Latest news with #activism
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jane Fonda enjoys Hollywood reunion with protest pal six years after they were both arrested
Jane Fonda radiated youth and energy as she reunited with longtime friend and fellow activist Catherine Keener in Beverly Hills on Thursday. The Oscar winner, who recently declared she feels 'younger and healthier' at 87 than she did in her 20s, was all smiles as she held hands with Keener, 66, outside the upscale Italian hotspot Funke. The Hollywood duo were last seen together in November 2019—being arrested during a climate change protest inside the U.S. Senate Hart Building in Washington, D.C. Joined by Rosanna Arquette, the actresses were cuffed for their part in Fonda's now-famous Fire Drill Fridays campaign, which challenged lawmakers to take immediate action on climate change. But this time, instead of raising their fists, Jane and Catherine raised their forks—enjoying a low-key lunch in the ritzy L.A. neighborhood. Fonda looked effortlessly chic in a red silk blouse and tailored navy slacks, while Keener matched her vibe in a similarly sharp navy ensemble. The Oscar winner, who recently declared she feels 'younger and healthier' at 87 than she did in her 20s , was all smiles as she held hands with Keener, 66, outside the upscale Italian hotspot Funke Before parting ways, the pair shared a warm hug—proof their bond is still going strong, even without the handcuffs. Shortly after the 2019 arrest, a spokesman for the Fire Drill Fridays group said that Fonda would be 'spending the night in jail', Deadline reported. Fonda had told reporters before her arrest: 'I probably will go to jail tonight. It will not be the first time. And I am prepared to do that.' During the protest, Fonda and her fellow climate change protesters were filmed sitting in a circle on the floor of the Senate Hart Building chanting 'we shall not be moved' and 'this land is your land'. The group also shouted: 'What do we want? A Green New Deal. When do we want it? Now.' In the early 1970s, Fonda became a prominent anti-Vietnam War activist and was arrested in 1970 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport for allegedly carrying pills, which turned out to be vitamins. She sparked national controversy with her 1972 trip to Hanoi, where she was photographed seated on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun—earning her the nickname 'Hanoi Jane.' Fonda also supported the Black Panthers and Native American rights, often speaking at rallies and participating in demonstrations that challenged U.S. military and government policies. Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Hollywood legend revealed she refuses to play the 'kooky grandmother, or the dying mother with dementia' in her acting roles as she feels as vibrant as ever. 'People have so many stereotypes of older people. I'm 87, and I feel younger and healthier and a greater sense of well-being than I had in my 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s' she tells the Daily Telegraph. Fonda added that she feels the work she is offered these days often 'isn't worthy' of her. 'I'm 87, I don't feel done yet. Roles that I'm offered are really sad' she told the publication.
National Post
11 hours ago
- Politics
- National Post
Climate activist douses pink paint on Picasso painting at Montreal museum
MONTREAL — A climate activist group says one of its supporters sprayed pink paint this morning on a Pablo Picasso painting at a Montreal museum. Article content Last Generation Canada says an activist smeared washable paint on the 1901 painting L'hetaire at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Article content Article content The group is calling for the Canadian government to create a climate disaster protection agency to help those affected by extreme weather. Article content Article content The museum says the painting was kept under protective glass and there were no immediate signs of damage to the painting itself, which is on loan from a gallery in Italy. Article content The activist group says it has also targeted the Montreal casino and the BMO Museum with pink paint in recent weeks. Article content Article content
Forbes
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How W!CKED SAiNTS Studios Is Turning Gen Z Into Real-World Heroes—One Quest At A Time
World Reborn - Worlds' 1st adventure activisim game What if the points you scored in a game didn't just stay on-screen—but made the world a little better? That's the radical vision behind World Reborn, the flagship title from W!CKED SAiNTS Studios, a Black- and female-led gaming startup reimagining what it means to 'level up.' Co-founded by Emmy Award-winning storyteller and former peacebuilder Jessica Murrey, the company sits at the intersection of narrative design, behavioral science, and social impact—with the bold idea that games can make you stronger in real life. Murrey's story begins in Medford, Oregon. 'My mom was the blonde prom queen who went to college and came back to our small town to raise me—her little Black baby,' she shared. 'So I definitely knew what it was like growing up feeling different.' Despite the challenges, she found power in stories—and pursued a degree in journalism at UNLV. But she graduated into an industry in flux. 'I graduated in 2010, right when they said print was dead,' she recalled. She started her career producing awareness campaigns for a local TV station, telling stories of abuse and trauma after the fact. It felt reactive. She wondered, What if we could stop the bad things before they happen? That question took her to Washington, D.C., where she became Head of Communications at Search for Common Ground, the world's largest peacebuilding organization. There, she worked across conflict zones—Burundi, Nigeria, Myanmar—training youth activists, former extremists, and refugees in storytelling and 'common ground activism,' a practice centered around co-creating solutions even with those we disagree with. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder But back home, Murrey noticed something striking: American teens were facing their own crisis—of anxiety, loneliness, and helplessness. 'They deeply cared about issues, but few believed they could actually make a difference.' She and co-founder Alicia Clifton, a behavioral scientist, asked: What would it take for young people to believe in their power? The answer, they realized, was in games. From left to right: Jessica Murrey, CEO/Co-founder; Alicia Clifton, COO/Co-founder; Daphne ... More Larose-Molapo, CTO (founding team) 'Self-efficacy—your belief in your ability to accomplish a goal—is the biggest predictor of whether someone will take action,' Murrey explained. 'And games are built to give you mastery. You get better every time you play.' That insight became the foundation for World Reborn, a mobile story game designed to build confidence through action. Instead of paying for choices, players earn 'energy'—the game's core currency—by doing things that support their own wellbeing or help others in the real world. One mission might ask players to leave an anonymous note of encouragement for someone they know is being bullied. Another might reward them for checking the source of an article before sharing it. Every step reinforces that small, meaningful actions—taken together—can add up to something powerful. So far, players have taken over 25,000 real-world actions, and the emotional impact is already clear: 97% of players say the game makes them feel good, with many describing it as 'healing.' A standout partnership with Starlight Children's Foundation brought this idea to life in a deeply moving way. After hearing the story of Jade, a young patient who underwent a double lung transplant, players were invited to write uplifting notes to hospitalized kids. More than 7,000 players responded with custom messages. 'Being hospitalized can be a lonely and stressful experience for kids,' said Adam Garone, CEO of Starlight. 'Starlight believes healing begins with happiness, and support and encouragement are powerful tools in a child's medical journey. We are grateful to the thousands of gamers who have sent messages to deliver happiness through World Reborn, making a world of difference in the lives of many hospitalized kids.' Murrey describes the platform's philosophy in three stages: 'First you watch the hero. Then you play the hero. Now—you are the hero.' That shift in identity is at the heart of what makes World Reborn so resonant with Gen Z. 'They want to participate in shaping the world,' she said. 'They just need the tools to do it.' That belief is shared by Discord, one of the platform's early brand partners. Their collaboration during the teaser launch helped create real-world missions that supported mental wellness and connection—values deeply aligned with the Discord community. Savannah Badalich, Senior Director of Product Policy at Discord, emphasized the power of that alignment: 'In a world where genuine connection feels increasingly rare, gaming offers something profound—a space to discover who we are and find our community. Our partnership with Wicked Saints shows that games aren't just entertainment—they're sanctuaries. According to a sample of players that Wicked Saints surveyed, 97% of players reported feeling good after playing World Reborn—demonstrating that gaming can be a powerful force for positive mental health, well-being and social connection.' World Reborn is a real-world action platform with the experience of a story game. Fantasy narrative ... More gameplay meets real-life changemakers to provide bite-sized ways to improve your wellbeing, relationships, and the world around you. The studio's partnerships with brands like e.l.f. Beauty and Discord show how purpose-driven marketing can be immersive and authentic. Instead of interrupting the experience, brands become part of the narrative—offering rewards, recognition, or real-life perks tied to in-game impact. In World Reborn's teaser launch (which earned a 4.8-star rating), one in four players signed up for e.l.f. Beauty's loyalty program, and the platform achieved a 31% click-through rate—a staggering leap compared to the 0.1% industry average on platforms like Roblox. 'At e.l.f., we disrupt norms, shape culture, and connect communities through positivity, inclusivity, and accessibility,' said Patrick O'Keefe, Chief Integrated Marketing Officer at e.l.f. Beauty. 'We love seeing our community show up, have fun, and create meaningful impact. e.l.f.'s two real-world quests in World Reborn are designed to and boost their confidence—showing them that anything is possible.' Murrey added: 'What's fascinating is that players don't even see the brands as ads—they see them as part of the mission.' The studio's partnerships with brands like e.l.f. Beauty and Discord show how purpose-driven ... More marketing can be immersive and authentic. W!CKED SAiNTS Studios is led by an all-women, majority Black C-suite: Murrey, Clifton, and Daphne LaRose, their CTO and a former senior engineer on Pokémon GO. Backed by Riot Games, the studio is preparing for a grand launch in early 2026 and is currently raising a $10–15 million Series A. They're looking to partner with bold, purpose-driven brands that want to go beyond awareness—and help activate a generation. 'Our whole model is about aligning the incentives of players and brands to build a better world,' said Murrey. 'And we've already proven they will take action—if you give them the right story, and the right tools.' In an era of burnout and digital noise, World Reborn is quietly doing something extraordinary: helping young people feel powerful again. 'Our players are already strong, already amazing people,' said Murrey. 'Just giving them the tools so they can know their strengths and change the world—that's what makes it amazing.' Because sometimes, all it takes to believe in yourself is one quest, one kind act, and a reminder that the hero you've been waiting for… might just be you.
CNN
19 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Iran's longstanding history of protest
Iran has a longstanding history of anti-government protest. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh explains how Iranians have taken to the streets over the years to fight for social change.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Were the No Kings protests the largest single-day demonstration in American history?
The scale of last weekend's 'No Kings' protests is now becoming clearer, with one estimate suggesting that Saturday was among the biggest ever single-day protests in US history. Working out exactly where the protest ranks compared to similar recent events has been a project of G Elliott Morris, a data journalist who runs the Substack Strength in Numbers, calculated turnout between four million and six million, which would be 1.2-1.8% of the US population. This could exceed the previous record in recent history, when between 3.3 million and 5.6 million people showed up at the 2017 Women's March to rally against Trump's misogynistic rhetoric. Morris estimated the No Kings Day protest turnout in two steps. First, his team gathered data at events for as many locations as possible, defaulting to tallies published in local newspapers. Where that wasn't available, they relied on estimates from organizers and attendees themselves. To come up with a rough approximation of nationwide numbers, he then estimated the attendance in each unreported protest would be equal to the medium of the attendance in places where data did exist. 'That's a tough approximation, but at least an empirical one,' Morris wrote in an email. 'We use the medium instead of the average to control for outliers, [such as the fact that] big cities pull the average up, but most events are not huge urban protests.' Morris stressed that the Strength in Numbers tally remains unofficial, and he hopes that researchers will 'build' on his data when they conduct more studies. But his estimation is similar to that made by Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the progressive non-profit that organized the event. He estimated that five million people across the globe took to the streets. Not everyone is ready to call it the biggest protest ever. Jeremy Pressman of the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint Harvard University/University of Connecticut project that estimates political crowds, told USA Today it would take 'some time' to get an official tally. Meanwhile Steven Cheung, Trump's director of communications, unsurprisingly called the protests 'a complete and utter failure with miniscule attendance' on X. (No Kings took place on Donald Trump's birthday, which coincided with a parade the president threw in celebration of the US Army's 250th anniversary.) Omar Wasow, an assistant professor in UC Berkeley's department of political science, told Guardian US that the demonstration was 'without question, among the largest single-day protests in history'. Wasow compared protest movements to standing ovations given at a theater. 'We see a cascade effect: if one person stands after the curtain drops, then more follow,' he said. 'If 1.8% of the US adult population showed up to protest on Saturday, those are the people who stood up to clap first. It sends a signal to all these other people that you can stand up, too.' The 1963 March on Washington, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr made his famous 'I have a dream' speech was at the time one of the largest protests in history, with up to a half a million people in attendance. It was dwarfed in size by the first Earth Day protests in 1970, in which 20 million people helped spark the creation of the Environmental Protection Act. 'At the time this was about 10% of the US population, possibly the largest we will ever realistically see – unless the political environment deteriorates significantly, prompting more backlash,' Morris said. In 1986 at the Hands Across America fundraiser, an estimated five million Americans formed a human chain to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness (each person was asked to donate $10, though many participants didn't end up paying and the politics of the Coca-Cola-sponsored event were murky). More than a million people took to the streets in 2006 for a boycott called 'A Day Without Immigrants' in protest of stricter immigration laws. Polls taken during the summer of 2020 found that between 15 and 26 million Americans protested against the murder of George Floyd during the month of June (though day-by-day numbers were smaller). Gloria J Browne-Marshall, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of A Protest History of the United States, said that it's difficult to compare crowd sizes for various protests, especially ones that take place over the course of several days and span various locations. 'There are different processes that have been used over the years, from eyeballing things to actually counting the number of people per square mile,' she said. In the days following No Kings, an idea put forth by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan called the 3.5% rule spurred social media discussion. Chenoweth, a Harvard professor and Stephan, a political scientist who covers nonviolent movements, studied 323 revolutionary campaigns around the world that took place from 1900 to 2006. They found that all nonviolent movements that had the support of at least 3.5% of a population always succeeded in triggering change. No Kings, with its massive turnout, could be seen as a turning point. There are caveats to this rule, which was published in the team's 2011 book Why Civil Resistance Works. 'The 3.5% rule is descriptive, not prescriptive – and has been revised significantly since being originally published to allow for exceptions,' Morris wrote. 'Chenoweth now is clear that hitting 3.5% does not guarantee success, especially in political regimes where change is harder, and that movements can accomplish their goals with much smaller mobilization, through things like media coverage and alliances with elites.' Organizers and attendees of No Kings feel invigorated enough to continue the demonstrations, with another round of coordinated protests to fall on 17 July, the five-year anniversary of the death of John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights leader. But they admit there are limits to these events. 'We're not going to win if a lot of people show up at a protest one day,' Levin said. 'We need people actually taking democracy seriously, and that's not going to be done through a top-down action. It has to be done from the bottom-up. When pro-democracy movements succeed, it's because of a broad-based, ideological, diverse, geographically-dispersed, grassroots organizing – not just mobilizing.'
