Hasta La Gadget!

Not long after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, publishers rushed an anti-totalitarian handbook by Yale historian Timothy Snyder to print. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century was published by Vintage this month in the U.K., its arrival heralded by an eye-grabbing poster campaign.

This week, the book’s Amazon U.K. page was hacked, probably by Russian hackers, according to The Guardian. The miscreants replaced On Tyranny’s cover image and description text with that of… an adult coloring book?

That’s right, drink ‘n’ draw lovers: It seems like even hackers have hopped on the coloring trend. The fake description of a fictional coloring book by “Timothy Strauss” urges customers to “color these images and read these lessons to Make World Great Again.”

The fake coloring book that took over the page appears to marry Snyder’s name with that of Leo Strauss, a political philosopher whose 1963 discourse On Tyranny explored the possible paths to tyranny and philosophy’s role under such a regime.

The cover art of the adult coloring book, appropriately, was taken from an American World War II poster advertising the sale of government bonds to fund the war. “Triumph Over Tyranny!” urges the original poster.

According to The Guardian, Snyder is convinced that Russian hackers were behind the tweaks to his book’s Amazon listing. “The idea of making the world great again, the slogan left by the hacker, appears, to my knowledge, only in Russian on pro-Trump posters in the Russian Federation,” he said.

A preeminent historian of Central and Eastern Europe, Snyder has previously found himself in conflict with the Russian government. His previous books Bloodlands and Black Earth drew rancor from Russian partisans thanks to his critical analysis of Josef Stalin, and On Tyranny not only critiques Russia’s past and present government, but also its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election in aid of Trump.

Now, he believes, Russian hackers are interfering with his book in order to protect Trump, who has enjoyed a particularly bad couple of weeks thanks to the embarrassing implosion of his health care bill and the ongoing fiasco of the Congressional hearings on Russian election interference. “Russia has shown a tendency to jump in to help him at such times,” Snyder told The Guardian.

Vintage apprised Amazon of the breach by Wednesday morning; after remaining up long enough to utterly ruin our desire to relax through the art of adult coloring, the listing for the instant bestseller has been reverted to the correct image and text. As of this post’s publication, Snyder’s publisher had not responded to a request for comment.

H/T The Guardian

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Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Moore, Padma Lakshmi and a whole host of other stars are teaming up for Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU. Donate now and join us at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, March 31, on Facebook Live. #standforrights2017

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Two months after performing at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Jackie Evancho wants to use her voice for a different cause. 

The classical crossover singer, 16, has asked to meet with Trump in the wake of the president’s decision to roll back a federal policy prohibiting schools from discriminating against transgender students. Evancho’s sister, Juliet, was one of three trans plaintiffs who won the right to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity at her Pennsylvania school in a Feb. 27 federal court ruling. 

Evancho first suggested the meeting on Twitter on Feb. 22, immediately following the Trump administration’s announcement that it would rescind former President Barack Obama’s executive order mandating that all schools that receive federal money must treat a student’s gender identity as his or her sex. 

Though Trump himself has stayed silent on the matter, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a Feb. 23 briefing that he believes the president “would be welcome to meet with” Evancho, ABC News reported.

On Monday, Evancho reiterated her suggestion on Twitter, and said she’ll be in Washington, D.C., this Thursday and Friday, likely as part of the promotional tour for her new album, “Two Hearts.” 

In a new interview with People, Evancho explained why she now feels compelled to take a stance against Trump’s anti-LGBTQ platform. “I would talk to him about some of the horrors that [Juliet] has experienced,” Evancho said. “Hopefully make it a federal issue — and create some sort of law that will protect my sister and people in her situation.”

She said her decision to speak out now that Trump has rescinded trans protections was just “natural instinct,” noting, “At that point, something had changed that was going to affect a cause that I believe in. It was going to affect my sister, who I truly love, and people that I know.”

In the days leading up to the inauguration, Evancho had been encouraged to follow in the footsteps of singer-actress Jennifer Holliday and back out of her appearance because of Trump’s opposition to LGBTQ rights. Still, she told People that her decision to perform the national anthem was solely “about the honor and not about the politics.” 

Now, however, she said she’s focused on using “my voice to do good, to help people,” adding, “I definitely want to change things.”

For more ways to combat bigotry, check out the Queer Voices newsletter. 

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WASHINGTON ― Of the many questions surrounding House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and his conduct in investigating President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, the most puzzling has to be his explanation for his recent visit to the White House grounds. People who have worked in the White House suggest that, on this matter, Nunes and the White House simply aren’t being credible.

For those just catching up: Last week, Nunes caused a stir when, with no prior notice to his fellow committee members, he announced that he’d received information showing that Trump transition officials had been caught inadvertently in surveillance operations targeting suspected foreign spies, and that their names appeared in internal intelligence reports. No one seemed to know where Nunes had gotten this information, and the congressman, who went to the White House to brief the president on his findings, would only say that he had an anonymous source. He has refused to name his source even to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Nunes ditched his own staff the night before making his announcement. On Monday, the news broke that he had gone to the White House grounds to use a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility ― basically, a room or area that meets certain rigorous security standards ― to get the information that formed the basis of his accusations.

This raised the distinct possibility that the White House itself had been the source of the information, and that it had given that information to Nunes so he could provide Trump with some cover for his baseless accusation that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower. (The FBI and Nunes himself have said there is no evidence to support Trump’s claims.)

The White House and Nunes both deny that there was any collusion, and the White House has argued that it is possible Nunes came to the grounds without anyone from the administration knowing about it.  

“I don’t know that members of Congress need to be cleared,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said this week.

But it’s basically impossible to believe that someone from the White House did not at least know that Nunes was coming to use the SCIF to access the information that would form the basis of his now-controversial press conference. 

The timing of last week’s events offered the first indication of possible coordination between Nunes and the Trump administration. Earlier this month, Trump told Fox News that evidence to back up his wiretapping claims would soon emerge.

The following Monday, FBI Director James Comey delivered two blows to the Trump team: He publicly testified that there was no evidence Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, and he confirmed that the agency was investigating ties between Trump associates and Russian government officials.

Two days later, Nunes held an impromptu press conference, where he alleged that Trump and his team were surveilled during the Obama administration. Hours later, Spicer directly quoted Nunes during the daily White House press briefing. Later that day, Nunes went to the White House to brief Trump on his findings. Trump emerged from the meeting feeling “somewhat” vindicated, he told reporters. 

The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has since stated that a “top” White House official told him to keep an eye on the “predicate that is set” by Nunes.

Nunes’ office has confirmed that the congressman’s allegations are based on reports that came from the White House. The documents were “executive branch documents that have not been provided to Congress,” Jack Langer, a spokesman for Nunes, told The Huffington Post.

Moreover, it would be logistically impossible, sources say, for Nunes to get onto the White House grounds ― much less get into a room used for viewing classified information ― without being escorted by someone with an official badge.

“You have to be allowed onto the White House compound by a White House staffer. You have to be allowed into a SCIF by a White House staffer. You have to be provided computer credentials by a White House staffer. There is no other way to be authorized access to the White House other than via a White House staffer,” said Ned Price, who ran communications for Obama’s National Security Council. “Did he just show up and say ‘Let me in’? It defies credulity.”

When asked how exactly Nunes got into the White House last week, Spicer told reporters on Wednesday that it was “a question for him, not for us.” 

Nunes, who has otherwise been tight-lipped about his source, told Bloomberg’s Eli Lake on Monday that his source was an intelligence official, not a White House staffer. Even if that is true, it would have had to have been an intelligence official with cleared White House access (potentially an official on temporary detail with the National Security Council), or Nunes and his source would have had to have been let in by someone else from the White House.

Perhaps Nunes’ most bizarre move thus far has been his refusal to disclose his source’s identity to Schiff, his Democratic counterpart, who is regularly briefed on information in his role as the ranking member of the intelligence committee.

Even some of Nunes’ Republican colleagues are puzzled by his handling of the situation.

“The chairman and ranking member not talking with each other ― that’s bizarre on such an important issue,” one GOP lawmaker said Wednesday. “I just can’t imagine myself and my counterpart, on something this important to the country, having zero communication.”

Nunes’ behavior, the Republican lawmaker continued, is making it appear as though he is “somebody who’s in essence working for the administration.”

Nunes has said that he will remain atop the investigation his committee is leading, and that he will never reveal the source of his surveillance accusation. But the trip he took to the White House has prompted bipartisan calls for him to step aside, or for the work to be placed under the auspices of a select committee.

Under the Obama administration, at least some information about Nunes’ mysterious White House visit would have eventually been made public in White House visitor logs. Those logs used to be accessible online and were usually updated every three to four months. But the website hosting the visitor logs has been down since Trump took office.

When asked whether the White House plans to resume the practice, Spicer would only say that “we’re reviewing that now.”

Laura Barron-Lopez contributed reporting. 

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Leaders across the globe are speaking out against President Donald Trump’s executive order rolling back Obama-era policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions, criticizing the move as a setback in the global fight against climate change.

Trump’s order begins the process of reversing regulations put in place by former President Barack Obama to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint. Specifically, the order instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to review Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The order also instructs the Department of the Interior to lift the temporary ban on new coal leases on federal lands.

These moves greatly diminish the United States’ chances of meeting the emissions targets agreed to in the 2015 Paris Agreement, an international climate deal signed by 195 countries with the goal of limiting global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

After Trump signed the order, many countries reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris deal. Among those speaking out was China, now seen as the de facto global leader on climate policy.

“No matter how other countries’ policies on climate change change, as a responsible large developing country, China’s resolve, aims and policy moves in dealing with climate change will not change,” China Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Wednesday. “We are willing to work with the international community to strengthen dialogue and cooperation, to join hands to promote the process of tackling climate change to jointly promote green, low carbon sustainable development for the whole world, to create an even better future for the next generation.” 

Laurent Fabius, who played a major role in the Paris climate talks when he was France’s foreign minister, said Trump’s order is a setback for the fight against rising global temperatures. 

“The initial decisions from the new U.S. president’s administration concerning the battle against global warming constitute a very serious step backwards,” he said in a statement.

Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Union’s top climate official, also spoke out against the U.S. president, but vowed to uphold the EU’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.

“We regret the US is rolling back the main pillar of its climate policy, the clean power plan,” he said in a statement. “The continued leadership of the EU, China and many other major economies is now more important than ever. When it comes to climate and the global clean energy transition, there cannot be vacuums, there can only be drivers, and we are committed to driving this agenda forward.” 

Germany’s environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, warned Trump that reversing Obama’s climate policies could hurt the American economy as other nations take the lead on renewable energy.

“Whoever tries to change into reverse gear is only going to harm themselves,” she said.

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