The UK threatens to renege on the Brexit deal it signed with the EU just a year ago

The United Kingdom is threatening to renege on parts of its Brexit agreement with the European Union, potentially violating international law and upending trade negotiations with the bloc.

On Wednesday, the UK government introduced the UK Internal Market Bill, an anodyne-sounding piece of legislation that’s anything but. The bill targets a specific part of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, otherwise known as the Brexit deal — the same deal that Prime Minister Boris Johnson struck with the European Union last October, which ultimately allowed the UK to leave the EU with a deal on January 31, 2020.…

Do the Oscars’ new rules mean no more movies about white people?

The Oscars are rounding the corner toward its 100th birthday — next year’s ceremony, whatever form it takes, will be the 93rd — but the awards show is far from set in its ways. Just in the last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the professional organization that gives out the Oscars, has shifted the rules to rename a category and accommodate a pandemic. Not long ago, the organization was toying with a new “Best Popular Picture” category, although whether it will ever actually be awarded is unclear. And a few short years …

The Kardashian-Jenners don’t need reality TV to sell themselves anymore

After 13 years, Keeping Up With the Kardashians is coming to an end. The show that made household names out of Kim Kardashian West and her extended family will air its 20th and final season in 2021, the Kardashian-Jenner clan announced on Tuesday, September 8.

“Without Keeping Up With the Kardashians, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Kardashian West wrote on social media. “I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who has watched and supported me and my family these past 14 incredible years. This show made us who we are and I will be forever in …

Trump is making a mockery of public health. His rally in North Carolina demonstrated it.

New daily coronavirus cases and deaths were trending upward in North Carolina heading into Labor Day weekend. But you certainly wouldn’t know that by watching President Donald Trump’s rally at Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem on Tuesday.

Trump claimed during his speech that there were 15,000 people there. That was an exaggeration, but Jonah Kaplan of ABC 11 in Raleigh reported that the crowd of several thousand was the largest he’d seen in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.

While the science about coronavirus transmission at large outdoor events remains somewhat unsettled, a crowd of this size …

Right-wing media thrives on Facebook. Whether it rules is more complicated.

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A few years ago, New York Times columnist Kevin Roose decided he wanted to get a better look at what was happening on Facebook. Because Facebook does not offer much data about activity on its platform, Roose turned to a Facebook-owned tool called CrowdTangle, which lets journalists and researchers see which public posts are getting the highest levels of engagement. It seemed revealing at first glance.

“I started collecting this data without any kind of agenda. I was just fascinated by it personally,” Roose told Recode. “I was fascinated by how different the world that I was seeing on …