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The Independent
28-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
A journalist was killed while writing a book on the Amazon. Here's how friends completed his work
After British journalist Dom Phillips was shot and killed while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world's largest rainforest, friends vowed to finish the project. Three years later, their task is complete. 'How to Save the Amazon,' published Tuesday in Brazil and England ahead of its U.S. release, was pieced together by fellow journalists who immersed themselves in Phillips' notes, outlines and the handful of chapters he'd already written. The resulting book, scheduled to be published in the U.S. on June 10, pairs Phillips' own writing with others' contributions in a powerful examination of the cause for which he gave his life. In addition to the core group who led the work on finishing the book, other colleagues and friends helped to edit chapters, including The Associated Press journalists Fabiano Maisonnave and David Biller. Phillips, who had been a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper, was taking one of the final reporting trips planned for his book when he was gunned down by fishermen on June 5, 2022, in western Amazon's Javari Valley. Also killed was Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on Indigenous tribes who had made enemies in the region for defending the local communities from intruding fishermen, poachers and illegal gold miners. Their deaths made headlines around the world. Nine people have been indicted in the killings. 'It was just a horrifying, really sad moment. Everybody was trying to think: How can you deal with something like this? And the book was there,' said Jonathan Watts, an Amazon-based environmental writer for The Guardian who coauthored the foreword and one of the chapters. Under the leadership of Phillips' widow, Alessandra Sampaio, a group of five friends agreed to carry the project forward. Along with Watts, the core group also included Andrew Fishman, the Rio-based president of The Intercept Brasil; Phillips' agent, Rebecca Carter; David Davies, a colleague from his days in London as a music journalist; and Tom Hennigan, Latin America correspondent for The Irish Times. 'It was a way to not just feel awful about what had happened, but to get on with something. Especially because so many of Dom's friends are journalists,' Watts said. 'And what you fall back on is what you know best, which is journalism.' Unfinished work researching rainforest solutions By the time of his death, Phillips had traveled extensively across the Amazon and had completed an introduction and nearly four of the 10 planned chapters. He also left behind an outline of the remaining chapters, with different degrees of detail, and many pages of handwritten notes, some of them barely legible. 'I think it's fair to say even Dom didn't yet know what he would do exactly in those chapters,' Watts said. Phillips was searching for hope. He promised his editors a character-driven travel book in which readers would get to know a wide-ranging cast of people living in the area, 'all of whom know and understand the Amazon intimately and have innovative solutions for the millions of people who live there.' The group led by Sampaio selected writers for the remaining chapters, with subjects ranging from a bioeconomy initiative in Brazil's Acre state to global funding for rainforest preservation. Indigenous leader Beto Marubo of the Javari Valley was recruited to co-write an afterword. The team also launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to pay for more reporting trips. Among the group's challenges was ensuring that the book reflected a political shift in Brazil's approach to the Amazon in the years since Phillips' death. Most of Phillips' research was done during the term of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as Brazil's Amazon deforestation reached a 15-year high in 2021. The pace of destruction slowed after Bolsonaro's 2022 defeat by leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Fragments of hope, grim statistics Throughout the finished book's more than 300 pages, fragments of hope mix with grim realities. In Chapter 2, 'Cattle Chaos,' Phillips notes that 16% of Brazil's Amazon has already been converted to pasture. Even a farmer who has become a model for successfully increasing productivity without clearing most of his land is criticized for his widespread use of fertilizers. In his chapter on bioeconomy, journalist Jon Lee Anderson visits a reforestation initiative where Benki Piyãko, an Ashaninka leader, promotes environmental restoration coupled with ayahuasca treatment and a fish farm. But the veteran reporter doesn't see how it can be scalable and reproducible given man-made threats and climate change. Later in the chapter, he quotes Marek Hanusch, a German economist for the World Bank, as saying: 'At the end of the day, deforestation is a macroeconomic choice, and so long as Brazil's growth model is based on agriculture, you're going to see expansion into the Amazon.' In the foreword, the group of five organizers state that 'Like Dom, none of us was under any illusion that our writing would save the Amazon, but we could certainly follow his lead in asking the people who might know.' But in this book stained by blood and dim hope, there is another message, according to Watts: 'The most important thing is that this is all about solidarity with our friend and with journalism in general.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Associated Press
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
A journalist was killed while writing a book on the Amazon. Here's how friends completed his work
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — After British journalist Dom Phillips was shot and killed while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world's largest rainforest, friends vowed to finish the project. Three years later, their task is complete. 'How to Save the Amazon,' published Tuesday in Brazil and England ahead of its U.S. release, was pieced together by fellow journalists who immersed themselves in Phillips' notes, outlines and the handful of chapters he'd already written. The resulting book, scheduled to be published in the U.S. on June 10, pairs Phillips' own writing with others' contributions in a powerful examination of the cause for which he gave his life. In addition to the core group who led the work on finishing the book, other colleagues and friends helped to edit chapters, including The Associated Press journalists Fabiano Maisonnave and David Biller. Phillips, who had been a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper, was taking one of the final reporting trips planned for his book when he was gunned down by fishermen on June 5, 2022, in western Amazon's Javari Valley. Also killed was Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on Indigenous tribes who had made enemies in the region for defending the local communities from intruding fishermen, poachers and illegal gold miners. Their deaths made headlines around the world. Nine people have been indicted in the killings. 'It was just a horrifying, really sad moment. Everybody was trying to think: How can you deal with something like this? And the book was there,' said Jonathan Watts, an Amazon-based environmental writer for The Guardian who coauthored the foreword and one of the chapters. Under the leadership of Phillips' widow, Alessandra Sampaio, a group of five friends agreed to carry the project forward. Along with Watts, the core group also included Andrew Fishman, the Rio-based president of The Intercept Brasil; Phillips' agent, Rebecca Carter; David Davies, a colleague from his days in London as a music journalist; and Tom Hennigan, Latin America correspondent for The Irish Times. 'It was a way to not just feel awful about what had happened, but to get on with something. Especially because so many of Dom's friends are journalists,' Watts said. 'And what you fall back on is what you know best, which is journalism.' Unfinished work researching rainforest solutions By the time of his death, Phillips had traveled extensively across the Amazon and had completed an introduction and nearly four of the 10 planned chapters. He also left behind an outline of the remaining chapters, with different degrees of detail, and many pages of handwritten notes, some of them barely legible. 'I think it's fair to say even Dom didn't yet know what he would do exactly in those chapters,' Watts said. Phillips was searching for hope. He promised his editors a character-driven travel book in which readers would get to know a wide-ranging cast of people living in the area, 'all of whom know and understand the Amazon intimately and have innovative solutions for the millions of people who live there.' The group led by Sampaio selected writers for the remaining chapters, with subjects ranging from a bioeconomy initiative in Brazil's Acre state to global funding for rainforest preservation. Indigenous leader Beto Marubo of the Javari Valley was recruited to co-write an afterword. The team also launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to pay for more reporting trips. Among the group's challenges was ensuring that the book reflected a political shift in Brazil's approach to the Amazon in the years since Phillips' death. Most of Phillips' research was done during the term of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as Brazil's Amazon deforestation reached a 15-year high in 2021. The pace of destruction slowed after Bolsonaro's 2022 defeat by leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Fragments of hope, grim statistics Throughout the finished book's more than 300 pages, fragments of hope mix with grim realities. In Chapter 2, 'Cattle Chaos,' Phillips notes that 16% of Brazil's Amazon has already been converted to pasture. Even a farmer who has become a model for successfully increasing productivity without clearing most of his land is criticized for his widespread use of fertilizers. In his chapter on bioeconomy, journalist Jon Lee Anderson visits a reforestation initiative where Benki Piyãko, an Ashaninka leader, promotes environmental restoration coupled with ayahuasca treatment and a fish farm. But the veteran reporter doesn't see how it can be scalable and reproducible given man-made threats and climate change. Later in the chapter, he quotes Marek Hanusch, a German economist for the World Bank, as saying: 'At the end of the day, deforestation is a macroeconomic choice, and so long as Brazil's growth model is based on agriculture, you're going to see expansion into the Amazon.' In the foreword, the group of five organizers state that 'Like Dom, none of us was under any illusion that our writing would save the Amazon, but we could certainly follow his lead in asking the people who might know.' But in this book stained by blood and dim hope, there is another message, according to Watts: 'The most important thing is that this is all about solidarity with our friend and with journalism in general.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘We carry on with the sadness': new projects honor life and legacy of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
Three years after the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira were murdered in the Amazon, two major new projects will celebrate their lives and work – and the Indigenous communities and rainforests both men sought to protect. Friends of Phillips have completed the book he was writing at the time of his death – How to Save the Amazon – which will be published in the UK, the US and Brazil on 27 May. The book aims to highlight solutions for preserving the world's largest tropical rainforest, focusing primarily on the experiences of its Indigenous peoples and other inhabitants. Phillips had completed less than half of it at the time of his death. 'Finishing it was important to show that Dom and Bruno's voices were not silenced,' said Phillips' widow, Alessandra Sampaio, who oversaw the project. Meanwhile, a new Guardian podcast series, Missing in the Amazon, will be released on 5 June to mark the third anniversary of their murders in the remote Javari valley region. The podcast is the fruit of a three-year investigation by Tom Phillips, the Guardian's Latin American correspondent, who joined the 10-day search for Dom Phillips and Pereira after they vanished in June 2022. 'When discussing the case, everybody talked about the British journalist and the Brazilian Indigenous expert, but I don't know if we ever really found out so much about who these men were,' said Phillips. 'I don't think we ever heard so much from the people who loved them, cared about them and respected them – about who they were, where they came from, why they were doing what they were doing. And that's something that we've tried to make a big part of the podcast,' he added. 'This podcast is about Dom and Bruno – told by the people who knew them best, many of whom are speaking for the first time,' said Nicole Jackson, the Guardian's global head of audio. 'It's also the story of what Dom and Bruno cared so much about: the Amazon and the indigenous people who are trying to protect it. It's about their future and the future of the world's biggest rainforest.' Pereira and Phillips were ambushed and killed near the Amazon town of Atalaia do Norte while returning from a reporting trip to the edge of the Javari valley, one of Brazil's largest Indigenous territories. Soon after the men's remains were found, Sampaio and some of Phillips' closest friends decided to complete his unfinished book. 'Everybody deals with grief differently and, in this case, it was grief mixed with horror and anger,' said Jonathan Watts, the Guardian's global environment editor, who helped plan the project, alongside Sampaio, Phillips' literary agent Rebecca Carter and journalists Andrew Fishman, David Davies and Tom Hennigan. 'Everyone knew that this book had to be finished,' said Fishman, a co-founder of the Intercept Brasil. 'It would be completely unthinkable to let what happened to them be the end of Dom's project.' The first step in the process was understanding how much Phillips had already written. Sampaio handed Fishman a black suitcase that had belonged to her husband, filled with reporter's notebooks, laptops, old mobile phones and external hard drives. 'Dom was extremely organised, but not the greatest at encryption. So it was relatively easy to get all his work together,' he said. Phillips' notes, however, proved more challenging, due to his idiosyncratic handwriting; in the end they had to be 'translated' by one of his sisters, Sian, and an old friend, John Mitchell. Once they were able to review the material, the editorial team concluded that Phillips had completed the introduction and three and a half chapters – and left notes and outlines for another six. The team decided the work should be completed by reporters who had known Dom and were also experts in covering the Amazon, selecting Tom Phillips, the Brazilian reporter Eliane Brum, former Reuters reporter Stuart Grudgings and the New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson. Indigenous leader Beto Marubo and activist Helena Palmquist wrote the afterword. 'It was an extraordinarily healing and uplifting process to get to know these people – these friends of Dom's who I had had no connection with before,' said Carter, to whom Phillips first pitched the book in 2020. 'We were suddenly very much united by his loss – and also the determination to make this happen.' All of the contributors waived their fees, but to cover the costs of logistically complex reporting trips to the Amazon, the book relied on a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation (awarded to Phillips in 2021), grants from Whiting Creative and the Fund for Investigative Journalism, a donation from Teresa Bracher, and support from hundreds of crowdfunding backers. Other journalists volunteered to edit the manuscript, and photographers contributed their images to the book. Dozens more supported the project in other ways – from factchecking to helping with outreach and social media. Although it is Phillips' book, Pereira is an essential character. The two men first met in 2018 during a reporting trip to the Javari for the Guardian, and Dom deeply admired Bruno's work. Investigations concluded that the killers had targeted Pereira in retaliation for his efforts to combat illegal fishing – often backed by organised crime – in the Javari valley. The murders took place during the environmentally catastrophic 2019-2023 administration of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was widely criticized for his sluggish response to the disappearances of Phillips and Pereira and called their trip 'an ill-advised adventure'. Since defeating Bolsonaro in the 2022 election, leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made the Indigenous cause and the Amazon priorities, launching major operations to evict illegal miners from areas such as the Yanomami and Kayapó territories and achieving a major reduction in deforestation. However, Marubo – who was close friends with Pereira and works for the Javari valley Indigenous association – said that despite noticeable improvements since Bolsonaro's departure, Lula's efforts are still falling short: 'You can't fight illegality and the spread of organised crime with two or three isolated operations … We need government action that is continuous and coordinated,' he said. 'Unfortunately, if Dom and Bruno were working here today, they would be killed again,' he said. Three local men were later charged with their murders, while a fourth has been charged with ordering the crime. All are in custody awaiting trial. 'I strongly believe in justice,' said Sampaio, Phillips' widow. 'We hope for things to move more quickly, but my lawyers have told me that the case is progressing as it should,' she said. Sampaio, Marubo and other book contributors have travelled to the UK to take part in launch events at the Hay festival (31 May), in Lancaster (3 June) and in London (5 June). 'It makes me very happy that the book has been completed,' said Sampaio. 'We carry on with the sadness, but we carry on because we must.' How to Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Deadly Quest for Answers is published in the UK, US and Brazil on 27 May. The first two episodes of Missing in the Amazon will be released on 5 June.
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Brazilian tribe sues for £113million after claims they became addicted to porn after Elon Musk's Starlink system gave them access to high-speed internet
An indigenous Brazilian tribe has sued the New York Times over a report which claimed they had become addicted to porn after Elon Musk 's Starlink system gave them high-speed internet access. The Marubo tribe from the remote Javari valley, who existed in small huts scattered along the Itui River for hundreds of years, filed a defamation lawsuit seeking at least £133million ($180million) in damages this week at a Los Angeles Court. It also names TMZ and Yahoo as defendants, alleging their stories amplified and sensationalised the report for The Times and further tarnished the 2,000-member tribe. The suit claims the June 2024 NYT story by reporter Jack Nicas on how the tribe reacted to the satellite service introduction 'portrayed the Marubo people as a community unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, highlighting allegations their youth had become consumed by pornography'. An amended version of the lawsuit filed on Thursday said the statements were 'not only inflammatory but conveyed to the average reader that the Marubo people had descended into moral and social decline as a direct result of internet access'. It added 'such portrayals go far beyond cultural commentary' and claimed they 'directly attack the character, morality, and social standing of an entire people, suggesting they lack the discipline or values to function in the modern world'. When Starlink was afforded to the Marubo tribe, they quickly discovered the incredible benefits the newfound technology had to offer. Tribespeople could now call for help in emergencies, with medical helicopters able to reach the injured in a matter of hours rather than days. The Marubo tribe from the remote Javari valley, who existed in small huts scattered along the Itui River for hundreds of years, filed a defamation lawsuit seeking at least £133million ($180million) in damages this week at a Los Angeles Court It also allowed the remote community to connect instantly with relatives or friends camped dozens of miles further down the river, or even further afield. Journalist Nicas travelled into the Amazon to visit Marubo villages and reported that tribal leaders had told him about the negative impacts the introduction of Starlink is having. The leaders said it was making people become lazy, spending hours scrolling social media with teens hooked on graphic porn. In his report, Nicas listed a range of issues apparently bought on by the tech: 'teenagers glued to phones; group chats full of gossip; addictive social networks; online strangers; violent video games; scams; misinformation; and minors watching pornography'. He added one tribal leader 'is most unsettled by the pornography. He said young men were sharing explicit videos in group chats, a stunning development for a culture that frowns on kissing in public'. Nica's article does not mention porn anywhere else, but the shocking nature of the claim meant it was pushed to the forefront of follow up stories by other outlets. One was from TMZ, who were also named in the lawsuit, which was accompanied by a video with the headline 'Elon Musk's Starlink Hookup Leaves A Remote Tribe Addicted To Porn'. The suit claims the video 'falsely framed the Marubo Tribe as having descended into moral collapse'. 'The fallout from the publication was not limited to public perception. It destroyed lives, institutions, and culturally significant projects,' it added. Misconceptions brought on by the sensationalised re-telling of the story on other news platforms saw the NYT publish a follow-up, in which Nicas wrote: 'The Marubo people are not addicted to pornography. 'There was no hint of this in the forest, and there was no suggestion of it in The New York Times's article.' However, the tribe were unsatisfied with this as a response and in their lawsuit said the story 'failed to acknowledge the role the NYT itself played in fuelling the defamatory narrative'. It added: 'Rather than issuing a retraction or apology, the follow-up downplayed the original article's emphasis on pornography by shifting blame to third-party aggregators.' Nicas claimed in his original story that he spent a week with the Marubo tribe, yet the lawsuit says he was invited for a week but spent less than 48 hours in the village. Adding this was 'barely enough time to observe, understand, or respectfully engage with the community'. The plaintiffs also include two others who appeared in the NYT story - community leader Enoque Marubo and Brazilian journalist and sociologist Flora Dutra. Both played integral roles in bringing internet connection to the tribe and said it had many positive results, including facilitating emergency medicine and education for tribal children. They said the TMZ video, which shows them setting up Starlink antennas in the village, as creating the 'unmistakable impression' that the pair 'had introduced harmful, sexually explicit material into the community and facilitated the alleged moral and social decay'. The lawsuit seeks at least £133million ($180million), including both general and punitive damages, from each of the defendants. A spokesperson for the New York Times told the Associated Press: 'Any fair reading of this piece shows a sensitive and nuanced exploration of the benefits and complications of new technology in a remote Indigenous village with a proud history and preserved culture. We intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.' Enoque Marubo, 40, told Nicas the internet had transformed the once simple and technologically resistant way of life his people had observed for centuries. 'It changed the routine so much that it was detrimental,' Enoque admitted. 'In the village, if you don't hunt, fish and plant, you don't eat,' he said. Meanwhile, Alfredo Marubo - all members of the tribe share the same last name - said the sudden exposure to pornography had precipitated a worrying rise in overt sexual behaviour in a culture where kissing in public is seen as shocking. He said young men were not only sharing explicit videos in group chats, but that some prominent figures in the tribe had reported seeing more aggressive sexual behaviour from them. Alfredo also warned that, despite being more connected than ever before, members of the tribe had retreated from in-person social contact and had stopped speaking to their own families. TamaSay Marubo, the first female to be granted a leadership role in the tribe, said that while social media had opened the eyes of young tribespeople to the world, it had also caused them to abandon their responsibilities in favour of spending hours on their smartphones. Several members of the tribe said they were concerned the group's traditions would be lost, and also expressed worry that the social fabric of the tribe was being infected by rumours circulating on group chats. Others explained that some internet users had been subjected to abuse from strangers on social media and had fallen for unspecified scams. Tribe elder Tsainama Marubo, 73, put it simply. 'Things have gotten worse,' she said. 'Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet. They're learning the ways of the white people.' Starlink, an initiative launched by Musk under his company SpaceX, owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is the dominant player in the internet satellite arena. Its technology was first made available in Brazil in 2022, but only reached the more remote areas of the Amazon, such as the banks of the Itui where the Marubo people live, in April last year. Enoque Marubo, who had ventured into cities and spent time away from the tribe, told the NYT he believed that achieving access to the internet could help his people share their experiences and communicate more effectively with the outside world. He was one of the main tribal members responsible for getting in touch with outsiders and arranging the delivery of the Starlink system. Enoque contacted Flora Dutra, a Brazilian activist who works with the Navi Global charity that aims to help indigenous communities in the Amazon access jobs, healthcare and other benefits, and involving them in projects that will impact the rainforest and their environment. The pair managed to contact American philanthropist Allyson Reneau, who reportedly donated 20 Starlink units and worked with Navi Global to oversee their delivery to the Marubo.
The Independent
25-05-2025
- The Independent
Amazon tribe sues New York Times over ‘porn addicts' claim
An Indigenous tribe from the Brazilian Amazon has sued The New York Times for a report that led its members being widely portrayed as technology-addled and addicted to pornography. The Marubo tribe of the Javari Valley, a sovereign community of about 2,000 people in the rainforest, filed the defamation lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages this week in a court in Los Angeles. It also names TMZ and Yahoo as defendants, alleging that their stories amplified and sensationalized the Times' reporting and smeared the tribe in the process. The suit says the Times' June 2024 story by reporter Jack Nicas on how the group was handling the introduction of satellite service through Elon Musk 's Starlink 'portrayed the Marubo people as a community unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, highlighting allegations that their youth had become consumed by pornography.' 'These statements were not only inflammatory but conveyed to the average reader that the Marubo people had descended into moral and social decline as a direct result of internet access,' an amended version of the lawsuit filed Thursday says. 'Such portrayals go far beyond cultural commentary; they directly attack the character, morality, and social standing of an entire people, suggesting they lack the discipline or values to function in the modern world.' In a statement to The Associated Press, a Times spokesperson said: 'Any fair reading of this piece shows a sensitive and nuanced exploration of the benefits and complications of new technology in a remote Indigenous village with a proud history and preserved culture. We intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.' The theme of Nicas' story was that after less than a year of service, the community was now facing the same kinds of struggles with the pervasive effects of the internet and the proliferation of smartphones that much of the world has dealt with for years. Nicas listed a broad range of those challenges: 'Teenagers glued to phones; group chats full of gossip; addictive social networks; online strangers; violent video games; scams; misinformation; and minors watching pornography.' He later wrote that a tribal leader 'is most unsettled by the pornography. He said young men were sharing explicit videos in group chats, a stunning development for a culture that frowns on kissing in public.' The piece makes no other mention of porn, but that aspect of the story was amplified and aggregated by other outlets including TMZ, which ran a story and accompanying video headlined, 'Elon Musk's Starlink Hookup Leaves A Remote Tribe Addicted To Porn.' The suit says the video segment 'falsely framed the Marubo Tribe as having descended into moral collapse.' Messages seeking comment from TMZ and Yahoo were not immediately answered. The misperceptions brought on by the aggregation and repackaging of the story led the Times to publish a follow-up. 'The Marubo people are not addicted to pornography,' Nicas wrote in the the second story. 'There was no hint of this in the forest, and there was no suggestion of it in The New York Times's article.' That did not satisfy the tribe, which says in the lawsuit that it 'failed to acknowledge the role the NYT itself played in fueling the defamatory narrative. Rather than issuing a retraction or apology, the follow-up downplayed the original article's emphasis on pornography by shifting blame to third-party aggregators.' Nicas wrote that he spent a week with the Marubo tribe. The lawsuit says that while he was invited for a week, he spent less than 48 hours in the village, "barely enough time to observe, understand, or respectfully engage with the community. The lawsuit was first reported by Courthouse News. The plaintiffs also include community leader Enoque Marubo and Brazilian journalist and sociologist Flora Dutra, both of whom appeared in the story. Both were instrumental in bringing the tribe the internet connection, which they said has had many positive effects including facilitating emergency medicine and the education of children. They cited the TMZ video, which shows them setting up antennas for the connection, as creating the "unmistakable impression' that the two 'had introduced harmful, sexually explicit material into the community and facilitated the alleged moral and social decay.' The lawsuit seeks at least $180 million, including both general and punitive damages, from each of the defendants. 'The fallout from the publication was not limited to public perception,' the suit says, 'it destroyed lives, institutions, and culturally significant projects.'
