Tag Archives: READ08

Google faces $25.4 billion damages claims in UK, Dutch courts over adtech practices

The Google name is displayed outside the company’s office in London, Britain, November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

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BRUSSELS, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Alphabet unit Google (GOOGL.O) will face damages claims for up to 25 billion euros ($25.4 billion) over its digital advertising practices in two suits to be filed in British and Dutch courts in the coming weeks by a law firm on behalf of publishers.

Google’s adtech has recently drawn scrutiny from antitrust regulators following complaints from publishers. read more

The French competition watchdog imposed a 220-million-euro fine on the company last year while the European Commission and its UK peer are investigating whether Google’s adtech business gives it an unfair advantage over rivals and advertisers. [ read more

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“It is time that Google owns up to its responsibilities and pays back the damages it has caused to this important industry. That is why today we are announcing these actions across two jurisdictions to obtain compensation for EU and UK publishers,” Damien Geradin at law firm Geradin Partners said in a statement on Tuesday.

Google criticised the imminent lawsuits, saying that it works constructively with publishers across Europe.

“This lawsuit is speculative and opportunistic. When we receive the complaint, we’ll fight it vigorously,” a spokesperson said.

The British claim at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal will seek to recover compensation for all owners of websites carrying banner advertising, including traditional publishers. Britain has an opt-out regime.

The Dutch claim is open to publishers affected by Google’s actions. Litigation funder Harbour is funding both lawsuits.

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Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and David Evans

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Ship refloated after running aground in Egypt’s Suez Canal -sources

An aerial view of the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal are pictured through the window of an airplane on a flight between Cairo and Doha, Egypt, November 27, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

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CAIRO, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Tug boats refloated a ship that briefly ran aground in Egypt’s Suez Canal late on Wednesday, a source from the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) andstate TV reported.

The vessel had been blocking the southern section of the canal, two navigational sources said, but the SCA source said shortly afterwards that traffic had returned to normal.

There was no immediate statement about the incident from the SCA.

According to ship monitoring service TankerTrackers, the Aframax tanker Affinity V seemed to have lost control in the Suez Canal while heading southbound.

“She temporarily clogged up traffic and is now facing south again, but moving slowly by tugboat assistance,” TankerTrackers said on Twitter.

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Reporting by Yousri Mohamed and Yasmin Hussein; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Mark Porter and Christian Schmollinger

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Scotland’s police investigate threat made to JK Rowling after Rushdie tweet

Rugby Union – Six Nations Championship – Scotland vs England – BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Britain – February 24, 2018 Author JK Rowling in the stand before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

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LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Scotland’s police said on Sunday they are investigating a report of an “online threat” made to the author JK Rowling after she tweeted her condemnation of the stabbing of Salman Rushdie.

The Harry Potter creator said she felt “very sick” after hearing the news and hoped the novelist would “be OK”.

In response, a user said “don’t worry you are next”

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After sharing screenshots of the threatening tweet, Rowling said: “To all sending supportive messages: thank you police are involved (were already involved on other threats)”.

A spokeswoman for Scotland’s police said: “We have received a report of an online threat being made and officers are carrying out enquiries.”

Rushdie, 75, was set to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom on Friday in western New York when a man rushed the stage and stabbed the Indian-born writer, who has lived with a bounty on his head since his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” prompted Iran to urge Muslims to kill him.

Following hours of surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak as of Friday evening. The novelist was likely to lose an eye and had nerve damage in his arm and wounds to his liver. read more

The accused attacker, 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault at a court appearance on Saturday.

Rowling has in the past been criticised by trans activists who have accused her of transphobia.

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Reporting by Andrew MacAskill
Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

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Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall are getting a divorce – NYT

91st Academy Awards – Vanity Fair – Beverly Hills, California, U.S., February 24, 2019 – Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

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June 22 (Reuters) – Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress Jerry Hall are getting a divorce, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Murdoch got married to Hall in a low-key ceremony in central London in March 2016. The Fox Corp (FOXA.O) chairman and his former supermodel wife were frequent fodder for the tabloids, which chronicled their marriage at Spencer House and the festivities surrounding the elder Murdoch’s 90th birthday celebration last year at Tavern on the Green in New York City.

Murdoch’s divorce, his fourth, is unlikely to alter the ownership structure of businesses he holds stakes in, which include Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News Channel, and News Corp (NWSA.O) publisher of the Wall Street Journal, according to the report.

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The 91-year-old Murdoch controls News Corp and Fox Corp through a Reno, Nevada-based family trust that holds roughly a 40% stake in voting shares of each company.

Bryce Tom, a spokesperson for Murdoch, declined to comment. A representative for Hall, who is 65, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The billionaire, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $17.7 billion, built a sprawling media empire with assets around the globe. He sold the Fox film and television studios and other entertainment assets to Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) in a $71.3 billion deal that closed in March 2019.

Murdoch previously was married to entrepreneur Wendi Deng, whom he divorced in 2014 after 14 years of marriage. They have two daughters. He split from his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann, a Scottish journalist with whom he had three children, in 1999. He and his first wife, Patricia Booker, a former flight attendant with whom he had a daughter, divorced in 1966.

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Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Lisa Shumaker

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Remains of British journalist found in Amazon, police name new suspect

SAO PAULO, June 17 (Reuters) – A forensic exam carried out on human remains found in the Amazon rainforest confirmed on Friday that they belonged to British journalist Dom Phillips, Brazil’s federal police said, adding that a search was underway for a man suspected of involvement in his killing.

Work is proceeding to determine the cause of death, police said in a statement.

The remains of a second person, believed to be that of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were still under analysis, a report by CNN Brasil said earlier on Friday.

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Pereira and Phillips vanished on June 5 in the remote Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia. Earlier this week, police recovered human remains from a grave in the jungle where they were led by a fisherman, Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, who confessed to killing the two men. read more

Phillips, a freelance reporter who had written for the Guardian and the Washington Post, was doing research for a book on the trip with Pereira, a former head of isolated and recently contacted tribes at federal indigenous affairs agency Funai.

Police said their investigation suggested there were more individuals involved beyond Oliveira and that they were now looking for a man named Jeferson da Silva Lima.

He is the third suspect named by police after Oliveira and his brother, Oseney da Costa, who was taken into custody this week.

“There is an arrest warrant issued by the State Court of Atalaia do Norte against Jeferson da Silva Lima, aka ‘Pelado da Dinha’, who has not been located at this time,” police said.

Federal Police officers carry a coffin containing human remains after a suspect confessed to killing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and led police to the location of remains, at the headquarters of the Federal Police, in Brasilia, Brazil, June 16, 2022. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

“The investigations indicate that the killers acted alone, with no bosses or criminal organization behind the crime.”

Local indigenous group Univaja, however, which played a leading role in the search, said: “The cruelty of the crime makes clear that Pereira and Phillips crossed paths with a powerful criminal organization that tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation.”

It said it had informed the federal police numerous times since late 2021 that there was an organized crime group operating in the Javari Valley.

INA, a union representing workers at Funai, shared that view.

“We all know that violence in the Javari Valley is linked to a wide chain of organized crime,” it said in a separate statement.

Police said they were still searching for the boat Phillips and Pereira were traveling in when they were last seen alive.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday called for “accountability and justice,” saying that Phillips and Pereira were murdered for supporting conservation of the rainforest and native peoples.

“Our condolences to the families of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira… We must collectively strengthen efforts to protect environmental defenders and journalists,” Price said on Twitter.

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Reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, Anthony Boadle in Brasilia and Carolina Pulice in Mexico City; Editing by David Alire Garcia, Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O’Brien

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Pope raps Russian ‘cruelty’ in Ukraine, says invasion violates nation’s rights

Pope Francis addresses people as he arrives for the weekly general audience at the Vatican, June 8, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

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  • Pope praises Ukrainians for ‘heroic’ resistance
  • Says war should not be seen in black and white terms
  • Hopes to meet Russian Orthodox head Kirill in September

ROME, June 14 (Reuters) – Pope Francis has taken a new series of swipes at Russia for its actions in Ukraine, saying its troops were brutal, cruel and ferocious and that the invasion violated a country’s right to self-determination.

In the text of a conversation he had last month with editors of Jesuit media and published on Tuesday, he praised “brave” Ukrainians for fighting for survival but also said the situation was not black and white and that the war was “perhaps in some way provoked”.

While condemning “the ferocity, the cruelty of Russian troops, we must not forget the real problems if we want them to be solved,” Francis said, including the armaments industry among the factors that provide incentives for war.

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“It is also true that the Russians thought it would all be over in a week. But they miscalculated. They encountered a brave people, a people who are struggling to survive and who have a history of struggle,” he said in the transcript of the conversation, published by the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica.

“This is what moves us: to see such heroism. I would really like to emphasize this point, the heroism of the Ukrainian people. What is before our eyes is a situation of world war, global interests, arms sales and geopolitical appropriation, which is martyring a heroic people,” he said.

Separately, in a message for the Roman Catholic Church’s upcoming World Day of the Poor, Francis lamented that Ukraine had been added to a list of regional wars.

“Yet here the situation is even more complex due to the direct intervention of a ‘superpower’ aimed at imposing its own will in violation of the principle of the self-determination of peoples,” he said.

‘NOT PRO-PUTIN’

In the conversation with the Jesuit editors, Francis said that several months before President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine, the pontiff had met with a head of state who expressed concern that NATO was “barking at the gates of Russia” in a way that could lead to war.

Francis then said in his own words: “We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented”.

Asking himself rhetorically if that made him “pro-Putin”, he said: “No, I am not. It would be simplistic and wrong to say such a thing”.

Francis also noted Russia’s “monstrous” use of Chechen and Syrian mercenaries in Ukraine.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

Francis said he hoped to meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill at an inter-religious event in Kazakhstan in September. The two had been due to meet in Jerusalem on June but that trip was cancelled because of the war.

Kirill, who is close to Putin, has given the war in Ukraine his full-throated backing. Francis said last month that Kirill could not become “Putin’s altar boy”, prompting a protest from the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Additional reporting by Francesca Piscioneri; Editing by Gareth Jones

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Argentina grounds Iran-linked Venezuelan cargo plane, lawmakers seek probe

DUBAI/BUENOS AIRES, June 12 (Reuters) – Argentine authorities have grounded an Iran-linked Venezuelan Boeing 747 cargo plane, a local opposition lawmaker and Iranian state media said on Sunday, in an unfolding drama that is throwing a spotlight on political undercurrents in Latin America.

The Emtrasur cargo plane, sold to Venezuela by Iran’s Mahan Air a year ago according to the Iranian airline, arrived in Buenos Aires on June 8, flight tracking data show. It was then seized by authorities, the lawmaker and Iranian media said.

Argentina’s government has not publicly confirmed the seizure, but an Interior Ministry document shared with Reuters said authorities had taken the action due to suspicions over the stated reason for the plane entering the country.

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Iran and Venezuela, which are both under U.S. sanctions, have close ties. The two countries on Saturday signed a 20-year cooperation plan. Argentina’s center-left President Alberto Fernandez has criticized U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.

Argentina’s government did not reply to Reuters queries seeking comment about the aircraft. Authorities in Venezuela did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, Argentine lower-house lawmaker Gerardo Milman, who has raised attention about the case in recent days, presented a complaint to a judge asking to fingerprint the crew and share the information with the Federal Intelligence Agency.

“Our information is that this is a plane that has come to conduct intelligence in Argentina,” said Milman, a member of the country’s Congressional Intelligence Commission.

According to the Interior Ministry document, shared with Reuters by Milman, 14 Venezuelans and 5 Iranians were traveling on the plane. It listed the names of those on board.

Argentina courts also have to rule on a habeas corpus filed by a lawyer for the crew to release the aircraft and have passports returned to those on board, Argentine media reported.

It was not immediately clear if the plane, with a tail sign of YV3531, was on a list of Iranian-linked aircraft under U.S. sanctions. Mahan Air has been under U.S sanctions since 2011 for its support for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

“Ownership of the plane was transferred a year ago and it was sold to a Venezuelan company,” Mahan’s spokesman, Amir Hossein Zolanvari, told the official IRNA news agency.

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Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Lucila Sigal in Buenos Aires; Additional reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Alexander Vilelgas; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Chris Reese

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Russia and China open cross-border bridge as ties deepen

June 10 (Reuters) – Russia and China opened a new cross-border bridge in the far east on Friday which they hope will further boost trade as Moscow reels from sweeping Western sanctions imposed over its actions in Ukraine.

The bridge linking the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to the Chinese city of Heihe across the Amur river – known in China as Heilongjiang – is just over one kilometre long and cost 19 billion roubles ($342 million), the RIA news agency reported.

Amid a firework display, freight trucks from both ends crossed the two-lane bridge that was festooned with flags in the colours of both countries, video footage of the opening showed.

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Russian authorities said the bridge would bring Moscow and Beijing closer together by boosting trade after they announced a “no limits” partnership in February, shortly before President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine.

“In today’s divided world, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge between Russia and China carries a special symbolic meaning,” said Yuri Trutnev, the Kremlin representative in the Russian Far East.

China wants to deepen practical cooperation with Russia in all areas, Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua said at the opening.

Russia’s Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said the bridge would help boost bilateral annual trade to more than 1 million tonnes of goods.

Flags of China and Russia are displayed in this illustration picture taken March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration

CUTTING JOURNEY TIME

The bridge had been under construction since 2016 and was completed in May 2020 but its opening was delayed by cross-border COVID-19 restrictions, said BTS-MOST, the firm building the bridge on the Russian side.

BTS-MOST said freight traffic on the bridge would shorten the travel distance of Chinese goods to western Russia by 1,500 kilometres (930 miles). Vehicles crossing the bridge must pay a toll of 8,700 roubles ($150), a price that is expected to drop as toll fees begin to offset the cost of construction.

Russia said in April it expected commodity flows with China to grow, and trade with Beijing to reach $200 billion by 2024.

China is a major buyer of Russian natural resources and agricultural products.

China has declined to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine and has criticised the Western sanctions on Moscow.

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Reporting by Reuters
Editing by Gareth Jones

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Nazanin, Ashoori arrive in Britain after Iran prison ordeal

BRIZE NORTON, England, March 16 (Reuters) – British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashoori arrived in Britain from Iran on Thursday, ending an ordeal during which they became a bargaining chip in Iran’s talks with the West over its nuclear programme.

They arrived at the British military airbase of Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, shortly after 1 a.m. local time, after flying back via a brief stopover in Oman. They walked off the plane together and smiled and waved as they entered an airport building.

“It has been a really difficult 48 hours,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said shortly after Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori arrived at the base. “The expectation was that they would be released but we weren’t sure right until the last minute so it’s been very emotional but also a really happy moment for the families.”

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated the pair’s release on Twitter earlier in the day.

“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK,” Johnson said in a tweet.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard said the long ordeal appeared to finally be over. “It’s just a relief, the idea that we can go back to being a normal family, that we don’t have to keep fighting, that this long journey is almost over,” he told Reuters outside his London home before his wife landed.

A statement from Ashoori’s family thanked everyone who had worked towards his release. “1,672 days ago our family’s foundations were rocked when our father and husband was unjustly detained and taken away from us.

“Now, we can look forward to rebuilding those same foundations with our cornerstone back in place.”

Antonio Zappulla, CEO of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said her release was “a ray of light and hope” at a time when the world was in turmoil. The foundation is a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.

In February, as months of talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal inched closer to an agreement, Iran, which holds a dozen Western dual nationals, said it was ready for a prisoner swap in return for the unblocking of frozen assets and release of Iranians held in Western jails.

The nuclear talks were close to an agreement 11 days ago until last-minute Russian demands for sweeping guarantees that would have hollowed out sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine threw the negotiations off track.

Russia now appears to have narrowed its demands to cover only work linked to the nuclear deal, leaving a small number of issues to be resolved between Washington and Tehran, diplomats say.

Separately, Britain said detained Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship, had been released on furlough on Wednesday.

TANK DEBT

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori were freed after Britain repaid a historic debt.

Iran’s clerical rulers say Britain owed Iran 400 million pounds ($520 mln) that Iran’s former monarch, the Shah, paid up front for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other vehicles, almost none of which were delivered after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 toppled the U.S.-backed leader.

Truss said Britain had been looking at ways to pay the debt.

“We have the deepest admiration for the resolve, courage and determination Nazanin, Anoosheh and Morad, and their families, have shown. They have faced hardship that no family should ever experience and this is a moment of great relief,” she said in a statement.

“In parallel, we have also settled the IMS debt, as we said we would,” she added, referring to the debt for military equipment. She said the debt had been settled in full in compliance with international sanctions on Iran and the funds would be ring-fenced for buying “humanitarian goods.”

Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian on Wednesday said Britain had paid its debt a few days ago, denying any links between the payment and the release of the prisoners.

ILL-FATED VISIT

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s protracted difficulties began with her arrest by Revolutionary Guards at Tehran airport on April 3, 2016, while trying to return to Britain with her then 22-month-old daughter Gabriella from an Iranian new year’s visit with her parents.

She was later convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. Her family and the foundation denied the charge.

Ashoori was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019 for spying for Israel’s Mossad and two years for “acquiring illegitimate wealth”, according to Iran’s judiciary.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had travelled to Iran in a personal capacity and had not been doing work in Iran.

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Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Eric Beech and UK bureau; Writing by Michael Georgy and Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Jon Boyle and Gerry Doyle

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Sarah Palin, New York Times clash at trial testing defamation protection for media

NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate, went to trial against the New York Times on Thursday, in a highly anticipated defamation case that could test long-standing protections for American news media.

Palin, 57, is suing over a 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked her political rhetoric to a 2011 Arizona mass shooting that left six dead and U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords seriously wounded, and which the newspaper later corrected.

In his opening statement, Palin’s lawyer Shane Vogt told jurors that his client was fighting an “uphill battle” to show the editorial reflected the Times’ knowledge it was false and its “history of bias” toward her and other Republicans.

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The Times’ lawyer, David Axelrod, countered in his opening statement that the editorial sought to hold both Democrats and Republicans responsible for inflammatory rhetoric, and said the newspaper acted “as quickly as possible” to correct its mistake.

The trial in federal court in Manhattan could become a test of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, which made it difficult for public figures like Palin to prove defamation.

To win, Palin must offer clear and convincing evidence the Times acted with “actual malice,” meaning it knew the editorial was false or had reckless disregard for the truth. She is seeking unspecified damages for alleged harm to her reputation.

Two conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices and some legal scholars have suggested revisiting the Sullivan decision, and Palin has signaled she would challenge it on appeal if she lost.

“What am I trying to accomplish? Justice, for people who expect the truth in the media,” Palin told reporters as she entered the courthouse.

Headlined “America’s Lethal Politics,” the disputed June 14, 2017, editorial was published after a shooting in Alexandria, Virginia in which Steve Scalise, a member of the House of Representatives’ Republican leadership, was wounded.

The editorial questioned whether the shooting reflected how vicious American politics had become.

It then said “the link to political incitement was clear” when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in the 2011 shooting after Palin’s political action committee had circulated a map putting Gifford and 19 other Democrats under “stylized cross hairs.”

Former editorial page editor James Bennet, who is also a defendant, had added the disputed wording to a draft prepared by Elizabeth Williamson, a colleague on the Times editorial board.

“The key will be showing how the editorial came together,” said Timothy Zick, a professor and First Amendment specialist at William & Mary Law School. “Essentially, did the Times do its homework before publishing?”

COVID DELAY

Palin’s lawyer Vogt said “we are not here trying to win your votes for Governor Palin or any of her policies,” but instead wanted the Times found liable for a “particularly horrific and debunked” editorial.

He portrayed Bennet as a “highly educated career journalist” who knew the words he added were false, yet did not change them.

“He had his narrative, and he stuck to it,” Vogt said.

But Axelrod said Bennet did not intend to suggest that Loughner acted because of Palin, or that readers infer a link, and that Bennet would testify about “exactly what he meant.”

Axelrod also said no one at the Times harbored ill will toward Palin, and the dispute concerned a mere two sentences in a 12-paragraph editorial.

“The editorial was not even about her,” he said.

Williamson, who still works at the Times, was the trial’s first witness.

She said Bennet would have been responsible for fact-checking passages he added, and that she had been unaware of any link between the Virginia shooting and political rhetoric.

Williamson was asked to discuss an email Bennet sent before the editorial, where he asked whether hate speech played a role and suggested it might have before the Giffords shooting.

The trial was delayed from Jan. 24 because Palin tested positive for the coronavirus.

Palin has publicly said she will not get the COVID-19 vaccine. She wore a black mask in the courtroom.

The Times has not suffered a loss in a defamation case in more than half a century.

In calling for Sullivan to be revisited, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has said little historical evidence suggested the actual malice standard flowed from the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution’s First and 14th Amendments.

Another justice, Neil Gorsuch, has said the standard offered an “ironclad subsidy for the publication of falsehoods” by a growing number of media that can disseminate sensational information with little regard for the truth.

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Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Jody Godoy in New York; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen, Andrew Hofstetter and Hussein Waaile; editing by Grant McCool, Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham

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