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Geopolitics

Cleveland Kidnapper-Rapist Ariel Castro Found Hanged In Cell

REUTERS, AP, BBC

Worldcrunch

CLEVELAND — Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, rape and beatings of three Cleveland women he held captive in his house for nearly 10 years, was found hanged in his prison cell late Tuesday evening, Reuters reports.

According to a prison official quoted by Associated Press, Castro is believed to have committed suicide. JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, wrote in a statement: "Upon finding inmate Castro, prison medical staff began performing life saving measures. Shortly after he was transported to the prison medical facility where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 pm."

Castro, 53, had been placed in protective custody because of the media impact of his case, but was not on suicide watch, according to the BBC. Smith explained: "He was housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals." She added that a "thorough review" of the incident was under way to establish how Castro was able to hang himself.

The former school bus driver had been sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison on August 1. He pleaded guilty to 937 counts including rape and kidnapping. He abducted three young women between 2002 and 2004 and kept them chained up. They escaped from Castro's home on May 6 when one of them, Amanda Berry, managed to break part of a door and yelled through the crack for neighbors to help them.

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Society

Influencer Union? The Next Labor Rights Battle May Be For Social Media Creators

With the end of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the creator economy is the next frontier for organized labor.

​photograph of a smartphone on a selfie stick

Smartphone on a selfie stick

Steve Gale/Unsplash
David Craig and Stuart Cunningham

Hollywood writers and actors recently proved that they could go toe-to-toe with powerful media conglomerates. After going on strike in the summer of 2023, they secured better pay, more transparency from streaming services and safeguards from having their work exploited or replaced by artificial intelligence.

But the future of entertainment extends well beyond Hollywood. Social media creators – otherwise known as influencers, YouTubers, TikTokers, vloggers and live streamers – entertain and inform a vast portion of the planet.

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For the past decade, we’ve mapped the contours and dimensions of the global social media entertainment industry. Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, these creators struggle to be seen as entertainers worthy of basic labor protections.

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