THE BIG STORY Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son |
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Alex Murdaugh listens on Thursday as the jury prepares to deliberate at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina. Joshua Boucher / The State via AP |
Alex Murdaugh, the scion of a powerful South Carolina legal family who has been linked to several high-profile crimes, was found guilty on Thursday for the murders of his wife and son, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. The jury deliberated for just three hours before reaching their verdict on the 2021 killings. After weeks of breaking down in tears in court, Murdaugh stood with his attorneys looking straight ahead and blinking as the verdict was read. Speaking outside the courthouse Thursday night, Attorney General Alan Wilson said that despite the Murdaughs' influential status in Walterboro, South Carolina, "no one — no one, no matter who you are in society — is above the law." For months, the case transfixed true crime enthusiasts around the world with its many twists and turns. No less than two competing documentaries were produced before the case even made it to trial, while tens of thousands of people watched daily livestreams of court proceedings. Murdaugh now faces a possible sentence of life in prison. A hearing is scheduled for Friday.
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STAYING ON TOP OF THIS Donald Trump is not immune from a lawsuit about the Jan. 6 riot |
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Trump can be sued by members of Congress and Capitol police for injuries they sustained during the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Department of Justice said Thursday. DOJ officials issued their statement amid an ongoing lawsuit filed by two Capitol police officers and 11 members of Congress who claim that Trump is liable for physical and mental injuries they sustained during the Capitol riot.
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A man was paralyzed after being shot by a police officer who had mistaken his gun for a Taser. Now he's suing. Michael Ortiz, 43, was shot July 3, 2021, by a police officer at his mother's home in Hollywood, Florida. According to his lawsuit, he called 911 while he was having a mental health emergency and chest pains. TikTokers say ashwagandha makes them feel emotionally blunted, but clinical research has a different take. Ashwagandha is an herbal supplement that's been used for 6,000 years in certain cultures to reduce stress and enhance mental well-being. The best books out this week. I'm usually too afraid to read horror, but I might just have to be brave for She Is a Haunting.
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LGBTQ RIGHTS Tennessee banned drag and restricted gender affirming healthcare. More states are expected to follow suit. |
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB 9 into law just days after a high school yearbook photo surfaced of him appearing in drag as part of a powderpuff football game. He has not confirmed or denied his appearance in the photo. Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP |
Tennessee became the first state on Thursday to enact a drag ban, and the eighth state to restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Set to go into effect April 1, the drag ban carries criminal penalties for "male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest" in public spaces or in front of minors. In 15 states across the country, state legislatures are considering more than 20 bills that target drag performances. Stella Yarbrough, legal director for the ACLU of Tennessee, said in a statement, "We are concerned that government officials could easily abuse this law to censor people based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate." The ban on gender-affirming care will go into effect on July 1, and those already receiving medical care such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy will lose this care after March 31, 2024. Over a dozen states are considering bills to limit healthcare for trans youth, despite the American Medical Association's vocal opposition to restrictions on gender-affirming care. "Gender-affirming care is medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people," AMA board member Michael Suk said in a 2021 statement.
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A view shows a bridge and sandbanks of the Loire River in Montjean-sur-Loire, as France faces a record winter dry spell, on March 2, 2023. |
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HAMU The most magical online trend of 2023? Hogwarts HBCU. |
Courtesy Mel Mitchell; @dontcalldom |
Black TikTokers have turned Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry into an HBCU with all the trimmings: house parties, stroll teams, Greek life, and more. This reimagining of the fictional wizarding school has collectively been dubbed HAMU, or Hogwarts Agricultural and Magical University, and hundreds of videos have been made of fans repping their houses and coming up with a canon that is all their own. Comedian Mel Mitchell, 28, started creating videos of herself as a Black Hogwarts teacher on TikTok last year and is excited that others are making similar content. "Hogwarts as a whole was a world that was created where we were very much an afterthought. But here, we just Blacked it up." Some users are particularly enjoying the content because they feel Rowling, who has been accused of tokenizing Harry Potter characters of color and repeatedly made anti-trans comments, would not like the inclusive spin Black TikTokers put on her franchise. "It works because you know she would hate it," one user commented on a Hufflepuff stroll video. Since the trend took off, HAMU has taken on a full life of its own. The digital community now has acceptance letters, two websites, merch, sororities and fraternities, and a swag surf song. Some on TikTok are even planning a potential "Homecoming" meetup at both the Hollywood and Orlando Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios this summer. "Sometimes in different communities, it's looked down upon or seems nerdy to like fantasy books and fantasy worlds," said TikTok user Natasha. "But seeing that it's now trending and is popular, it makes my inner child so happy." |
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If you have a favorite corner of the internet that you'd like to share, send it my way at hellomobile@buzzfeed.com with the subject line "reSEARCH." We may feature it in a future newsletter. —Alexa |
Chelsea Manning outside London's Institute Of Contemporary Arts in 2018. Jack Taylor / Getty Images |
Revisiting "Chelsea Manning Traces Her Political Roots Back to the Rave" by Michelle Lhooq. In which drugs and nightlife journalist Lhooq (!!!) attends a North Carolina electronic music festival (!!!) with whistleblower Chelsea Manning (!!!) in 2018, a year after she was released from prison (!!!). "Manning is best known as the Iraq intelligence analyst who sent thousands of secret government files to WikiLeaks in 2010 — a headline-exploding act that marked her as one of modern American history's most controversial figures," Lhooq writes. "To Manning, the anarchic spirit of early internet culture and illicit raves are intertwined — just look at her favorite movie, Hackers. During her keynote, Manning even tells the crowd: 'I like to think I'm living in an '80s retro cyberpunk movie.'" Obsessing Space Sweepers. You don't watch this 2021 Netflix movie for its deft storytelling abilities. The sci-fi film, which follows a group of talented yet broke outcasts traveling through the solar system, has absolutely no plot cohesion. Backstories for the many, many characters — a soldier desperate to find his daughter, an evil capitalist autocrat, a robot that longs for personhood, and more! — are lobbed at viewers at random points in the film. The theoretical science used to explain spacecraft technology is slipshod. Instead, you watch Space Sweepers because of what it dares to be, even if its execution ultimately leaves much to be desired. You watch it to see Korean space pilots hustle to evade debt and destruction (in that order), for the adorable Park Ye-Rin playing an upbeat android child, for the Galaga-esque battles in the sky. Even when the ride is bumpy, Space Sweepers is imaginative and fun. Streaming "Follow the Cyborg" by Miss Grit. The leading single from Miss Grit's new and first full-length album, "Follow the Cyborg" is a world-building rock experience, meant to be played while zooming through a Blade Runner–type city on a motorcycle at night. I'm probably doing the song a disservice by listening to it while crouched over my laptop in a disheveled sweatsuit, but alas. We are who we are. "Follow the Cyborg" uses dramatic instrumental flourishes sparingly, preferring the sparse minimalism of a single looping synth or dirge-like drum refrain. Only Miss Grit's vicious, thrumming guitar line cuts through the song's static — and hints at the explosive emotion belying the song's poised surface. "I'm a real living girl," Miss Gritt yells in the chorus. "I'm a real living boy." In Miss Grit's universe, the binaries used to impose structure on our world warp and collapse: Machinery informs humanity, which informs monstrosity, which informs femininity, and so on. Despite its futuristic tech themes, ultimately "Follow the Cyborg" asks a question as old as rock music itself: Where do people like me belong in the future? |
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You are worth giving yourself your best shot, Alexa |
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