politicians

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Politicians who are the parents of daughters provide researchers with a "natural experiment" to test how personal circumstances influence legislators' roll call votes. Research published in 2008, by author Ebonya Washington, showed that members of the U.S. House of Representatives with daughters cast more liberal votes on women's issues during the period between 1997 and 2005. But another…

With Twitter mired in confusion over check marks, subscriptions and an ever—increasing number of seemingly haphazard decisions by the platform's owner Elon Musk, some users are searching for alternatives. Many are looking no further than Bluesky, which has its own origins in Twitter and, to all intents and purposes, acts in a very similar fashion. Its latest devotees include US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, writer-comedian Dril and model Chrissy Teigen. But for now it's invite only. The platform on Thursday…

Voters in the control group with higher self-transcendent values are more willing to vote for the candidate after vignette 2. Credit: Electoral Studies (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102613 Alleged misconduct generally reduces public support for political candidates, but many people would still vote for someone accused of sexual harassment, according to a new paper in the journal Electoral Studies from Queen Mary…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, April 28.Age may be nothing but a number, but among U.S. political leaders, that number tends to be in the 80s.President Biden is the oldest commander-in-chief in history at 80 (and is running again). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is 81.But let’s look closer to home. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 83, only gave up her leadership post last year. Then there is the much-discussed Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89. Feinstein, the oldest sitting U.S.…

Microsoft is in the process of attempting to acquire Activision Blizzard in one of the biggest acquisitions in history. At $68.7 billion, it's not just the biggest video game acquisition; it's one of the largest of any kind across all business sectors. As such, the deal is facing regulatory scrutiny, including a lawsuit from the United States government's Federal Trade Commission.FTC chair Lina Khan was questioned by the Committee on Energy and Commerce this week, where she faced a question about…

The fear of Pegasus-style spyware attack resurfaced on Tuesday after researchers at Microsoft and the digital rights group Citizen Lab identified new victims in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East -- once again from an Israel-based spyware maker. Hackers used QuaDream spyware to send malicious calendar invites and hack the iPhones of journalists, political opposition figures, and an NGO worker. "Based on an analysis of samples shared with us by Microsoft Threat…

Last year, Warner Bros. was acquired by the Discovery Channel, and the resulting merger has been more than a little chaotic. Things got off to a rough start with the sudden cancellation of Batgirl, and has since spiraled into multiple shows getting canceled (some of them not even getting to air) and series getting pulled off HBO Max and sent elsewhere, in addition to the standard post-merger layoffs.Who Wants DC’s Canceled Batgirl Movie? | New York Comic Con 2022According to Deadline, Senator Liz Warren (D-CA), along with…

So TikTok has found itself in the news a lot of late, and none of that news has been for anything good. We've seen countries ban the app from government phones and we even saw the BBC do the same. Now, its CEO has been dragged before a U.S. congressional hearing. And it was all pretty surreal.Not surreal in a good kind of way, either. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced hours upon hours of questions about all kinds of things, but little of it was of any real use. TikTok is still TikTok. Nothing's changed.Will it change? Maybe.…

The crypto industry has had its share of trouble regarding security and privacy, but coins like Solana (SOL), Monero (XMR), and Dogetti (DETI) decide to improve on these areas. Meanwhile, European politicians are keen to create their own blockchain, Europeum, which promotes privacy after regulating cryptocurrencies. According to Belgian politician Mathieu Michel, the Government could use Europeum to record property ownership, professional qualifications, or driving licences while adhering to the European Union’s high…

Activists protest outside the Interior Department in November. Photo: Jemal Countess (Getty Images)The Biden administration on Monday gave the green light to an enormous oil and gas project in Alaska, following months of increasing opposition from environmental activists who say that the approval runs counter to the administration’s promise to act on climate.The Interior Department released a record of decision Monday approving the Willow Project, an $8 billion oil and gas drilling project owned by oil giant…