theguardian

Tait posted on Instagram days ago that for 20 years he lived a ‘double life’ but is working on ‘repentance and healing’

The Christian music legend Michael Tait, whose hit song God’s Not Dead became an anthem for Donald Trump’s Maga movement, has been accused of sexually assaulting three men, two who believed they were drugged by the rock star in the early 2000s, according to a months-long Guardian investigation. Four other men have alleged that Tait, a founding member of DC Talk and later a frontman for Newsboys, engaged in inappropriate behavior such as unwanted touching and sexual advances.

The Guardian is publishing these allegations days after Tait posted an extraordinaryconfession on his Instagramaccount, admitting that for 20 years he had been “leading a double life”, abusing alcohol and cocaine, “and, at times, touched men in an unwanted sensual way”, according to his statement.

The statement appears to be a response to aseparate report published earlier this month by the Christian media outlet the Roys Report, which also investigated Tait and revealed similar allegations of drug use and sexual assault against young, male musicians.

In the Instagram statement, Tait wrote: “I am ashamed of my life choices and actions and make no excuses for them. I will simply call it what God calls it – sin.” He added: “While I might dispute certain details in the accusations against me, I do not dispute the substance of them.

“Even before this recent news became public, I had started on a path to health, healing, and wholeness … I accept the consequences of my sin and am committed to continuing the hard work of repentance and healing – work [which] I will do quietly and privately, away from the stage and the spotlight.”

The allegations about Tait’s behavior revealed today starkly contrast with the public image that he cultivated for nearly four decades. The 59-year-old native of Washington DC has sold 18m albums, containing songs that often encouraged young Christians to stay sober, abstinent and straight. But sources who spoke to the Guardian claimed Tait’s alleged drug use and alleged abusive behavior were the “biggest open secret in Christian music”.

The Guardian has interviewed 25 people in the Christian music industry, most of whom say they had prior knowledge of allegations that Tait had engaged in abusive behavior. The men who have come forward and shared their alleged experiences – two agreeing to go on the record with their names, while the rest spoke on the condition of anonymity – were aged 13 to 29 at the time of their alleged experiences.

All grew up in evangelical churches where Tait’s music was the premier soundtrack of their youth groups, summer camps and mission trips. Having taken the message of Tait’s songs to heart, they were naive about sex and drugs throughout their youth. All were starstruck when meeting their childhood hero, but quickly saw their image of him as a role model of Christian piety dissolve as they were taken on a bumpy ride of rock’n’roll debauchery.

Shawn Davis, who was a lifelong fan and troubled youth who had immersed himself in Christian music, claims Tait pushed him to consume alcohol and cocaine on multiple occasions. He also says he believes Tait once secretly drugged him and then molested him in 2003, while he was still a minor.

“This man destroyed my life,” Davis now claims.

Gabriel (not his real name) also claims Tait pushed him to consume alcohol and cocaine before asking to join him in a hot tub in 2003, where he claims Tait repeatedly groped his penis while attempting to kiss him. “To this day I jump whenever someone touches me unexpectedly,” Gabriel says. “When something like that happens to you, you feel like the worst person, you feel dirty, worthless. It’s heartbreaking to think someone you look up to could do something like that.”

Adam (not his real name) claims he believes he was drugged by the singer while he was visiting Tait’s home in Nashville, and later woke up to find Tait allegedly molesting him. “This person has stolen a little piece of our souls,” he says.

Tait did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about the allegations contained in this report.

Over the last 38 years, Tait has emerged as one of the most iconic names in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). The genre and industry often exists in its own commercial and cultural ecosystem – yet mimics popular trends of mainstream music – creating multi-platinum superstars who are marketed to teens (and their parents) as wholesome alternatives to the “sinful lifestyles” of mainstream rock stars.

Tait was one-third of the rap-rock group, DC Talk, which formed in 1987 while its members were attending the evangelical Liberty University, whose founder, Jerry Falwell, launched the Moral Majority, the political organization that first galvanized evangelical voters around the Republican party in 1980, forever changing the American political landscape. Falwell was a mentor to young Tait – whom hereferred to as“my white daddy” – and helped boost DC Talk to stardom.

Blending MTV aesthetics with Christian right talking points, DC Talk instructed generations of teens to stand against the liberalism of the Clinton era, namely abortion rights and sex education. Songs such as I Don’t Want It (a rebuttal to George Michael’s I Want Your Sex), That Kind Of Girl and The Children Can Live shaped the moral landscape of a generation of young evangelicals, mandating sexual purity until marriage.

“They used the sounds often associated with teen sexuality – like hip-hop, rock and pop music – to combat teen sexuality and adolescent desire,” says Leah Payne, author of the book God Gave Rock and Roll to You, an academic critique of CCM history. “In 1994 the True Love Waits organization asked DC Talk to perform at their concert on the National Mall promoting virginity among young evangelicals, which resulted in the signing of 200,000 chastity pledges by the teenage fans.”

In 1995, their Nirvana-flavored smash hit, Jesus Freak, championed being a social outcast for the Lord’s sake; a book companion to the album celebrated the violent histories of Christian martyrs around the world, encouraging young people to follow in their footsteps.

The fight for Christian nationalism was also a premier theme of DC Talk’s music – as well as the book Under God, co-authored by Tait – claiming the US is suffering a collapse of moral values because of the secularization of government and public schools. This was underscored with frightening urgency by their songs warning of the coming rapture. Asrecently as 2021, Tait warned: “I believe we are living in the last days [before the rapture].”

The CCM industry has been primarily headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, where Tait and most of his colleagues work and live. While it is not affiliated with the country music scene of Nashville, it typically shares the same conservative politics. While DC Talk addressed racism in several songs – with Tait as the sole Black man performing with two white guys (one of whom rapped) – their narrative typically placed racism as an unfortunate touchstone of the past that the US must repent for, but never as a contemporary, systemic problem.

DC Talk went on a hiatus in 2000 and for nearly a decade Tait performed as a solo artist until he became the frontman of the legendary CCM supergroup Newsboys. In 2011, their rock song God’s Not Dead became a rallying cry for disaffected evangelicals in the Obama era. In 2014, Tait and Newsboys appeared inGod’s Not Dead,a movie centered around the fictional story of an atheist college professor who threatens to fail his students if they refuse to sign a form declaring “God is dead”. Tait would make an appearance in four subsequent sequels, becoming a recognizable face in the fight against perceived anti-Christian discrimination, a central theme of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns.

Taitendorsed Ted Cruzin 2016, but shifted his allegiance to Trump after the Florida pastor Paula White – chair of the evangelical advisory board for Trump’s 2016 campaign and leader of the White House faith office in 2024 – invited him to pray over Trump before a Florida campaign stop. Tait soon became a key bridge between the candidate and white evangelical voters. Newsboys performed for Trump at the White House in 2019, and the following year Tait sang at evangelical “Let Us Worship” events, which were centered around the false claim that President Joe Biden was using Covid lockdowns to repress church attendance in the US.

“I love you, I support you, and I’m one of the growing number of African Americans who love you,” Tait said ina 2019 videopraising Trump’s efforts at prison reform, before adding: “I’m looking forward to hanging out, and eating some Big Macs!”

On 5 January 2021, Newsboys’ God’s Not Dead was sung in unison during the “Jericho March” at the US Capitol, the event that preceded the violent insurrection at the US Capitol the following day.

The Guardian’s investigation has revealed an alleged pattern of manipulative behavior by Tait. Most of the alleged incidents described in this article are alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2009.

Young and sometimes naive male musicians say they believe they were targeted by the star, with Tait allegedly dangling the possibility of career or artistic opportunities before them and then cutting off all contact once it became clear that sex was off the table. According to four people who were interviewed, some of them on the condition of anonymity, Tait would allegedly invite them to parties at his house in Nashville, encouraging them to drink alcohol and use drugs before making sexual advances.

Two of the men who spoke to the Guardian claim they believe they were secretly drugged, which left them floating in and out of consciousness, unable to consent to sexual acts. They claim Tait assaulted them by touching them sexually without their permission. Three others claim they awkwardly rebuffed his advances and left.

“I wore out my Jesus Freak CD as a kid, and so when I met him I was starstruck,” recalls Gabriel, who was 19 when he was introduced to 38-year-old Tait in 2004. “And then he started calling me to hang out, it was just crazy.”

Gabriel was ambitious to become a CCM musician, and now his childhood hero was inviting him out to bars, buying him drinks even though he was underage and taking him to parties at his home in Nashville. Tait often mentioned the possibility of them jamming together, but that never materialized.

Gabriel felt a little uncomfortable at first when Tait would rub a hand on his shoulder and constantly hug him, but attributed the feeling to the fact that he had been abused a few years earlier by a serial child molester. In fact, Gabriel was testifying in a court case about that incident during this same time, an emotionally taxing experience that he confided in Tait about.

“He was very sympathetic,” Gabriel says, “and then he betrayed that trust.”

Tait started inviting Gabriel over alone, when the house was empty. When Tait introduced him to cocaine, “it was a huge shock”, Gabriel says, partially because he had no experience with drugs, and because it was being served by the man whose music informed his moral universe. “But I was too excited to be there, and didn’t want to screw up this opportunity.”

The two used cocaine together a number of times over the next few weeks. One night, while they both were high on the drug, along with a couple of vodka and Red Bulls, Tait proposed they jump in the hot tub.

It was there that Tait unexpectedly “grabbed my crotch and tried to kiss me at the same time”, Gabriel claims. “It wasn’t subtle, and it was out of nowhere. I asked him, ‘What the hell is going on?’ He said he was just joking, but then he did it again. I jumped out of the pool and drove home, which I shouldn’t have done because I was more intoxicated than I’ve ever been, but that’s how scared I was.”

Gabriel didn’t tell anyone for 15 years, when he confided about it to the same friend who had introduced him to Tait, Shawn Davis.

Shocked, Davis told him he had his own bad experience.

Davis says he was 16 when he met 37-year-old Tait in 2003 at a Nashville party that was loaded with mainstream celebrities. But Davis’s attention remained only on his childhood idol, Michael Tait. A mutual friend introduced them, and Tait took down his number, calling Davis to hang out a few days later.

“DC Talk were my heroes in a lot of ways,” Davis recalls. “They were Christians, but they rocked out, and I thought that was so cool.”

Looking back, both Davis and Gabriel realized that while they spent time together with Tait at bars and parties, at some point they were only invited to his house separately and alone, which began when he allegedly introduced them to cocaine.

According to Davis’s claims, months passed with Davis and Tait hitting the Nashville bars (Tait was able to get Davis, a teenager, drinks), before going back to Tait’s house to smoke weed and cigarettes, and snort coke along with the opioid Lortab, which Tait would crush into a powder.

Like Gabriel, Davis confided to Tait that he had been molested when he was eight years old. “Tait made me feel like, and seem like, he was my only friend,” he says.

Davis says that Tait always mixed their drinks, and claims he often felt pressured to drink heavily. One night he recalls the drink tasting strange, and Tait insisting he finish it. “Suddenly, I felt super sick, dizzy, nauseous, going in and out of consciousness,” he says. “I woke up in the closet, and he had my pants down, and was giving me a blowjob. I pushed him off as best as I was able in that state, but he pushed me down, and then I punched him twice and left.”

Davis says he believed he was drugged by Tait. He was 17 at the time.

In the months that followed, Davis claims, Tait aggressively pursued a reconciliation. “He was relentlessly love-bombing me, trying to talk his way back in the door,” alleges Davis. “He apologized to me for what happened, but never got into specifics, it was more of a broad statement.”

Davis was attempting to get a CCM label off the ground, and forgave Tait’s behavior with the hope that he would help him get a foothold in the industry. He claims that “Tait had convinced me that what happened that night was my fault, he was very manipulative. And I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

All of this came to a head one night in 2012, when Davis was in Tait’s kitchen, and Tait texted him from his bedroom, sending him a picture of what Tait described as $5,000 in cash. “He said something to the effect of ‘this could be yours if you let me suck you off and cum in your ass’,” Davis claims.

After that, Davis called his mother and asked her to quickly come pick him up; Davis snuck out quietly without alerting Tait. On the drive home, Davis says he told her everything he had allegedly experienced with Tait. He and Tait never spoke again.

Davis’s mother, and a friend he had confided in at the time, confirmed the details reported in this story. Davis has had one run-in with the law. When he was a teenager he stole his mother’s debit card to rent a limo for prom. He got probation but was then found guilty of violating his probation in connection to drug use, which occurred at a time when he was friends with Tait. He served about five months in prison. He is now married, has a 12-year-old son and owns his own construction company in Nashville.

Both Davis and Gabriel express regret today for not speaking up sooner, believing they could have prevented other people from suffering the same experience. At the time, they each thought their experiences were isolated incidents.

Another young man who got to know Tait, Abraham (not his real name), claims Tait rubbed his thigh and caressed his ear minutes after meeting for lunch in 2006. Abraham was a 22-year-old musician in an up-and-coming band. “He said, ‘At Liberty University, we weren’t allowed to let our hair touch our ears,’ and then he brushed my hair back with his hand, which was weird,” Abraham recalls.

Zach (not his real name) was a 29-year-old aspiring DJ with little experience when, he claims, Tait invited him to his house after they met in a Nashville dance club in the summer of 2008. “He was doing a solo tour and said: ‘What we need is a DJ who can come on the road with us,’” Zach alleges. “And I asked: ‘That would be so cool! What would I need to do?’ And he said: ‘You need to hang out, come around [my house] a lot.’”

But when Zach arrived at his house, and was brought to Tait’s studio, he noticed the only furniture in the room was a bed, and Tait kept encouraging Zach to sit close to him.

“I was a virgin until I was 37,” Zach recalls. “And I’d always thought to myself: ‘Michael Tait’s been single his whole life, and if he can hold out so can I.’”

Feeling uncomfortable, Zach made up an excuse to leave early. Afterward, he sent Tait several messages to follow up on the DJ opportunity, but Tait never replied.

Adam (not his real name) was another young and ambitious musician in a Christian rock band that was slowly gaining steam in 2004 when he met Tait in Nashville. The 22-year-old was ecstatic when Tait texted him a few days later, inviting him out for some bar-hopping. “Tait was like the Christian Elvis, the GOAT,” Adam recalls.

Adam was dropped off at the bar to meet Tait by some friends, one of whom said “don’t get molested!” as he was exiting the car, a comment he found strange but dismissed.

A wild night out concluded at Tait’s home, where Adam was awed by “his trophy room, where he keeps all his Dove awards, Grammys and other accolades”. At one point they needed to buy more booze, and Tait showed him his collection of cars in the garage, telling him to “pick one”. Adam selected a white MG convertible.

It was nearly dawn when they got back to Tait’s house, which was empty but for the two of them. They drank more, and Adam recalls suddenly feeling profoundly sleepy. That’s when, Adam says, Tait told him, “‘It’s OK, just go to sleep,’ and then he laid my head on his lap.”

Adam’s next memory of that night is “waking up in his bed, my pants unzipped, and [Tait] was jerking me off. I passed out again, then woke up, wondering: ‘What the fuck is happening?’ I went to the bathroom and had a panic attack, asking myself, ‘Am I supposed to go there and beat him up? Or am I supposed to play it cool?’”

Like Davis and Gabriel, Adam had been abused as a child. “It made me a lot more insecure, wondering, ‘Why me? Am I weak? Too innocent? Was this my fault?’ I didn’t ask for this, I was just hanging out with a superstar.”

Adam says he believes Tait drugged him that night. He shared the story with his girlfriend at the time, and a couple of fellow musicians who were close with Tait, and recalls that “some of them stopped hanging out with me after that, which hurt, and made me afraid”.

A close friend of Adam’s at the time confirmed to the Guardian that Adam told him about what he says happened.

Many sources we spoke with also feared reprisal, and would only speak on the condition of anonymity. Several people who were interviewed said they recall Tait stripping down to his underwear or naked at parties and backstage at a concert, often exposing himself to young musicians touring as his opening act.

Jacob (not his real name) was a 21-year-old musician when he met 40-year-old Tait in the winter of 2004. The two were both performing at a church concert, and Tait invited Jacob to fly out to Nashville and stay a few nights at the home of his childhood hero. Once there, Jacob was surprised at the amount of cigarettes and alcohol Tait and his friends consumed, as he had never had a drink in his life. One night, the two of them alone in Tait’s kitchen, Jacob claims, “Tait somehow brought up that he had a huge urethra. And then he just whipped it out and showed it to me.”

Jacob had been sleeping on the floor of Tait’s house, as he didn’t have a spare bed, and when Tait offered to share his king-sized bed with him, Jacob didn’t think anything of it, as this wasn’t uncommon among touring musicians. He wasn’t sure what to think of the massages Tait kept giving him in the hot tub earlier that night, and then in his bed. When Tait’s hands “moved lower and lower and lower, until he was massaging my butt-cheeks, I didn’t know what to do, because I looked up to him, and didn’t want to make him mad”.

Jacob tried his best to delicately rebuff Tait’s advances, saying, “‘Hey man, I’m not into that.’ Tait said OK and went to sleep.” (Jacob’s girlfriend at the time, who is now his wife, corroborated the details of his story, which he shared with her at the time.)

Israel Anthem was only 13 when Tait allegedly exposed his penis to him in 2001. Anthem descended from the Rambo family, who were legends in the field of gospel music. His grandmother Dottie Rambo (whose songs had been recorded by Elvis, Johnny Cash and many other musicians) was being honored with a lifetime achievement award, and the members of DC Talk were in attendance. Anthem and his family took pictures with the band, and a few weeks later they were eating in a Nashville restaurant when “Michael walked in, and came by our table to say hi”.

Anthem was “a huge, lifelong DC Talk fan”, he recalls. “Some kids sleep with teddy bears, I slept with DC Talk cassettes.” He says he was stoked when the two happened to be in the restaurant bathroom at the same time later that night, sharing side-by-side urinals.

“He was still at the urinal when I was washing my hands, and as we were talking [about a CD that had just come out] I noticed his penis was out, and he was facing me, turned away from the urinal. I thought he was putting his penis away, but then he was rubbing his penis, and making eye contact, while I was talking.”

Anthem recalls this lasting anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds, with Tait “visibly aroused” and “fondling himself”. Back at the table, a family member recalls, Anthem looked “white as a ghost, absolutely terrified”. Anthem later described the alleged bathroom incident to that family member, who corroborated his story to the Guardian.

Tait’s career was on a stable trajectory until January of this year.

Last Christmas he madehis debut at the Grand Ole Opry, and the previous Christmas heplayed Carnegie Hallwith Amy Grant and others. That all came to a halt on 15 January, when the host of the Yass, Jesus podcast, Azariah Southworth, claimed Tait was gay in a viral TikTok video that received more than 250,000 views before it was removed for violation of TikTok guidelines.

“I felt he was fair game,” Southworth says. “Some people disagreed with the ethics of [outing someone against their will], but this deserved to be said out loud. Keeping quiet would allow a false narrative to continue, fueling a movement that is hurting myself, as a gay man, and my trans brothers and sisters.”

Southworth – who grew up in a strict evangelical household, and was traumatized by five years of “conversion therapy” – was the host of a Christian reality TV show in 2004-05 that featured Tait. During that time, he claims to have seen Tait gambling, smoking and cursing, behavior that would’ve scandalized Christian audiences.

Within days of Southworth publishing his video, Tait announced ina social media postthat “it is time [I] step down from Newsboys”, offering fans little explanation as to why.

Shortly after this, the remaining members of Newsboys released a statement addressing the allegations, insisting that it was only last January when “Michael confessed to us and our management that he ‘had been living a double life’”, the band wrote, adding: “But we never imagined that it could be this bad … Our hearts are with the victims who have bravely shared their stories.”

In the closing of Tait’s “confession” on Tuesday, he offers understanding to those who lost “respect, faith and trust in me”, later citing the story of King David’s prayer for forgiveness after he had committed adultery and murder. Though he is quick to add that “it crushes me to think that someone would lose or choose not to pursue faith because I have been such a horrible representative of him”.

This was Gabriel’s experience, saying he had “blamed God” for the trauma he allegedly endured that night. “Tait was presented as the pinnacle of godliness,” he says, trembling with tears in his eyes. “I get that all people sin, but to use the facade of his righteousness to commit sin, that made me walk away from my faith for a while. He took something from me I’ll never get back. In time, though, I found my own way back to God.”

Travel operator hits back at Airbnb’s claim that it is being made a ‘scapegoat’ for problems in some holiday hotspots

Europe’s biggest travel operator, Tui, has hit back at an accusation byAirbnbthat “overtourism” is the fault of the hotel industry, arguing that short-term home rentals companies are instead to blame.

Tensions have risen between rivals in the tourism industry afterprotestsby local people against overcrowding, rising housing costs and bad behaviour by tourists in some holiday hotspots across the continent.

Theo Yedinsky, vice-president for public policy at Airbnb, said in an interview that the company was being unfairly blamed and being made a “scapegoat” by local authorities and protesters.

“We end up getting a lot of the blame, especially in city centres but the reality is overtourism is really driven by hotels,” Yedinskytold the Financial Times. “It is totally unfair. They are scapegoating Airbnb.”

Protests by residentshave broken out in destinations including Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca,Venice, Amsterdam and the Greek island of Santorini.

Authorities have taken action targeting the booming short-term lettings sector – led by services such as Airbnb, Vrbo andBooking.com– in an attempt to alleviate a problem exacerbated by the post-pandemic boom in travel.

Alexander Panczuk, group director of policy and reputation at Tui, said: “It is not scapegoating, it is a very neutral analysis of the problem.

“The reason protesters hit the streets is because of issues with the cost of living and especially housing. Both are driven by the secondary home market and short-term leases. All the destinations where we have seen the conflict of tourists and living spaces in the last few years are not where [operators like] Tui are active.”

Last month, the Spanish government ordered Airbnb to remove nearly 66,000 listings from its platform; in Portugal new short-term rental licences in Lisbon have been suspended, and earlier this year Greece introduced a one-year ban on new short-term rental registrations in Athens.

Hotrec, the European hotel industry’s lobby group, said the sector was highly regulated by authorities to fit with tourism capacity, and that services such as Airbnb needed to “play by the same rules”.

Hotels accounted for 63% of overnight visitors in Europe last year, while apartments, vacation rentals and other short-term rentals made up 24%, and campsites 13%, according to Eurostat data.

While the estimated number of overnight stays in hotels rose by less than 4% year-on-year in 2024, the short let market surged by 8%, an increase of 57m.

Yedinsky argued that the targeting of services such as Airbnb by governments has not improved the situation because most of the issues do not stem from short-term rentals.

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Citing the example of Barcelona, he said the mayor “needs to look at the construction of hotels, he needs to look at hotels in general … and they need to build more housing”.

“They are attacking a fraction of the problem and then wondering why it’s not getting better,” he said.

However, Tui, whichhad 20.3 million customers book its various holiday services last year, said local authorities were not trying to shift the blame.

Panczuk said: “Knowing the destination policy stakeholders they are mainly interested in solving their issues, not scapegoating as if it’s an easy answer to their problem.

“We talk a lot with our destination partners, ministers and MPs from various destinations, and it is mainly about [the issues] with holiday rentals. It is a topic that is discussed a lot because there is a real problem.”

Jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for 50 offences committed by the men between 2001 and 2006

Seven men who groomed two vulnerable teenage girls in Rochdale and treated them as “sex slaves” have been found guilty of multiple sex offences.

A long-running trial in Manchester heard that the men subjected the girls to years of misery and expected them to have sex with them “whenever and wherever they wanted”.

Both girls had “deeply troubled home lives” and were given drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, places to stay and people to be with, a jury heard. The crimes took place in filthy flats, on rancid mattresses, in cars, car parks, alleyways, disused warehouses and on moors, the court was told.

The prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC told a jury at Manchester Minshull Street crown court that the crimes happened “under the noses of social workers and others who should have done far more to protect them”.

After a four-month trial and three weeks of deliberation a jury on Friday returned unanimous guilty verdicts for 50 offences committed between 2001 and 2006.

After the verdicts DCI Guy Laycock, the senior investigating officer on the case, paid tribute to the survivors, known throughout the trial as girl A and girl B.

“They have been pivotal in bringing these abusers to long-awaited justice by bravely giving painful and difficult testimony during a four-month trial,” he said. “Without them this would not be possible and today is about them.

“These seven men preyed on vulnerability for their own depraved sexual gain. The men abused, degraded and then discarded the victims when they were just children. This horrific abuse knew no limits, despite their denials throughout this lengthy investigation and court case.

“They had a callous disregard for these women when they were girls, and continue to show no remorse for their unforgivable actions all these years later.”

Three of the abusers, Mohammed Zahid, 64, Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50 – all born in Pakistan – were stallholders at Rochdale’s indoor market.

Zahid, a father of three who was known as Boss or Bossman, gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to both girls, as well as money, alcohol and food and in return expected them to have regular sex with him and his friends.

Zahid was jailed for five yearsin 2016 as part of an earlier grooming gang case. He was found guilty of sexual assault of a child after he engaged in sexual activity in 2006 with a 15-year-old girl who he met when she visited his stall to buy tights for school.

Bashir did not attend the 2025 trial and jurors were ordered not to speculate why. It can be revealed that he absconded while on bail before the trial began.

It can also be reported that co-defendants Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 48, and Nisar Hussain, 41, had their bail revoked and were remanded in custody in January before the jury was sworn in.

Police received intelligence that the three Rochdale-born taxi drivers were planning to leave the UK and had paid a deposit for their transport, the court heard.

All three denied the accusation but the judge Jonathan Seely said the court was not prepared to take the risk that they too would abscond.

A seventh defendant, Pakistani-bornRoheez Khan, 39, was also convicted in a previous Rochdale grooming trial. In 2013 he was one of five men convicted of sexually exploiting a “profoundly vulnerable” 15-year-old girl in 2008 and 2009. He was jailed for six-and-a-half years for engaging in sexual activity with a child and witness intimidation.

Girl A told the jury she could have been targeted by more than 200 offenders but said “there was that many it was hard to keep count”.

The trial heard that social workers in Rochdale had labelled girl B a “prostitute” from the age of 10.

Giving evidence, she said social workers raised concerns with her that she may be having sex with Asian men. “They said I was a prostitute. I was prostituting myself … I don’t remember them being concerned enough to do anything about it.

“I remember knowing that they knew what was going on.”

All the perpetrators were prosecuted as part of Operation Lytton, an investigation that has been running since 2015 byGreater Manchesterpolice into non-recent child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.

Thirty-seven individuals have been charged so far, with five more trials scheduled to take place from September onwards.

In the UK, theNSPCCoffers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text theChildhelpabuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact theKids Helplineon 1800 55 1800, orBraveheartson 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contactBlue Knot Foundationon 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found atChild Helplines International

Many who engage are ‘discriminating and value-driven’, with a minority consuming ‘extremely misogynistic content’, study for Ofcom suggests

Men who engage in the online “manosphere” and the content ofAndrew Tateare often able to express a “strong commitment to equal treatment and fairness”, according to research commissioned by Ofcom.

Prompted by growing concerns about internet misogyny, researchers for the UK communications regulator followed the journeys of dozens of men through online content ranging from the US podcaster Joe Rogan to forums for “incels” (involuntary celibates). They found that while a minority encountered “extremely misogynistic content”, many users of the manosphere were critically engaged, selective and capable of discarding messages that did not resonate with their values.

They found it was far from a unified community: many participants felt the various subcultures under the manosphere umbrella were misunderstood, with extreme misogyny being grouped with benign self-improvement content. Several participants were drawn to it by its perceived humour, open debate and irreverence as well as connecting with views they found about traditional gender roles and family dynamics.

“This research does challenge the assumptions about the experiences and perceptions of individuals consuming manosphere content,”Ofcomsaid.

“Many of the participants expressed a strong commitment to equal treatment and fairness. They showed particular sensitivity to situations they perceived as unjust or discriminatory. This extended to issues specifically concerning men.”

The report’s author, Damon De Ionno, the managing director of Revealing Reality, which was commissioned by Ofcom to produce the study, separately told the Guardian it “suggests society has overestimated” the risk posed by the manosphere.

It comes afterrising violenceagainst women and girls (VAWG) in England and Wales. Data published by the National Police Chiefs’ Councilin July 2024found that about 3,000 VAWG offences a day were recorded by the police in 2022-23, an increase of 37% since 2018, with one in every 12 women a victim each year.

Separate expert studies have found some evidence that the language of the manosphere can escalate into physical violence. Asubmission to parliamentby a group of UK academics cited cases in which incels had gone on to commit offline acts of violence, including Elliot Rodger in Isla Vista, California, in 2014 and Jake Davison in Plymouth, England, in 2021.

The Ofcom study involved 38 men, and more misogynistic men may have declined to take part. Some potential recruits refused to take part, considering the government-appointed regulator to be part of the “mainstream”. Perhaps the most impressionable group, boys under 16, were also not included.

The study investigated several manosphere subcultures, including “red pill” (men who believe the world is unfair to men) and “black pill” (those who believe unattractive men have very limited options for relationships) communities, incels, “men going their own way” (MGTOW), men’s rights activists,pickup artistsand “looksmaxxing” groups (where young men share tips aboutachieving chiselled cheekbones or “hunter eyes”in an attempt to boost their sexual “market value”), as well as topics surrounding self-improvement, masculinity and gender politics.

Some of the content trawled for the study was obviously misogynistic, including posts condoning sexual violence against women. In other cases the misogyny was more ambiguous, such as self-help posts about boosting sexual success based on assumptions about women’s sexual preferences.

All of the men had engaged with content from Tate, the self-styled misogynist influencer who is facing charges in Britain including rape, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, which he denies.

But one participant said they viewed watching clips of Tate as “entertainment” akin to watching a horror movie or playing Call of Duty, and the researchers said none of the interviewees had agreed with Tate’s most extreme misogyny.

Incel communities contained the most extremely misogynistic content, the Ofcom study found. They were notably full of messages promoting depressive and suicidal outlooks.

“Our research suggests society has overestimated the risk of the manosphere to women,” said De Ionno. “It’s not zero risk, but most of it doesn’t have the power to radicalise people who are pretty discriminating and value-driven.”

The research examined the attitudes of men who had become involved in several different corners of the manosphere from relatively mainstream content creators such as Piers Morgan to more niche groups such as those that talk about being “red pilled”.

One was the MGTOW movement, which discusses living without women. It has been described as misogynistic, but Ofcom’s interviewees insisted it was not because it was about choosing to live without women, not hating them.

One survey participant’s pathway into the MGTOW part of the manosphere began with him being intentionally misidentified as a child’s biological father, known as paternity fraud. Richard became involved in supporting other victims and came to believe that “feminist ideology runs through” the courts system. He stopped dating and said: “Once you’ve red-pilled about all this, you can’t unsee it.”

Another man, Matt, said the MGTOW influencers “prey on any … amount of bitterness and resentment you have in your life from a negative situation”.

Ofcom said: “A minority of participants described encountering extremely misogynistic content online – with the most extreme examples more likely to be found on closed groups or among incel communities.

“These spaces were also notably full of messages promoting ‘black pill’ concepts of self-loathing and hopelessness, as well as depressive and even suicidal outlooks. Participants that were more socially isolated offline tended to have greater depth of engagement within these closed communities, and so may be at greater risk of adopting harmful views or mindsets, due to their strong group identity and the individual’s wider vulnerability.”

Craig Williams and 14 others appear in court over allegations of cheating by betting on 2024 election date

A former Conservative MP and 14 other people facing allegations of cheating by gambling on the date of last year’s general election are to go on trial.

Craig Williams, who was the MP for Montgomeryshire and a senior aide to the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, appeared in the dock at Westminster magistrates court on Friday after charges were brought by the Gambling Commission.

Twelve defendants gave indications they would plead not guilty. They included Russell George, who represents Montgomeryshire in the Welsh Senedd and is now listed as an independent after he was suspended from the Tory group, and Thomas James, the suspended director of the Welsh Conservatives.

Williams, who has been charged with cheating at gambling and three counts of enabling or assisting others to cheat, gave no intention of how he would plead. Nor did two others: Jacob Wilmer, a former government special adviser from Richmond, west London, and Jeremy Hunt, an ex-police officer from Horne in Surrey who was part of Sunak’s Metropolitan police close protection unit.

The defendants could face prison sentences of up to two years if convicted.

Williams served as parliamentary private secretary to Sunak between October 2022 and June 2024.

Williams and the other defendants spoke briefly to confirm their names and provide an address. All were released on unconditional bail. A preliminary hearing will be heard at Southwark crown court on 11 July.

Government acknowledges UK involvement in detention operations for first time in Guantánamo inmates case

The UK government has admitted its intelligence agencies were “too slow” to realise theCIAwas mistreating prisoners in its post-9/11 torture programme, acknowledging in court for the first time British involvement in the US agency’s notorious detention operations.

The admission was made during a trial that concluded on Friday at the investigatory powers tribunal,which has been investigatingclaims that British intelligence was complicit in the mistreatment of two men who were repeatedly tortured by the CIA in the early 2000s.

In court, arguments were heard about whether legal protections that authorise the intelligence services to commit criminal offences extend to cover complicity in torture and other forms of cruel and degrading mistreatment.

The cases have been brought by lawyers representing Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who is accused by the US of aiding the hijackers behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is alleged to have plotted al-Qaida’s bombing of a US naval ship in 2000.

Both men have been detained in a US military prison atGuantánamo Baysince 2006. They face charges carrying the death penalty, though their cases have not yet gone to trial. Captured by the CIA between 2002 and 2003, the men spent several years in secret prisons known as “black sites”.

The tribunal heard how Hawsawi and Nashiri were held for several years incommunicado at the black sites, where they were “systematically” tortured and subjected to an array of brutal interrogation techniques, resulting in permanent physical and psychological damage.

Lawyers for the men have argued there is credible evidence to infer that UK spy agencies, including MI5 andMI6, unlawfully aided, abetted, conspired or “were otherwise complicit” in their torture and serious mistreatment by the CIA.

The government would “neither confirm nor deny” the allegations in open court, saying it had addressed the claims in secret proceedings before the tribunal, a special court with unique powers to obtain and consider classified evidence.

However, the government admitted the intelligence agencies “were too slow to appreciate the risk of mistreatment to detainees in CIA detention” and “more detailed guidance should have been in place” to “cover their broader engagement with the US in this context”.

Sam Raphael, a professor at the University of Westminster and expert on theCIA’s black site operations, said it was a “startling” admission that went further than previous official statements because it “appeared to explicitly concede for the first time that UK agencies were involved in the CIA’s detention programme”.

Hawsawi and Nashiri’s lawyers argued that aiding or abetting torture and mistreatment by a foreign state would fall outside the scope oflegal powers such as section 7of the Intelligence Services Act 1994 – sometimes described as the “James Bond clause” – which creates protections for spies to commit criminal activities abroad.

“They do not have unlimited powers,” said Hugh Southey KC, representing Nashiri. He argued that the law “cannot be interpreted as permitting the UK agencies to facilitate acts of torture”.

While the government claimed the UK did not participate in, encourage or condone the use of torture or other forms of cruel treatment “for any purpose”, its lawyers said the intelligence agencies nevertheless possessed powers that could be used to authorise a broad range of criminal conduct.

Edward Craven KC, for Hawsawi, urged the tribunal to “treat any denial of wrongdoing” by the intelligence agencies “with an appropriate degree of caution”. He noted that MI5 wasfacing allegationsthat it gave “false evidence” in a separate case before the tribunal.

The tribunal will now hold a series of closed-door hearings, where the findings of its investigation will be considered in secret.

The Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division strives to provide ‘full sensory experience’ in country’s national parks

TheTrump administrationappears poised to cut the US Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division (NSNSD), a little-known office that works to rein in noise and lightpollutioninnational parks, a task that is seen as a vital environmental endeavor.

Advocates say the division’s work is quiet but important – many plants and animals rely on the darkness, and light pollution iscontributing to firefly and other insect die-offs. The office led efforts to reduce light pollution at the Grand Canyon and snowmobile noise that drowned out sounds emanating from the Old Faithful geyser, among other initiatives.

“They’re a small but mighty program,” said Kristen Brengel, vice-president of government affairs for the National Park Conservation Association, which advocates for the national park system.

“When you think about it, the national parks are a full sensory experience … and there are scientists behind the scenes who are making sure that you have that world-class experience,” Brengel added.

The office is an example of what would be lost if theTrump administrationis successful in implementing deep cuts to the US National Park Service, shifting its focus from enhancing and preserving parks to simply managing visitors. The agency’s stewardship budget, which funds the NSNSD’s office of about 10 employees, is facing a proposed reduction from about $375m to $185m, and advocates say the office is almost certainly threatened.

The National Park Service’s Fort Collins, Colorado, office, out of which the NSNSD operates, was initially targeted by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” for closure. Court battles have tied up the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force (RIF) proposals, for now putting its National Park Service plans on hold.

“Our concern is that this little-known division will be decimated amid the cuts because its work is underappreciated,” said Ruskin Hartley, CEO of DarkSky International, which shares data with the NSNSD and has a similar mission.

The NSNSD and the National Park Service did not respond to requests for comment.

The NSNSD was established in 2000 with an aim to “protect, maintain, and restore acoustical and dark night sky environments” throughout the park system. In practice, that’s meant a combination of improving lighting in public parks, preserving darkness for wildlife, performing research and promoting dark sky tourism, which is booming, Hartley said.

Light pollution is increasing globally at about 10% annually, and about 60% of all known species are nocturnal and rely on the darkness, DarkSky estimates. Light pollution is particularly hard on migratory birds that rely on the moon and stars to navigate, and are drawn to bright light sources, and the light can also disrupt plants’ photosynthesis process.

The NSNSD in recent decades helped lead projects that aimed to improve lighting at many of the nation’s 430 parks, seashores and sites. It retrofitted 5,000 lights in the Grand Canyon national park with lower-watt LEDs that reduced spillage into the sky, and which turned the area into a certified dark sky park.

It also adjusted the lighting at the Mt Rushmore national park to reduce spillover, and improved lighting at the Gateway Arch in St Louis. The latter’s lights are now turned off during periods of heavy bird traffic in migratory season.

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The NSNSD also aims to ensure people can see the stars. For its purposes and those of DarkSky International, the definition of a “dark sky” is anywhere in which one can view the Milky Way, Hartley said. About 83% of the US population lives in an area where they cannot.

“You want to have lighting that protects and respects the natural darkness in those parks,” Hartley said. The NSNSD had also “pioneered” ways to measure, assess, and track changes in natural darkness over time, and it publishes papers on night sky quality, Hartley said.

The NSNSD’s sounds department helped resolve a 2013 controversy over snowmobiles at Yellowstone. Dozens of extremely loud two-stroke snowmobiles that would gather daily at the Old Faithful geyser were drowning out its sounds, scaring bison and generally degrading the experience, Brengel said.

Employees from the NSNSD measured the noise, determined the level at which natural sounds could be heard and wildlife would be less scared. It helped develop rules that required quieter four-stroke snowmobile engines, and limited their numbers to 10 at a time. The effort was seen as a happy compromise, Brengel said.

“They figure out ways to maximize natural sounds while still getting people out in the parks,” Brengel said. “It’s an innovative program that ensures the visitor experience stays intact.”

The fight over reduction-in-force proposals in court was important to the NSNSD’s survival, Brengel said, but her group is also alerting members of Congress to what the park service cuts would mean. Should the cuts go through, the park service would become a “visitors’ service agency”, Brengel added, and would be unable to protect cultural and natural resources, as is statutorily mandated. “We would sue,” Brengel said.

When historian Galo Ramón uncovered a long-forgotten pre-Incan water system in Ecuador, he set about restoring it, and helped transform the landscape and livelihoods

One day in 1983, while studying a hand-drawn map from 1792 of his home town inEcuador, Galo Ramón, a historian, came across a dispute between a landowner and two local Indigenous communities, the Coyana and the Catacocha. The boundary conflict involved an ancient lagoon, depicted on the map.

“The drawing depicted a lagoon brimming with rainwater,” says Ramón. Ravines were depicted forming below the high-altitude lagoon, indicating that it supplied watersheds further down – contrary to the typical flow where a watershed feeds into the lagoon.

Ramón had discovered a long-forgotten ancient water management system conceived bythe Paltas, a pre-Incan civilisationthat inhabited the semi-arid region more than 1,000 years ago.

Ramón set out to recreate the Paltas’ lagoon system and, 40 years on, the region has enjoyed an environmental regeneration, offering solutions for Ecuador – which regularlyfaces severe droughts– and other parts of the world struggling to address water scarcity with limited resources.

Galo Ramón was born in Catacocha, southernEcuador, in 1952, a time when access to water for drinking and irrigation was unreliable. As a young man, he moved to Quito for university and to pursue his career as a historian. Eventually, he directed his research towards the history of the Paltas canton in Catacocha’s province of Loja.

“I was born in Paltas, where people have very little water. Although I don’t live there any more, I was eager to contribute with my knowledge,” he says.

When Ramón began his research in Catacocha, an urban area with a population of 8,000, people barely had half an hour of water a day. “People here live in constant insecurity about the chances of rain,” says Ramón.

The region has highly variable rainfall patterns due to its location at the convergence of two ocean currents – the Humboldt and South Equatorial.When the Humboldt current predominates, there is minimal rainfall, averaging about 300mm (12in) to 400mm a year. Approximately every seven years, when an El Niño occurs – warming sea surface temperatures – annual rainfall can rise to 4-5 metres.

In years with consistent rainfall, most of it occurs in just one or two months, with about70% falling in March and April. During this period, there are usually three to five intense tropical storms, when up to 850mm of rainfall can occur in the region – more than in many other parts of the country.

But as the region has very steep, rocky and irregular soil with poor permeability, water rapidly runs off and waterways tend to dry out. From May to December, the region experiences no rain, strong winds and intense sunlight, which cause soil erosion and reduce moisture in the soil. Still, the Paltas people not only managed to survive but thrive in this environment.

“So I began a historical investigation into the Paltas, including a series of Indigenous myths that still survive,” says Ramón, “as that, it seemed to me, could offer modern solutions to the problem of drought.”

Ramón discovered that designs for the Pisaca lagoon were recorded in maps, wills, accounts of land disputes, property titles and interviews.

He realised the Paltas had developed a system for sowing and harvesting water that involved collecting and infiltrating rainwater, groundwater and underground runoff (sowing) to recover it later when it reappeared in springs and wells downstream (harvesting).

That system enabled the Paltas to regulate water flows and store water in aquifers for domestic use and irrigation during periods of drought. “The springs tend to increase significantly during the rainy months and then dry out by August due to poor soil permeability. Without the Paltas’ system, water runoff is rapid, so you don’t have a permanent source to feed the spring,” Ramón says.

The main element of this system is the artificial lentic – or still water – wetland (cochain Quechua) created at high altitudes to collect rainwater during the rainy months. The Paltas built these lagoons on fractured rocky terrain – the permeability of the pond bottoms allowed for slow water infiltration and aquifers to recharge.

“Then they planted hydrophilic plants inside the lagoon, which developed roots that helped retain the water, slowing infiltration so that the lagoon could last all year,” says Ramón.

As hydrophilic plants cover the surface of the lagoon, they also prevent excessive water evaporation. The Paltas also observed zones where plants retained their leaves even in the driest months of the year due to higher levels of soil moisture. This made it possible to follow the direction of the subsurface flow in the shallow aquifer.

“The leaves are green because the aquifer is right below. So the Paltas observed that line of greenery in the dry months and were able to place the lagoons perfectly,” says Ramón.

The Paltas also built small dams along rivers to control runoff during the rainy season, which infiltrated downstream, creating a wet microsystem that maintained soil moisture. They also cared for headwater forests that captured moisture from the mist and planted vegetation on slopes to reduce erosion and surface runoff.

More than50 species of trees, shrubs and groundcover plantsemulating forest biodiversity enhanced the system, helping the Paltas retain water in their fields.

Ramón and his colleagues noted the remains of those systems during fieldwork and interviewed local people, collecting stories and traditions.

That was when Ramón deciphered the meaning of an Indigenous myth, that of “touro Cango” (Cango the bull), he had heard as a child.

“The myth said that the bull, which was responsible for bringing rain, lived in Catacocha while there were lakes, as he liked the grass that only grew in them. If there were no grass, he would not eat,” says Ramón. “This means that when the lakes disappeared, the bull disappeared too, along with the rain.”

The grasses that Cango the bull ate were hydrophilic plants essential to the wetland. “Little by little, the ancient water-management system described in myths, documents, petroglyphs and stone carvings was aligned as a coherent whole,” says Ramón.

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The Paltas’ system faded from memory during the early 18th-century Spanish colonial period due to a decline in the Indigenous population from diseases such as smallpox and measles, landowners expanding their properties and the Catholic church draining lakes linked to pre-Christian rituals.

The land was eventually given over to cattle and sugar cane. Even gardens were abandoned because of a lack of water, which increased food insecurity. Pisaca lagoon was the last to dry out, less than a century ago.

As a result of the disappearance of the Paltas’ lagoon system, the Catacocha aquifers and springs became depleted, and water was available for only half an hour a day by 2001.

In 2005, Ramón, who by then was the leader ofComunidec, a human rights foundation, decided to rebuild the Paltas’ lagoon system.

Estefanía Maldonado, a constitutional rights lawyer who became involved with the foundation from the outset, says their goal at that stage was to empower peasant communities and civil society.

Vilma Collaguazo, 44, who lives in Catacocha, began attending project meetings and workshops early on. She remembers that when she first heard of the plan, she didn’t believe it would work. “We had no idea how the lagoons were going to fill up, given that they were so big,” she says.

Comunidec secured resources, and the project began with the restoration of the lagoon on the eastern slopes of Pisaca mountain between 2005 and 2008. It is now the largest, with a storage capacity of 78,420 cubic metres.

“By the end of 2005, there were some hefty rains and the lagoons were filled,” Collaguazo recalls.

“Since then, there was water almost year-round in the springs, and even new springs emerged. People had water to drink and for their crops, so we began to believe again.”

In 2010, theNature and Culture International Foundationand bought 406 hectares (1,000 acres) of land around Pisaca, supported by Comunidec, to create a reserve, remove cattle and use the land to maintain the water system permanently.

By 2013, 28 lagoons had been built, as well as other elements of the water management system, such astajamares(small dams or weirs) and water reservoirs, that had been part of the landscape more than 1,000 years ago.

Since then, local people have reforested the area with native plants that reduce water evaporation, conserve moisture and protect the slopes. The project has increased Catacocha’s water availability from one to 10 hours daily and enhanced food security through community gardens, resulting in the creation of 250 lagoons and tajamares.

Antonio Díaz, who has been involved with the project since 2005, has reaped the benefits. “I live not far from the Pisaca lagoon and have plenty of water for my little garden and my animals,” he says. “It is truly a good thing.”

Despite its success in reducing water scarcity and food insecurity, successive governments in Ecuador have not been persuaded to invest in rebuilding the systems.

“Perhaps politicians don’t see that it is an investment that will yield immediate returns,” Ramón says. “This year it rained little, so the hydroelectric plants lack water. When it rains, there is no runoff management. Ancient techniques allow you to do just that and could be a solution for all of Ecuador.”

Maldonado believes that Catacocha demonstrates how water scarcity can be addressed with positive environmental outcomes and without significant investment.

“Water is a constitutional right for all. Yet, how do you provide it to a rural community that may be in debt and lack the cashflow to carry out projects?” she asks.

“We don’t necessarily need monumental projects to have water. We can also do it by recovering ancestral knowledge.”

Baldío in Mexico City is part of a new wave of restaurants embracing a regenerative ethos – with delicious results

Hunched over the pass in the open restaurant kitchen, a team of chefs are dusting ceviche with a powder made from lime skins that would, in most cases, have been thrown away. TheMexicoCity restaurant where they work looks like most restaurant kitchens but it lacks one key element: there is no bin.

Baldío was co-founded by brothers Lucio and Pablo Usobiaga and chef Doug McMaster, best known for his groundbreaking zero-waste spot Silo London. “In my eyes, bins are coffins for things that have been badly designed,” says McMaster. “If there was a trophy for negligence, it would be bin-shaped.”

The food, which recently earned a Michelin green star, is creative but still quintessentially Mexican: squash tostada with guaca-broccoli, maguey flower, maguey worm, chinampa flower, or grassfed pork from Veracruz with tamarind mole, served with chinampa greens and house-made kimchi. Significant planning is needed from sourcing to preparation, and the founders are also behind Arca Tierra, a regenerative agriculture project that includes a network of 50 farmers in central Mexico as well as the organisation’s own farm in the pre-Aztec canal system at Xochimilco, an ancient neighbourhood in the south of Mexico City.

“Restaurants can have a big environmental impact but they also have a big reach,” says Lucio Usobiaga. “We want Baldío to be a model that shows it’s possible to be both zero waste and to rely on farmers rather than supermarkets.”

Although the food is finished off in the restaurant’s open kitchen, most preparation happens at La Baldega, a workshop where the team operates a fermentation programme that helps preserve ingredients as well as upcycle byproducts such as peel and gristle. This includes pre-Hispanic Mexican drinks such as tepache and pulque, as well as koji fermentation – popular in Japan and China for thousands of years – to transform fish guts into sauce.

Globally, one-fifth of food is lost or wasted, according to the UN, equivalent to 1bn meals a day, at a time when one in every nine people is malnourished. When food decomposes in landfill it releases methane, which has 25-times higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide.

Silo, when it opened in 2014, became the first restaurant in the world not to have a bin, raising the bar on what zero waste means. Less than 1% of food is composted and no single-use materials are used. A dedicated pottery transforms glass into porcelain that is used for tableware, light fixtures and tiles.

Baldío is part of a new wave of restaurants that are moving beyond vague claims of sustainability to embrace a regenerative ethos. In Lisbon,SEM, from the Silo alumni Lara Santo and George McLeod, serves invasive freshwater fish such as the zander, which was introduced to Portugal in the 1980s for sport.Flores, a family-run restaurant in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, dries offal in koji before shaving it over meat dishes. Helsinki’sNolla(meaning “zero” in Finnish) gives compost to its suppliers and guests – a doggy bag with a difference.

Baldío goes one step further through its symbiotic relationship with Xochimilco, the last remnant of the network of blue-green waterways that dazzled Spanish invaders when they arrived 500 years ago. The Unesco heritage site is a key stopover for migratory birds and the only place where axolotls still live in the wild.

Although the unique ecosystem is severely threatened by urban sprawl, many Indigenous residents still farmchinampas(a pre-Aztec technique consisting of islands formed from willow trees, lilies and mud), gliding through the blue-green canals on wobbly canoes laden with lettuce, radish andverdolagas(Mexican parsley).

“In agriculture, how you go about production really determines how much carbon you emit,” says Melanie Kolb, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

As well as buying from five local families, Arca Tierra farms 18chinampasusing a three-row agroforestry system. The farming team led by Sonia Tapia Garcés combines ancestral techniques such aschapines– rich sediment cut into squares used for germinating seeds – with compost from Baldío’s kitchen and a hi-tech wood shedder that allows them to create mulch, which contributes to the soil’s potential for carbon sequestration.

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The result is a crop that is irrigated with bio-filtered canal water and can be harvested 365 days a year without depleting the soil’s nutrients. It is enough to supply 50% of Baldío’s needs. The restaurant’s chefs, who visit every Monday to plan that week’s menus, have a continuing dialogue with the growers and often help with harvesting.

Ingredients are carried by boat to downtown Xochimilco and driven 8km to La Baldega. Reducing distance travelled and the need for refrigeration on longer journeys results in a fraction of the carbon emissions associated with typical restaurant supply chains.

For 74-year-old Noy Coquis Saldedo, who rents land to Arca Tierra, the project offers an opportunity to preserve his identity at a time when just 2.5% of thechinampasare still used for traditional agriculture. “It’s very sad that young people don’t want to farm any more,” he says. “But now we are delivering food to the great city like my ancestors did.”

A pod of young pelicans surf a warm gust between the verdant banks, practising for the journey they will soon make to California. For Lucio Usobiaga, closing the loop between thechinampasand Baldío could be a blueprint for the future. “Ultimately, I hope the project shows people that a more just and better food system is possible.”

And the food? When the Guardian tasted it, it was delicious: flame-licked, spiked with salsas and texturally balanced, it is distinctly Mexican – yet also something entirely its own.

Among other concerns, the US military parade will produce as much pollution as created to heat 300 homes for a year

Donald Trump’s military parade this weekend will bring thousands of troops out to march, while dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers roll down the streets and fighter jets hum overhead.

The event has promptedconcernabout rising autocracy in the US. It will also produce more than 2m kilograms of planet-heatingpollution– equivalent to the amount created by producing of 67m plastic bags or by the energy used to power about300 homes in one year, according to a review by the progressive thinktank Institute for Policy Studies and the Guardian.

Themilitary paradeis meant to celebrate the US army’s 250th anniversary on 14 June – which will also coincide with the president’s 79th birthday. Itwill feature150 military vehicles including 60-ton tanks and armored fighting vehicles, and more than 50 helicopters and aircraft such as a Mustang fighter aircraft and a B-25 Mitchell bomber, which were both used widely during the second world war. These vehicles burn dozens or even hundreds of gallons of fuel per hour.

Institute for Policy studies quantified the emissions that will result from the use of those vehicles, using data from the International Energy Agency and publicly available information. The researchers calculated emissions from not only the parade route itself, but also the transport of the vehicles to the event and the upstream impact of producing fuel for the parade.

The large quantity of emissions this activity is estimated to produce is equivalent to those from flying 4,700 people from North Carolina – where the parade helicopters are based – to the nation’s capital in first class.

The calculation is probably an understatement as it does not include pollution from transporting thousands of people, horses and equipment to the parade, or other energy used for the event.

Hanna Homestead, research analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies, noted the same kinds of vehicles deployed for the parade have also been used to transport napalm and other supplies to Vietnam, and are now being used by Israel in its siege on Gaza.

“So we’re spending money to glorify a gas-guzzling equipment used for war, genocide and planetary destruction,” she said, “at the same time as critical services for populations at home and around the world are being slashed.”

Reached for comment, a White House spokesperson, Anna Kelley, said the parade “will honor all of the military men and women who have bravely served our country, including those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedom”.

The president reportedly sought to throw a similar tribute during his first term, inspired by Bastille Day celebrations in France, but was thwarted by the then secretary of defense, James Mattis. Trump’s parade this year has inspired“No Kings”protestsacross the country.

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Lindsay Koshgarian, program director at the Institute for Policy Studies, said that the parade’s emissions were “egregious” and the event itself was a “wake-up call” about Trump’s priorities.

“This parade comes alongside proposals for a $1tn Pentagon budget, along with massive cuts to healthcare, food programs, and an ideological attack on climate programs both in the Pentagon and across government,” she said. “The more we spend on sending these fuel-guzzling tanks and helicopters around the world, the less we have to protect our people, communities and the planet.”

The Institute for Policy Studies’ National Priorities Project, which focuses on budget analysis and which Koshgarian directs, found that the $45m it will cost to hold the military paradewould be enoughto fund programs Trump has put on the chopping block, such as the two offices enforcing endangered species protection or the development of an HIV vaccine in South Africa.

Military forces’ contribution to global carbon emissions has come under greaterscrutinyin recent years. The world’s militaries produce at least 5.5% of greenhouse gas emissions – more than the total footprint of Japan – one 2022estimatefound. And the US Department of Defense is thesingle largest institutional greenhouse gas emitterin the world, usingmore petroleum than any other institution, research shows.