First Thing: US rightwing conspiracy theory claims Taylor Swift is an ‘election psyop’

Far-right influencers claim singer is ‘Pentagon asset’ conspiring to ‘manipulate’ voters after ‘rigged’ Super Bowl favors Chiefs. Plus, documents show fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954

Good morning.

Taylor Swift is a “Pentagon asset”, an “election interference psyop” who, with unnamed left-leaning forces, has conspired to “rig” the Super Bowl and then endorse Joe Biden in the presidential election.

That’s according to a raft of influential rightwing figures, who have begun to spread a conspiracy theory that Swift, a pop star, is part of a nefarious plot ahead of November’s presidential election.

Swift has found herself at the center of the rightwing commentariat’s attention in recent weeks after intense media focus onherrelationship with Travis Kelce, a star tight-end for the Kansas City Chiefs football team.

She has been in the crowd as the Chiefs have progressed through the NFL playoffs: on Sunday, the team won the AFC Championship game, and will play in the Super Bowl on 11 February. The attention their romance has received has led to a number conspiracy theories.

• Why else is Swift in the news? A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a bill yesterday that would criminalize the spread of nonconsensual, sexualized images generated by artificial intelligence. The measure comes in direct response to the proliferation of pornographic AI-made images of Taylor Swift on X, formerly Twitter, in recent days.

• Will social media platforms now start taking AI-generated porn seriously? Women who have been victims of the creation and sharing of nonconsensual deepfake pornography hope that this week’s spotlight on the issue will force social media companies and legislators into action.

Hamas reportedly studying new ceasefire proposal

A senior Hamas official has told the Reuters news agency that the group is studying a new proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza, presented by mediators after talks with Israel.

The ceasefire proposal followed talks in Paris involving intelligence chiefs from Israel, the United States and Egypt, with the prime minister of Qatar. In a mark of the seriousness of the negotiations, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said he was going to Cairo to discuss it, his first public trip there for more than a month.

The proposal reportedly involved a three-stage truce, during which the group would first release remaining civilians among the hostages it captured on 7 October, then soldiers, and finally the bodies of hostages that were killed. The proposal appears to be the most serious peace initiative since a brief truce in late November.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is under pressure from the Biden White House to chart a path towards ending the war, and domestically from relatives of hostages who worry that negotiations are the only way to bring them home. But far-right parties in his ruling coalition say they will quit rather than endorse a deal to free hostages that left Hamas intact.

• What has Netanyahu said? On Tuesday, he repeated his vow not to pull troops out of Gaza until “total victory”, a reminder of the huge gap in the public stances of the warring sides over what it would take to halt combat even temporarily.

Imran Khan, Pakistan former PM, sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in jail in a corruption case, just a day after he was given a 10-year sentence for leaking state secrets. Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, was also handed a 14-year sentence in the case, known as Toshakhana, which accused them both of illegally selling state gifts. The judge also banned them both from holding political office for 10 years.

The sentence, given at a hearing held in the Rawalpindi prison where Khan is being held, further worsens the plight of the beleaguered former prime minister, who has been in jail since August and is facing more than 100 different charges.

The judge had denied Khan’s lawyers’ request to cross-examine witnesses in the trial and Khan’s lawyers were not present on Wednesday when the sentence was given.

• What has Khan said? He had described the trial as a sham and lawyers said he would be appealing against the verdict.

In other news …

• Universal Music Group’s agreement with TikTok is set to expire in the next 24 hours after the companies failed to agree on issues including artist compensation and AI, meaning some of the world’s most popular music will be removed from TikTok’s library.

• Myanmar has undertaken a vast and secretive prison-building programme, according to new satellite analysis, prompting fears it has been carried out to jail thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The extensive prison-building programme has prompted fresh disquiet that Myanmar’s jail network is an increasingly central part of the ongoing crackdown.

• The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked his most senior military commander, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, to step down but the popular general refused, triggering speculation that he might be dismissed by the president amid tensions between them.

• Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor in the Georgia case against Donald Trump over his alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election, has entered into a “temporary agreement” with his estranged wife, according to a filing posted on social media. This agreement means that special prosecutor Wade will avoid having to testify on a reported relationship with DA Fani Willis.

Stat of the day: Rate of US babies born prematurely has grown 12%, analysis says

The rate of babies born prematurely in the US grew 12% from 2014 to 2022 to nearly 8.7%, with pronounced racial and age disparities among the mothers, a new analysis from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found. Black mothers were almost twice as likely as white mothers to give birth before babies reached full term, 12.5% versus 7.6% respectively. Similarly, women older than 40 had a greater risk of preterm birth compared with women aged 20-29, 12.5% versus 8.23%.

The report adds to the evidence of a maternal and infant health crisis in the US, one experts expect will be exacerbated by abortion bans across the US south and in some western states. The US has one of the worst maternal mortality rates among developed democracies, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

Don’t miss this: ‘Gotta keep your hands fresh’ – why male athletes are wearing nail polish

USC quarterback Caleb Williams would appear to have a firm enough grip on football to project as the first pick in this year’s NFL draft. But there’s something about the Heisman trophy winner that keeps throwing off fans and talent evaluators alike, and it’s right at his fingertips.

Williams, you see, is one of those guys who decorates his nails, unveiling a new paint scheme every time he takes the field. His gameday tradition dates back four seasons, to Williams’s high school senior year, and takes inspiration from his mother, who is a nail technician. “You gotta keep your hands fresh,” Williams said. “This is where all the gold comes from.”

He’s not the only sports star choosing to express themselves even if it annoys those with more old-fashioned views.

Climate check: ‘Smoking gun proof’ – fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954, documents show

The fossil fuel industry funded some of the world’s most foundational climate science as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents have shown, including the early research of Charles Keeling, famous for the so-called “Keeling curve” that has charted the upward march of the Earth’s carbon dioxide levels.

Experts say the documents show the fossil fuel industry had intimate involvement in the inception of modern climate science, along with its warnings of the severe harm climate change will wreak, only to then publicly deny this science for decades and fund ongoing efforts to delay action on the climate crisis.

Last Thing: Crime and poo-nishment – flags planted in dog feces spark LA mystery

A street artist in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice is turning mounds of abandoned dog poop into tiny works of social commentary. For weeks, local residents say, pieces of poop on the side of the road have been marked with small white flags, each with a unique, aggrieved message for those who fail to clean up after their pets.

“Get therapy,” reads one. “Must be nice to be such a lazyass,” reads another. “Why get a dog, then?” asks a third. While the identity of the Venice poop-flagger is still a mystery, the person is already becoming something of a folk hero to people who live on the residential blocks around hip Abbot Kinney Boulevard, not far from Venice Beach.

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