Woke

• A growing political movement targeting "woke" ideology is threatening the stability and funding of scientific research across the United States. • Critics argue that ideological interference in academia and government agencies risks compromising objective data and driving skilled researchers out of the country. • This shift matters because it could stifle innovation in critical fields like medicine and climate science, impacting public health and safety for all communities.

Kemi Badenoch, who joined US anti-abortion activists and European far-right parties at ARC, described energy secretary as a ‘villain’Britain’s net zero policies and energy secretary Ed Miliband have come under fire at a conference of conservatives, rightwing populists and wealthy US backers linked to Donald Trump.The energy policies pursued by the British government were described as a “tragic mistake” by Trump’s energy secretary, one of a number of officials from the US administration who are attending the event. Continue reading...

New College of Florida to acquire USF Sarasota-Manatee in deal that leading Democratic lawmaker says ‘reeks of grift’A liberal arts college seized by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, and transformed into a model for conservative higher education is to triple in size after state Republicans engineered a hostile takeover of a rival university’s campus.New College of Florida, which is controlled by DeSantis’s hand-picked board of trustees, will acquire the Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida (USF) next month in a deal described by a leading Florida Democrat as “a grift”. Continue reading...

Liberals and Nationals grappling with surging support for Pauline Hanson’s party, which threatens to replace them as Australia’s main conservative partyFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe new Liberal president, Tony Abbott, has backed preference deals with One Nation as he declared the party wouldn’t win the next election by being “slaves to focus groups” and just a “little less woke than Labor”.The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, all but confirmed he was open to such deals with Pauline Hanson, declaring the party was prepared to cooperate with “whoever we can to get rid of this rotten Labor government’”. Continue reading...

Move by state education officials picked by Republican governor removes the course as a graduation componentEducation leaders in Florida have removed sociology as a graduation component at state universities in Ron DeSantis’s latest attack on what the Republican governor sees as the “woke” indoctrination of students.The move on Thursday by a majority of DeSantis’s hand-picked university board of governors effectively relegates the stand-alone Introduction to Sociology course to a makeweight elective instead of a core component subject that has been a popular choice for generations of students. Continue reading...

Pardoned by Trump after violating US banking law, Ben Delo provides funding, networking, and podcasting space for a range of groups, including those with hardline views on migration and abortionA British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate money-laundering controls on his cryptocurrency business is funding a political base in the heart of Westminster used by “anti-woke” and rightwing activists.Ben Delo, 42, who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year, has given support in kind to Rupert Lowe, the anti-migration MP challenging Nigel Farage from the right – while also connecting with mainstream figures including the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove. Continue reading...