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    Dozens of workers penalized after Charlie Kirk shooting, from journalists to Jimmy Kimmel

    In the aftermath of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, dozens across the United States have been fired, suspended or disciplined over social media posts about Kirk and his death, as employers and public officials crack down on remarks they deem “inappropriate”.After Kirk, 31, was shot and killed on 10 September while speaking at Utah Valley University, members of the Trump administration called on the public to expose anyone appearing to be “celebrating” his killing.“Call them out, and hell, call their employer,” JD Vance said. “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.”Over the past week, conservative activists and politicians have been circulating and publicizing social media posts about Kirk and his death that they deem inappropriate and that they claim celebrates or mocks Kirk’s death. Similarly, they have waged pressure campaigns urging employers to take action against the individuals.Civil liberties groups and free speech advocates have warned that the wave of firings and expulsions risks chilling free expression and could infringe on first amendment protections.Here are some of the people who have reportedly been affected by the crackdown so far:Government workersThe US Secret Service placed an employee on leave last week after reportedly writing in a Facebook post that that Kirk “spewed hate and racism on his show”, adding: “At the end of the day, you answer to GOD, and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesn’t leave,” according to CBS News.A spokesperson for the agency confirmed to the Guardian: “This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun.”The Secret Service “will not tolerate behavior that violates our code of conduct”, the spokesperson added.Fox News also reported that an employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) was placed on administrative leave over an Instagram post describing Kirk as “the literal racist homophobe misogynist”.A Fema spokesperson told the Guardian that the “employee’s words are revolting and unconscionable” and that the employee “was immediately placed on administrative leave”.“We expect all public servants to uphold the highest standard of professionalism, respect and integrity,” they added.The US Coast Guard also said last week that it was “aware of inappropriate personal social media activity” made by one of their employees “regarding recent political violence” and that they were “actively investigating this activity and will take appropriate action to hold the individual accountable”.Media and entertainmentOn Wednesday evening, news broke that Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show had been suspended “indefinitely” after comments he made about the shooting of Kirk.In a recent broadcast, Kimmel had suggested that “many in Maga land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, which prompted complaints from the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr.Carr said: “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”Hours later, ABC, owned by Disney, announced that Kimmel’s show would be “pre-empted indefinitely” after the affiliate operator Nexstar called Kimmel’s remarks “offensive and insensitive”.This came as last week MSNBC fired its senior political analyst Matthew Dowd after he suggested on air that Kirk’s own rhetoric may have contributed to the shooting that killed him. Dowd’s remarks were condemned by MSNBC as “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable”.In a subsequent Substack article on Friday, Dowd confirmed that MSNBC had fired him and said: “The Right Wing media mob ginned up, went after me on a plethora of platforms, and MSNBC reacted to that mob.”The Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said on Monday that she was also fired over a series of social media posts “speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns” following Kirk’s killing.Meanwhile, PHNX Sports, an Arizona sports network, confirmed that it had parted ways with one of its employees over comments related to Kirk’s death, according to multple reports. Several outlets have reported that it was one of PHNX’s sports writers.AcademicsAcross the country, US educators and employees of educational institutions are being fired or placed on leave over social media posts about Kirk and his death.At Clemson University in South Carolina, the university said on Monday that it had fired an employee “due to their social media posts” and also later announced that two faculty members had been dismissed over social media posts in response to Kirk’s killing that the school deemed “inappropriate”.The university did not disclose the content of the posts.Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, had publicly urged the university to terminate the employees.“Free speech doesn’t prevent you from being fired if you’re stupid and have poor judgment,” Graham said.In Tennessee, the Republican senator Marsha Blackburn called for an employee at Middle Tennessee State University to be fired for reportedly writing in a post that they had “ZERO sympathy” for Kirk’s death.The university confirmed to the Tennessean that the employee was terminated.Texas State University ended the enrollment of a student who mocked Kirk’s assassination during a campus memorial event.At Texas Tech University, a student was also reportedly expelled after a video showed her disrupting a vigil for Kirk and shouting “F–k y’all homie dead, he got shot in the head.”The Texas Education Agency reported that it was investigating about 180 complaints against teachers accused of posting inappropriate remarks online about Kirk’s death, according to the Texas Tribune.The state’s teachers union called the investigations a “political witch-hunt against Texas educators”.The University of Mississippi fired a staffer who they said “re-shared hurtful insensitive comments on social media” regarding Kirk’s killing. Florida Atlantic University also reportedly placed a tenured professor on leave over sharing posts about Kirk’s politics in the wake of the assassination, according to the Palm Beach Post.The American Association of University Professors has condemned the wave of disciplinary measures.“The AAUP notes with great alarm the rash of recent administrative actions to discipline faculty, staff, and student speech in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk” they wrote. “We write to remind leaders of colleges and universities of their fundamental duty to protect academic freedom and the absolute necessity to ensure that the freedom to discuss topics of public import without constraint is not curtailed under political pressure.”And not only universities have been affected. Public school teachers in at least 15 states including Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Idaho, Ohio, Oregon, Massachusetts, Michigan, Florida and Missouri have also been suspended or fired over posts about Kirk after his killing.And in New Jersey, local outlets report that a​​ school district was forced to shelter in place last week after receiving violent threats following a controversial social media post about Kirk’s killing falsely attributed to a district employee.Visa holdersThe US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced that “visa revocations are under way” for individuals in the country on visas who are “cheering on the public assassination of a political figure”.“Prepare to be deported,” Rubio said. “You are not welcome in this country.”The state department did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for details on whether there have been any visa revocations in connection with comments about Kirk.AirlinesOver the weekend, the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said that American Airlines had “immediately grounded” pilots accused of celebrating Kirk’s death and “removed [them] from service”.“This behavior is disgusting and they should be fired,” Duffy said. “Any company responsible for the safety of the traveling public cannot tolerate that behavior.”He added: “We heal as a country when we send the message that glorifying political violence is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!.”In a statement to the Guardian, American Airlines said it condemned “violence of any kind” and that “hate-related or hostile behavior runs contrary to our purpose, which is to care for people on life’s journey.“Employees who promote such violence on social media were immediately removed from service,” they added. “We will continue to initiate action with team members who display this kind of behavior.”Duffy also praised United Airlines for taking similar action and placing one of their pilots out of service for reportedly celebrating Kirk’s death.“They must be fired,” Duffy said. “There’s no room for political violence in America and anyone applauding it will face the consequences. ESPECIALLY those we count on to ensure the safety of the flying public.”United Airlines told the Guardian that they have “been clear with our customers and employees that there’s zero tolerance for politically motivated violence or any attempt to justify it” and that they’ve “taken action on employees in this regard”.CNN also reported that Delta Air Lines also suspended employees “whose social media content, related to the recent murder of activist Charlie Kirk, went well beyond healthy, respectful debate”.The airlines did not disclose details about the posts.Healthcare workersOn Saturday, the University of Miami’s health system announced that it had fired an employee over what they described as “unacceptable public commentary”.“Freedom of speech is a fundamental right,” the health system said. “At the same time, expressions that condone or endorse violence or are incompatible with our policies or values are not acceptable.”The statement did not elaborate on the remarks made.In Michigan, a nurse was reportedly placed on leave for making controversial remarks about Kirk’s death, and another healthcare worker in Virginia was also reportedly fired over for similar reasons.The Boston Globe reported that a Massachusetts-based biomedical research center fired an employee who allegedly posted a “deeply offensive” comment about Kirk’s killing.Other workersEmployees in various other industries are also facing backlash over social media posts related to Kirk’s death.The Carolina Panthers reportedly fired a public relations staffer for social media posts about Kirk and his death.“The views expressed by our employees are their own and do not represent those of the Carolina Panthers,” the organization said. “We do not condone violence of any kind. We are taking this matter very seriously and have accordingly addressed it with the individual.”A junior strategist at Nasdaq was also fired for social media posts related to Kirk’s shooting.“Nasdaq has a zero-tolerance policy toward violence and any commentary that condones or celebrates violence,” the company said in a post on X.The law firm Perkins Coie told Bloomberg Law that they fired a lawyer who posted a message on social media that criticized Kirk after his death.The New Orleans and Toledo fire departments have said that they have launched investigations into employees accused of making insensitive posts about Kirk.In Illinois, a burger restaurant reportedly fired its general manager over a social media post about Kirk’s killing and meanwhile in Michigan, an Office Depot employee was also fired after allegedly refusing to print flyers related to Kirk.On Monday, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, threatened to prosecute the Office Depot employee. More

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    Donald Trump’s base is fraying. Are Democrats up to the moment? | Lloyd Green

    The 2024 presidential election was a disaster for the Democrats. Donald Trump managed to shake loose the party’s base. Latino voters, Black voters and young Americans swung away from Kamala Harris, resulting in Trump’s first popular vote plurality in three tries. Less than a year later, the shifts may yet prove transitory. Looming cuts to healthcare, rising unemployment and sticky inflation may be yielding buyers’ remorse. Whether the Democrats are up to the moment is an open question.Regardless, the new “American Golden Age”, promised by the president and his minions, is looking more like stagflation for the many and a booming stock market for the few. Topline youth unemployment stands at 10.8%, according to the Trump-maligned Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment rates for young men (11% ), Black youth (14.3%), and Hispanic youth (12.6%) are even higher.With midterms less than 14 months away, the president and his party ought to be concerned. The Democrats narrowly lead on the generic ballot, despite being unloved, incompetent and in disarray. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval remains underwater, hovering between -7% and -8% on average, according to the Silver Bulletin.Disapproval among Latino voters is starker. Immigration and masked Ice agents have soured voters on the administration’s real gains in securing the border: according to one new poll, the incumbent stands 20 points underwater with Latinos.The latest YouGov poll, meanwhile, pegs Hispanic disapproval of Trump at 65%. Among Black Americans, the figure is 84%. White Americans disapprove of him, 50-47. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from August reports that only one-third of Hispanics approve of Trump.Yesterday seems so far away. In November, Trump fought Harris to a near draw among Hispanic voters, 48%-51%. In 2020, they went for Joe Biden 61%-36%.Hispanic people were not alone in moving toward Trump. Americans under 50 and Asian Americans markedly shifted, too. Black communities demonstrated political restlessness as well. Against Harris, Trump garnered 15% of Black voters – up from 8% four years earlier. Among Black men, the change was even more glaring.Hispanic voters do not, of course, march in lockstep with the Democratic party or its establishment. George W Bush won four in nine Hispanic votes in 2004. John Kerry proved a dud. In 2008, Hispanic voters opted for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, the eventual nominee. In both the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, they showed greater early preference for Bernie Sanders, a proponent of Medicare for all.A commanding win by the senator from Vermont in the 2020 Nevada presidential caucus sent the Biden campaign reeling. The failed one-term President Biden finished 25 points behind Sanders in that contest.The Great Recession and Covid-19 left deep scars. In June 2022, the Democrats lost a key race in south Texas. Mayra Flores, a Republican newcomer, triumphed in a special election and flipped control of a long-held Democratic seat. A coda, Flores failed to win re-election the following November, and again lost in 2024.Fast forward to the current New York City mayoral race. There, younger voters and Hispanic voters comprise Zohran Mamdani’s political core. His victory in the Democratic primary was as much about economic dissatisfaction and uncertainty as demographic and generational change.Overall, Hispanic Americans show the highest workforce participation rates. Lunch-bucket issues possess greater salience. Social issues generally receive less attention from non-college graduates than they do from white Democratic PhDs. As a corollary, what plays well in the faculty lounge is seldom a winner outside those Ivy-covered precincts.The Latino vote is in flux. Trump’s promises to secure the border and crack down on illegal immigration proved less controversial among large swaths of Hispanic voters than Democrats had hoped. Rather, inflation and the kitchen table concerns carried the day for the GOP as Harris refused to distance herself from her boss.In south Texas, thousands of traditional Democrats cast their lot with Trump. Republican redistricting efforts in the Lone Star state now hinge upon those trends continuing, a debatable but plausible premise.The S&P 500 and Nasdaq set new records almost daily. Yet Trump’s promise to “end inflation” and start “saving our economy” beginning on “day one” looks increasingly empty. His unilaterally imposed tariffs bite.Democrats have plenty of material to work with. Their capacity to eventually deliver a coherent message is another matter.

    Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 More

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    Trump’s take on a court decision on tariffs is bonkers – even for him | Steven Greenhouse

    Just hours after an appeals court ruled that it was illegal for Donald Trump to impose his unpopular across-the-board tariffs on dozens of countries, he posted a frantic, over-the-top rant that declared: “If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America.”So here the president of the United States was asserting that if the courts torpedoed his tariffs, then the US, the most powerful nation on earth, would be destroyed, would “literally” be kaput. Trump seemed to suggest that court rulings that blocked his beloved tariffs would have the destructive power of, say, 100 hydrogen bombs.Call me naive, but I never cease to be amazed when Trump says such egregiously false and ludicrous things. OK, I sometimes forget that he’s the guy who said that noise from wind turbines causes cancer. After narrowly winning the presidency a second time notwithstanding the 30,573 Trump lies, falsehoods and misleading claims in his first term, Trump evidently thinks he can say anything, no matter how false or foolish, and get away with it. As part of his tariff fight, Trump also blurted this absurdity: if the courts don’t uphold his tariffs, “we would become a Third World Nation.”Trump’s statement that ending tariffs will destroy the US is totally bonkers because the US became the world’s richest nation and has largely prospered for nearly 250 years (despite occasional slumps) before Trump imposed his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April. In the months before then, the US had solid GDP growth, low unemployment and declining inflation – the Economist magazine even called the US economy “the envy of the world”. But now Trump says that if the courts give a thumbs down to his favorite plaything – I mean weapon – to bang other countries over the head with, it would end the US. Even Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of the conservative National Review, called that “lunatic stuff”.The truth is that if the courts block Trump’s across-the-board tariffs, that would be good news for the US economy. It would prevent Trump’s tariffs from further pushing up inflation and slowing economic growth. By giving a thumbs down to Trump’s tariffs, the courts might be doing him a huge economic and political favor because his tariffs, and the inflation they are fueling, have been dragging his dismal approval ratings even lower.On 29 August, the US court of appeals for the federal circuit in Washington DC ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose his Liberation Day tariffs. The court said that act doesn’t give presidents the authority to slap sweeping tariffs on other countries. Trump has appealed the ruling to the supreme court, which might rule on the tariffs this fall.The court of appeals repeatedly noted that the constitution gives Congress, not presidents, the power to impose tariffs. It further noted that the Emergency Act doesn’t mention the word “tariffs” even once among the tools the act authorizes presidents to use to deal with emergency trade problems. (That appellate ruling overturned the bulk of Trump’s tariffs: the blanket 10% to 50% tariffs on exports from more than 70 countries. The court didn’t rule on Trump’s product-specific tariffs on steel, aluminum and auto parts.)As part of his conniptions over the appeals court ruling, Trump also warned of fiscal disaster, complaining that the US would lose hundreds of billions of dollars if his tariffs were halted. But Trump conveniently forgets that it’s embattled US consumers who will be paying most of those hundreds of billions as they pay Trump’s tariffs, essentially import taxes on furniture, cars, coffee, electronics and other foreign goods.In using his hysterical language, Trump evidently had one audience in mind: the supreme court’s six conservative justices who have repeatedly ruled his way. Trump’s goal is evidently to scare the bejesus out of those justices – he hopes that by shrieking “You’ll Destroy the Country If You Rule Against Me,” that will persuade them to overturn the appellate court’s decision and uphold his tariffs. (The appellate court let the tariffs remain in force to allow time for appeal.)So far in his second term, Trump has a remarkable batting average with the supreme court’s six rightwing justices, who seem astonishingly subservient and supine vis-a-vis the most authoritarian, power-grabbing president in US history. The justices have used their emergency docket to grant Trump administration requests 18 times in a row, often vacating injunctions that lower courts put in place to stop what they saw as Trump’s rampant lawlessness. In repeatedly siding with Trump, the supreme court has scrapped lower court injunctions in several highly controversial cases, provisionally letting Trump fire the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, gut the federal Department of Education, and give Doge – with its staff of twentysomethings – access to the highly private social security information of hundreds of millions of Americans.Trump is no doubt worried that the supreme court, though submissive so far, will overturn his tariffs. Many conservative and libertarian scholars and lawyers oppose his tariffs as both harmful and illegal. Not only do they dislike the tariffs for pushing up inflation and disrupting global supply chains, but they see Trump’s tariffs as anti-free market and mucking up the US and world economies.When Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs, he invoked a national emergency, saying the US trade deficit and other countries’ tariffs were urgent problems undermining the US economy. Admittedly the trade deficit and other countries’ tariffs are a problem, but in no way do they constitute a national emergency, especially since the US economy was seen as “the envy of the world” before Trump went hog wild with his tariffs. (There’s no denying that the flood of imports from China and other low-wage nations badly damaged many communities in America’s industrial heartland two and three decades ago.) Wouldn’t it be great if, in this tariff litigation, the supreme court stood up to Trump and issued a candid ruling that told him: “Sorry, Mr President, your supposed national emergency is hogwash, a pretext for you to pursue your destructive tariff obsession”?The supreme court’s justices shouldn’t let themselves be cowed, bullied or fooled by Trump’s talk that the nation will be destroyed if they nix his tariffs. Trump is like the boy who cried wolf, forever crying catastrophe if he doesn’t get his way. It’s time for the court and the nation to wise up to Trump’s lies, hype and shenanigans.Virtually every non-Trumpian economist agrees that Trump’s tariffs have hurt the US by increasing inflation, undermining GDP growth, creating huge headaches for corporations and seriously damaging the US’s relations with other nations. The justices shouldn’t buy Trump’s calamitous warnings that if they overturn his tariffs, the world will end.If the justices declare his tariffs illegal, it certainly won’t be a “disaster” for the US, as Trump has claimed. But it might be a disaster for Trump’s ego and for his dangerous dream of having an authoritarian presidency wholly unchecked by the other branches of government.If the supreme court rules against Trump’s tariffs, let’s hope that will serve as a much-needed first step to the court’s developing the backbone to rule many times more against Trump’s authoritarian and lawless actions.

    Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues More

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    They managed to get accepted to US universities. But they’re still stuck in Gaza

    Within days of 7 October 2023, much of Maryam’s world had been wiped out: her home in Gaza City, her children’s schools, and the Islamic University of Gaza, where she was a graduate student in physics, were all destroyed by airstrikes. In early December, Maryam’s mentor – Sufian Tayeh, a prominent Palestinian scientist and president of the Islamic University of Gaza – was killed along with his family in an Israeli strike.The professor has been a “father figure” to her, Maryam told the Guardian. When she learned of his death, she remembers closing the physics notebooks she had grabbed as she fled her home and thinking her studies would be over. “My entire world had collapsed,” she said.But as she repeatedly fled Israel’s bombs, Maryam sought ways to keep not only her family alive, but also her dream of becoming a physicist. While living in a tent in Rafah, with no stable access to internet or electricity, she learned of a spot near the border where she could get a faint internet signal from Egypt. Despite the risks, she started going there to research opportunities abroad, eventually managing to earn admission to a fully funded PhD program at the University of Maryland. After deferring her start date by a year, she was meant to start this month.But Maryam remains in Gaza. She is one of dozens of students from the devastated territory who have been admitted to US universities and colleges but are stuck, advocates say, after the Trump administration suspended nearly all non-immigrant visas for Palestinian passport holders.As part of its campaign against US universities, the administration has made it more difficult for international students to travel to the US, and claims it has revoked the visas of thousands of foreign students already in the US over unspecified violations.But for Palestinians in Gaza, the policy change is uniquely devastating.“I will never forget the moment I received the message confirming my acceptance into a fully funded PhD program. I rushed back to our tent to hold my children tightly and tell them the good news – that we would survive this nightmare,” said Maryam, who is using a pseudonym to protect her and her family. “Everything came crashing down again when I heard about the suspension of visa processing. It felt like my dreams had been destroyed once more.”Leila, a 22-year-old from Gaza City, was four years into a five-year engineering program when the war started. She would walk up to two hours a day to find wifi, relying on solar power to charge her phone, and managed to apply and be admitted to a university in the north-western US as a transfer student. (Leila is also a pseudonym, and she asked that the Guardian not publish the name of the university.)Then came the news that all visas were suspended. “We are just stuck in Gaza right now,” she told the Guardian in a series of voice memos.A spokesperson for the state department said in a statement that the department had suspended the processing of nonimmigrant visas for Palestinian Authority passport holders “while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to vet individuals from Gaza” and that it will “take the time necessary to conduct a full and thorough review”.“Every visa decision is a national security decision,” the spokesperson added.According to a cable viewed by the Associated Press, department officials said the new restrictions were intended “to ensure that such applications have undergone necessary, vetting, and screening protocols to ensure the applicants’ identity and eligibility for a visa under US law”. The suspension doesn’t apply to Palestinians who hold passports from other countries – unless they are found to have ties to the Palestinian Authority, or the Palestine Liberation Organization.The Student Justice Network, a US-based collective formed after Donald Trump signed orders in January targeting international students, has been supporting students from Gaza who are seeking to continue their interrupted studies abroad. But of the dozens of students the group says it has helped with university and visa applications, only a handful have made it to the US. (They declined to provide more specific numbers.)Securing a visa to travel to the US from Gaza was an arduous process even in quieter times. Before the war, Palestinians in Gaza had to secure appointments at US embassies outside the territory – usually Egypt or Israel. Obtaining a permit to travel to Israel has been impossible since the war began, while the border with Egypt has remained largely closed.International students have been targeted with a series of federal actions aimed both at Palestinian students specifically and the broader community of more than one million foreign nationals studying in the country.The state department has enlisted consulates overseas into the effort. Earlier this year, it paused all student visa appointments. They have resumed, but prospective students are now being subjected to additional vetting for, among other things, “anti-American” views.But for Palestinians the restrictions are blanket. “Every single one of them has been impacted by this,” Majid said of the students her group has been helping who were meant to start their studies this fall. “There’s no clear understanding as to when their applications will be processed, and this affects their ability to attend their universities on time – and in some cases it could actually impact whether or not they’re able to maintain their scholarships.”Looking elsewhereThomas Cohen, a physics professor at the University of Maryland, told the Guardian that Maryam was one of two physics students from Gaza admitted to the university last year. But getting them out of Gaza proved so difficult that the university ended up deferring the students’ admissions by a year as they tried to get visa appointments.Maryam was able to book an interview at the US embassy in Egypt, and Cohen offered to personally pay for her way there – but the border was shut down when Israeli forces took control of it in May 2024. She was still looking for a way out when the US announced the suspension of visas for Palestinians.Cohen said he tried all he could to help Maryam and the other student – because their academic records earned them a spot at the university but also because he understood that the opportunity could save their lives. He spoke of the Holocaust survivors in his own family, and those who “didn’t survive because they had no way to leave” Nazi-occupied Poland.Cohen is now advising the students to pursue opportunities in Europe or Canada. Even if they were to get a visa to the US, “the political climate we’re in, it’s dangerous for Palestinians”, he says.Majid, of the Student Justice Network, said the group had also been encouraging the students they support to pursue options in other countries. But even if they gain admission elsewhere, the border with Egypt remains sealed shut as Israel has intensified its military campaign.“These are students who have gone through two plus years without an educational infrastructure,” Majid said, noting that all of Gaza’s universities have been destroyed.“Think about having applied to university when you were 17 or 18, and then think about applying under bombardments, and starvation, and with limited resources, and having your documents destroyed, and having lost your family members,” she added. “To yank these fully funded opportunities away from them is devastating.” More

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    For comedians around the world, the laughs often end as democracy fades

    The exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has experienced firsthand how intolerant governments can silence political satire. And he had a short message this week for those living in an age of Donald Trump’s free speech clampdown: “My Fellow American Citizens,” he wrote on X. “Welcome to my world.”In his attacks on the most prominent of American satirists, the US president has joined a cadre of illiberal and sensitive leaders around the world who will not tolerate a joke.The latest target of what critics say is a campaign to silence dissenting voices was Jimmy Kimmel, who had his late-night ABC talkshow suspended after government pressure. The removal, weeks after the rival network CBS cancelled Stephen Colbert’s satirical show, follows other Trump-led crackdowns on media and academia.Political foes of the US president say the diminishing space for free speech shows Trump’s America is moving towards authoritarianism. Senator Bernie Sanders, speaking to MSNBC, said the country was on a path towards becoming more like oppressive regimes in Russia and Saudi Arabia. “This is just another step forward,” he said.From Egypt’s military ruler, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to India’s populist prime minister, Narendra Modi, the laughs often end for comedians as democracy dwindles.One of the most famous global comedians to have his life turned upside down by his political satire is Youssef, who first found fame with a TV show panning the Egyptian regime.Known as the “Egyptian Jon Stewart” in reference to the US talkshow host whom he was inspired by (and looks like), Youssef is a former heart surgeon who became a household name.But his satire made him the target of two opposing governments. He was first arrested in April 2013, accused of insulting Islam and Egypt’s then president. Months later, when Sisi took power by force, Youssef had to cancel his show and flee the country.View image in fullscreenYoussef has said his struggle was as much against Egypt’s cloying, conservative culture as its repressive leaders. “We didn’t have a space for satire in Egypt. We carved out our own space. We had to fight for it,” he said in a 2015 interview.“And because there’s no platform, no space or infrastructure for that kind of satire to be accepted, we were basically pushed out … We are up against generations of people who don’t have this kind of mindset. That’s why it was an uphill battle for us.”Comedians elsewhere have often found themselves caught up in nationalist fervour.In India, which has a history of a lively and relatively free public discourse, critics of Modi argue space to criticise the policies of his rightwing nationalist government is shrinking.Comedians and comedy venues have increasingly been caught in the crosshairs since the rise of his Hindu Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has ruled for more than a decade.A Muslim comedian was detained by police for weeks in 2021 for allegedly vulgar jokes insulting Hindu gods – despite never having performed at the show. The comedian Vir Das faced a backlash later the same year and police reports filed by BJP officials after a monologue that dealt with the country’s contradictions on women’s rights and religion.View image in fullscreenPolice in Mumbai registered a criminal case against a comedian in 2017 over a tweet of a photo of Modi modified by Snapchat’s popular dog filter, giving him a canine nose and ears.Similar cases have come out in Russia, including a standup of Azerbaijani origin and a citizen of Belarus, Idrak Mirzalizade, who was detained for 10 days and later banned from the country for a joke about open racism in Russia.Comedy, it seems, can also be treated by some as a transnational crime.The Turkish government asked for the prosecution of a German comedian in 2016 for performing a satirical poem about its president. In the late-night programme screened by the German state broadcaster ZDF, Jan Böhmermann sat in front of a Turkish flag beneath a small, framed portrait of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reading out a poem that accused the president of repressing minorities and “kicking Kurds”.View image in fullscreenErdoğan’s lawyer Michael Hubertus von Sprenger wanted to enforce a complete ban on the poem, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor at the time, was widely criticised for appearing to give in to Ankara’s demands.Böhmermann said at the time he felt Merkel had “filleted me [and] served me up for tea” to Erdoğan, and that she risked damaging freedom of speech in Germany. Charges brought against him were later dropped and he was given police protection. More

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    What does Donald Trump think free speech means? – podcast

    Archive: CBS, Good Morning America, The Charlie Kirk show, ABC News, Katie Miller Pod, CBS Austin, PIX11 News, Fox News
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