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The Department of Homeland Security's announced "pause" of its Disinformation Governance Board, 21 days after creating it as a "national security" measure, probably is itself disinformation.

DHS realizes that its 10-thumbed debut of this boneheaded idea almost doomed it, so the "pause" feigns deliberation while the department plots the DGB's resurrection.

Government pratfalls such as the DGB are doubly useful, as reminders of government's embrace of even preposterous ideas if they will expand its power, and as occasions for progressives to demonstrate that there is no government expansion they will not embrace. Progressives noted approvingly that DHS was putting a disinformation "expert" - a "scholar" - in charge, so science would be applied, including the "science" of sorting disinformation from real information.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas's short-lived choice as DGB executive director was Nina Jankowicz. Before becoming, for three weeks, head of the "nonpartisan" (so said the president's press secretary) disinformation board, Jankowicz had a colorful career chastising "Republicans and other disinformers." The contents of Hunter Biden's laptop? "A Trump campaign product," she decreed. Her certitudes are many.

To assuage the anxieties of those uneasy about government bestowing the imprimatur of truthfulness on contested propositions, DHS officials said the disinformation board had no "operational authority or capability," and denounced as a "great misperception" the idea that the board's mission would involve dispelling what it deems unhelpful statements. The White House said the DGB would "prevent" the circulation of disinformation, yet without trying to "adjudicate" truth or falsehood.

Barack Obama, commenting on disinformation and offering a sample of it, recently called himself "pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist" while fondly remembering the Fairness Doctrine (1949-1987) as part of the "framework" that made broadcasting "compatible with democracy." That doctrine allowed the federal government to require broadcast entities - all dependent on federal licenses - to be what government considered fair and balanced.

Using radio spectrum scarcity as an excuse, even before the Fairness Doctrine was created, Republicans running Washington in the late 1920s pressured a New York station owned by the Socialist Party to show "due regard" for other opinions. What regard was "due"? The government knew. So, it prevented the Chicago Federation of Labor from buying a station, saying all stations should serve "the general public."

In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration conditioned one station's license renewal on ending anti-FDR editorials. (Tulane Law School professor Amy Gajda's new book, Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy, reports that earlier, FDR had "unsuccessfully pushed for a code of conduct for newspapers as part of the Depression-era National Recovery Act and had envisioned bestowing on compliant newspapers an image of a blue eagle as a sort of presidential seal of approval.") John F. Kennedy's Federal Communications Commission harassed conservative radio, and when a conservative broadcaster said Lyndon B. Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 as an excuse for Vietnam escalation, the Fairness Doctrine was wielded to force the broadcaster to air a response.

As the Disinformation Governance Board floundered in ignominy, Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, said, "We could have done a better job of communicating what it is and what it isn't." It is ever thus: No progressive ideas are foolish or repellant, although a few are artlessly merchandized.

But to be fair to DHS, it has more employees (240,000) than Richmond, Va., has residents, and there is enough disinformation in circulation to preoccupy all of them. The Manhattan Institute's Brian Riedl offers some examples from the administration that conceived the DGB:

President Joe Biden said the $2.4 trillion Build Back Better spending bill "costs zero dollars." Biden calls today's inflation, which ignited a year before the invasion of Ukraine, "Putin's price hike." Speaking in 2021 about his American Rescue Plan, Biden said, "According to Moody's ... this law alone will create 7 million new jobs." Moody's actually said the law would add 4 million jobs to the 3 million that would be created without the law. Last year, the Biden administration said Moody's predicted "19 million jobs" would be created by the American Jobs Plan. Moody's actually predicted 2.7 million jobs over a 10-year period, with the other 16 million representing the baseline of expected job growth.

If - when - the DHS's "pause" ends and a resuscitated disinformation board buckles down to protecting Americans from falsehoods, it will of course concern itself with only disinformation of foreign origin, the theory being that only this sort threatens national security. The theory will, of course, be disinformation.

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Watch for a return of the ignominious Disinformation Governance Board - Lebanon Reporter

LAWRENCE When a sexual assault survivor tells their story to a journalist, they may have any number of reasons for doing so, but almost certainly not because that reporter would be required to pass the information on to university administrators. Yet Title IX, the landmark gender equality in higher education legislation, has been used to make student and university-affiliated journalists required reporters of sexual assault in an attempt to prevent them from reporting publicly on the issue. A new study from the University of Kansas titled Investigative vs. Mandatory Reporting: Weaponizing Title IX Against Journalists explores such situations and recommends how to avoid such use of the law.

In 2019, National Public Radio and Pro Publica published several articles about sexual assault by faculty at the University of Illinois. Administrators responded by designating affiliated journalists at the Springfield NPR station mandatory reporters. While that may be one of the most high-profile cases, it is not the only situation in which institutions have used Title IX as a way to prevent reporting on sexual assault. That indicates a troubling trend of using the law to cover misdeeds instead of as a way to protect and help survivors, the authors wrote, noting that it could be stopped through legal and policy changes as well as extra-legal practices by journalists.

Genelle Belmas, associate professor of journalism & mass communications, and Harrison Rosenthal, an attorney who recently completed his doctorate in media law at KU, have published their study in the NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy.

During the Obama administration, Title IX was expanded to include wide-net requirements of mandatory reporting or responsible employees. Any university employee with such a designation is required to report to supervisors any case of sexual harassment or sexual assault they hear of. While the intent is to ensure cases of abuse are not ignored, it has been used to ensure student journalists or those associated with public media affiliates such as National Public Radio stations do not have anonymity with sources discussing abuse.

It frustrates the purpose and objective of Title IX when its weaponized like this, Rosenthal said. Weve learned it is unfortunately not a unique incident and student journalists especially have been designated mandatory reporters in higher ed and in K-12.

In the Illinois case, the stories still came to public light because of the partnership with Pro Publica, a media outlet not affiliated with any university, unlike roughly two-thirds of National Public Radio affiliates, the authors wrote. In that case, the university was not able to prevent the outlets coverage and did not attempt to do so. However, the designation of NPR affiliates associated with the university represents a troubling effort to keep publicly damaging information from reporting in the media, the authors wrote.

The authors traced how Title IX guidelines both widened reporting and later gave more leeway to those accused of sexual harassment or assault under former President Trumps Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

There is nothing stopping universities from implementing these rules on any employees theyd like. The DeVos rules are very clear on that, Belmas said. K-12 rules are also very clear: Everyone reports, but higher ed rules have more leeway on who is a responsible employee.

The authors wrote that there is no blanket policy at American institutions for how they designate which employees are mandatory reporters, though schools in the South tend to use a wide-net approach, while northern schools tend to be narrower. Authors wrote, however, that legislators and universities should do away with the wide-net approach, especially as it applies to student and affiliated journalists.

It is a perfect confluence for an end run around the rules and the intention of the law, Belmas said. If these requirements are in place for journalists, they cannot guarantee anonymity to these students anymore.

Belmas and Rosenthal made several recommendations to prevent misuse of Title IX.

The most effective way to do this would be to amend the law itself, Rosenthal said. That probably will never happen, given the divided, political nature of the country and federal government and what would need to happen to make it a reality.

State governments would have the ability to prevent such tactics, however. Title IX provides states authority to amend their own laws on who is required to be a mandatory reporter. Perhaps the simplest route, the authors wrote, is for institutions to change their own policies on who is a mandatory reporter and ensure that both student and affiliated journalists are not designated as such.

Its as simple as universities knowing this is a problem, and because of that, through the stroke of a pen, saying, We are going to excuse journalists from being mandatory reporters, Rosenthal said. Title IX and the federal government give them the power to make that change.

Whether governments or institutions make legal or policy changes, journalists have options to ensure their reporting on sexual assault or harassment is not stifled, the authors wrote. They can partner with off-campus affiliates such as NPRs work with Pro Publica in the Illinois case. Reporters can also share information via methods universities cannot regulate, such as personal social media accounts or news outlets outside of the universitys purview to bring such information to light. In the meantime, misuse of Title IX is damaging to victims, free press and the public, the authors said.

That is a direct assault on Title IX and the First Amendment. Its subverting a law intended to provide protections for sexual assault survivors, Belmas said. That is very pernicious to me. How dare anyone hide their misdeeds behind the law itself?

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Study recommends how to prevent 'weaponizing' Title IX to cover up sexual assault | The University of Kansas - KU Today

World Champion Magnus Carlsen on Monday picked up another one of those victories he has become famous for, squeezing blood from stones vs. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Carlsen now leads the 2022 Norway Chess in Stavanger alone after six rounds and got his live rating up to 2870, 19 points from his highest ever.

GMs Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So won armageddon games in their respective match-ups and are now in second and third place. Round seven will begin on Tuesday, June 7, at 8 a.m. PT / 17:00 Central Europe.

With the top games being decided in armageddon games, the results in games in round six only meant minor changes at the top of the tournament standings. The biggest movements happened among the lower-ranked where two wins in the classical games shifted things a bit around. More about those games below.

One of the indisputable strengths of Carlsen is the ability to pull himself together and carry on toward his goals after momentary or temporary setbacks. In round five of the tournament he got completely outplayed by Anand in the classical game but somehow managed to hang on to hold the draw. Then in the armageddon game, he held advantages of various sizes, yet he went on to lose in a painful fashion to the Indian "re-tigered" former teen prodigy and five-time world champion.

In round six, Carlsen had to play Mamedyarov against whom he had a memorable game back in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee earlier this year. This was the game that Mamedyarov at the closing ceremony said that it gave him hope for humanity's fight against the engines due to Carlsen's amazing precision and ingenuity.

In that game, as well as his two classical wins in this event, Carlsen had played the Catalan and therefore, for obvious reasons, Mamedyarov saw no point in walking into that kind of killing zone willingly. Instead, he chose a set-up that transposed into the super-solid symmetrical line of the Fianchetto Grunfeld.

Carlsen reacted by sacrificing a pawn and when Mamedyarov expertly navigated the complications and returned the pawn, Carlsen sacrificed another pawn. Yet Mamedyarov continued playing the defense incredibly accurately.

Despite the material gradually being reduced, the Norwegian kept pushing, shoving, and creating micro-problems for the Azeri grandmaster. Shortly after the time control when the commentators seemed ready to call the game as drawn and prepare for yet another armageddon game, Mamedyarov, who was down to playing on the increments, missed a draw and then ended up in a nasty pin.

While it was not lost, you don't want to play such a position against Carlsen with 30 seconds on the clock. Mamedyarov collapsed with a blunder on move 46, allowing Carlsen a simple combination to win a pawn and that sufficed to force resignation a mere 10 moves later.

A disappointing loss for Mamedyarov, but also an example of why Carlsen is so ridiculously difficult to deal with at the board: you play almost perfect chess for more than 40 moves and then you commit one mistake and the game is lost.

Perhaps inspired by Anand's comments in connection with his game against So earlier in the tournament about not having analyzed a certain line in the past five to six years, GM Anish Giri opted for the English Opening against the Indian veteran, but rather than repeating his play from the game against So, Anand went for 3...d5. This seemed to be a solid and reasonable choice as White never really had much of an advantage.

After having made some attempts at breaking through on the queenside, Giri invited to a repetition of moves which was dutifully accepted by Black.

In the armageddon game, Giri tried Danish GM Bent Larsen's 1.b3. Anand responded with a relatively rare line involving 3...a6 which stops White's ideas of playing Bb5(+). Giri played inaccurately, allowing Black to play ...d5-d4. Already after 10 moves, it was clear that White's opening had been a failure.

Things got gradually worse as Black was allowed to set up a bind on the dark squares on the queenside. Forced to avoid exchanges, Giri had to make several poor choices, and ultimately, Black was completely winning. But only needing a draw due to the draw odds in the armageddon, Anand steadfastly refused to make an attempt at winning the game, and instead demonstrated that White had zero chances of winning.

Another round, another worrisome effort from the participant in the upcoming Candidates tournament in Madrid. GM Teimour Radjabov earned his spot by qualifyingin the previous cycle through winning the 2019 World Cup and then not showing up for the 2020 Candidates tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia due to his concerns about Covid-19. The other players showed up but then had to travel home amid the global chaos of canceled flights and many other complications and then return to Yekaterinburg nearly a year later to complete the event.

Since then, Radjabov has only participated in online events and while that kind of thing can be sufficient for some, it clearly has not been for Radjabov who has been struggling throughout the entire event, with some momentary reminders of what an amazing chess player he can be when things work out for him.

Former FIDE World Champion GM Veselin Topalov has also struggled a bit, but as a mostly self-imposed semi-retiree, that has been entirely understandable.

Their classical game had for unfamiliar eyes the appearance of an interesting battle where the players thought long and hard about the complications on the board that arose from a 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian, but for those of us in the know, it resembled a charade. Even I, who does not play this line with either color, knew that all of it had been played before. In fact, it had been played twice in Yu-Ding, FIDE World Cup (Khanty-Mansiysk 2019) and Yilmaz-Berkes, FIDE Grand Swiss (Isle of Man) 2019. All of it.

In the armageddon game, things somehow got even worse. Radjabov played a line he was unfamiliar with, the Anti-Moscow Gambit, where his knowledge seemed outdated by at least a decade. He did not respond accurately to Topalov's 10...Nh5, which is considered risky for Black. But after 12 moves, White was essentially a pawn down without compensation.

In the final position, where Topalov gave a perpetual check, as it would guarantee the armageddon bonus, Radjabov was down four pawns entirely without compensation.

One of the pleasant surprises of this year's Norway Chess has been the performance of last-minute replacement GM Aryan Tari, who has scored an impressive 50 percent in the classical games. His round-six opponent So has proven himself in excellent form this spring and demonstrated that he is near the peak of his powers at the moment.

In an Italian Game, Tari carefully defended against So's attempts at breaking through and afforded the American no serious chances of an advantage, in fact, at one point, Black even seemed to be marginally better.

It was not the most interesting game, but undoubtedly a very satisfactory for the young Norwegian player who celebrated his 23rd birthday a couple of days ago.

So has proven a bit of a beast in the armageddon games, and therefore it was not a surprise that Tari would attempt to rattle the American. The fact that he succeeded in that was surprising, the sad thing is that he let it slip out of his hands again.

After several mistakes, from inaccuracies to outright game-losing blunders by both players, Tari made the last crucial mistake and thus lost the game. A crazy game but once more, Tari demonstrated his potential.

The first game of the round to finish was the classical game in this match-up. GM Wang Hao allowed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave his first Najdorf Sicilian of the tournament. White opted for GM Bobby Fischer's 6.h3 which has been extremely popular for the last several years, but when encountered with a very rare idea, 8...b5, White went for an unambitious option that allowed Black to get a good game.

Shortly after, apparently satisfied with a draw, Vachier-Lagrave opened the door for a repetition of moves, and Wang jumped on that option faster than you could blink your eyes.

20 minutes later, the players got themselves going with the armageddon game. Here, Wang altered his approach, instead choosing the London System rather than allowing the Frenchman to play his Grunfeld Indian.

It quickly became clear that the Chinese player was not particularly familiar with the nuances of the London. Even after a missed opportunity by Vachier-Lagrave, White started to flounder, and even when given additional opportunities as a result of Black's aggressive game plan, he did not step up to the challenge. After a couple of mistakes by White, Vachier-Lagrave was allowed to deliver the killing 32...Re2!, forcing instant resignation.

Round 6 Standings

All Games Round 6

The 2022 Norway Chess runs May 31-June 10, 2022. The event consists of a 10-player single round-robin in a classical time control of 120 minutes for the game with a 10-second increment after move 40. The scoring system is three points for a win instead of the usual one. If the game is drawn, competitors play an armageddon game with the winner scoring 1.5 points and the loser 1 point. The prize fund is 2.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOK).

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Carlsen Wins, Leads, Hits A 2870 Live Rating - Chess.com

Football fans, rejoice! If you've ever caught yourself squeezing some bullet games in between Super Bowl commercials, we have good news. Chess.com is excited to announce BlitzChamps, an event where NFL stars will compete in a series of rapid games to prove who has the best moves! The event is happening on July 9 and 10, with players competing for a piece of the $100,000 prize fund for their favorite charity, not to mention the bragging rights.

One of the greatest wide receivers of all time, Larry Fitzgerald, headlines the field. The second-leading receiver in NFL history and surefire future Hall of Famer is a longtime chess aficionado.

Another confirmed player for the event is Kayvon Thibodeaux, fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft and the New York Giants' newest pass rusher. Football and chess fans know that Thibodeaux is no stranger to the royal game and even attributes part of his success to chess.

The Giants linebacker isn't the only player making moves over the board. Another football-playing chess veteran in the event is WR Amari Cooper of the Cleveland Browns. The four-time Pro Bowler will be a formidable challenger to whoever stands in his way. Like Thibodeaux, Cooper also uses chess as a tool to improve his playa strategy that has been clearly working in his favor:

Cooper will have to stay on top of his game, though, as his former teammate and chess rival LB Micah Parsons is coming for him. The two players faced each other over the board when Cooper was still playing for Parsons' Dallas Cowboys. Back then, each player got one win. Now, they'll have the chance to show who truly dominates the chessboard. And while Cooper uses chess to improve his game, the 2021 Defensive Rookie of the Year Parsons plays chess to build a champion mentality:

And what might ensue between Thibodeaux and Parsons? A rookie and second-year player, respectively, they play the same position for hated division rivals in New York and Dallas. We know that both can win their matchup against any offensive lineman, but who will win the chess match?

Make sure you tune in to Chess.com/TV or to our Twitch and YouTube channels on July 9 to watch these and other football stars playing their best moves!

Who are you excited to see battle it out in BlitzChamps? Let us know in the comments below!

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Announcing BlitzChamps With NFL Stars Fitzgerald, Thibodeaux, Parsons, And More! - Chess.com

The main event of this year's Women's Speed Chess Championship begins on June 13. That means it's time for another bracket contest! Still free-to-play and featuring cash prizes, we've streamlined the prediction system, so keep reading! The prize pool is $1,000 in cash prizes and over a dozen diamond memberships in this classic bracket contest.

You have from right now up until the start of the first match at5 a.m. Pacific/14:00 CET on June 13 to make your picks. Don't wait too long, or the tournament might begin before you know it!

Jump Ahead: Click Here For Prediction Instructions! | Scoring | Tiebreaks | Prizes

How to watch?

The WSCC will air on all usual Chess.com channels: at Chess.com/TV or Chess.com/Eventson site, or on YouTube and Twitch. The full schedule is available on the official event page.

No more Google Forms like we've had to do in the past! Instead:

The deeper the tournament goes, the more points you get for each correct prediction.

Chess.com will apply tiebreaks if there are multiple perfect brackets or ties at the top of the standings. The tiebreaker system is the same as earlier bracket predictions:

The top finisher will win the big $500 first-place prize. The prize for second place is $300 and third place earns $200. Diamond memberships will be awarded to those who place between 4th and 20th, and all players who tie for 20th earn memberships even if tiebreaks would otherwise eliminate them.

This is your chance to join fun and drama as all the action unfolds at Chess.com/TV!

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Your Chance To Predict the 2022 Women's Speed Chess Championship Is Here! - Chess.com