students looking to spend a summer in America on a J1 visa will be required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years on their application form. Applicants must certify that the information in their visa application is true and correct before they sign and submit. Omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas. 'A US visa is a privilege, not a right,' a statement issued by the US embassy read. Threat to first amendment of the US constitution The latest announcement is just part of an ongoing intrusive policy which aims to engender fear, curtail opposing opinion, and ultimately threaten the much-valued first amendment of the US constitution. 'We are watching a major incursion on freedom of expression unthinkable in a Western democracy,' was how Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the changes announced to the student visa system by the US administration this week. Holding up a comical printout of an online meme in the Dáil chamber, Bacik detailed how US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, had detained a young Norwegian tourist at Newark Airport for five hours before he was ultimately sent back to Oslo. Why? He had on his phone the same meme depicting vice president JD Vance as a baby. While Bacik described the incident as 'extraordinary', such examples are becoming more frequent under the Trump administration, which seems hellbent on stifling alternative opinion. John Stuart Mill explained free speech Freedom of expression, especially in the academic sphere, is crucial if we as a species are to evolve and advance. In his 1859 essay, On Liberty, British philosopher John Stuart Mill put forward a comprehensive three-pronged argument as to why opinions, regardless of how incorrect or misaligned they are, should never be silenced. 'In any argument there are only three possibilities. You are either wholly wrong, partially wrong, or wholly correct — and in each case free speech is critical to improving or protecting those positions,' he wrote. 'Only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing state of human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of the truth.' ICE arrests Trump, through a series of measures is denying the space and freedom to allow truth prevail. This began in March when ICE agents began arresting student protestors who had expressed pro-Palestinian views. In one of their many notorious actions, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, for three months. Picture: Ted Shaffrey/AP This included the high-profile case of Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist at Columbia University who was returning home from dinner with his eight-month-pregnant wife when he was taken by four ICE agents and forced into an unmarked car. Although Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who was born in Syria, was released after three months in custody on June 20, the administration has indicated that it will appeal this and has cited a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 in its effort to deport Khalil. The clause allows the secretary of state to remove individuals from the country if they have reason to believe the person's actions or presence undermines foreign policy interests. Since Khalil's arrest, hundreds more students have been detained over their pro-Palestinian campus activism, with often vague allegations tabled against them. In late April, plans to further expand the reasons under which international students can be stripped of their legal status in the US were unveiled. Since then, there have been pauses on visa interviews and a move to 'aggressively' revoke visas for hundreds of thousands of Chinese students. More than 60 third-level institutions, most notably Harvard University, have been threatened with billions of dollars in financial penalties. In refusing to bow to Trump's pressure, Harvard is battling moves to freeze research grants and suspend foreign students from enrolling in the Ivy League college. Under such constraints, a brain drain has begun, with many lecturers and researchers looking to Europe and further abroad for refuge. Beyond academia, the administration has banned news outlets from covering White House events and sought sanctions against attorneys and law firms who do not represent Trump's view of the world. The land of the free and the home of the brave is becoming a place where those brave enough to speak out are suppressed and punished.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
How a tech billionaire couple saved a Devon village, starting with its boozer
Two clock-off-early tradesmen nurse pints of Guinness at the bar while a miniature dachshund vents its small-dog fury at a larger mutt sat under a nearby table. 'Quiet, Pebbles,' its lager-sipping owner implores. ' Shhhhh.' It's a scene that could be playing out at any pub in the land on this Friday afternoon, but The Farmers Arms is not just any pub; it's Visit England's Pub of the Year – some accolade for the middle-of-nowhere North Devon village that it calls home. But Woolfardisworthy – or Woolsery, for short – is not your average village. While others of its ilk have faded in that familiar way, drained of brawn and brain by a lack of rural opportunities, Woolsery (population: 1,100) has avoided a similar fate thanks to a Silicon Valley tech bro. In an unlikely turn of events, Michael Birch and his wife Xochi, the multimillionaire founders of the social networking site Bebo, used some of their considerable fortune to buy up failing local businesses – including the then-closed Farmers Arms and village shop – to prevent Woolsery from folding in on itself. That might sound like an odd pet project for two San Francisco-dwelling tech entrepreneurs, but Birch was guided by a sense of duty, matters of the heart. His great-grandparents built the shop, his grandmother was born above it, and he spent many merry summers knocking around Woolsery as a kid before hitting the big time during the dotcom boom. 'It's a Netflix story,' coos Steve Manzanero, who's drinking in the pub with his wife Sarah Roots. They know a thing about reality shows, having moved to Woolsery from Basingstoke after taking part in BBC's Escape to the Country. The Farmers Arms helped seal the deal. 'We fell in love with the place,' says Mazanero, who is launching 'carbon-neutral' holiday accommodation in the village. 'I haven't seen Michael yet, but I'd love to have a pint with him.' 'Woolsery is a bit special,' adds Roots, a teaching assistant who won't be the first person to tell me as much. 'It's the best village I've lived in,' adds Tracey Renton, another regular, originally from Darlington, but who's lived all over. 'It's just magical.' Woolsery certainly has an air of exclusivity about it. In contrast to its rugged rural surrounds, the village looks neat and manicured. The shop is upmarket, there's a gourmet chippy and a boutique hotel scattered across several smartly renovated buildings. It's a model village. The Farmers Arms itself is a far cry from the spit-and-sawdust rural boozers of old, with its craft cocktails and à la carte food, served in the high-beamed restaurant out back. All these businesses, plus an under-construction hotel and restaurant in the Georgian manor opposite, are part of The Collective, a hospitality group set up by the Birches to breathe new life into Woolsery. It employs 62 people, most of them from the village. 'You've got to take your hat off to them, they've done something pretty special,' says Simon Odell, one of the Guinness-sipping tradesmen at the bar. Odell lives in the neighbouring village, Buckland Brewer, which, he says, offers a stark contrast to booming Woolsery. 'When I moved there, there was a pub, a butcher, a village shop, a Post Office,' he recalls. 'Now the pub's applying for a change of usage – all we'll have left is the shop. Not everywhere can have a tech millionaire to invest in it.' Odell, who runs Odell Building and Restorations, says he feels welcome at The Farmers Arms in mortar-splashed overalls, despite the pub's polished appearance and its £75-a-head five-course tasting menu (regular pub dishes, albeit with a gourmet touch, are available). His colleague, James Pearce, agrees. He grew up in one-pub Woolsery and remembers what The Farmers Arms was like before. 'It wasn't very welcoming,' he says. 'The landlord was grumpy and some locals liked to scrap. It went downhill. Then the roof collapsed and suddenly there was no pub.' Inevitably, there are those who hark back to the days when rural pubs like The Farmers Arms were innocent of modern trends. In a darkened nook, one local scoffs at 'the millionaire done good who came to buy the village'. It raises an obvious question: what do we want tech bros to do with their wonga? Fly the missus to space, colonise Mars or save one of Britain's many closed pubs? Others wish the beer was better – and cheaper. 'They've done a great job with the renovation – you can't fault that – and the staff are great, but they need to up their beer game,' says farmer, Zen Butler. '£6 for an ale – it's priced some out.' The Farmers Arms – a pub named after folk like Butler – is not, he suggests, what you might call a drinker's pub. He's right, of course – it's much more than that. A short walk uphill from the inn, along winding lanes lined with hedges, is 150-acre Birch Farm, which is also part of The Collective, and supplies much of the food served at the pub. Like Woolsery, Birch Farm goes against the grain. Literally so – you'll find no fields of wheat here. In contrast to the green parcels of land smothering the surrounding hills like a patchwork quilt, Birch Farm is a colourful mosaic of wildflower meadows, fledgling trees and vegetable gardens. A cacophony of birdsong greets me, courtesy of skylarks, blackbirds, bull finches, swallows. 'It was silent when we got here,' says Josh Sparkes, who manages the farm. 'But they came back.' Sparkes are his team are transforming the former arable and cattle farm into a 'climate-resistant perennial food system' that feeds nature as well as people. Among the wildflowers are chestnut trees, apple trees, hazelnuts and edible perennials such as sea kale and mashua, a potato-like tuber native to South America. Rare-breed pigs and sheep, which will be served at the pub, roam nearby. 'The input is zero; no fertilisers, no pesticides,' says Sparkes. 'We brought beetles back to eat the slugs. It's about working with nature.' Sparkes doesn't consider what he's doing rewilding. 'Rewilding pushes people out,' he says. 'We just want people to have good access to food that protects biodiversity. Traditional farming has got maybe 40 years left [before the soil is depleted]. We want to prove to other farmers that this can be profitable.' Back in Woolsery, chef Toby Neal is certainly grateful for the ingredients coming down from the farm. 'Not many chefs get to have the things that I get,' he says, as the orders fly in. 'It's unique.' The tasting menu is certainly like nothing I've eaten before. Each dish is garnished with edible flowers and leaves that pop with unfamiliar but welcome flavours. The whiteface Dartmoor hogget with morel and asparagus is sensational. And this, in tiny, middle-of-nowhere Woolsery. For waitress Sophie Buckley, who grew up here, the pub's unlikely revival has stopped her from being part of the rural brain drain.
Geek Vibes Nation
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
‘Esta Isla (This Island)' Review – A Patient Snapshot Of The Grounding Nature Of Family
If you allow them to be, films can be a doorway. They can invite you into places, lives, and experiences that you can never dream of even being possible. This is true of all of the films we see, but it is especially so when diving into the world of cinema not in your first language. It immediately forces you into another universe of language, lifestyles, and culture foreign to your own. And oddly, it will also encourage you to find the connection and similarity to your own world. In Esta Isla, set in Puerto Rico, we are introduced to brothers Bebo (Zion Ortiz) and Charlie (Xavier Morales) as they attempt to make their way in a difficult world. We learn later that their parents are no longer present, and they have been raised by their grandmother. There is great love in this family, but love certainly does not pay the bills. Charlie and Bebo do a variety of things to pay their way. They are fishermen, they have various side hustles, and Charlie has worked in less-than-legal dealings with a local gangster, Moreno (Audicio Robles), previously. This relationship, strained and leading to possible violence, ends up linking Bebo and Moreno. Bebo, doing a small job selling drugs at a club, meets Lola (Fabiola Brown), a girl from a higher class. Through plot machinations I will not go into, Lola and Bebo go on the run, both leaving their families behind. This allows the film to really hit its stride, ironically as it slows down. Directors Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero guide us on a journey into the heart of Puerto Rico, completely defying any expectations that we might have as an outsider. Unlike many places in our world, there is a sense of discovery that happens here, aided by expert framing from cinematographer Cedric Cheung-Lau, which leads us on a path that could not have been predicted. If Esta Isla has faults, it is that it attempts to cover too much ground when there are opportunities for great depth that are missed. The film has numerous plot threads that are all almost incredible, but because they are stretched, none of them completely hit the bullseye. The relationship between younger brother, Bebo, and older sibling, Charlie, is beautiful to behold. Both of these young actors feel deeply genuine and feel as if they have a complete past together. So much so that one wishes that we got to experience the years that the film glosses over. Similarly, the film jumps the gun slightly with the romance between Lola and Bebo. It is understandable that they link together so quickly. They are both young, good-looking, and figuring themselves out. But after the inciting event occurred, I found myself wanting more details of their relationship and why she would agree to travel with him. There is some detail revealed later in a stunningly acted moment from Brown, but there is definitely more meat on the bone that could be explored. But none of this means that the film is not intensely watchable. Despite a languid pace, almost in the middle of a chase scene, it always feels like we should keep leaning forward to experience this world. All of the characters seem real in a way that we rarely see in mainstream cinema. There are no pure heroes on display; they all have moments in which they react too strongly, but they also have episodes in which they just sit and listen. The slowness of these moments is what makes Esta Isla a world worth visiting. No matter what mistakes they make, family is everything. And sometimes, even if we want to leave a place, family is what holds us, grounds us, and connects us. Bebo, Charlie, Lola, and even Moreno all represent this to a certain degree. Even when our birth families fail us, sometimes the land that we are on is enough. The island has a strange way of connecting and protecting its people. Nothing is perfect, but that can never be expected. Instead, we look for just enough care and beauty to sustain us. Esta Isla held its World Premiere as a part of the U.S. Narrative Competition section of the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Directors: Lorraine Jones Molina, Cristian Carretero Screenwriters: Lorraine Jones Molina, Cristian Carretero, Kisha Tikina Burgos Rated: NR Runtime: 114m
France 24
10-06-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Operation Spider's Web: Did Ukraine destroy two Russian A-50 surveillance planes?
People are still debating the extent of the damages caused by the surprise Ukrainian drone attack on four Russian air bases on June 1. Kyiv said that the attack, dubbed Operation Spider's Web, resulted in the destruction of 41 Russian aircraft. US officials told Reuters that they estimated that around 20 planes had been hit. On social media, people have debated not just the number of planes destroyed, but also the type. Aside from a number of nuclear-capable bombers, some have claimed that the Ukrainian strikes also hit other high-value targets, namely two Beriev A-50 planes that were at Ivanovo airbase, located 250 kilometres from Moscow. These A-50s, the Russian equivalent of the American AWAC surveillance planes, are used for detecting aerial targets and for command. With its radar dome, the A-50 can surveil and co-ordinate the movements of both friendly and enemy aircraft, as well as missiles. Their limited number makes these aircraft even more precious to the Russian army. Currently, there are only seven operational A-50s in the Russian Air Force, according to specialist site Supporters of the Kremlin on social media have tried to deny the reports of the destruction of these precious aircraft. Lord Bebo, a Russian influencer who regularly shares disinformation from the Kremlin, took to X on June 3 to say that the news was a 'lie' and that these aircraft weren't damaged. To support his statements, the influencer shared a satellite image showing two intact planes. However, the image shared by Lord Bebo is misleading. It was taken at Ivanovo air base, and it does show A-50 planes. However, it has nothing to do with the raid on June 1. We ran this image through a reverse image search (check out our handy guide here) and we discovered that this image was originally published on the American website Business Insider. The photo was taken by the satellite image company Maxar on May 3, 2025, nearly a month before the Ukrainian attack. On June 4, the Ukrainian security services, the SBU, published a video from a camera that was mounted on one of the drones that attacked on June 1. The video proves that A-50s were indeed hit by Ukraine. At 1'31, you can see two drones hit the radar domes of the planes. Out-of-service aircraft However, even if these attacks on the A-50 planes were confirmed, they were possibly not as serious as you might think. If you look closely at the aircraft in the video, then you can see that they seem to be missing some or all of their D-30KP reactors – which means they would not be able to fly. According to Benjamin Gravisse, a specialist in the Russian armed forces and the person behind the Red Samovar account on X, Ivanovo received about twenty A-50 planes in 1998 that were supposed to essentially serve as 'organ donors", meaning that they would be used for parts for other planes. The planes hit by the drones have a red star on them, which indicates that they are a vestige of the Soviet era and have likely not flown for the past "10 to 15 years", according to the expert on X. Moreover, as the video released by the SBU cuts off at the moment of drone impact, it isn't possible to know if the planes were destroyed by the strikes or if they were just damaged.
Time of India
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Kareena Kapoor Khan's slays in a sunshine yellow kaftan at Sonam Kapoor's birthday bash; parties with BTown friends
Bollywood style icon once again turned heads with her impeccable fashion sense at 's recent birthday celebration. Known for effortlessly blending comfort and glamour, Kareena chose a breezy, summer-perfect yellow kaftan that instantly stole the spotlight. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The radiant ensemble, ideal for the season, showcased her signature understated elegance. The kaftan, designed by a renowned French luxury fashion house, came with a hefty price tag of nearly Rs 1.72 lakh — and proved once again why Kareena remains a reigning queen of Bollywood fashion. She styled the dress with beige pointed-toe stilettos, a statement brown belt, and long earrings. Bebo slayed simple yet classy and carried herself just like her iconic line, 'Main meri favourite hoon.' Bebo arrived with husband Saif Ali Khan to Sonam's birthday celebrations. The star-studded event also saw Anshula Kapoor, , , Khushi Kapoor, Vedang Raina, Bhumi Pednekar, Karan Johar, Rhea Kapoor, and other in elegant all-black outfits. On the cinematic front, the actress was last seen in Rohit Shetty's 'Singham Again' with Ajay Devgn. The film also starred Arjun Kapoor as a villain, as Lady Singham, Tiger Shroff as ACP Satya, as Simmba and as Vir Sooryavanshi respectively. Kareena Kapoor Khan Wishes Her Brother-In-Law Kunal A Happy Birthday In Style
