Earlier this week, Florida State Sen. Jason Brodeur introduced a bill that would require bloggers to register with the state government when they are paid to write about the governor and other political figures. After registering, bloggers would be forced to file monthly reports listing every one of their posts, how much they were paid for them, and where the money came from. Those who fail to do so could be fined up to $2,500 for each missing report.

That sounded like something that might have originated elsewhere. Florida’s blogger registration bill is curiously similar to a section of a Hungarian law that requires media organizations to register with the government. The law, which was passed at the start of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s tenure in 2010, initially required news outlets to register before beginning to publish. (After blowback from the European Union and press freedom groups, it was amended in 2011 so that media organizations have to register within 60 days of starting up.) Could it be a basis for the proposed Florida law?

It wouldn’t be the first time Florida looked to Hungary. Orbán’s authoritarian government is in vogue on the American right and its illiberalism has already served as a template for Gov. Ron DeSantis and fellow Florida Republicans. The state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Law” was reportedly modeled in part on similar Hungarian legislation. And Rod Dreher, a right-wing figure who lives in Budapest, explained during an interview last year that a reporter told him they had “talked to the press secretary of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and she said, ‘Oh yeah, we were watching the Hungarians, so yay Hungary.’”

There are also parallels between Orbán and DeSantis’ efforts to push universities to the right. In 2018, for example, Orbán banned gender studies programs at universities. Last week, Florida Rep. Alex Andrade, a DeSantis ally, introduced a bill that would bar public universities from offering the major. Steve Bannon has called Orbán “one of the great moral leaders in this world.”

Still, Brodeur did not respond to a request for comment on where he had gotten the idea for his potential blogger registration law.

Arsenal have clinched the 3-2 win deep into injury time against Bournemouth, coming back from a 2-0 deficit.

It couldn’t have been a worse start for the Gunners, with Phillip Billing scoring within 10 seconds of the kick-off. The second quickest goal in Premier League history came three touches from kick-off, with the ball played wide before being played into the heart of the Arsenal goal, with our defenders failing to clear before if fell to Billing to place home.

The game quickly became one-way traffic, with our side having to overcome a Burnley-style low block, but we were unable to find the space in the box to make our possession pay in the opening half.

Leandro Trossard was an early casualty, with Emile Smith Rowe coming on to replace him which gave our fans mixed emotions, but the latter’s display wasn’t the dream return we had hoped for, and he was later replaced by Reiss Nelson.

After the break, the game came to life when we conceded our second of the game thanks to a Senesi header, but we hit back almost immediately through Thomas Partey, and another five minutes later and we were on level terms, with 20 minutes remaining on the clock to chase all three points.

Arsenal clinched all three points against Bournemouth after Reiss Nelson scored deep into injury time this afternoon.

We trailed 2-0 on the hourmark thanks to a goal in each half from the Cherries, but Thomas Partey and Ben White put us right back into the game.

Just as we looked to be settling for a draw however, with more than the six added minutes having been played, Nelson came up with the goods.

Reiss Nelson wins it for Arsenal with the last attack of the game.

Champions mentality from Mikel Arteta's side.pic.twitter.com/oXA726Yn0b

LIV Golf advertises itself as “Golf but louder.” Since its debut last year, LIV (which is not an acronym; it’s a Roman numeral) has sought to take over the market from the PGA Tour by playing music over the loudspeakers during tournaments, shooting t-shirts into the crowd, cozying up to Donald Trump, and—mostly—paying famous golfers disgusting sums of money to compete at their events.

But unless you’re really into the idea of rock-and-roll golf, the story of LIV is the money behind it— the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a nation that in recent years has used investments in international sporting events as a form of soft power. With nation-state backing, and a nation-state’s incentives, LIV can basically print money for as long as it wants, and the PGA views it as an existential threat. The PGA barred golfers who compete at LIV events from also competing at PGA events, and in response, 11 LIV golfers filed an antitrust lawsuit against the organization last August. In January, the PGA filed its own lawsuit against the PIF, seeking to depose the fund’s governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is also a minister in the Saudi government. The PIF claimed that it and al-Rumayyan were protected by “sovereign immunity.” A judge sided with the PGA. 

The “sovereign immunity” claim is seemingly the opposite of what the Saudis argued in 2021, when the PIF acquired a majority stake in the English soccer club Newcastle United. 

All of which is interesting even if you don’t really care about golf; the lawsuit over the Saudi state investment fund’s attempt to blow up an American sports monopoly could yield some pretty interesting stuff, and the LIV–PGA war has already taken on a pronounced political vibe. (Do you know who’s running comms for LIV? It’s Ari Fleischer!) But what’s really noteworthy about the “sovereign immunity” claim on behalf of the PIF and al-Rumayyan is that it’s seemingly the opposite of what the Saudis argued in 2021, when the PIF acquired a majority stake in the English soccer club Newcastle United. 

Back then, the Premier League went to great lengths to assure critics that Newcastle would be wholly independent of any national entity. At the time the PIF made its first bid, as leaders of a consortium that also included the British investor Amanda Stavely, the Saudis were engaged in an economic blockade of Qatar, and the rival Gulf state lodged a formal complaint seeking to block the takeover. It accused Saudi Arabia of pirating Premier League broadcasts—for which the Qatari-owned network, beIN Sports, had spent half a billion dollars for the regional broadcast rights. The bid fell through. The Guardian reported at the time that the Premier League considered the PIF a part of the Saudi state, and it believed that the Saudi piracy of Premier League games therefore violated the league’s rules that prospective owners can’t participate in activities that would be illegal in the UK.

Saudi Arabia eventually got out of beIN’s way, and the consortium moved to buy the club again, but there was still the elephant in the room: The PIF is a sovereign wealth fund, and its chairman, Muhammed bin Salman is, well, the sovereign. And MBS is not just any head of state; according to the US government, he personally ordered the murder of a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in Turkey in 2018. His role, and his government’s horrific human rights record, was a major issue at the time.

Ben White has opened his account for Arsenal midway through the second half of their clash with Bournemouth, and we now have our eyes set on the three points.

We were 2-0 down just 10 minutes ago, but now find ourselves at 2-2 with 20 minutes of action still to play, and White’s first Gunners goal could well be huge in regards to our season.

Ben White equalises for Arsenal against Bournemouthpic.twitter.com/7ktEtNniSn

— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley) March 4, 2023

Pictures courtesy of BeinSport

Arsenal and Bournemouth have both scored in quick succession to leave Arsenal trailing 2-1 at the Emirates this afternoon.

The Gunners were hit almost immediately by the opening goal, with the Cherries opening the scoring inside the opening 10 seconds, and they held onto that lead until the break.

They then doubled their lead just before the hourmark, but Thomas Partey has brought us back to the initial one-goal deficit.

SENESI MAKES IT TWO FOR BOURNEMOUTH ASSNA MUDDED COME ONNNNpic.twitter.com/2FPqfioRpV

— 17 (@DxBruyneSZN) March 4, 2023

(Spoiler alert: this article contains information and plot points from the first episode of The Exhibit.)

The Exhibit, a new six-episode docuseries created by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and MTV officially kicking off tonight, will see seven American artists compete for a presentation at the institution and a $100,000 cash prize. But on tonight’s episode, before they even made any art, the contestants got to spend a night at the Hirshhorn, à la E.L. Konigsburg’s 1967 YA novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, to gather inspiration for their upcoming challenge.

After operating hours, the group is shown wandering around the Hirshhorn’s galleries and immersed themselves in installations such as Mark Bradford’s Pickett’s Charge (2017), Laurie Anderson’s The Weather (2021), and Barbara Kruger’s Belief + Doubt (2012). You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking this was all a commercial for the Hirshhorn’s collection.

But this is technically a reality show, however, and pretty soon, a sense of rivalry begins to creep in. “What bothers me is some artists that are new on the scene, suddenly they’re in every art news magazine,” remarks artist Frank Buffalo Hyde, one of the contestants. “It’s super annoying.”

This remark is followed by another from Misha Kahn, who sets the scene for what’s to come. “Baseera [Khan] and Jillian [Mayer] are both troublemakers,” Kahn says, referring to two of the other contestants. “We’re the ones that do three-dimensional stuff. Immediately you sense a similar thing. And then the painters, who all seem so lovely, are maybe more proper reserved humans.”

New interiors made from old materials are leading sustainable design

Tina Peters, the former Colorado election official who has been charged with election fraud, could be going to jail for obstructing a government operation.

Peters made national headlines last year when she pleaded not guilty to numerous felonies related to her alleged participation in a scheme to prove that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. In her position as Mesa County clerk, Peters allegedly attempted to copy software from voting machines in a ploy that allowed sensitive voter information to wind up online.

While under indictment, she launched an unsuccessful run for Colorado Secretary of State. Peters finished third, but is hoping for better luck in her ongoing bid for chair of the state Republican Party. In the unlikely event that Peters were to win the March 11 election, she could spend a some of the two-year term behind bars.

On Friday, Peters was found guilty of obstructing government operations, a charge that stemmed from her February 2022 refusal to hand over an iPad that prosecutors say she had used to videotape a court hearing. Officers had a warrant to seize the iPad. Peters was acquitted of another charge of obstructing a peace officer. Body cam footage of Peters’ arrest at a Grand Junction, Colorado, bagel shop shows Peters repeatedly yelling, “Let go of me!” as officers attempt to handcuff her.

Tina Peters Arrest 2-8-22
Synched with Police Bodycam pic.twitter.com/hiWePelBKl

The longtime chief curator of the Orlando Museum of Art, Hansen Mulford, has quietly retired after 42 years without fanfare or even advanced notice to staff, according to local press.

Mulford’s retirement was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel, which noted that with it, the OMA’s top leaders during last year’s Basquiat scandal have all left the institution. 

The former museum director, Aaron De Groft, was fired in June 2022 by the OMA board of trustees only days after the FBI seized a suite of paintings on display that were attributed to Basquiat. A FBI affidavit revealed that the works had been at the center of a nine-year-long investigation into their authenticity, and that the museum had been served a subpoena prior to the opening of the exhibition “Heroes & Monsters” in February 2022. Several former trustees have claimed that De Groft and the former board chair, Cynthia Brumback, withheld knowledge of the subpoena.

De Groft, who had vocally defended the works to the media, was replaced by interim director Luder Whitlock. A swift museum shakeup followed: Whitlock resigned after less than two months on the job, and two days after his departure, the board replaced Brumback as chair. Brumback had faced criticism from the Orlando community for her presumed failure to avert the scandal. She said in a statement in August that she had stepped down from her position to “focus on my business and my family.”

An internal announcement was issued by OMA interim chief operating officer, Joann Walfish, on the day of Mulford’s departure. “Today we are announcing the retirement of Chief Curator Hansen Mulford,” she wrote in the message. “We thank Hansen for over 40 years of service to the Orlando Museum of Art. Mulford’s last day as our Chief Curator was February 17.”