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Two characters with a significant age gap

Since the mid-2010s, there has been controversy in the shipping-fanfiction community, which discusses fan-created relationships ("shippings") between fictional characters. This centers on the ethical implications of taboo and abusive content in romantic and sexual pairings between characters. Some fan-created works have depicted disturbing content such as rape, incest, abuse, and pedophilia, often with little connection to the source material. Debate over this material has been prevalent on websites such as Tumblr and Archive of Our Own, especially among younger and heavily LGBTQ communities. "Anti-shippers" view such fictional portrayals as normalizing harmful behaviors and posing a threat to children and abuse survivors. "Pro-shippers" reject the notion that such works influence the behaviors of their readers and writers. Anti-shippers have been criticized for spreading moralistic attitudes towards sexuality, while pro-shippers face criticism for minimizing all critiques of fan work. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Painting of Fulvia revealing the conspiracy to Cicero

... that, according to Sallust, Fulvia revealed the details of the Catilinarian conspiracy to Cicero (event pictured)?
... that the Manuscript Society of New York provided opportunities to women composers at a time when such support was rarely found elsewhere?
... that Betbunia is Bangladesh's first ground station?
... that La Estrella, Spain, became a ghost town in 2023, after its final two permanent inhabitants moved away?
... that Roosevelt Blackmon went from college water boy to NFL player?
... that a sacking meant that a Race Across the World series 6 spin-off announced its host with hours to spare?
... that, while Akilagpa Sawyerr was a law student in London, he petitioned the Privy Council on behalf of men sentenced to death in South Africa's Zulu Rebellion?
... that a 19th-century Chinese newspaper helped to establish a cemetery for courtesans?
... that Lin-Manuel Miranda showed Hannah Cruz a tunnel to her husband?

In the news

Bekasi train crash

J. Craig Venter, who led the first sequencing of the human genome, dies at the age of 79.
A train crash (aftermath pictured) near Jakarta, Indonesia, kills 16 people and injures 91 others.
In the London Marathon, Sabastian Sawe and Tigst Assefa win the men's and women's races, both setting world record times.
In Mali, the Azawad Liberation Front and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin launch a joint offensive against the government.

On this day

May 3: World Press Freedom Day; Constitution Memorial Day in Japan (1947); Constitution Day in Poland (1791)

The Dance of Anitra

1491 – Nkuwu Nzinga, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, was baptised as João I by Portuguese missionaries.
1616 – The Treaty of Loudun was signed, ending a war that originally began as a power struggle for the French throne.
1911 – Edith Maryon's statuette The Dance of Anitra (pictured), one of the few of her works known to survive in private hands, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.
2021 – An elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapsed, killing 26 people and injuring 98 others.

Henry Garnet (d. 1606)
Catherine of St. Augustine (b. 1632)
Nona Gaprindashvili (b. 1941)
Florian Wirtz (b. 2003)

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Today's featured picture

The American bison (Bison bison), commonly called the American buffalo, is a species of bovid and one of two living species of bison, alongside the European bison. With wild bulls recorded at up to 1,270 kilograms (2,800 lb), it is among the heaviest extant land animals in North America. Once numbering an estimated 60 million, the species was driven close to extinction by the late 19th century. Conservation and reintroduction have restored populations to some extent, and it is now found mainly in scattered conservation herds and protected areas across Canada, Mexico and the United States. The American bison is the national mammal of the United States and has for centuries been central to the lives and cultures of many Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains, being hunted as a source of food, clothing and shelter. This plains bison (subspecies B. b. bison) was photographed on rangeland in the Western United States by Jack Dykinga for the Agricultural Research Service.

Photograph credit: Jack Dykinga

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