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ROME — The far-left National Catholic Reporter laid into Pope Francis on Friday for approving a Vatican ban on blessings for homosexual unions, calling the pontiff a “hypocrite.”
We “come to the point of absurdity — and hypocrisy — when a pope says he wants to welcome LGBT people into the church but then simply cannot countenance that they might want to pursue loving relationships, just like the rest of humanity,” states a March 19 op-ed by the paper’s editors.
As Breitbart News reported, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) reaffirmed Monday that the Church cannot grant blessings to homosexual unions, since they are not in accord with God’s plan for human beings.
Asked whether the Church has the power to give a blessing to same-sex unions, the CDF responded: “Negative.”
Blessings require both “the right intention of those who participate” and “that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation,” the CDF stated, with the express approval of Pope Francis.
“Therefore, only those realities which are in themselves ordered to serve those ends are congruent with the essence of the blessing imparted by the Church,” it declares.
It is not licit “to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage,” the document said, “as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”
God Himself never ceases to bless each of his children in this world, it notes. “But He does not and cannot bless sin.”
In conclusion, the CDF declares that “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex in the sense intended above.”
To the National Catholic Reporter, the pope’s willingness to sign off on the text is incomprehensible.
“Where has that Pope Francis gone?” the paper asks, in reference to past outreach to homosexuals. “Surely, as the world stumbles to emerge from the greatest health and economic crisis in a century, there are more urgent issues for the Vatican to focus on rather than how God does or doesn’t view gay unions.”
“For Catholic LGBT couples and their families, the timing is especially unfortunate,” the editorial declares. “The forced distancing imposed by the pandemic has cut many off from their usual support structures, including their parishes.”
“And now the pope of ‘building bridges and not walls’ has erected another barrier,” it concludes.
Commenting on the Reporter’s op-ed, Catholic League president Bill Donohue noted Friday that many left-wing Catholics had confused the pope’s respect for the dignity of every person, regardless of their sexual proclivities, with approval for homosexual activity itself.
“For several years, these renegade Catholics have hyped every welcoming move by Pope Francis to homosexuals, hoping to push him to recognize gay unions and same-sex marriage,” Dr. Donohue wrote.
“However, the decree issued by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on this subject, done with the approval of the Holy Father, slammed the door shut when it reaffirmed the Church’s teachings on sexuality,” Donohue observed, and now the editors at the Reporter say that the Vatican decree gave them “whiplash.”
Follow @tdwilliamsrome | -0.261157 |
Just days after Beijing announced a blackout of the Academy Awards, Chinese state media are once again thumbing their nose at Hollywood, spotlighting recent box-office flops and lecturing the U.S. entertainment industry on its failure to attract local audiences.
The Chinese Communist Party-controlled Global Times declared in an article Thursday that Hollywood no longer knows how to market its films to Chinese moviegoers, saying the industry is relying on tired promotional techniques like celebrity appearances and media puff pieces.
The outlet issued marching orders to U.S. studios, telling them to pay more attention to “trending topics in China” and to highlight emotional elements from their movies that will “resonate with Chinese audiences.”
The article comes as China has officially overtaken the U.S. as the largest movie market in the world, a feet made possible in large part by the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese-made movies are also outperforming Hollywood blockbusters at the local box office, with eight of the top ten grossing movies of 2020 being domestically produced.
Hollywood studios are more eager than ever to please Chinese officials in the hopes of grabbing the coveted few spots reserved each year for foreign releases.
Despite these efforts, more Hollywood movies are flopping at the Chinese box office. This year, Warner Bros.’ Tom and Jerry and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon failed to spark much audience interest while last year’s box-office disasters included Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984, and Mulan — the last of which Disney conceived to appeal to Chinese moviegoers.
“Hollywood studios have not realized that their traditional marketing plans in China can no longer stir up interest in their films and that it is time to make an adjustment by localizing their marketing,” the Global Times said.
Hollywood tends to focus its promotions prior to the release of a movie, when it should continue to promote the title for weeks after release, according to the outlet.
The newspaper also said Chinese moviegoers are growing tired of “typical Hollywood stories, uncreative special effects, and a shortage of cultural empathy.” The outlet didn’t elaborate on what it meant by “cultural empathy.”
As Breitbart News reported, Chinese officials recently issued a media blackout of the upcoming Academy Awards telecast due to the nomination of a short documentary movie about pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at [email protected] | 1.781761 |
The NFL lost millions due to the pandemic in 2020, but they’ll make billions over the next decade with a slew of TV rights deals announced on Thursday.
The deal amounts to a $113 billion agreement that will last 11 years. The agreement will keep NFL games on ESPN/ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, Amazon, and NFL Network through the 2033 season.
For the fans, much of the new deal will look like the old deal.
According to Pro Football Talk:
NBC will continue to show Sunday Night Football. ESPN will continue to show Monday Night Football. FOX will continue to show the NFC on Sunday afternoons. CBS will continue to show the AFC on Sunday afternoons. Amazon, which previously had the rights only to simulcast Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, will now have the NFL’s first all-digital TV package with Thursday night games exclusively available through Amazon. The Amazon exclusive will begin with the 2023 season; FOX still has Thursday Night Football for the next two years.
The deal enhances ESPN’s NFL presence as well.
“ESPN’s package adds six games to the network during the season,” ESPN reported. “There will be three Monday night doubleheaders — with games on ESPN, followed by a game on ABC. There will also be a Saturday doubleheader during the season’s final weekend and one Sunday morning game streaming nationally on ESPN+.
“ESPN, which has previously aired a wild-card playoff game, will add one game in the divisional round as well.”
Super Bowl broadcasting assignments were made public as well.
“NBC will show the Super Bowl after the 2021, 2025, 2029 and 2033 seasons,” Pro Football Talk reported. “CBS will show the Super Bowl after the 2023, 2027 and 2031 seasons. FOX will show the Super Bowl after the 2022, 2024, 2028 and 2032 seasons. ESPN/ABC will show the Super Bowl after the 2026 and 2030 seasons.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hailed the deal as bringing “an unprecedented era of stability to the League.”
“These new media deals will provide our fans even greater access to the games they love,” Goodell said in a statement. “We’re proud to grow our partnerships with the most innovative media companies in the market. Along with our recently completed labor agreement with the NFLPA, these distribution agreements bring an unprecedented era of stability to the League and will permit us to continue to grow and improve our game.”
The deal essentially doubles the NFL’s annual media revenues. Last year, the league earned $5.9 billion through broadcasting deals. The new agreement will pay the league over $10 billion in television rights, annually. | -1.296889 |
MSNBC’s Jason Johnson said Thursday on “Deadline” that the Republican Party only wanted “straight white male Christians” to vote.
On voting legislation be forwarded in several states by Republicans, anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “Jason, this is, I think, the frame that is urgently needed. There was no fraud, so this is not about election security. This is about the preservation of democracy. This isn’t about right-left. It is not about who won in 2020 or who will win in 2022. This is about what kind of country do you want to live in?”
Johnson said, “Yeah. Nicolle, I think historic context is important here. We have really only had free elections in this country for about 50 years anyway. This was actually the norm. Until you go to the activism of the 1960s, it was routine for large swaths of Americans to be absolutely locked out of voting. Black people were locked out of voting. Women were locked out of voting. Asian people were locked out of voting. What we’re seeing the Republican Party do now is go back to the norm of American voting behavior, the norm of American voter suppression.”
He added, “We are fighting for that future that we have really only had for 40 or 50 years, so when Senator Warnock is talking about this is for democracy, for our future, he is not just speaking pie in the sky. He is literally saying I live in a state where this was the history of the state. I’m in the state where the blood of John Lewis is in the ground for people who fought to make sure that everybody has the right to vote. That is what people have to remember. This is not a new thing. We have a history of this in our country, and if we are not vigilant, if we don’t hold the people accountable and don’t listen to the crazy conspiracies, we don’t allow people to get on television and say there’s voter fraud. We can’t let Ted Cruz and others go on television and say I don’t know if Joe Biden is actually president of the United States. We have to stop these people at every single turn. Because they will take America back to the 1930s, 1940s, and ‘20s and make sure that nobody who is not a straight white male Christians able to actually vote and exercise their right in this country.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0.677933 |
The NAACP has called on the NFL to “rethink” its relationship with Fox due to the “racism” supposedly promoted by the Fox News Channel.
The activist civil rights group insisted that Fox News is a “uniquely destructive force” that “foments racism, undermines public health recovery from the pandemic, and repeatedly attacks the legitimacy of last year’s Presidential election,” USA Today reported.
Derrick Johnson, the president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, sent the letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on March 9 insisting that “the NFL’s programming should not be used as a bargaining tool for Rupert Murdoch to help fund Fox News’ hatred, bigotry, lies and racism.”
“It is immensely perturbing that the NFL would consider extending its relationship with Fox,” Johnson told the paper, “especially after the January 6th insurrection on our Capitol. The NFL should not be used as a bargaining tool to help fund Fox News’ racist and dangerous programming.
“Fox News has gone far and beyond to disinform its viewers, inciting hate, bigotry, and ultimately threatening American democracy,” the civil rights group head added. “We have grave concerns with the NFL’s contract renewal with Fox, and we look forward to having a serious conversation.”
The NFL has been involved in deep negotiations with ESPN, CBS, Fox, and NBC to sell the next broadcast packages to air the NFL’s games, and the deals are expected to bring in billions of dollars into the NFL’s coffers. The NFL is reportedly asking $2.25 billion from Fox.
But Johnson said that he fears the money Fox will earn from football will be channeled to Fox News which will unleash more of its “hate” and “divisiveness.”
According to the paper, the letter attacks Fox News head-on:
“Dear Mr. Goodell,” Johnson begins, “as our nation continues to perfect its promise of democracy, the NAACP applauds the NFL’s indications of support for social justice. Affirmative statements from League leadership, sizable contributions to benefit marginalized communities, and even stadium signage denouncing bigotry are all helpful gestures toward addressing harsh and disproportionate realities suffered by too many in our society. “Unfortunately, not all public influencers are willing to dedicate resources to achieving social equity. Notably, Fox News continues to inflame racial division and propagate an unstable political climate. … “The NFL’s programming should not be used as a bargaining tool for Rupert Murdoch to help fund Fox News’ hatred, bigotry, lies and racism.”
Johnson added that he fears that Fox will somehow “exert unfair leverage to extort increased carriage fees for Fox News” and the NFL’s money will help them do that.
“We are all familiar with the depths of manipulation and polarizing tone Fox News is willing to espouse. It remains to be seen whether the NFL will act to safeguard its players and fans from further exploitation, by prohibiting the media conglomerate from unduly capitalizing on the largesse of its corporate affiliations, and utilizing the enrichment to destabilize our democracy,” Johnson exclaimed.
“We hope to begin an immediate dialogue with you and any other NFL leadership to elaborate our concerns and your response. We look forward to hearing from you in the coming days as we move forward on this critical issue,” the NAACP leader’s letter concluded.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston. | -0.708473 |
CNN averaged 1.7 million viewers from Nov. 4 through Jan. 20, but it dropped to 1.1 million since Biden took office for a 34% fall. During the same period, CNN shed 44% of its total day viewers among the key demo, dropping from an average of 483,000 to only 272,000.
The data cited in the report came from Nielson Media research.
The violence at the United States Capitol building in January brought more viewers to CNN than any other single day in its 40-year history, the Associated Press (AP) reported January 12.
“CNN averaged 5.2 million viewers last Wednesday, eclipsing its previous high of 5.1 million on Election Day 2016, the Nielsen company said. The network had 4.47 million viewers on Sept. 11, 2001, Nielsen said,” the article continued.
More recently, social media users criticized CNN anchor Chris Cuomo for his hypocrisy after telling viewers he could not report on his brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D-NY) sexual harassment allegations even though the governor appeared on his show in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
“Chris Cuomo’s statement comes as three women over the past week alleged that the Democrat New York governor made unsolicited sexual moves toward them,” Breitbart News reported March 2.
“It also comes during an unrelated investigation into the governor’s handling of New York nursing deaths during the coronavirus pandemic,” the article concluded. | -0.114673 |
Wednesday, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson speculated on the motivations of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, which included a pledge to aid asylum-seekers if they hold off as the current border surge crisis wanes.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: We just got back from El Salvador a little over an hour ago. Before we left Central America this afternoon, we took a COVID test, the one where the nurse rams the Q-Tip up your nose and roots around trying to find your frontal lobe until your eyes water, you probably experienced it.
It’s pretty unpleasant. Trying to be responsible, though, so you endure it. And of course, like everyone entering the United States by plane, we had no choice anyway. The airline demanded it. We couldn’t come home until we took the test.
And that’s because as they often tell us, our authorities are totally committed to keeping us safe from this deadly virus.
So that’s the protocol. If you’re coming from El Salvador to the United States, legally. You take the test.
But what if you’re coming illegally? What if you rode the top of a freight train from El Salvador up through Mexico and just jumped the border when you got here? Well, as it happens, this morning, we interviewed an active MS-13 member, a convicted murderer who said that he did exactly that.
So the question is: do people like him, the ones who break our laws to get here have to submit to mandatory COVID testing once they’ve been apprehended by American authorities? And the answer is actually, no, they don’t.
Under this administration, they don’t have to and they don’t. Illegal aliens are now exempt from the public health measures that have been imposed by force on the rest of us by the U.S. government.
Illegal aliens come and go as they please. No one seems to care if they spread deadly viruses to the rest of the American population.
It’s hard to believe that’s actually happening, but it is happening. We verified it today. The new DHS Secretary admitted in congressional testimony that the Biden administration is releasing foreign nationals into American neighborhoods without even bothering to check if they’ve been infected with COVID.
Now, given the authoritarian lockdowns the rest of us have lived under for the last year, the ones that have crushed the country, it is hard to understand this policy is anything but an act of violence and hostility toward our country. It is an utter betrayal. They don’t care about you and they’re saying that as clearly as they possibly can.
Joe Biden is saying it, too. A reporter asked Biden if he planned to visit the border to see for himself the disaster that’s unfolding there.
“Not at the moment,” he replied dismissively, as if he had better things to do. We’d love to know what those things are.
Later that day, a reporter asked Kamala Harris what she knew about the current immigration crisis, the one that her administration caused. More than a hundred thousand foreign nationals are flooding in every month, like the border doesn’t even exist.
Some of them are gang members. Others appear to be on FBI terror watch lists. More than 13,000 of them are children or unaccompanied minors now in U.S. custody. It all adds up to an enormous, maybe unprecedented wave of humanity coming into America right now.
But Kamala Harris didn’t seem to have any idea it was happening. Quote: “I haven’t been briefed on anything today about it,” she said. She was too busy promoting Critical Race Theory and making sure there are boys on your daughter’s track team.
Has there ever been in administration this reckless and destructive? What’s happening on the border tonight will change this country forever. A lot of things won’t, this will and you should know that.
Unlike other disasters, mass illegal immigration is permanent. No one ever really gets sent home. Over the past 30 years, the population of the United States has exploded by nearly 100 million people, mostly due to immigration.
Were you even aware that that happened? You’re not supposed to say a word about it. As every year, the United States gets steadily more jammed with people and at the same time, more chaotic and less cohesive. As the open spaces shrink, as nature itself recedes in the face of yet another strip mall or apartment complex or fast food outlet to serve the new people.
This is becoming a crowded country and crowded countries are ugly, unhappy countries. Why are we letting that happen?
Well, that’s a rhetorical question, of course. No one asked us what we wanted. They just did it. And by the way, no one asked the countries these immigrants are coming from either. That’s something that had never even occurred to us until yesterday when we talked to the President of El Salvador.
He has lost a third of his population over the years to immigration to the United States. El Salvador is a charming country in a lot of ways, but it’s still a very poor place.
So when American politicians offer free education and free healthcare and free all kinds of things to anyone who can just make it across the border, millions of Salvadorans accept their offer, and why wouldn’t they accept it?
So they migrate in huge groups and that hurts this country, but it also weakens El Salvador. Listen to that country’s President’s perspective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAYIB BUKELE, PRESIDENT OF EL SALVADOR: If you don’t provide for your people economic opportunities, if your economy is doing bad, if your security is doing bad, people are going to — people are going to leave and they’re going to go and try to find a rich country, right?
They’re not going to leave for Guatemala, right? They’re not going to go and live — they want to go to the United States. So that makes these countries dependent on immigration because you become an exporter of people.
You’re not exporting products or a service, you’re exporting people.
So that makes your economy dependent on that, because then those people send money back to their home countries, which is not a good economic formula.
So it’s bad for the United States, because immigration will go up. And it’s bad for our country because people leaving the country will go up as well, so it’s bad for both of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “It’s bad for both of us,” the U.S. and El Salvador, and he is absolutely right. No one says it. But imagine if a third of the boldest most ambitious people in your country just left. What would that mean for your future?
The overfunded NGOs and self-satisfied compassion mongers who promote open borders haven’t thought a moment about that because they don’t care. They even know who the President El Salvador is.
How many SoulCycle moms with “No human is illegal” signs on their front lawns could even name him? We’re guessing right around none.
But if you’re looking for conclusive evidence of how little they actually care about the Latin American servants who walk their dogs and wash their sheets, consider the almost complete silence from fashionable American liberals as the Biden administration’s holding pens for immigrant children fill beyond capacity.
They’re choosing to ignore this as it happens. Here’s what it looks like.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight, more than 4,000 children are in custody at overcrowded processing facilities, a 30 percent surge in the last week.
“Someone stole all her money along the way.” Many discover that getting here is just the beginning. Some migrants describe crowded immigration processing centers.
He says, it was packed with people —
Without showering facilities.
They like to shower.
And some say they slept under a bridge overnight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Attorneys for some of the children told us kids as young as one, sometimes go days without bathing, rarely see the sun, and the sound of crying is constant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So it’s bad, and it’s about to get much worse. There’s been a 300 percent increase in the number of families apprehended by Customs and Border Protection since October. That number is rising.
Keep in mind that it takes about three weeks for migrants to make their way from Central America to the Mexican border with the U.S. So the border gets more porous by the day, that’s intentional, and the Biden administration has made it that way.
Early indications suggest that this month, March, will see the largest surge of illegal entries to this country in a generation. So who are all these people coming? Well, we don’t really know who they are and we don’t really have a good way to find out and that’s the scariest part.
In the last day, we have learned that at least four people arrested recently at the southern border were identified by law enforcement as quote “known to be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.”
Well, that seems like a front-page story, but it’s not. Democrats know perfectly well how unpopular open borders are with Americans, Americans of all races, so they are doing their best hysterically, in fact, to suppress news about what is actually happening.
Here is Veronica Escobar, who somehow got elected to Congress from Texas, letting you know that if you say a single word about what’s happening on the border right now, you’re racist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): They can either join us in being part of the solution, or my fear is what they are going to continue to do is seek ways to divide our country, fuel xenophobia and racism.
And I want to warn them that their words and the fueling of that xenophobia, that racism, that hatred of the border, that that fear of the border, there are consequences to that language in that rhetoric.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “Divide the country,” say the people who are letting in millions of foreign nationals who have no right to be here against the will of the population — divide the country.
It’s interesting to watch a demagogue like that yap into a camera, and then compare her to a leader who actually cares about the people he represents.
In our conversation yesterday, it was striking that the President of El Salvador took responsibility for the fact that millions have left his country. El Salvador, he said needs better security and more opportunity, and he seemed to mean it as he said it.
So compare that response to the response from an incompetent like Gavin Newsom in California or an open race-baiter like Veronica Escobar of Texas. Those kinds of people blame white supremacy and QAnon for their failures and then they keep going, they never look back. It’s pathetic.
Joe Biden isn’t much better than this. Biden knows the American public doesn’t want a million new poor people showing up illegally this year. Our country can’t handle that, obviously, especially not right now.
Again, open borders are not popular with anyone. They’re not popular with Hispanics, by the way. All the guilty white liberals assume Hispanics love illegal immigration. They don’t. They’re Americans. Why would they love it?
Now, Biden is now trying to blame the whole thing on Trump, of course. Apparently, the promise of a border wall was a massive lure to Central Americans hoping to sneak in. It’s pretty funny.
But at the same time, and not so subtly, Biden is telling more illegal aliens to come here. Here was Biden on “Good Morning America” this morning letting the world know that America’s top priority is making foreign nationals feel comfortable in the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS HOST: Do you have to say quite clearly don’t come?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I can say quite clearly don’t come over and the process is getting set up and it’s not going to take a whole long time, is to be able to apply for asylum in place. So don’t leave your town, or city, or community.
We’re going to make sure we have facilities in those cities and towns, run by DHS and also access with HHS, the Health and Human Services to say you can apply for asylum from where you are right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, got it. So just don’t come yet. We’re not quite ready. And by the way, don’t trouble yourself. We’ll come to you.
We’re going to spend whatever it takes to make the whole process easier for you so that more people from your country can move to our country entirely at our expense. That’s our promise to the world and we hate ourselves enough that you know, we mean it.
Has any country ever promised something like this to the world? Can any country survive once it has? Joe Biden hasn’t thought about that? He doesn’t care, none of them care. All they know is that the Democratic Party will never lose again once they pull this off and that’s all that matters to them. | 0.091255 |
Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,” network host Lisa Ling reacted to the Atlanta-area massage parlor shootings that left eight dead, six of which were Asian women. Law enforcement in Georgia is saying the attack was not racially-motivated.
Ling noted there is a “pattern of attacks on Asians” recently. She asked “how many people have to die” for hate crimes against Asians “to be taken seriously.”
“[A]fter this attack on the massage parlor, I saw people posting messages about solidarity and about standing up for Asian people, but how many people have to die for this to really be taken seriously, for there to be more than lip service?” Ling wondered. “I mean, there is real fear among Asian people about going outside of their own homes right now. Asian people are being scapegoated like they have for a century in this country. And this has to stop. This has to stop. We cannot be continued to be scapegoated, and this is frankly a pattern of scapegoating that happens in this country.”
“Yesterday, it was Muslim and Southeast Asian people after 9/11,” she continued. “When there’s an economic downturn, it’s the Latin population, you know? It’s always the black community being scapegoated for so many things. And during the Cold War, it was gay people. This scapegoating of entire populations has to stop in this country.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0.835881 |
Former 1992 Clinton’s campaign staffer James Carville said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” he was not concerned about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) threat to implement a “scorched Earth” response if Senate Democrats change the filibuster rule.
Carville said, “If you listen to what he said, ‘If you dare do this, we’re going to get in and do five highly unpopular things.’ Look at the things that he laid out. I don’t think a single one of them polled 30 percent. So, the country is going to be held hostage at a time of maximum need, at a time where we need to get relief, where we really need to do things to help ordinary people to say, ‘If you are going to do this, we are going to blow ourselves up in front of ’em!’ Well, good. Go ahead and blow yourself up. But the thing that he listed, I was looking, I just started chuckling.”
He added, “Well, okay, take it out on us. We’ll take your five issues to the polls, and we’ll go toe to toe, head to head with you. But it was really significant what he said after that. And I don’t — you know, I don’t think the country wants to be held hostage by Mitch McConnell. We saw what he did to President Obama, to Merrick Garland. I don’t think the Democrats should be afraid of this in the least. I think they should embrace this argument. They should go around and talk about all the things that Mitch McConnell wants to do. He doesn’t want to get COVID relief to people. He doesn’t want to tax the rich. He doesn’t want to do anything about climate. All he wants to do is do this. I think if you do that, you will end up with a much better result than that. I think it was smart to put that on TV and see exactly what he’s talking about he’s gonna do if you don’t give me what I want. So, bring it on. Bring it on, dude. We ready to go. Hook it up.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1.2861 |
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), expressed displeasure Tuesday after Google promoted a Democrat National Committee (DNC) blog post as news.
The ranking of non-news does not follow typical search results set by Google’s algorithms, which is to “promote original journalism.” Further, Google has not ranked the RNC or National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) blog posts as news.
.@Google suppresses conservatives but prominently features propaganda from the DNC as “News.” Big Tech needs to held accountable for its blatant bias. pic.twitter.com/SmWwDvhNk0 — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) March 16, 2021
According to Google, the company displays and ranks news by the following framework:
Google News aims to promote original journalism and expose users to diverse perspectives. It doesn’t accept payments to expedite or improve a site’s search appearance or ranking. Ranking in Google News is determined algorithmically by these factors:
Relevance of content
Prominence
Authoritativeness
Freshness
Location
Language
Though Google’s parameters seem broad, Google has a history of preferring information which often opposes right-leaning organizations. Breitbart News reported in the summer of 2020 that Google greatly reduced Breitbart News’ search results by 99.7 percent.
Additionally, a video recorded by Google, which was leaked in 2018, revealed “an atmosphere of panic and dismay amongst the tech giant’s leadership, coupled with a determination to thwart both the Trump agenda and the broader populist movement emerging around the globe,” according to Allum Bokhari at Breitbart News. | -0.159336 |
Chuck Todd, the far-left moderator of Meet the Press, is desperately looking to prove his fealty to His Fraudulency Joe Biden by making a total fool of himself.
As we all know, prior to Biden being sworn in as president, the crises at our southern border were mostly solved. Among other things, between The Wall, a firm message of “don’t come here illegally,” a focus on deportations, and the notably brilliant “Remain in Mexico” policy, former President Donald Trump, without any help from Democrats, pretty much put an end to the ongoing southern border crises.
Then Joe Biden was sworn in and it all went to hell, and why wouldn’t it? In a cynical effort to change the demographics in Texas and Arizona, in a brazen effort to invite more Democrats into the country and offer up cheap, exploitable labor for his corporate cronies, Biden told every illegal alien, sex trafficker, and drug smuggler that the American border was now wide open. Come on in! We’ve stopped deporting! Claim asylum and you’ll be released into the American interior to do what you want until we overturn the filibuster and grant you citizenship and the right to vote!
Joe Biden and Joe Biden alone is why there is a disaster on the border right now, and this fact is not in dispute by anyone who takes pride in their intellectual honesty. This means Biden desperately needs gaslighting, left-wing, extremist liars to deflect on his behalf.
Well, lucky for Biden he has Chuck Todd, a broadcaster who is not at all interested in informing his viewers, but very interested in misleading them as a means to signal to the Biden White House that he will always be here to grab his ankles on their behalf.
Read the following and tell me I’m wrong [emphasis added by Newsbusters]:
Wanting to “dive into politics of this current moment,” Todd wailed: “…Republicans try to keep focus on a border emergency. In some ways they’ve sabotaged our immigration policy and this is why we’re here…” Despite Biden actually being in the White House, Todd singled out a top Trump aide for blame instead: “…look, this is an impossible situation in some ways, because in many ways, the asylum process was essentially destroyed by Stephen Miller, they sort of blew it up, and so it is an extra mess.” Todd lamented that “it’s hard to look at Republicans in Congress and see that they’re willing to – that they want to solve this problem.” After briefly acknowledging that he has “watched both parties at times, duck a potential compromise because they think the politics will help them,” Todd targeted the GOP once again: “This is what it looks like now with Republicans, that they’re almost rooting for a problem so they can walk away from it.”
Republicans are not walking away from the problem. Until Biden’s election, Republicans had pretty much solved this problem and had Trump won a second term, it would have been solved entirely.
But, you see, Todd’s idea of solving the illegal immigration problem is not stopping illegal immigration. His idea of solving the illegal immigration problem is legalizing illegal immigration so Democrats win the state of Texas and capture the presidency forever after and then we’re all paying for abortions and men are in our daughter’s locker rooms and Dr. Seuss is made an Enemy of the State and the Christian Church is forced to perform same sex marriages and home schooling is outlawed and septic tanks are outlawed and we’re all forced to move into urban apartments the size of a cracker box to cheer the nightly riots staged by Black Lives Matter.
Oh, and Todd’s ludicrous comments about the border comes just a few days after he warned, without any evidence, that Climate Change (which is a hoax) would cause more pandemics like the China Flu.
The media are so broken. | -0.945178 |
Pro-migration advocates are slashing at CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria for his criticism of President Joe Biden’s decision to let many blue collar Latinos surge across the southern border.
The criticism spotlights the fragility of the Democrats’ unstable pro-amnesty coalition, which includes corporate investors, Latino farmworkers, Indian visa workers, subcontractors for Fortune 500 companies, DACA migrants, university groups, and many other groups who have distinct and often rival priorities.
The India-born Zakaria said March 14:
The tragedy is that this border crisis, and Trump’s demagoguery around it, could hinder Biden’s efforts to achieve comprehensive reform of the whole system … [Already] some of the world’s best and brightest are now choosing to go to more hospitable countries, from Canada to Britain to Australia.
“Every couple of years @FareedZakaria writes a really, really bad and factually inaccurate OpEd,” responded Todd Schulte, the president of Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty FWD.us group of wealthy investors. Schulte added, “In this one: @FareedZakaria supports a policy that intentionally trapped tens of thousands of children and their moms in inhumane conditions for a year and a half.”
“I’ve learned never to take Zakaria seriously as a foreign policy thinker,” responded immigration advocate Cris Ramos. “‘Relying on other states is never a long-term solution to managing migration.” Ramon is also an advocate for a greater inflow of foreign graduates into Americans’ white-collar jobs.
Zakaria’s comment sparked a hostile reaction because it threatens the unstable alliance among the Democrats’ varied pro-migration groups, said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies.
The disparate groups need each other to push their amnesties through Congress, she said. “In the past, they’ve always been able to [gain] by teaming up … But as soon as one side feels that the other is endangering its agenda, then that coalition is going to fracture,” she said.
“Many of [advocates] on the more-skilled migration side of the left may feel that this crisis at the border is threatening their ability to get something done in Congress,” she said, adding Schulte “wants Zakaria to shut up and not threaten their alliance.”
Zakaria’s focus on the claimed “best and brightest” suggests he has gone to bat for India’s very large population of mid-skilled visa workers in the United States, many of whom are waiting for green cards after taking U.S. white-collar jobs via the H-1B program. The Indian population in the United States is growing rapidly, partly because the Indian visa workers who get citizenship often bring over additional Indian via chain migration. The legal community also attracts a stream of low-wage illegals who find jobs in Indian retail outlets, restaurants, and other supporting business sectors.
The surge is now threatening the Biden immigration bill that includes hard-to-understand language that would dramatically increase the inflow of Indian college graduates and visa workers into the white collar jobs needed by American graduates.
The pro-amnesty alliance is already shaky because many opinion polls show the public is opposed to legal immigration and strongly opposed to labor migration — especially during the recession, especially if Biden’s deputies are not trying to control the border migration.
The GOP can blame Biden for every tragedy on the migrants' Hunger Games trek to his semi-open border.
The Democrats & media did ruthlessly pump the "kids in cages" & "family separation" mini-dramas in Trump's term. So, seven stories from Biden's border:https://t.co/bE4cgouD0p — Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) March 17, 2021
Some Democrats are cloaking their election worries in calls for bipartisanship.
“We have to have bipartisan cooperation if we’re going to tackle these items,” Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) told the Washington Post for a March 13 article. He added:
Immigration has been lingering since I first came to Congress, and that was 16 years ago. . . . We don’t want to pass these with Democratic votes alone. And I’m not talking about one or two Republicans; I’m talking about a significant number of votes from the opposing party.
Politico reported March 4:
Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a swing-district Democrat, has been making the case to Biden’s Hill team that an e-verify provision should be part of the bill, just as it was in the bipartisan immigration bill in 2013 that fell just short of passage. “Yes, I support what’s in the bill. I think we would be in a stronger position to get it enacted if we eventually ended up where, I think, the middle ground is,” Malinowski said. “I think for both solid political, practical reasons and moral reasons, those two things should go together.”
Zakaria’s various pro-migration, pro-amnesty critics were more direct.
“Pure crap,” said a tweet from a pro-migration manager at the American Friends Service Committee. “This short-sided & ill-informed opinion piece is pure crap that praises white supremacist policies that disregard international obligations on asylum,” said the tweet from Pedro Rios, manager of the group’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program.
“I was aghast to read this noxious, ignorant ‘opinion’ piece by @FareedZakaria,” tweeted immigration lawyer Amy Maldonado. “The Trump/Miller policy of sending asylum seekers to ‘apply for asylum’ in Northern Triangle countries as or more dangerous than the ones they fled is an unmitigated human rights disaster.”
The asylum system needs to be expanded, not reduced as Zakaria suggested, tweeted asylum advocate Yael Schacher. “There are also asylum seekers at the border from Mexico and from Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Cuba, and Haiti … all need to be addressed head on.”
“As if you can enforce your way out of a #migration crisis,” a former Mexican ambassador to the United States responded to Zakaria. “You can’t. Disagree on this occasion with @FareedZakaria’s take on #immigration policy and the reprehensible “Remain in #Mexico”[program].”
“Disturbing gaps, spin in this piece,” tweeted Eleanor Acer, a pro-refugee director at the pro-migration Human Rights First group. “Illegal policies that turn asylum seekers back to rampant kidnappings & attacks are not ‘practical policy’ no knowledge Trump Title 42 ban is expelling to danger, blocking African, Haitian, many other asylum seekers.”
On March 14, Zakaria said:
The truth is the asylum system is out of control. The concept of asylum dates to the years after World War Two, when the United States created a separate path to legal status for those who feared religious, ethnic or political persecution, a noble idea born in the shadow of America’s refusal to take in Jews in the 1930s. It was used sparingly for decades, mostly applying to cases of extreme discrimination. But the vast majority of people entering the southern border are really traditional migrants fleeing poverty and violence. This is a sad situation, but it does not justify giving them special consideration above others around the world who seek to come to the United States for similar reasons, but go through the normal process.
The decision to allow the border chaos will undermine more important immigration reforms pending in Congress, Zakaria said:
The tragedy is that this border crisis, and Trump’s demagoguery around it, could hinder Biden’s efforts to achieve comprehensive reform of the whole system. Asylum seekers make up a small minority of immigrants. There is a much larger group that includes those who have skills, the United States needs, as well as those entering to reunite with their families. Thanks to Trump’s policies, these immigrants and would be immigrants, now face a more hostile environment than at any point since the United States ended quotas in 1965. You can see it in the numbers with pandemic restrictions on top of everything else, immigration to the United States has plunged to levels not seen in four decades. Some of the world’s best and brightest are now choosing to go to more hospitable countries, from Canada to Britain to Australia. Census data show that without immigration, the United States faces a dire demographic future. It would mean fewer people and especially fewer young people, which would mean less growth, less dynamism, and less opportunity for everyone. That is the real immigration crisis, not the one at the southern border.
For years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and to the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates.
The multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, intra-Democratic, and solidarity-themed opposition to labor migration coexists with generally favorable personal feelings toward legal immigrants and toward immigration in theory — despite the media magnification of many skewed polls and articles that still push the 1950s corporate “Nation of Immigrants” claim.
The deep public opposition is built on the widespread recognition that migration moves money from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to real estate investors, and from the central states to the coastal states. | 0.840962 |
Uniformed members of the Guam National Guard marched on the Capitol office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) Monday in response to her having erroneously claimed last month the U.S. territory was a foreign country. A fierce backlash erupted online over the use of the military for a political stunt which is a violation of Defense Department regulations.
During an unannounced visit led by Guam’s only congressional delegate Rep. Michael San Nicolas (D), more than 20 Guam National Guard troops briefly met with one of Greene’s aides who stated the congresswoman was not presently in her office.
A three-minute clip documenting the event was posted later that day showing San Nicolas delivering a basket of Chamorro Chip Cookies, a staple dessert enjoyed by Guamanians, along with a book about the island’s history.
Shortly thereafter, prominent figures as well as a flurry of appalled Twitter users took to the social media platform to voice their dismay.
“We are witnessing the unabashed politicization of our military — in violation of law and DoD regulations,” wrote former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright.
“We stop this or America is done,” he added. “No free nation lasts when this stuff becomes the norm.”
We are witnessing the unabashed politicization of our military — in violation of law and DoD regulations. We stop this or America is done. No free nation lasts when this stuff becomes the norm. https://t.co/Ohh8SlUe8V — BDW (@BryanDeanWright) March 15, 2021
“@DeptofDefense is being politicized,” wrote House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “Uniformed service members recently criticized a private citizen for his First Amendment rights, & today a Dem lawmaker used soldiers in a political stunt against a GOP member.”
“@SecDef Austin—This sets a dangerous precedent,” he added. “It must stop now.”
.@DeptofDefense is being politicized. Uniformed service members recently criticized a private citizen for his First Amendment rights, & today a Dem lawmaker used soldiers in a political stunt against a GOP member.@SecDef Austin—This sets a dangerous precedent. It must stop now. — Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 16, 2021
“A week of partisan political displays by uniformed military,” wrote columnist Jon Gabriel. “More than a little disturbing.”
“What uniformed military leader thought this use of their forces as political props was a good idea?” asked retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Rob Maness.
“What in the hell is going on with our military?! Who’s in charge of these troops and why are they being used as political props?” asked Republican congressional candidate Buzz Patterson.
“I never thought I’d see this,” he added.
What in the hell is going on with our military?! Who’s in charge of these troops and why are they being used as political props?
I never thought I’d see this. https://t.co/Auex86OVBk — Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) March 15, 2021
“Why is the military being used as a political prop?” asked journalist Ryan James Girdusky.
Why is the military being used as a political prop? https://t.co/drmsFZMYfJ — Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 15, 2021
“That looks like military intimidation,” wrote conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong. “Very cool Banana Republic you’ve got there, America.”
That looks like military intimidation. Very cool Banana Republic you've got there, America. https://t.co/LBrRwUyiac — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 15, 2021
“The military is being used by the Democratic Party to intimidate political threats,” wrote radio host JD Sharp.
“This simply can not ever happen,” he added. “If this continues we will see a conflict on Domestic soil.”
“Now the military is threatening members of Congress in person?” wrote right-wing host and commentator John Cardillo.
“This shit had better end forthwith,” he added.
Now the military is threatening members of Congress in person? This shit had better end forthwith. https://t.co/oQpFpyGR9m — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 15, 2021
“Our Military being used for the Left’s political stunts,” wrote the Columbia Bugle.
“Interesting timing, considering all weekend we were talking about the politicization of the military,” wrote author and security expert David Reaboi. “They don’t give a damn how it looks.”
“Employing military members in uniform like this to send an overt political message is so wrong at so many levels…I don’t even know what to say anymore,” wrote former National Security Agency intelligence analyst John Schindler.
Employing military members in uniform like this to send an overt political message is so wrong at so many levels…I don't even know what to say anymore. https://t.co/MPqJ1QZ1xb — John Schindler (@20committee) March 15, 2021
“This is disgusting,” wrote conservative columnist Gavin Wax.
“More partisan posturing from uniformed military members,” wrote commentator Matt Walsh. “The military under Biden has managed to disgrace itself in unprecedented ways, and it’s only been two months.”
“What will the next four years look like?” he asked.
More partisan posturing from uniformed military members. The military under Biden has managed to disgrace itself in unprecedented ways, and it’s only been two months. What will the next four years look like? https://t.co/feqlMAfZtM — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 16, 2021
“The military is absolutely not authorized to intimidate any member of Congress,” wrote conservative commentator Jack Posobiec.
“Another massive failure to honor the separation of the military from politics,” wrote President of the Security Studies Group Jim Hanson.
“Heads should roll,” he added.
Another massive failure to honor the separation of the military from politics Heads should roll https://t.co/BC7u7fJKwD — Jim Hanson 🇺🇸 (@JimHansonDC) March 15, 2021
“In most parts of the world, a bunch of men in military uniform descending uninvited upon the office of a democratically elected representative is not a very good optic,” wrote Twitter user Mark Elliott. “And in the US Capitol, of all places.”
“It’s stunning that the Biden administration is using the armed services to make political statements,” wrote one Twitter user. “This is literally the definition of fascism. Brought to you courtesy of the Biden administration.”
“The military is now officially a Super PAC for the Democrats,” wrote another Twitter user.
Many on Twitter also noted the incident’s similarity with recent takes by military figures as well as official military social media accounts in response to a segment on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight criticizing President Joe Biden’s military priorities.
“Last week they attacked Tucker,” wrote one Twitter user. “Now this.”
“Guys I think we are heading toward something bad at break neck speeds,” the user added.
“Well I thought the Military screwed up when they criticized Tucker but marching the military to the opposition party congressional office is really bad,” wrote another Twitter user.
“Not the best week for our military between this and DoD Twitter accounts fighting Tucker Carlson,” noted another Twitter user.
“First the Tucker debacle and now this… Our military leaders have lost their credibility. Who thought this would be a good idea?” wrote yet another Twitter user.
Greene drew criticism last month after erroneously stating that Guam is a foreign land.
“We believe our hard-earned tax dollars should just go for America, not for what? China, Russia, the Middle East, Guam, whatever, wherever,” she reportedly said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
On Tuesday morning, Greene herself called the visit “political theatre.”
“It’s time for our great men and women of the National Guard to go home and be with their families,” she wrote. “The Democrats need to stop using them as political theatre and drama on Capitol Hill.”
“Shame on Democrats for disrespecting our military,” she added.
It’s time for our great men and women of the National Guard to go home and be with their families. The Democrats need to stop using them as political theatre and drama on Capitol Hill. Shame on Democrats for disrespecting our military. — Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 16, 2021
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein. | 0.302261 |
The Biden administration drew fire from the governor of Texas after opening yet another facility in the state to address the number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border. In the latest move, the department has opened an existing oil worker man camp in Pecos, Texas.
The facility, previously known as the Pecos Lodge North, will serve as the latest site to accommodate the massively growing numbers of unaccompanied migrant children illegally crossing the border. In a statement released on Saturday, HHS relayed the following information.
It is anticipated the Target Lodge Pecos North ICF will initially accommodate approximately 500 children in hard-sided structures with the potential to expand to 2000. Additional semi-permanent (soft-sided) capacity may be added if necessary, though ORR will always prioritize placing children in hard-sided structures over semi-permanent structures. ORR is committed to holding ICFs to the same or higher standards as state-licensed facilities. The Target Lodge Pecos North ICF will be used when the site is ready to safely receive children. Using ICFs will help ensure children are moved into ORR shelters, where children receive educational, medical, mental health, and recreational services until they can be unified with families or sponsors without undue delay.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded quickly, saying the “Biden Administration continues to show that it is dangerously unprepared to handle the surge in illegal border crossings as they rush to open yet another facility for unaccompanied minors in Texas.”
The governor directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to ensure the facility has safe drinking water.
HHS recently opened facilities in Carrizo Springs and Midland, Texas to address the overcrowding in Border Patrol facilities designed only for the temporary detention of adult migrants. HHS is also temporarily sheltering UACs at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. The moves come as the Biden administration struggles to deal with seemingly uncontrollable levels of illegal entries at the southern border with Mexico
In a written statement released late Saturday, Governor Abbott said:
As this humanitarian crisis grows along our southern border, the Biden Administration continues to dodge questions that Texans are demanding answers for: Is the federal government tracking what countries these children are coming from and what COVID-19 variants they might have been exposed to? How long will these children be held in Texas? The Biden Administration’s refusal to secure our border, investigate the origins and potential trafficking of unaccompanied minors, and protect these vulnerable children will only worsen the situation and put innocent lives at risk. President Biden must act now to end this crisis.”
According to law enforcement sources, the latest effort by HHS to shelter more UACs may still not be enough. Sources in the Rio Grande Valley report over two thousand migrants per day were apprehended on three separate days last week. The same source, not authorized to speak on the matter, indicated 400-600 of those apprehensions per day were unaccompanied minors.
This latest announcement comes as the Biden administration received harsh criticism from Texas Governor Greg Abbott concerning the inhumane conditions at some of the other shelters recently opened in his state.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX. | 0.756224 |
LAREDO, Texas — President Joe Biden and political allies need to stop sending messages that encourage the sending of children and underage teens from Central America into the hands of cartels, which oversee smuggling operations to the U.S., said Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) in a recent video interview.
“You ought to be sending the signal to stop sending your kids on the top of trains so the cartels and illicit organizations can abuse them,” Congressman Roy said–in what he referred to mixed messages sent by proponents of more relaxed border policies. Roy warns the trend only enriches Mexican cartels.
Roy recently visited a child detention center in Carrizo Springs and then toured the border zone in Laredo, Texas.
Roy argues that although detention facilities for underage migrants are widely vilified, the site he toured in Carrizo Springs was well-kept yet full.
“You can not like the way that process works but you are burying your head in the sand,” Roy said. “You have children now, what are you going to do with that child … how are you going to keep them safe?”
The current crisis has placed an undue burden on the U.S. Border Patrol that has removed agents from the field and turned them into caretakers at the much-vilified facilities, he said
“The facilities I’ve seen operated by Border Patrol, sometimes they are overwhelmed, they are Border Patrol, they are not supposed to be in the people management business,” Roy said.
The ongoing surge in the number of migrants entering the country has rapidly filled up detention centers, forcing FEMA to open new centers in Texas.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas. | 1.239476 |
Texas Governor Greg Abbott in Dallas on Wednesday about the growing surge of migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico. The governor directly blamed President Joe Biden’s open borders policies for the humanitarian crisis.
Governor Abbott spoke at a hotel located across the street from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas where FEMA is housing some 3,000 teenage boys ages 15 to 17. Breitbart Texas reported the teens would stay at the convention center for up to 90 days.
“These sites are a direct result of President Biden’s reckless open border policies that are causing a surge in crossings and cartel activity,” Abbott said. “The administration has yet to provide answers that Texans deserve.”
“U.S. Health and Human Services will open the center to take some of the strain off Border Patrol, which is not supposed to hold children for more than three days but has been forced to do so for much longer,” KXAN added. “At least 3,000 children had been in custody longer than that 72-hour limit.”
The Biden administration claims that it is sending adults and families back because of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) coronavirus order but is allowing children — or mostly older teens — admission into the country.
The Austin NBC affiliate’s report continued:
According to Abbott, Biden’s administration needs to provide information on where these migrants have come from and a timeline of how long they’ll be in Texas/the U.S. The governor said that so far this year, 11,000 minors have been apprehended crossing the border into Texas, which he claims is a 60% increase between January (which was under the Trump administration) and February.
“On Monday alone, the Border Patrol took in about 280 child migrants in the Rio Grande Valley sector. America needs to know how these children — some are young children — are coming across the border and who is it that is helping these children across the border,” the Texas governor explained.
Abbott added that he asked the Biden administration to allow Texas officials to interview minors being held at the facility. The governor also said he is expanding the Operation Lonestar program to combat human trafficking.
Abbott expressed concern that individuals entering the country could be ill, including those who may be infected with the coronavirus.
“Are they being tested for COVID?” Abbott asked. “And if so, how is the administration handling those who test positive?”
“Texas is willing to step up and help out,” the governor concluded. “But this is the Biden administration’s responsibility … the Biden administration has made it clear that if you are an unaccompanied child, you will be allowed to come into the United States.”
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to [email protected] | -0.189714 |
A brazen ambush by cartel gunmen in central Mexico killed 13 state police officers in a case that has sparked outrage among officials. The mass killing is the latest in a trend despite federal claims that safety is improving nationwide.
The attack took place on Thursday afternoon in Llano Grande, Mexico State, where 13 police officers were carrying out routine patrolling, said Mexico State Public Security Secretary Rodrigo Martinez Celis alongside Mexico State Attorney General Alejandro Gomez Sanchez.
El secretario de Seguridad del Edomex, Rodrigo Martínez Celis y el Fiscal General de Justicia, Alejandro Gómez Sánchez condenaron el ataque contra policías en Coatepec Harinas, donde perdieron la vida 13 efectivos; aseguraron que van por los responsables Crédito: Especial pic.twitter.com/anE6xC0ew9 — Metrópoli (@Univ_Metropoli) March 19, 2021
Details remain sketchy, however, cartel gunmen ambushed the officers before police backup could arrive. According to El Universal, authorities deployed a police helicopter to evacuate a wounded officer. Authorities have not revealed the name of the organization behind the attack, nor a motive.
In the aftermath, state, federal, and military forces have increased their presence to capture the gunmen.
“We are going after them and are going to bring them to justice,” Gomez Sanchez said during the statement.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.C. Sanchez” from Tamaulipas and Jose Luis Lara fom Michoacan. | 1.397508 |
The Department of Homeland Security announced an extension to the travel limitations at land crossings along the Mexican and Canadian Borders. The Trump era ban has been in place since March 2020 and applies to non-essential travel such as day tourism and shopping.
The ban has many border communities frustrated as it has directly impacted local economies. The ban was set to expire at 11:59pm on March 21, 2021 but will now exceed its one-year anniversary. Many local merchants have expressed dismay about the allowance of thousands of asylum seekers arriving daily while masked Mexican tourists and shoppers are kept across the border.
One local merchant, Pedro is feeling the financial pinch the ban has caused him, according to a recent interview.
“It’s not fair that we have lost so much of our business–but others cross illegally, and no one cares” he said as Breitbart Texas visited with him recently. In Spanish he adds, “The government may not think the travel is essential to come shopping, but to those that cross and us who sell, it is everything. We wear masks. They can too.”
Ports of entry along the border that once bustled with daily crossers frequenting the local businesses are nearly void of traffic.
In a statement released Thursday, DHS noted:
To prevent the further spread of COVID-19, and in coordination with our partners in Canada and Mexico, the United States is extending the restrictions on non-essential travel at our land borders through April 21, while ensuring continued flows of essential trade and travel. Informed by science and public health guidance, we will work with our counterparts to identify an approach to easing restrictions when conditions permit and with the protection of our citizens from COVID-19 at the forefront of our minds.
The ban on documented crossers will remain in effect for now as illegal border crossings continue to soar.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX | -0.136166 |
Fox News reports from an unnamed senior U.S. Custom and Border Protection official that the agency is considering a plan to release migrants apprehended in South Texas who claim asylum without issuing a Notice to Appear (NTA). Breitbart Texas confirmed with a senior CBP official the plan is being discussed.
A Fox News Channel article published late Saturday night revealed that discussions are underway that could result in the near-immediate release of thousands of apprehended migrants in the Rio Grande Valley Sector who would have no date to appear before an immigration judge or asylum officer. The news outlet claims a senior CBP official revealed the unprecedented plan that would allow the migrants to be released without an NTA.
A Breitbart Texas source at the highest levels operating under the umbrella of CBP in Washington, D.C., confirmed the plan is a “serious measure being discussed.”
Fox says the plan is being discussed because the crisis along the border has “become so dire that [Border Patrol] has no choice but to release people nearly immediately” after their apprehension because “there is no space to hold people” long enough to do the NTA paperwork. The processing to issue an NTA can take up to two hours per individual or family group.
The plan would not apply to unaccompanied migrant minors who cannot legally be released.
Under the plan being discussed, migrants would be released after Border Patrol agents gather only minimal identification information, officials told Breitbart Texas. The migrant would be instructed to contact immigration officials close to their destination city after they arrive.
However, without an NTA, there will be no mechanism in place to follow up on the migrant or even to know if they really traveled to their disclosed destination, Border Patrol officials said. There would be no way for an immigration court to issue an order for removal if the migrant fails to appear because they have no way of knowing the person was coming.
The migrants would simply be released after promising to show up at some undetermined future time at an immigration office to apply for asylum, officials stated.
It is not clear how many migrants this would apply to. Under current law, unaccompanied minors cannot simply be released. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coronavirus protection protocols under Title 42 still allow for the near-immediate expulsion of single adults and some family units.
However, in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, and select other locations, Mexico is not allowing families traveling with young children to be expelled back to their country.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings tweeted that his agents apprehended more than 2,000 migrants on Thursday, more than 10,000 in the past week, and more than 34,000 for the month of March. This is up from 27,913 apprehended during the entire month of February.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face book. | -0.797667 |
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) sharply criticized the Biden administration over conditions at multiple Health and Human Services detention facilities for unaccompanied migrant children recently opened across the state. Abbott specifically cited a drinking-water issue at a facility hastily opened by HHS in Midland, Texas and a COVID-19 outbreak in a facility opened last month in Carrizo Springs, Texas.
Governor Abbott said, “The Biden Administration has been an abject failure when it comes to ensuring the safety of unaccompanied minors who cross our border. The conditions unaccompanied minors face in these federally run facilities is unacceptable and inhumane.”
“From a lack of safe drinking water in one location to a COVID-19 outbreak in another, the Biden Administration has no excuse for subjecting these children to these kinds of conditions,” the Texas governor continued. “President Biden’s refusal to address the border crisis is not only enabling criminal actors like human traffickers and smugglers, but it is exposing innocent unaccompanied children to illness and potentially unsafe living conditions.”
“The administration must act now to keep these children safe, secure our border, and end this humanitarian crisis,” Abbott concluded.
This latest development regarding the surge in unaccompanied minors comes as the Biden administration finds itself woefully unprepared to handle the influx. Federal officials opened a temporary facility in Dallas, Texas at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center to accommodate the UAC’s.
Sources in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector indicate they are still apprehending between 400 and 500 unaccompanied children per day. Agents are holding, according to the source, over 2100 unaccompanied children in Border Patrol facilities and cannot keep up with the backlog in processing and transfer to HHS.
HHS is responsible for providing suitable detention space for the children under current law.
The governor also announced the deployment Texas Department of State Health Services resources and personnel to the Carrizo Springs Facility to investigate, identify, and combat the COVID-19 outbreak. As for the Midland, Texas facility, Abbott indicated the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality notified federal officials of the need to address the serious water issues.
The Midland facility, a former oilfield mancamp, is also experiencing a COVID outbreak as nearly 11 percent of the minors tested positive, Breitbart Texas reported.
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesman Mark Weber told the Associated Press they put their plans to move more unaccompanied migrant teenagers to the Midland facility on pause after finding that 53 of the 485 migrant teens tested positive for COVID-19.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX. | -2.270702 |
LAREDO, Texas — President Joe Biden and political allies need to stop sending messages that encourage the sending of children and underage teens from Central America into the hands of cartels, which oversee smuggling operations to the U.S., said Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) in a recent video interview.
“You ought to be sending the signal to stop sending your kids on the top of trains so the cartels and illicit organizations can abuse them,” Congressman Roy said–in what he referred to mixed messages sent by proponents of more relaxed border policies. Roy warns the trend only enriches Mexican cartels.
Roy recently visited a child detention center in Carrizo Springs and then toured the border zone in Laredo, Texas.
Roy argues that although detention facilities for underage migrants are widely vilified, the site he toured in Carrizo Springs was well-kept yet full.
“You can not like the way that process works but you are burying your head in the sand,” Roy said. “You have children now, what are you going to do with that child … how are you going to keep them safe?”
The current crisis has placed an undue burden on the U.S. Border Patrol that has removed agents from the field and turned them into caretakers at the much-vilified facilities, he said
“The facilities I’ve seen operated by Border Patrol, sometimes they are overwhelmed, they are Border Patrol, they are not supposed to be in the people management business,” Roy said.
The ongoing surge in the number of migrants entering the country has rapidly filled up detention centers, forcing FEMA to open new centers in Texas.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas. | -1.535269 |
Mexican cartels are behind the dramatic increase in activity at the U.S.-Mexico Border and are benefiting from mixed messages coming from Washington, Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) said during a tour of South Texas this week.
Breitbart Texas interviewed Congressman Roy after his fact-finding trip that included a child detention facility in Carrizo Springs and an unannounced tour of the border in Laredo.
“The worst part of all of this is the extent to which cartels are driving the traffic, their fingerprints are all over this,” Roy said. “They move human beings for profit and when they do so, they are endangering the lives of immigrants who are taking this dangerous journey–oftentimes kids and they are being exploited for money.”
According to Roy, the sharp increase human smuggling has taken place since the start of the administration of President Joe Biden.
“These policies by the [Biden] Administration, often in the name of compassion, I think its the opposite–its in the false name of compassion, open borders are empowering the cartels allowing them to make more money moving people and we are seeing the abuses that then take place.”
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas. | 0.556453 |
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told members of the House Judiciary Committee that releasing migrants into Texas border communities without testing them for COVID-19 was a mistake.
Mayorkas, in his first appearance before the committee since being confirmed as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said he did not know how many people had been released without being tested, the Washington Times reported.
Mayorkas avoided questions from Republican members of the committee who tried to nail down the numbers and if the mistake had been corrected.
“There have been times when we have not met our responsibility as well as we should have,” the DHS secretary told the committee. “Those instances are brought to the attention of leadership, and they are addressed and we improved based on the mistakes made.”
He said it is their policy to hope communities and charities are able to conduct the testing when Border Patrol agents release the migrants, the Times reported.
Lawmakers repeatedly pressed the secretary on whether his department is executing on its policy to have migrants tested before they are released.
After being pressed several times by multiple Republican congressmen, Mayorkas finally said they are “doing the best we can.”
The agency has also been unclear on quarantine procedures for those who test positive. Local authorities have put some into hotels for quarantine, but admit they have no authority to hold them if they want to leave.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face book. | 2.133488 |
Border Patrol agents in the nation’s busiest sector for human smuggling continue to report consistent, large migrant group crossings.
Agents assigned to the McAllen Border Patrol station continue to report multiple apprehensions of migrants in large groups in one Texas border county, according to information obtained from Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials. The groups consist mainly of migrant family units and unaccompanied alien children.
No end in sight as large groups continue entering in the #RGV. In 48 hrs, agents arrested 369 illegal aliens mainly consisting of family members and UACs in 4 separate groups. This year, agents have encountered 19 groups of 100 or more people illegally entering the US. pic.twitter.com/GjPZ473XeK — Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) March 18, 2021
McAllen Station agents working the border near Mission, Texas, on Monday encountered a large group of migrants crossing the border from Mexico. The agents observed dozens of migrants crossing the Rio Grande, officials stated.
The agents apprehended 110 migrants in this single crossing. The group included 53 family members and multiple unaccompanied migrant minors.
Just as the agents finished screening this group, a second group began streaming across the border. The groups crossed in small inflatable rafts filled with adults and children, the report continues. This group of 105 migrants consisted of 35 family units and 24 unaccompanied minors.
The following morning, McAllen Station agents encountered two more large groups crossing the border near Penitas and Abram, Texas. These two groups totaled 154 migrants.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials reported their agents encountered 19 groups of 100 or more migrants illegally crossing from Mexico into Texas this year.
In February alone, this sector reported the apprehension of 16,583 family units and 11,242 unaccompanied alien children.
On Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott committed more state resources to help investigate the human trafficking of these minors and families, Breitbart’s Penny Starr reported.
Governor Abbott placed the blame on the surge of migrant families and children squarely on President Joe Biden and his changes in border security and immigration policies. He also requested access to the children being held in federal facilities in Texas for the purpose of identifying and prosecuting smugglers for human trafficking and abuse of minors.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face book. | 1.126934 |
El Paso Sector Border Patrol officials received a call from the New Mexico State Police who reported a migrant missing in the desert near Chappel. The police reported that human smugglers abandoned the migrant.
Las Cruces Station Border Patrol agents began a search and rescue operation in coordination with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations aircrew. The search led to finding the migrant in the desert south of Chappel.
Agents conducted a medical screening in the field and determined the migrant needed serious medical treatment. Due to the rough terrain, the agents had to carry the man to the roadway.
An emergency medical services crew arrived and transported the man to a local hospital, officials stated. Doctors admitted the migrant in critical condition.
“Had it not been for the life-saving efforts of our Border Patrol Agents, AMO pilots, in coordination with our local law enforcement and EMS partners, this subject may have perished,” stated El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. “Once again, the Transnational Criminal Organizations recklessly placed another human being in harm’s way after smuggling and later abandoning him in a remote desert location.”
Human smugglers will frequently abandon migrants who become ill, fatigued, injured, or for any other reason cannot keep up with their group.
Just last week, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents carried out a search and rescue mission for a migrant who had been lost in the desert mountains of Southern California, Breitbart Texas reported. The search for the man who had heart issues and suffered from diabetes lasted for several days.
The agents located the man on March 12 and transported him to a local hospital. | 0.161073 |
A group of migrants running into the streets of Laredo interrupted an interview between Breitbart Texas and U.S. Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) who was visiting the area.
During an interview at night near the banks of the Rio Grande, Congressman Roy was in the process of sharing some of his observations when the interview was cut short as a group of migrants ran north from the river toward a shopping mall in downtown Laredo.
“Run for the ladder, run for the ladder,” a cartel-connected human smuggler yelled from the river as the migrants ran north. The area of the smuggling attempt does not have any physical barriers such as fencing or walls, making the shallow waters of the Rio Grande the only obstacle.
As U.S. Border Patrol agents rushed to intercept the group, the smuggler from the river yelled at them to run back. Some were able to return to the river and make their way back into Mexico while authorities detained two males.
Federal law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas that during that night just inside the city of Laredo, authorities detained more than 100 migrants in a matter of hours.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas. | 0.687945 |
Cartel-connected human smugglers led a group of migrants across the Rio Grande and tried to have them run into the streets of Laredo. Breitbart Texas was there when authorities were able to turn them back.
Breitbart Texas was in the border city of Laredo documenting the ongoing crisis caused by as thousands of migrants seeking entry into Texas each day. Laredo and the surrounding areas have minimal border fencing–presenting a unique challenge for authorities since they have to rely on reduced manpower to detain migrants.
While filming in the neighborhood known as Rincon Del Diablo in the city’s downtown area, a cartel-connected smuggler led a group of migrants and sent some running into the city.
U.S. Border Patrol vehicles in the area rushed to intercept. The rest stayed on the banks of the Rio Grande as the smuggler yelled at them to run back to Mexico.
Federal law enforcement sources consulted by Breitbart Texas say these types of incidents are a common for the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas as a way to divert manpower from certain areas. The tactic calls for sending a small group of migrants, primarily young men or underage teenagers, who run from agents and trigger chases. Once they are captured, some agents have to stay until they are transported to one of the facilities in the area. This ties down manpower in the field, allowing the cartel smugglers to move larger groups and narcotics in nearby areas.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas. | 1.25556 |
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced plans to construct new migrant detention facilities in Arizona and Texas in a recent statement. Breitbart Texas has learned those facilities will be in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas.
According to law enforcement sources, the facilities are intended to ease overcrowding at Border Patrol stations. The facilities will be constructed from the ground up and are similar in nature to the soft-sided facilities currently being constructed in Eagle Pass, Texas. These facilities will be managed and operated as processing centers by Border Patrol.
The rapid movement of materials and equipment seen recently at the construction site in Eagle Pass shows the administration is anticipating the influx to continue. Secretary Mayorkas says swift removals for some migrants under the Trump era CDC emergency COVID-19 order are still occurring in a statement released yesterday. Despite the message, the DHS plan to increase detention is likely a sign that the department recognizes the influx of unaccompanied children and migrant family units will continue–if not worsen.
Acknowledging the challenge is worsening, Mayorkas touches on the detention and transfer of unaccompanied migrant children left in Border Patrol custody for far longer than current law allows.
The Border Patrol facilities have become crowded with children and the 72-hour timeframe for the transfer of children from the Border Patrol to HHS is not always met. HHS has not had the capacity to intake the number of unaccompanied children we have been encountering. I describe below the actions we have taken and the plans we are executing to handle this difficult situation successfully.
Managing the additional detention facilities and providing humanitarian care to thousands of detainees will be present additional challenges for Border Patrol, which is already struggling to balance the humanitarian needs of thousands of unaccompanied children with actual patrol duties.
Mayorkas is looking to augment the Border Patrol and HHS from within the non-law enforcement ranks of his department. According to his statement, Mayorkas added “In two days, we recruited more than 560 DHS volunteers to support HHS in our collective efforts to address the needs of the unaccompanied children.”
One Border Patrol agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity said, “The DHS volunteers were great when they were here in 2019, it allows us to get some agents back to the field, but they can’t process for us. That’s where the major hurdle for us is, it takes hours to process each minor and family unit member,” the agent relayed. “Those are hours away from the field and the flow is worse this time around,” he added.
A request for information from CBP Office of Public Affairs has not been answered as of press time.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX | 0.285515 |
Border Patrol agents in the nation’s busiest sector continue to encounter large groups of migrants illegally crossing from Mexico into South Texas. Nearly 24,000 were apprehended in the last two weeks alone — nearly 28,000 for all of February.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents continue to apprehend large groups of migrants illegally crossing the border. Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings tweeted last Friday that nearly 24,000 migrants had been taken into custody in his sector during the past two weeks. Hundreds more were apprehended in the days that followed.
This group adds to the nearly 24,000 individuals apprehended throughout the RGV in the last two weeks. For more info on activity in the RGV, click the link: https://t.co/s1uz7Tv6l1 https://t.co/lh2Yp1ATIM — Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) March 13, 2021
On Saturday morning, agents assigned to the Rio Grande City Station encountered a group of 134 migrants after they illegally crossed the border near Las Lomas, Texas. The agents identified 128 migrants as family units — mostly from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
A few hours later, agents from this same station encountered another large group of migrants near La Grulla, Texas. In this incident, the agents apprehended 113 migrants composed of family units and unaccompanied alien children, officials stated. Included in the 113 migrants were 17 Romanian nationals. The balance came to the U.S. from Central America, officials stated.
“Even with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, human smugglers continue to try these brazen attempts with zero regard for the lives they endanger nor to the health of the citizens of our great nation,” officials said in a written statement.
The #RGV continues to see an increase in illegal crossings despite #COVID19 concerns. Two large groups totaling 201 illegal aliens were arrested by agents in Rio Grande City and La Joya, TX.
The group consisted of 71 family members & 19 unaccompanied alien children. pic.twitter.com/MZQbDXfPhx — Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) March 11, 2021
Last week, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents apprehended large groups of mostly family-unit migrants from Central America near La Grulla, La Joya, and Roma. These groups totaled 339 migrants from Central America, Romania, and Cuba, officials stated.
“Despite the inherent dangers of crossing the treacherous Rio Grande, illegal aliens continue to risk their lives to enter the United States,” Border Patrol officials stated. “In recent days, Border Patrol has conducted multiple rescues of individuals, who were set adrift by smugglers. Groups are smuggled on inflatable rafts almost always exceeding the maximum capacity of the rafts, and rarely provided life vests.” | 0.655789 |
Four individuals previously arrested on the U.S southern border reportedly have names that match those on the FBI’s Terror Watch List, according to a news media report published Tuesday, March 16. The encounters took place since the start of Fiscal Year 2021, however, prior Breitbart Texas investigations have demonstrated how these incidents are far from unprecedented.
The four separate encounters reportedly took place since October 1, Axios reports, quoting an unnamed congressional aide. Details on the locations of the detentions, the types of terrorist activities, and the identities of those matching the watch list were not disclosed by the outlet. Axios reporting claims the four suspects hail from Yemen and Serbia.
Encounters by federal authorities with individuals matching the FBI Terror Watch List are regular in occurrence. Some take place in international airport terminals hundreds of miles beyond a border and others appear at land ports of entry. Most occur between Texas, Arizona, and California–though New York is not immune.
In 2016, Breitbart Texas reported exclusively on a series of leaked documents from the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center revealing that from July 2015 to July 2016, the FBI documented more than 7,700 encounters watch list encounters. Subsequent reports show encounters numbering in the thousands annually.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected]. | -0.04821 |
Pop star Justin Bieber was slammed for using audio clips of speeches from the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his new album, Justice, as social media users accused the singer of being “tone deaf.” King’s family, however, gave Bieber a message of support in the midst of the social media-fueled backlash.
One Twitter user accused the singer of “profiting off of the civil rights movement as a white man,” adding, “his album is called ‘justice’ and has an MLK interlude but speaks nowhere of social justice, and is focused on love & relationships.”
Another Twiter user echoed those sentiments, noting that a love song follows the MLK clip.
Justin Bieber has an “MLK Interlude” on his album. Then, an 80’s inspired pop song about dying for love comes on next. pic.twitter.com/11uBfJVGb3 — RacismSummitBookingAgent (@KirkWrites79) March 19, 2021
In a follow-up tweet, the social media user saidhe “still can’t get over” Justin Bieber naming his album “Justice” before transitioning into a song that isn’t about civil rights, and expressed his dismay over “no one at the label” thinking to tell Bieber that it wasn’t a good idea.
I still can’t get over Justin Bieber naming his album “Justice”
and using that MLK audio clip before transitioning into a Fame Monster leftover. Also, no one at the label thought to tell him… this ain’t it. I don’t know why I’m so annoyed. But, I’m annoyed. It’s dumb pandering. pic.twitter.com/mMiDlPSt7F — RacismSummitBookingAgent (@KirkWrites79) March 19, 2021
Another Twitter user suggested that Bieber using MLK clips in his album is evidence that he doesn’t have “real black people around him,” because they would have advised him not to do that.
you know justin bieber don’t got no real black people around him cause nobody said “nah putting MLK on this album kinda tone deaf” daniel skeezer was probably like “ya that’s a great idea” — big homie dij (@DijahSB) March 19, 2021
“Who in the hell let Justin Bieber walk out the studio with an album called Justice w two samples of MLK and every track got him having a grand ol white ass time singin bout his wife over synthesized pop beats… my blood pressure gets higher every day, on god,” commented another Twitter user.
Another social media user also wondered who told the singer it was okay to use the MLK audio clips.
Who told Justin Bieber it was okay to include MLK on his new album and why was it Hailey? #Justice — Nicholas Hautman (@nickhautman) March 19, 2021
Other Twitter users expressed that they enjoyed Bieber’s new album but made sure to caveat their comments with their opinion that the singer could have done without the MLK clips.
Justin Bieber if u see this your album is solid you did not have to drag MLK into it — Tanya Chen (@tanyachen) March 19, 2021
Justin Bieber’s new album has solid songs especially “Peaches” and “Loved By You” buuut these MLK interludes don’t make sense it’s not cohesive — Rilwan Balogun (@RilwanFox8) March 19, 2021
Another Twitter user went as far as to say that “humanity” is now “irredeemable” due to the fact that Bieber released an album featuring a King speech as an interlude.
March 19th, 2021 the day Justin Bieber released an MLK speech as an album interlude the day humanity became irredeemable — Sabby Robinson (@sabby_robinson) March 19, 2021
Another Twitter user likened people saying MLK would have supported Bieber to an incident in 2013 in which the singer sparked outrage when he wrote in a guestbook at the Anne Frank Museum, saying he hoped Frank would have been a fan.
“Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber,” Bieber had written of the Holocaust victim.
everyone's "MLK would have supported *me*" takes are just sorrier versions of Justin Bieber's iconic Anne Frank take — Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) January 21, 2020
But at least one member of King’s family did offer a message of support, as the daughter of the civil rights activist, Bernice King, took to Twitter to thank the pop star, and shared the singer’s tweet in which he expressed his support for several organizations and causes.
Each of us, including artists and entertainers, can do something. Thank you, @justinbieber, for your support, in honor of #Justice, of @TheKingCenter’s work and of our #BeLove campaign, which is a part of our global movement for justice. #MLK #EndRacism https://t.co/nTkR1XdcvW — Be A King (@BerniceKing) March 18, 2021
Bieber is being bashed by a liberal mob that he joined not long ago in calling for Fox News host Laura Ingraham to be fired from the network. In July 2019, Justin Bieber demanded President Trump to “let those kids out of cages.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram. | -1.114057 |
American rapper Lil Mama announced Thursday she is starting a “heterosexual rights movement” to protest LGBTQ bullying.
“I’m about to start a heterosexual rights movement,” the 31-year-old entertainer said on Instagram.
“Y’all fight so hard to be respected and SOME of you, NOT ALL get a kick out bullying people for having an option, how they dress, how their hair and or makeup looks, how much money they have, etc.,” she wrote.
“There are so many people afraid to give their honest opion [sic] because if they do the LGBTQ+ will hear what they want to hear and take statements out of context,” she added.
The rapper hastened to note that she is not anti-gay but feels obliged to speak out.
“I don’t have to prove myself by reminding people that I have loved ones of the LGBTQ+ Community,” she concluded. “When I speak I’m not trying to hurt anyone, I’m just speaking my truth, just like you all.”
Lil Mama has been an outspoken adversary of medical interventions on children experiencing gender dysphoria. Two weeks ago, she retweeted a post insisting that children do not have the necessary maturity to undertake gender transition.
“So children are too young to smoke cigarettes, too young to drink alcohol, too young to get a driver’s license, too young to go to a club, too young to gamble, too young to rent a car, but old enough to cut off their genitals and/or ‘change’ their gender? This is insanity America,” the post declared.
Follow @tdwilliamsrome | -0.579777 |
A producer for Warner Bros’ upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot says Johnny Cage, a popular character from the video game franchise, will not appear in the film — at one point reportedly suggesting that the white male character was left alone to keep the cast diverse.
According to several Wednesday reports, producer Todd Garner — of Paul Blart: Mall Cop fame — discussed the upcoming film, which will stream on HBO Max, at a recent press event, explaining the decision to cast a brand-new character and leave out Cage.
“I want to make a sequel, and I’ve now got Johnny Cage, which hasn’t been used in the first one,” Garner said, according to ComicBook.com. “So I have a big stick and carrot that maybe they’ll let me have a Johnny Cage real presence in the second one. And secondarily, when you think about Mortal Kombat, if you just think about the patina of the movie, it has a very Asian feel to it. And I early on felt uncomfortable having a white male lead kind of lead that charge in the first movie.”
Another writeup of the event from Inverse quoted Garner differently, leaving out the tease of Johnny Cage in a sequel: “I feel like if I was getting to make a movie with a diverse cast, it felt weird to have a white actor, literally Johnny Cage, be the hero of the story.” A screenshot of that quote went viral.
Garner said in an article published by Inverse on Wednesday.
The next day, Garner shared a blog post aggregating the more complete Comicbook.com quote, insisting, “I love Johnny Cage and can’t wait to do more with the character.”
I love Johnny Cage and can’t wait to do more with the character. https://t.co/T4gTbBEusk — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
The producer also responded to several Twitter users, saying that the “diversity” quote did not reflect any racial animus and that the sequel plans are the primary reason for the omission.
“So basically, @Todd_Garner doesn’t think MK is diverse enough and white men need to be erased despite Cage being a favorite since the conception of MK and the 90s movie. That’s very racist and him being also a white rich man makes it even more ironic,” one Twitter user wrote.
Garner responded, “Ah man that’s not what I want at all. I love JC. His story just didn’t fit into this story. If you see the movie and disagree. Hit me up.”
Ah man that’s not what I want at all. I love JC. His story just didn’t fit into this story. If you see the movie and disagree. Hit me up. — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
When the Twitter user asked for an explanation of the “uncomfortable having a white male lead” quote, the producer responded, “It’s more about his story. I want to focus on that story. We have a story we love that we are telling and We didn’t want to short-shrift JC in that story.”
It’s more about his story. I want to focus on that story. We have a story we love that we are telling and We didn’t want to short-shrift JC in that story. — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
“I don’t know, unless you’re turning him into the lead for the second movie, wouldn’t that be problematic?” the Twitter user responded. “What I mean is as part of the audience, I don’t have problems with white males being leads, despite me being mexican.”
Garner then responded saying, “No. He’s a huge character so we have somewhere totally new to go with the sequel. Think about how MCU adds characters. That’s it. We never want to rehash.”
No. He’s a huge character so we have somewhere totally new to go with the sequel. Think about how MCU adds characters. That’s it. We never want to rehash. — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
The Twitter user then asked the producer why he didn’t explain that in his interview with the media, to which Garner answered, “Because we did interviews for 6 hours in groups of 10 over zoom for 15 mins each. Not an excuse. Just facts. If anyone wants to get the unfiltered answers. I’m here.”
Because we did interviews for 6 hours in groups of 10 over zoom for 15 mins each. Not an excuse. Just facts. If anyone wants to get the unfiltered answers. I’m here. — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
In response to another Twitter user who called Garner “racist” for axing Cage, the producer reiterated that the character will be saved for a sequel, “if there is one.”
“Not true. Just want to make sure his story is the focal point in the sequel… if there is one,” Garner wrote.
Not true. Just want to make sure his story is the focal point in the sequel… if there is one. — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
Garner later told another Twitter user that Cage is “too important and too big a character to just jam into the story we told.”
“We have a big story for him, but felt we had so much story to start with [in] terms of the rules, lore and history of MK,” Garner added.
Yes. He is too important and too big a character to just jam into the story we told. We have a big story for him, but felt we had so much story to start with i terms of the rules, lore and history of MK. — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) March 18, 2021
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram. | -0.329025 |
Oscar nominees have been told by the show’s producers that they are not allowed to give their acceptance speeches remotely via Zoom next month during the Academy Awards, and clothing like hoodies and loungewear will be banned at the ceremony.
Producers Steven Soderbergh, Jesse Collins, and Stacey Sher told attendees in an email on Thursday that an on-site coronavirus-related safety team will be present for the event at the Los Angeles Union Station.
“We are going to great lengths to provide a safe and ENJOYABLE evening for all of you in person, as well as for all the millions of film fans around the world, and we feel the virtual thing will diminish those efforts,” the producers wrote in their email to nominees.
The producers said guests must follow a strict dress code, saying it will be a “fusion of Inspirational and aspirational, which in actual words means formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not.”
The news comes after actor Jason Sudeikis went viral on social media after he accepted his Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards in a tie-dye hoodie last month.
I'm not sure if this is *officially true* but I'm pretty sure that Jason Sudeikis is the first person to accept a #GoldenGlobes in a hoodie https://t.co/gMrpbjjqwe pic.twitter.com/xUq890Muht — Variety (@Variety) March 1, 2021
Producers also said there will be “additional show elements live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood,” and acknowledged that some celebrities might be hesitant to gather in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Of course, your first thought is CAN THAT BE DONE SAFELY? The answer is YES, IT CAN,” the producers wrote. “We are treating the event as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability.”
Guests who are “unable to attend because of scheduling or continued uneasiness about travelling” were told “there will not be an option to Zoom in for the show.”
In a letter emailed to the Academy’s nearly 10,000 members, Academy president David Rubin said all in-person events that usually occur around the Oscars — including the Nominees Luncheon and the Governors Ball — were canceled, according to a report by the Hollywood Reporter.
“Though we’d hoped the pandemic would be more in our rearview mirror by the month of April, the health and safety of our members and Oscar nominees are our primary concern, so we’ve had to make some necessary decisions about some of our highly anticipated Oscar-week events,” Rubin wrote.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram. | -0.542856 |
Talk show co-host and reality TV star Sharon Osbourne, wife of the famed rocker Ozzy Osbourne, has hired security detail, citing death threats over fallout stemming from a controversial discussion on race, Meghan Markle, and Piers Morgan on the CBS talk show The Talk.
TMZ reported on Friday that Osbourne has hired security detail due to a flood of hateful, death-laced messages following her heated discussion with co-host Sheryl Underwood. Messages, as highlighted by TMZ, include calls for her to “die and go to hell.” Others expressed hope that she contracts the Chinese coronavirus and dies:
We’re told Sharon’s personal phone numbers have also been blowing up, wishing harm on her and her dogs.
The private security company’s been stationed outside the Osbournes’ L.A.-area home all week to keep an eye on things.
During the discussion at the center of the controversy, Osbourne defended Piers Morgan, who doubted the claims of racism lodged by Meghan Markle, who made the suggestions during her exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“What would you say to people who may feel that, while you’re standing by your friend, it appears that you gave validation or safe haven to something that he has uttered that is racist, even if you don’t agree?” Underwood asked.
“Educate me, tell me when you have heard him say racist things?” Osbourne responded. “I very much feel like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend, who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?”
“How can I be racist about anybody or anything in my life,” she said, adding, “And don’t try and cry, because if anyone should be crying, it should be me.”
Osbourne later apologized, stating that she “panicked, felt blindsided, got defensive & allowed my fear and horror of being accused of being racist take over.”
She spoke to ET this week, reiterating that she is “not a racist.”
“I am not a racist and if you can’t have a go at your friend who happens to be black, does that make me racist because I said certain things to my friend, but I said them on camera?” she asked. “I will keep on apologizing to Sheryl, even if I decide not to go back, I will still keep apologizing to Sheryl. I have nothing but respect and so much affection for Sheryl. I don’t want to hurt her.”
Osbourne added, however, that she should have “never have dismissed her feelings on national TV, ever. But I said it. I have to own it. I can’t say, you know, ‘Oh, I didn’t know why I said it.’ I know why I said it.” | 1.001644 |
Some 25 years after the Joel Schumacher-director A Time to Kill hit theaters, Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey is reportedly in talks with HBO to reprise his critically acclaimed role in a sequel to the racially charged courtroom drama.
McConaughey’s performance as defense attorney Jake Brigance made him a bonafide star and set him on the path to leading man status. Now, after the publication of author Grisham’s follow-up, entitled A Time for Mercy, the actor is in talks to reprise the role in a limited series for the cable network, Deadline reported. Insiders told the outlet the series would be between eight and ten episodes.
The sequel series would again be set in rural Clanton, Missouri, but instead of defending a black man accused of murdering a white person, the plot will bring McConaughey’s Jack Brigance to defend a troubled teen accused of killing a police officer. In the book, Brigance runs against a town that wants a swift conviction and death penalty for the accused teen. But as he delves deeper into the case, Brigance finds a broad conspiracy in the murder that drives the town into a frenzy and puts the attorney and his family in danger.
Keeping his eye on the role, McConaughey spent time on social media last year promoting Grisham’s publication.
If he signs on, the project will mark McConaughey’s first return to HBO since his 2014 role in the cabler’s standout True Detective series.
The Lincoln Lawyer star has spent much of this year promoting his book, Greenlights. He is also the main promoter and organizer for a virtual concert to raise funds to benefit victims of this year’s brutal winter storm in Texas.
Then there is talk of his possible run for governor in the Lonestar State. It is not known how a run for office might impact the coming HBO project.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston. | 0.782172 |
The leftist narrative of “white privilege” is “disgusting,” said J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of Breitbart News and author of Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption.
Vance speculated that some criticisms of the film Hillbilly Elegy — based on his book — are rooted in left-wing rejection of the existence of struggle among white “working class” Americans. He noted that the reality of struggling whites in America profiled in his book and film is incompatible with the left-wing framework of “white privilege.”
“There is a narrative in our country, right now, that if you’re white, you’re privileged,” Vance stated, “and the idea that there is a family that is white, that is working class, that is struggling in ways that are identifiable to a lot of non-white Americans — and a lot of white Americans, too — is just not something the current cultural zeitgeist is comfortable with.”
Vance added, “They don’t like to think of people who are living in communities like mine — who look like my family — as struggling. Of course, many of those folks are [struggling]. That’s not what [those] people want to hear… This moment met the identity politics, the hyper-woke white privilege moment, and the the movie suffered from that, too.”
LISTEN:
Vance warned that left-wing commodification of imaginary victimhood undermines the centrality of character in defining one’s path in life. He identified Meghan Markle’s recent interview with billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey as illustrative of this phenomenon. He noted how perceptions of victimization strip individuals of agency.
“This interview that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry had a few weeks ago … I was watching that and I was amazed by just how much whining and how much victimhood there was,” Vance remarked. “It is still the case that whatever circumstances you come from — even if you come from a pretty tough family like mine — traditional American values like hard work, like loyalty to family, like devotion to your country, like investment in your future, these things still do matter.”
Vance continued, “The message we send to kids when we have big celebrities going on television and whining to Oprah is, ultimately, that character doesn’t really matter, and thank God I got a different lesson for my grandparents, from the Marine Corps, from the community around me, because if I if I hadn’t gotten that message I would have had just a really tough life.”
Vance reflected on lessons from his military service as solutions to the seeds of racial, ethnic, and economic acrimony sown by left-wing politics. He highlighted the U.S. armed forces’ unification of a diverse swathe of Americans as an example of patriotism transcending race, ethnicity, and class.
“The Marine Corps was such an incredible part of my own background,” Vance shared. “I enlisted in 2003, so this is right … we invaded Iraq, and I served from from 2007, and what I often tell people is that the Marine Corps was this incredible experience in learned willfulness. There were so much helplessness in the community that I grew up in that was struggling, where the jobs had disappeared, people were struggling with drug addiction, and I had never been part of [a] powerful team where we were all oriented in the same direction. We all had the same goal, and there was this expectation that we could meet this goal together.”
He went on, “[The Marine Corps] also gave me this remarkable exposure to different parts of our country. Some of my best friends were guys from Puerto Rico. I had a good friend who grew up in a wealthy family in suburban Maryland. It was just this remarkable collection of Americans, but we were all Americans and we were all on the same team and that’s an experience.”
He concluded, “I think about [my military service] a lot, of course, in modern America, which is hyper-driven by identity politics, and I think that we could actually learn something from the way the enlisted military thinks about itself and its own identity.”
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern. | -0.874457 |
Warner Bros. is rebooting the Father of the Bride movie franchise, this time with an all-Latino cast and starring Andy Garcia in the role formerly filled by Steve Martin and Spencer Tracy.
The movie will feature Garcia as a father coming to terms with his eldest daughter preparing to get married, embarking on her life as an adult, and leaving her large, close-knit Cuban family. According to Deadline, the movie will reportedly focus more on the daughter’s budding relationship — more like the 1950 Spencer Tracy version — as opposed to the father’s manic reaction to change seen in the Steve Martin version.
“I’m very excited to join The Father of the Bride, a beloved film that has brought so much joy to so many over the years and to represent my Cuban culture and heritage in this story,” Garcia said in a press release. “I commend Warner Bros. for their foresight and celebrate this opportunity they have created. I am looking forward to my collaboration with our talented director Gaz Alazraki and producers Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner from Plan B.”
Watch below:
Garcia has appeared in the TV series Ballers and Flipped and will also appear opposite Katy Sagal in the ABC drama Rebel. He is perhaps best known for his role in The Godfather Part III and Ocean’s Thirteen.
This is just the latest in a growing number of race or sex-swapped movies coming from Hollywood film and TV studios in recent years. Many have failed at the box office, including the all-female 2016 version of Ghostbusters. There was also a remake of the Michael Caine comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which was re-titled The Hustler and starred Rebel Wilson, and the Taraji P. Henson film, What Men Want, which is a remake of the Mel Gibson film, What Women Want.
And Marvel is preparing to launch a female Thor starring Natalie Portman in the title role in an upcoming project. Actor Billy Porter is set to star as a “genderless” fairy godmother in the upcoming remake of Cinderella.
TV projects swapping roles are also either on the air, or about to debut. NBC has greenlighted a female version of Zorro, the CW is preparing to launch a season of Kung Fu updated to modern times with the David Carradine role filled by a woman instead. And CBS has already debuted a new Equalizer starring Queen Latifa in the role once filled on TV by British actor Edward Woodward and in film by Denzel Washington.
There are also other projects on deck looking to swap lead roles. Disney recently announced its intention to reboot the 1991 film, The Rocketeer starring a black female lead instead of the white male lead of the first movie and the comic book upon which it was based. There are plans for a remake of 1984’s Splash, but instead of a man meeting a mermaid, the film will give audiences a woman meeting a merman.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston. | 2.002347 |
Showtime is developing a limited series that will dramatize the Capitol Hill riots of January 6 as well as the final days of the Trump administration, the premium cable network has announced. Billy Ray, who helmed Showtime’s The Comey Rule, is set to write and direct the series.
The untitled project will fictionalize the riots from multiple points of view and will include the subsequent FBI and Congressional investigations. No release date or casting has been announced for the series.
Last week, I said I was VERY excited about what I'd be writing/directing next. Also told you Lauren Boebert would hate it. Here's why: Showtime Series On January 6 U.S. Capitol Assault Set With ‘The Comey Rule’ Duo Billy Ray & Shane Salerno https://t.co/txrfXuUQ9e via @Deadline — Billy Ray (@BillyRay5229) March 18, 2021
Billy Ray has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most prominent anti-Trump voices, regularly using his Twitter account to attack the former president and his allies.
Last month, the Hollywood director called for the “political eradication” of the Republican senators who voted to acquit former president Donald Trump, saying that they must be voted out of office, “hounded” into retirement, or convicted.
Ray recently attacked former National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret)., describing him as “lazy, stupid & arrogant” as well as “a criminal, a paid foreign agent, betrayer of his oath to the Constitution.”
Flynn was pardoned by President Trump in November. At the time, the White House said that Flynn shouldn’t need to be pardoned because he was the innocent target of a partisan attack as part of the failed Russia collusion hoax.
Ray wrote and directed The Comey Rule, which was adapted from the disgraced former FBI director’s memoirs A Higher Loyalty. Prior to its release, Ray waged a pressure campaign on Showtime to debut the series prior to the November election.
The series, which starred Jeff Daniels as Comey and Irish actor Brendan Gleeson as Trump, received mixed reviews but drew a healthy viewership.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at [email protected] | 1.50671 |
Left-wing comedian and producer Chelsea Handler said during a virtual conversation with actor-comedian Amy Schumer and actor Jameela Jamil that it is necessary for everyone to “give a little bit away who has too much” in the pursuit of equality.
Chelsea Handler joined her left-wing counterparts in a virtual discussion last week, discussing “activism and allyship.” The theme prompted Handler, star of Hello, Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea, to detail what she described as a firsthand account of white male privilege — something she encountered, ironically, while spending a day backcountry skiing in Canada.
Watch below:
“This is not just white privilege. It’s male privilege. You know it’s any privilege really, but this is a good example, I think,” Handler said, explaining how she went skiing with a “badass” female skiing guide.
“You know, I was rappelling down mountains. I was doing things I thought I was never capable of but because I was in a woman’s hands. I knew that she was looking after me in a way that sometimes men aren’t aware of,” the actress said, detailing the conversation her group, four women and a man, had as they stopped on a mountaintop, discussing privilege.
“She was talking about …. how that explains privilege and what it’s like to grow up as a person of color and that really a white person never will understand what it’s like to be different,” she said, concluding that white people while never understand just as “a man will never understand what it’s like to be a woman and walk home at night alone in the dark and worry that there’s a possibility of you getting assaulted or attacked.”
The Life Will Be the Death of Me author then said she asked the man how he felt about the conversation centering around white male privilege and the patriarchy, to which she recalled him saying, “I feel like there’s a lot of reverse discrimination.” That remark triggered Handler, who said she had to “bite her tongue” as she has “no patience for that kind of bullshit.”
The activist said she later confronted him in the car and explained to him tha t “everyone has to give a little bit away who has too much.”
“I said, reverse discrimination, I said let’s talk about — you can’t just make things equal,” Handler said. “You have to go back and make up for the past just like we have to go back and make up for the past of what we did to black people even though it was our ancestors and we weren’t around. We are s till responsible just like men are still responsible for moving over for women.”
“During this adjustment period everyone has to give a little bit away who has too much,” she assessed. “We’re not asking for people that don’t have anything to give anything away, but we’re asking for the people who have a lot to step aside and give a place to a person of color to a woman, you know, give it away.”
Handler claimed that her explanation resonated with the man, who said he had never thought about it in that light.
“He said wow, I didn’t even think about that. I thought we could just make sure everything was equal moving forward. I go, wouldn’t that be great but we can’t, so you have to acknowledge the past to move forward, so that’s how I feel you know with regard to sexism and racism,” she concluded, earning praise from Schumer.
Earlier this month, Handler took to social media to explain how life is so much better now that former President Trump, whom she identified as a “white supremacist,” is no longer in office. | 0.100784 |
Actor Armie Hammer is reportedly being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) after rape and sexual assault allegations were made against him. The LAPD confirmed to Page Six on Thursday that an investigation into the actor has been launched after a “community member” came forward with an attorney last month, alleging sexual assault.
The police department’s confirmation comes after a woman, Effie, came forward with attorney Gloria Allred, alleging that Hammer had “violently” raped her for more than four hours, and “repeatedly slammed” her “face against the wall.”
“He became increasingly more violent. I thought he was going to kill me,” an emotional Effie claimed, according to Page Six. It remains unclear if the LAPD’s investigation was prompted by Effie’s allegations but Allred said during a press conference that she and Hammer’s accuser turned over evidence to police.
An attorney for the Call Me By Your Name actor denied the allegations, stating that all of their interactions were “completely consensual.”
“From day one, Mr. Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions with [Effie] — and every other sexual partner of his for that matter — have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory,” Hammer’s attorney said in a statement. “[Effie’s] attention seeking and ill-advised legal bid will only make it more difficult for real victims of sexual violence to get the justice they deserve.”
In January, Hammer stepped away from his role starring opposite of Jennifer Lopez in the film Shotgun Wedding over a social media scandal involving the actor’s alleged direct messages that appeared to show him sending graphic messages to women and discussing cannibalism.
Hammer was interviewed by the Cayman Islands police involving an incident in which he posted a video of a woman he called “Miss Cayman” on an Instagram account he apparently kept in secret.
The Social Network star was later dropped by his talent agency, WME, as well as by his publicist amid the sex scandal involving the unverified direct messages that he allegedly sent to several women.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram. | -0.393864 |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In the Middle East, where sport and diplomacy are closely intertwined, political passions can spill over onto the playing field.
With the Palestinian cause the core issue uniting Arabs across the region for decades, Israeli players meeting Arab opponents on the field have learned the age-old conflict always looms. Spectators have thrown shoes and jeered. Egyptians, Saudis and others have refused handshakes or pulled out of matches.
But on Friday, politics played a vastly different role. Months after the United Arab Emirates normalized ties with Israel, an Israeli national rugby squad touched down in Dubai to meet the Emirati team on the field for the first time. The more experienced Israeli team swiftly beat the UAE 33-0 in the first 7-a-side friendly match, held without crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The rugby players and few spectators rose as Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, blared over the grassy field and through rows of skyscrapers. The players shook hands, slapped backs and bumped fists over a thumping electronic beat.
Emirati players seemed uncomfortable only when asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the UAE and Israel were never at war and for years cultivated covert ties, the federation of seven sheikhdoms formally considered Israel an enemy.
Following the establishment of formal ties last year, the public blowback in the UAE has been muted if not absent, as authorities suppress all dissent. Palestinians, for their part, have lambasted the Israel-UAE normalization as a betrayal of their cause for statehood.
“We don’t think about whether Israel is a good country or a bad country,” said Ibrahim Doree, an Emirati player, his face glistening with sweat after the game. “We just follow our leaders,” he added, declining to discuss the conflict before rushing to meet the Israelis for a barbecue dinner in the desert.
The Israelis were more emotional. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin beamed onto the field with a dramatic speech about friendship.
“This is insane, insane,” said Israeli player Ori Abutbul, shaking his head in disbelief. “I have no words when people ask me how I feel.”
Already, sport has become key to new Israeli-Emirati ties. Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, purchased a 50% stake in Beitar Jerusalem, a club notorious for its racist fan base and refusal to have an Arab player on its roster. However, reports questioning the sheikh’s finances have since put the deal on hold.
Signs of friction have emerged in the countries’ diplomatic relations, too, with the UAE resisting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to entangle the country in his campaign for re-election.
But on the field Friday, Emirati team captain Younes al-Blooshi said he didn’t want to talk about the region’s political intrigues and rivalries. He expressed relief, however, that certain old rifts were beginning to heal. Earlier this year, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries announced the end to a yearslong boycott of Qatar.
Throughout the bitter dispute, the UAE rugby team played in Qatar, but “it was pretty difficult,” al-Blooshi acknowledged, declining to elaborate.
“Thankfully, things are all clear now,” he said, noting the team would be flying direct to Doha in May, a first since 2017 when the boycott closed borders.
Israel, meanwhile, will return to competing against European countries, with the 2021 European Rugby Championship Cup beginning next month. | 1.074437 |
(UPI) — The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group conducted a passing and communication exercise with the Turkish Navy in the Mediterranean Sea this week, the Navy said on Thursday.
“It is a pleasure working with our Turkish Allies and continuing to build upon a 70-year foundation of shared values and experiences,” Rear Adm. Scott Robertson, Commander, Carrier Strike Group TWO, said Wednesday in a Navy press release.
The strike group, the carrier, cruisers and destroyers, worked with the Turkish ship TCG Gemlik on Tuesday and Wednesday using NATO operational and tactical procedures, according to the release.
“Conducting operations with Turkish Naval forces demonstrates America’s commitment to our like-minded allies and supports the notion that we are far stronger and more capable to uphold free and open conditions at sea when we stand together,” Robertson said.
The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is a multiplatform team of ships, aircraft and more than 5,000 sailors.
At the end of February the Navy announced that the strike group was leading a large flight operations exercise near the the Canary Islands.
Earlier this week the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey conducted joint maritime security patrol with the Israeli Sa’ar 4.5 ships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
And at the beginning of March USS Donald Cook joined the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in a NATO exercise in the Mediterranean Sea. | 1.132026 |
The top government prosecutor in Turkey submitted an indictment against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish opposition coalition, on Wednesday demanding the state disband the party.
The HDP rose to prominence in 2015, winning a sizable number of seats in Turkey’s parliament and eating into the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s majority in the lawmaking body. HDP members have called for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to limit violent military activity in the mostly Kurdish Turkish south. They also objected to Turkish military attacks on Kurds in Syria and Iraq and demanded respect for the rights of religious minorities.
Following the failed coup against Erdogan in 2016, the government organized another round of elections to erase HDP gains and began engaging the mass arrests of the HDP’s senior leadership. Among those arrested were the two co-chairs of the party, Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş. Demirtaş ran a failed presidential campaign from prison against Erdogan in 2018 and remains behind bars. Yüksekdağ faces at least six different criminal charges since her 2016 arrest and has only had one charge, “insulting the president,” dropped this year.
Turkey’s top prosecutor Bekir Sahin argued in his 600-page indictment this week that the HDP was a front group for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist group designated a terrorist organization by the United States. The PKK advocates for the creation of a sovereign Kurdistan and often engages in violent acts against the Turkish state, in response to increasingly severe crackdowns in Kurdish regions of Syria.
The indictment, according to Turkey’s state Anadolu news agency, concludes “HDP is linked with the PKK terror group … and that it is the terrorists’ offshoot in legal disguise.” Among the evidence in the indictment is the allegation that HDP congresses and meetings “were not like the ones founded in accordance with the Constitution and laws, but like they are platforms where slogans supporting the separatist PKK terror group and its ringleader are chanted.” It also claims the HDP had no true electoral success without agitation by the PKK.
Sahin concludes in his indictment the HDP is irreparably corrupt and must be forced to disband. Anadolu noted the indictment also urges the Turkish court system to confiscate all of the party’s assets and treasury grants.
The Turkish government moved to depose an HDP lawmaker on the same day it moved to disband the party. Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu is facing criminal charges of “spreading terrorism propaganda” for a social media post where he allegedly shared an article “in which the Kurdish militants [the PKK] urged the government to take a step toward peace,” according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). Gergerlioglu is the 14th HDP lawmaker deposed by the government despite being democratically elected and imprisoned.
“I will resist the coup against the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the will of the nation cannot be trampled,” Gergerlioglu said in a statement following the decision. “Wanting peace is not a crime.”
The communications director of the Erdogan government, Fahrettin Altun, issued a separate statement of support for the indictment on Wednesday, pressuring the court system to do the government’s bidding.
“It is an indisputable fact that the HDP has organic ties to the PKK, which Turkey, the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist entity,” Altun asserted in a statement on Twitter carried by Anadolu. Altun couched his pressure on the court system by insisting, “Whether that relationship warrants the HDP’s closure or its subjecting to another punitive measure is a question that the Constitutional Court alone can answer.”
The HDP responded to the attacks with a statement describing the move to disband the party as a “heavy blow to democracy.”
“We call on all the democratic forces, the social and political opposition, and on our people to join a common fight against this political coup,” the HDP urged.
Separately, the current co-chairs of the party, Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, expressed hope that Turkish voters would redeem the party in future elections by giving the HDP more power.
“It is our duty to create an environment in which we will not be unjustly detained in prisons,” Buldan said in her public statement, according to the anti-Islamist newspaper Cumhuriyet. “As long as the HDP exists, we will continue to stand by our peoples and do democratic politics.”
The HDP first made its mark on the national stage in the 2015 parliamentary elections, a historic vote where Turks sent a record number of women, Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds to the federal legislature. That year, the HDP made its debut in parliament with 78 seats, compared to 276 seats for the ruling AKP. A political party needs to receive over ten percent of votes to have representation in Parliament; the HDP received 12 percent that year.
The Erdogan government’s attitude towards the HDP changed dramatically after the failed coup of July 2016, which Erdogan blamed not on the PKK, but on rival cleric Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, who lives in Pennsylvania, has denied any association with the attempt to overthrow Erdogan, and multiple U.S. administrations have insisted that Turkey has failed to meet the threshold of evidence necessary to extradite the elderly cleric.
In November 2016, police arrested Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ, the co-chairs at the time, in a late-night raid that also targeted about a dozen HDP lawmakers. Authorities issued vague accusations of alliances with terrorists but did not process the cases for weeks. In December of that year, HDP leaders accused the Erdogan government of torturing Demirtaş with unnecessary isolation after authorities refused to place him in a cell near another imprisoned HDP member, Abdullah Zeydan.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | 0.07462 |
In a video address, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned Iran’s final report on the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 as “just a cynical attempt to hide the true causes for the downing of our aircraft,” according to Ukrainian state media outlet Ukrinform.
In January 2020, the Ukrainian aircraft, bound for Kyiv, exploded shortly after departing the Iranian capital of Tehran. The blast killed all 176 aboard, the majority of whom were non-Ukrainian, including 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians. Eleven Ukrainians, counting the crew, died in the crash. Tehran later claimed 147 of the victims as its own citizens, likely meaning many passengers held dual citizenship.
The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization released its final report on the crash in January 2020, just weeks after the event, blaming an unidentified air defense operator for shooting down the civilian flight to Kyiv. The government’s final report came nearly a year later, with virtually no additional information. Iranian officials vehemently denied the possibility of Iranian operators shooting the plane down in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
Kuleba, as Ukrinform translated him, derided Iran for using its report to absolve itself of any responsibility for the disaster:
The document does not cover all the circumstances; it reveals neither the causes of the tragedy nor the chain of events that led to it. This is not a report, but a collection of manipulations aimed not at establishing the truth, but acquitting the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is a great despair for Ukraine and the rest of the civilized world. Iran could not find strength to take responsibility for ensuring that such tragedies do not repeat in the future.
Within hours of the crash, Tehran set to work destroying potential evidence of wrongdoing on its part. Within two days of the aerial catastrophe, reports emerged that Iran had already “scrubbed” the crash site and had gone so far as to bulldoze away virtually all of the lingering debris. Simultaneously, Tehran got into a diplomatic row with Kyiv over the former’s refusal to release the content’s of the plane’s black boxes, critical equipment for determining the cause of a flight’s failure.
Despite continuous denials from the government and its significant efforts to obstruct an investigation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG), a branch of the Iranian military and U.S.-designated terrorist organization, admitted days later that unidentified soldiers within it ranks had shot down the airliner with a Russian Tor missile while targeting Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops.
Iranian lawmakers applauded the IRCG for its admission of responsibility, after insisting for days before that it was “obvious” Iran had not shot down the plane. In an official statement, parliamentarians described the downing of the plane as a “mistake by a member of the family.” They further heaped praise on the military saying, “the IRGC’s admission was deeply heartwarming.”
Closing his video address, Kuleba vowed the end of Iran’s “investigation” would not mark the end of Kyiv’s efforts to uncover the truth and to hold Iran accountable for its actions: “We will not let Iran hide the truth or avoid responsibility for this crime. Justice will prevail, no matter how much effort and time it takes.” | -1.832801 |
ROME — The archbishop of Aleppo lamented Wednesday the Syrian people have been forgotten on the global scale and now feel completely on their own.
In an interview with Vatican News, Aleppo Archbishop Joseph Tobji of Aleppo said his people have given up hope for political resolution to the massive destruction that has occurred in Syria.
“We no longer have hope in human beings but only in the Lord,” the Archbishop said. “Now we feel abandoned by the international community.”
International sanctions against the country have only served to throw the country into further despair, he said, and now an estimated 83 percent of the population is living below the poverty line.
“The people have nothing to do with it and they always pay,” he stated.
As Breitbart News reported, last Sunday Pope Francis offered prayers for Syria while marking the tenth anniversary of a civil war that has left untold thousands of deaths in its wake and millions displaced.
“Ten years ago the bloody conflict in Syria began, which caused one of the most serious humanitarian catastrophes of our time,” the pope said following his weekly Angelus prayer.
The war, which began on March 15, 2011, has produced “an unknown number of dead and wounded, millions of refugees, thousands of disappeared, destruction, violence of all kinds and immense suffering for all the population, especially for the most vulnerable, such as children, women and the elderly,” the pope said.
While expressing his affection and offering prayers for the Syrian people, Francis also appealed for support from the international community to help rebuild the shattered country.
“I renew my heartfelt appeal to the parties to the conflict, so that they show signs of good will, so that a glimmer of hope can open up for the exhausted population,” he said.
“I also hope for a decisive and renewed commitment, constructive and supportive, of the international community, so that, once it has laid down its arms, we can mend the social fabric and start reconstruction and economic recovery,” he added.
In his interview Wednesday, Archbishop Tobji expressed gratitude to Francis for his words, saying that the pope’s closeness is a “joy and consolation” for Syrians in their feeling of abandonment.
The archbishop went on to note that the Christian community in Syrian has shrunk to less than a quarter of the number they had prior to the conflict. Many young people and professionals are fleeing the country, he said, while the poorest and most defenseless remain.
Despite the heaviness of the ordeal, the archbishop noted a few positive signs, such as the renovation of some churches in the country and plans for renovating even more.
“This is a sign that, despite many difficulties, we are still here,” he said.
Follow @tdwilliamsrome | -1.472276 |
In a major breakthrough, Israeli scientists have grown mouse embryos in artificial wombs and have said humans could be next.
In a study published in the journal Nature, stem cell biologist of the Weizmann Institute of Science Dr. Jacob Hanna described growing the embryos into fetuses until day ten – about half the gestational term for mice. About 1,000 embryos have gestated thus far.
“We have grown hundreds of mice in this way, in a method that has taken seven years to develop, and I’m still captivated every time I see it,” Hanna told The Times of Israel.
“This could be relevant to other mammals including humans, though we acknowledge that there are ethical issues related to growing humans outside the body,” he said.
According to Hanna, the development will answer fundamental questions about the earliest stages of organ formation and advance medical breakthroughs, and may allow scientists to understand why miscarriages happen.
In 2017, a team in Philadelphia created an artificial womb in 2017 successfully grew fetal lambs for over four weeks, however the lambs already had their organs at the start. | -0.540176 |
United Nations mediator Martin Griffiths warned the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday the civil war in Yemen is “back in full force,” with new military fronts opening, just a month after the Biden administration lifted the terrorist designation for the Iran-backed Houthi insurgency.
The Yemen civil war has its roots in the 2011 “Arab Spring” unrest across the Middle East, but it went hot in 2014 as the Houthis captured the capital of Sanaa and ejected the internationally-recognized government of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Hadi was the leader who took over after the Arab Spring disruptions; the despot dislodged by the alleged flourishing of Middle Eastern democracy, Ali Abdullah Saleh, threw in with the Houthis and helped them overthrow his replacement. Saleh died of acute complications from no longer being useful to the Houthis in December 2017.
Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition to restore the civilian government of Yemen and began intervening in the civil war in 2015. The Saudi coalition has been criticized for causing excessive civilian casualties with its airstrikes.
The Trump administration formally designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization near the end of President Donald Trump’s term, but the Biden administration lifted the designation in February, ostensibly because classifying the Houthis as terrorists made it difficult to get humanitarian aid to Yemenis living in Houthi-controlled territory. Biden also announced the United States would no longer support the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.
The Houthis rewarded Biden by going on a massive terrorism spree, launching a constant stream of missile and drone attacks at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia and within Yemen. The Biden administration said it was “alarmed” by these developments last week.
On Tuesday, Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council the Houthis are sustaining a major offensive against Marib, along with “military escalations in Hajjah and Taiz and Hudaydah.”
“Fighting forces on both sides have suffered heavy losses in this unnecessary battle. I see shocking reports, as I am sure we all do, of children increasingly getting drawn into the war effort and deprived of their future,” Griffiths said.
Marib is a major concern because a significant number of Yemenis displaced from their homes in other parts of the country are camped there. It is also a valuable oil and gas hub, which the Houthis desperately wish to control for its revenue and the leverage it would bring during negotiations for control of Yemen.
The Houthis appear to be using Biden’s overtures as an opportunity to seize Marib by any means necessary, launching a furious offensive with steadily mounting casualties. A source close to the United Nations told AFP on Monday that the Houthis are “holding back negotiations” because they want to “see how far they can go” in Marib.
Hudaydah is a strategic port city that has long been under siege by the Houthis. Fighting intensified around the port in December with the shelling of an industrial compound, a strike denounced by the United Nations and described by the Yemeni government as an “ugly terrorist attack.”
Taiz is the region where the Houthis murdered several children on Monday by firing a missile into a school. Yemeni government forces had hoped to distract the Houthis from their offensives against Marib and Hudaydah by pushing them out of Taiz.
Griffiths also reported the deaths of 44 African migrants at Houthi hands in the occupied capital of Sanaa last week. The migrants were reportedly protesting poor conditions and abuses at a detention facility when the Houthis fired tear gas into the crowd and started a fire. Griffiths recommended an “independent investigation into the cause of the fire.”
“The Houthi militia committed a gross and heinous violation of the right of migrants in Sanaa,” the Arab Coalition said Tuesday after working with the Yemeni government to airlift 160 African migrants out of Yemen.
“The death and violence must stop. We call on the Houthis to accept an immediate, comprehensive, nationwide ceasefire and to cease all attacks. In the meantime, we will continue to hold Houthi leadership to account,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council on the same day Griffths spoke. | -1.893105 |
(UPI) — The guided missile cruiser USS Monterey conducted joint maritime security patrol with the Israeli Sa’ar 4.5 ships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea this week.
“Regional security and stability are directly linked to enhanced cooperation, understanding and collaboration with our partners,” U.S. Navy Capt. Joe Baggett, USS Monterey commanding officer, said in a Navy press release.
“Through operations and training such as this, U.S. and IDF enhance existing cooperative relationships and take great strides in safeguarding the region’s vital link to the global economy,” Baggett said.
According to the Navy, the patrols “enhanced interoperability between the maritime nations through communication and command and control scenarios between the two nations.”
Commanding officers were also able to hold a cross deck meeting while observing COVID-19 safety protocols.
Monterey, which is homeported in Norfolk, Va., departed for deployment on Feb. 18 with the rest of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group.
Earlier this month, the Navy announced that the strike group was conducting flight operations near the Canary Islands off the West African Coast.
Last week the Marine Corps led Israeli Defense Forces on a tour of simulation centers at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune.
According to the Marines, Camp Lejeune has several simulation centers to use prior to conducting live-fire training and scenario-based training.
The tour included the Infantry Immersion Trainer, Simulator Integration Center and Range Control Operations Complex, Gun Fighter Gym, a Marathon target system field test and a meeting with Advanced Infantry Training Battalion-East leadership. | 0.247225 |
(UPI) — Britain’s Royal Air Force announced a five-day bombing campaign on Monday against Islamic State forces in Iraq, in support of Iraqi ground troops.
Typhoon fighter planes conducted airstrikes, using Storm Shadow missiles and Paveway IV guided bombs, in northern Iraq last week, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The statements itemized attacks on IS forces based in caves on Mar. 10, additional Typhoon attacks in northern Iraq on Mar. 11, and a return to attacks on caves on Mar. 12 and Mar. 14.
“The Iraqi forces recently identified a significant number of Daesh [IS] fighters using cave complexes south-west of Erbil,” the ministry statement said.
“The caves identified were assessed to be particularly difficult targets and two RAF Typhoon FGR4s were therefore tasked to conduct strikes in support of ground forces from the highly-capable Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service,” the statement said.
A RAF statement on Monday stressed that no civilians were observed in the mountainous terrain where the attacks occurred, adding that all weapons were confirmed to have struck their intended targets.
The Storm Shadow is a French-British cruise missile, with a range of 350 miles and the capability of flying at turbojet at Mach 0.8.
The Paveway IV is a laser-guided bomb in which the guidance system is attached to a standard Mk 82 general-purpose bomb modified for increased penetration performance.
The RAF has flown continuous missions against IS strongholds since 2019, most recently on Feb. 19.
The air war in Iraq is part of the Special Operations Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, a military campaign against IS in Syria and Iraq which has involved Britain, the United States, France, Turkey, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. | 0.517051 |
Israeli archaeologists have unearthed dozens of 2,000 year old Dead Sea biblical scrolls, in a stunning discovery in a desert cave.
The unearthed trove also includes a host of other artifacts including a huge, intact 10,500-year-old woven basket, the oldest of its kind.
“For the first time in approximately 60 years, archaeological excavations have uncovered fragments of a biblical scroll,” the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a statement.
The scroll parchments are Greek translations from the books of Zechariah and Nahum from the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, with only the name of God is written in Hebrew in the texts and were discovered after archeologists rappelled down a steep cliff and dug in the so-called Cave of Horror, named for the dozens of skeletons excavated there in the 1960s.
“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth, digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind,” said Israel Antiquities Authority’s director Israel Hasson said.
“The newly discovered scroll fragments are a wake-up call to the state. Resources must be allocated for the completion of this historically important operation. We must ensure that we recover all the data that has not yet been discovered in the caves before the robbers do. Some things are beyond value,” Hasson added.
One fragment reads: “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates.”
The IAA said it had also excavated a 6,000 year old skeleton of a child, arrowheads and coins believed to be from the Bar Kochba revolt period and the woven basket.
“As far as we know, this is the oldest basket in the world that has been found completely intact and its importance is, therefore, immense,” the IAA said.
One IAA archaeologist said returning to excavate the Cave of Horror happened by accident after she stumbled on a Roman-era sandal during a bathroom break.
“I crouched to pee and suddenly I saw something that didn’t look like sand, and I realized it was a sole of a shoe,” Oriya Amichay told the Haaretz newspaper, adding that her male colleagues would likely have missed it. | -0.026941 |
March 16 (UPI) — Archaeologists have recovered fragments from a new set of Dead Sea Scrolls, the first found in 60 years.
The remnants of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, including verses from the books of Zechariah and Nahum, were recovered from a cave on the West Bank.
The discovery, made by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists, was announced at a press conference on Tuesday.
“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth, digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind,” Israel Hasson, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a press release.
Hasson said it was imperative that Israel’s government fund ongoing archaeological excavations of the region’s caves.
Archaeologists suggest the caves were used to stash valuables more than 2,000 years ago at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, a rebellion of Judean communities against the region’s Roman rulers.
Ever since the first Dead Sea Scrolls were found some 70 years ago, the region’s caves have been targeted by looters.
“The aim of this national initiative is to rescue these rare and important heritage assets from the robbers’ clutches,” Hasson said. “The newly discovered scroll fragments are a wake-up call to the state.”
“Resources must be allocated for the completion of this historically important operation. We must ensure that we recover all the data that has not yet been discovered in the caves, before the robbers do. Some things are beyond value,” Hasson said.
The newly recovered scroll fragments were found in what’s called the “Cave of Horror,” which was first discovered in 2017.
To reach the cave, archaeologists had to rappel more than 260 feet from the clifftop above. Researchers used drones to investigate inaccessible portions of the cave.
In addition to the historic texts, archaeologists recovered a collection of rare coins, as well as a 6,000-year-old skeleton of a child, most likely female, mummified and wrapped in a cloth.
Researchers also recovered a collection of lice combs and a 10,500-year-old basket, which IAA authorities said could be the oldest in the world.
The Dead Sea Scrolls revealed ancient Biblical verses written in Greek.
One of the verses from the Book of Nahum was translated as follows: “The mountains quake because of Him, And the hills melt. The earth heaves before Him, The world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His wrath? Who can resist His fury? His anger pours out like fire, and rocks are shattered because of Him.”
The translation is slightly different from other copies of the same text, offering insights into the ways Biblical verses changed over time.
“Now, in this national operation, which continues the work of previous projects, new finds and evidence have been discovered and unearthed that shed even more light on the different periods and cultures of the region,” said Hananya Hizmi, head staff officer of the Archaeology Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.
“The finds attest to a rich, diverse and complex way of life, as well as to the harsh climatic conditions that prevailed in the region hundreds and thousands of years ago,” Hizmi said.
UPI contributed to this article. | 0.527768 |
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the European Parliament on Monday he has “serious concerns” about the Turkish government’s behavior on various issues, “ranging from the eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish decision to buy the Russian air defense system S-400 or related to democratic rights in Turkey.”
“But I believe NATO at least can provide an important platform for discussing these issues, raising these issues and having serious debates and discussions about different concerns,” Stoltenberg continued, suggesting Turkey has not crossed any diplomatic lines of no return.
Stoltenberg’s concerns in the Eastern Mediterranean revolve around maritime territorial disputes with Greece, and its partners in Israel and Cyprus, that seem to be either escalating dangerously or ramping down on any given day.
The current trend is escalation, as Turkey notified Greece, Cyprus, and Israel on Tuesday they will need to seek permission from Ankara before “assuming work on a proposed undersea power cable in eastern Mediterranean waters.” The project would link the power grids of the three nations with the longest undersea cable ever built.
The conflict is superficially about offshore drilling rights, with Turkey claiming the lion’s share of the Mediterranean on the basis of its long coastline. Turkey amplified its claims in a deal with the Tripoli-based Libyan government, denounced as invalid by Greece, that gave Turkey drilling rights off the Libyan coast in exchange for military support against rival Libyan forces.
Many regional analysts believe Turkey is after much more than drilling rights in the Mediterranean. Foreign Policy argued in January that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees his claims in the Mediterranean as a vital step toward rebuilding the Ottoman Empire, with himself as the “caliph” of a rising Islamic superpower, and restructuring the balance of power in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — an agenda clearly of interest to NATO.
The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday saw Erdogan’s near-term goal as separating Israel from Greece and Cyprus, and possibly resetting relations with a skeptical Egypt, thus isolating the Greeks and alleviating international pressure for domestic political reform in Turkey. Wooing Israel has not worked out for Erdogan, so he is shifting to “blackmail” by threatening the Israel-Greece-Cyprus power line project.
The Jerusalem Post portrayed Erdogan as a bull in the geopolitical china shop, blundering from one confrontation to another as his diplomatic outreach efforts fizzle, refusing to accept that Europe, Israel, and Middle Eastern states aligned with the West are never going to become best friends with the authoritarian Islamist ruler of a prison state:
Turkey’s new note shows its real face compared to the claims of reconciliation last year. It has also slammed Kosovo for opening relations with Israel and has tried to sabotage the new Abraham Accords with the UAE and Bahrain. Ankara is also angry that Sudan and Israel are now making peace. These are setbacks for the belligerent country that backs Hamas and has tried to isolate Israel over the last decade. Up until about 15 years ago, Turkey and Israel had good relations. Since then, however, Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power and has become increasingly authoritarian while his country has turned into a leading opponent of the Jewish state. It even compared Israel to Nazi Germany in comments at the UN in 2019. Now, Turkey finds itself isolated in the region. Its only friends are Qatar, Hamas, and the weak Libyan government, as well as some extremists in northern Syria known more for ethnic cleansing and working as mercenaries for Ankara than accomplishing anything else.
Turkey’s dogged insistence on buying S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia was Stoltenberg’s second listed concern. The Trump administration imposed sanctions against Turkey over the purchase in December 2020. Among other objections to Erdogan’s arms deal, the U.S. and NATO were very uncomfortable with Turkey having both advanced F-35 fighters and the Russian missile designed to shoot them down.
In late February, the Pentagon urged Turkey to dump the S-400 missile battery already delivered by Russia in 2019 and cancel the shipment of further missiles. The Pentagon strongly suggested Turkey will not be allowed to rejoin the F-35 program until the Russian missiles are gone.
Erdogan’s government responded by saying it might buy even more Russian missiles, in addition to working on its own indigenous air defense systems. Turkish officials claimed they have not “noticed any direct effect” from U.S. sanctions and anticipated “no clear consequences” for pursuing more arms deals with Moscow.
Democratic rights in Turkey, Stoltenberg’s third stated concern, are looking decidedly unhealthy. Human rights organizations like Freedom House and Human Rights Watch rate Turkey as “unfree” and getting worse. Erdogan was among the many world leaders to use the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to crack down on political opposition, stifle dissent, and increase surveillance over his population.
Turkey is one of the worst countries in the world for press freedom, with hundreds of journalists imprisoned since the attempted coup in 2016. “Insulting” Erdogan is a crime under Turkish law and he takes offense rather easily.
Erdogan nevertheless claims to see press freedom as a core Turkish value provided media outlets deliver nothing but “accurate and honest reporting” while avoiding “lies and disinformation.” It is difficult to see how NATO partners can use diplomacy to help Turkey solve problems that its authoritarian ruler insists Turkey does not have.
Balanced against all of Stoltenberg’s concerns is the fact that NATO clearly does not want to eject Turkey, fearful that it could drift more firmly into the orbits of Russia or China. The Europeans are also deeply nervous about Turkey’s ability to flood them with refugees, a threat Erdogan is not shy about making when he feels threatened.
NATO also values Turkish counter-terrorism assistance, a point Stoltenberg himself made last week when he described Turkey as “extremely important” to NATO, citing its proximity to the Islamic State battlegrounds in Syria and Iraq.
Turkey has noted growing sympathy from NATO for its own paramount terrorism concern, the violent Kurdish separatist group known as the PKK, which Turkey claims is indistinguishable from Kurdish militias in Syria that were key Western allies during the Syrian civil war and the battle against ISIS. | -0.625716 |
Kurdish members of the Iraqi Parliament (MP) and another MP got into a physical brawl Monday night over the latter’s reported insults to the Kurdistan Regional Government and its leaders, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported.
Yousef al-Kalabi, an Iraqi MP and former spokesperson for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), allegedly incensed the Kurdish MPs with “verbal abuse,” Rudaw learned from MP Mayada Muhammad, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Neither Muhammad nor Rudaw identified the Kurdish MPs who participated in the fight. As of press time, Kalabi has not publicly commented on the fight.
The PMF is an Iran-backed coalition of mostly Shia Muslim militias, some of which the United States officially designates as terrorist organizations. In March 2018, the Iraqi government formally recognized the PMF as a branch of the national armed forces in recognition of their efforts fighting the Islamic State.
Muhammad did not specify any of Kalabi’s comments, saying instead that “Kalabi transgressed the sanctities of the Kurdistan region and its leaders.” He did, however, assert his belief that Kalabi sought to exacerbate already tense struggles between the Kurds and federal authorities.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), headquartered in Erbil, northern Iraq, has been at odds with the government in Baghdad for years over a range of issues, including the region’s independence.
In 2017, the KRG staged a “non-binding” independence referendum in which over 90 percent of voters backed the KRG becoming an independent nation. No Middle Eastern nation, including Iraq, recognized the legitimacy of the vote and the U.S. rejected Kurdish self-sovereignty, despite viewing the Kurds as a critical ally against the Islamic State.
The KRG’s military, the Peshmerga, played critical roles in the battles to liberate Iraqi territories from ISIS, including in Mosul, a city of 2 million people prior to Islamic State occupation. The Peshmerga also prevented ISIS from conquering the oil-rich, ethnically diverse city of Kirkuk after the Iraqi military fled.
A subsequent armed conflict between the KRG and Baghdad saw the Kurds lose significant territory in the north, including Kirkuk. PMF fighters played a significant role on the side of Baghdad.
Though the Kurds retain representation in Baghdad, tensions remain high between Erbil and the federal government. Monday night’s fistfight comes amid the latest row between them over a budget dispute and looming vote on a judicial reform package, Rudaw noted.
The KRG is currently seeking additional funds from the federal government for the 2021 budget while the proposal remains unfinished. Simultaneously, the parliament remains deadlocked over the proposed addition of four Islamic members, two Shia and two Sunni, to the federal court committee who would hold veto power and an array of other legal tools to alter legislation. The Muslim members would presumably come from Arab, rather than Kurdish, communities. | -0.287355 |
Hundreds of protesters spilled onto city streets across Jordan on Sunday for the second straight day to demand government reform after an oxygen shortage at a state hospital in the city of Salt killed at least six coronavirus patients Saturday.
Demonstrators also marched in defiance of a reimposed all-day curfew on Fridays in Jordan, which the country’s government ordered in response to a recent surge in new coronavirus cases nationwide.
“Down with the government. We don’t fear coronavirus,” hundreds of youth chanted in the northern city of Irbid, according to Reuters.
“I am here because of the catastrophe. We want to put on trial those responsible for this and then bring down the government,” a protester in Salt named Ahmad Hiyari said on Sunday. He gathered along with hundreds of fellow residents near the Salt state hospital where the oxygen shortage took place on March 13. Outside of Salt, protesters gathered in the southern city of Karak and in the port city of Aqaba.
Roughly 150 relatives of coronavirus patients at the Salt hospital gathered outside the facility Saturday after hearing of the oxygen shortage. The hospital was “surrounded by a large deployment of police and security officers, who prevented the families from entering,” the Times of Israel reported on March 13.
One such relative, Fares Kharabsha, told the newspaper both of his parents were being treated at the Salt hospital for coronavirus during the crisis. Kharabsha said he was inside the hospital when it ran out of oxygen and witnessed “medical and civil defense workers and people from outside the hospital” rushing into the facility “with portable oxygen devices to try to prevent more deaths.”
“They resuscitated a large number of people, including my father and mother,” Kharabsha said.
“I do not know how many, but I saw people who died,” he added.
Another relative of a Salt hospital patient, Habis Kharabsha, told the Times that the medical facility suffered from a deficit of sufficient services overall.
“At the isolation department, there was only one doctor and two nurses for 50 or 60 patients; this is mad,” he said.
The Prime Minister of Jordan, Bisher al-Khasawneh, asked Jordanian Health Minister Nathir Obeidat to resign over the scandal. Jordan’s state-owned newspaper Al-Ra’i confirmed that Obeidat resigned Saturday. Upon his resignation, Obeidat said he “bore full responsibility for the initial deaths of six coronavirus patients” as a direct result of the two-hour-long oxygen outage, according to Reuters.
Jordanian government officials said they had launched an investigation into the oxygen shortage on Saturday, detaining Salt hospital’s director and his aides later that same day in connection with the crisis. An additional three deaths at the hospital over the weekend may be linked to the oxygen outage, according to Jordanian authorities. | 0.063405 |
Syracuse University hosted fired CNN contributor and Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, who has been accused of Antisemitism. Hill gave a virtual talk on black voter “suppression.”
Hill, who has advocated for the destruction of Israel, gave a virtual talk at Syracuse that outlined “the history of voter suppression in America and the impact of black voters,” according to the university’s website.
The event was part of the university’s “Racial Equity Academic Symposium,” and was presented “by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Division of Faculty Affairs in the Office of Academic Affairs.”
The announcement came days after Hill stated that the goal of the Marxist political organization Black Lives Matter is to “dismantle” the “Zionist project.”
“Black Lives Matter, very explicitly, is talking about the dismantling of a Zionist project — and very explicitly embracing BDS on those grounds,” said Hill. “So it’s analytical — there’s also a very clear political mission that I think is far more progressed and more radical than we had even twenty years ago in the mainstream.”
Temple U professor and BLM activist Marc Lamont Hill says the goal of Black Lives Matter is to "dismantle the Zionist project" and is "very explicitly embracing BDS" pic.twitter.com/V9hKAm5jby — Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 14, 2021
“BDS” stands for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which specifically targets the state of Israel.
In 2018, CNN fired Hill after his apparent call for the annihilation of Israel and his defense of violence by Palestinians during an appearance at the United Nations, stating that he wanted a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” which means the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State.
Meanwhile, Temple University announced that it would not punish professor Hill for his incendiary comments on Israel.
That same year, Hill invoked the name of convicted terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled during a panel discussion hosted by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
“To me, ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ was always problematic, because this ain’t the posture I want to have against a violent state,” said Hill.
“If I’ma do this, I ain’t trying to be like this,” added Hill with his hand up. “I’m going Leila Khaled style, right? But, yeah, yeah, I know, I’m probably fired right now. But, fuck it, might as well get it done then, right? Might as well go all the way.”
Watch Below:
During the panel, Hill was also wearing a sweatshirt with large letters on it, which read, “ASSATA TAUGHT ME,” in an apparent reference to convicted cop killer Assata Shakur.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram. | -0.0173 |
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday weighed in on President Joe Biden and his administration showing interest in rejoining the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Pompeo said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Company” the interest in rejoining the deal with Iran is “truly a head-scratcher” because it gives the “largest state sponsor of terror” and “most antisemitic nation on the planet” a “pathway to a nuclear program.”
“We created a more stable, more peaceful Middle East. And you can see the impacts on Americans all across our country, whether that’s through higher gas prices that come with the risk Iran will be ascendant to all of those things that reduce security here at home. We can do better than that. The Trump administration did. I hope this administration won’t go back, won’t give away the store for the sake of some deal that is not going to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” Pompeo outlined. “They are the largest state sponsor of terror. They are the most antisemitic nation on the planet, wanting to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. This is unacceptable, and the United States should maintain the policies that we did, which were pushing back against them in a serious way.”
Host Stuart Varney asked why the Biden administration would want to rejoin the deal.
“Stuart, it’s a great question,” Pompeo replied. “You know, eight years of President Obama’s policy, the deal, the same team is around — Wendy Sherman, some of all the same cast of characters. I think they’re just wedded to this deal which has clearly demonstrated it failed. The deal is dead. The Europeans have come to know this as well. I can’t explain why they would want to go back to it. It’s truly a head-scratcher. It doesn’t do the central thing it set out to do, which is to close out all pathways for Iran to have a nuclear weapon but instead gives them money, gives them resources and a clear, patient pathway to a nuclear program.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 2.24169 |
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi insurgents, removed from the list of terrorist organizations by the Biden administration last month, fired a missile into a school on Sunday, killing three children along with 15 soldiers from the internationally-recognized government of Yemen.
The attack occurred in a district called Kadha in southwestern Yemen, controlled by the Houthi insurgents until government forces recaptured it last week. According to local residents, the Houthis occupied the school until pro-government fighters pushed them out of Kadha.
Kadha is located in a region called Taiz that has seen intense fighting between the Houthis and government troops in recent weeks. The government is attempting to regain control of the key port city of Hodeidah and appears to be making some progress, with air support from the allied coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni government also hopes to distract the Houthis from their own major offensive into the central province of Marib, which currently houses almost a million refugees driven from other parts of Yemen during the seven-year civil war. Yemen is already the scene of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and the situation would become even direr if the Houthis were able to push deep into Marib.
The Biden administration complained over the weekend that the Houthis seem more interested in capturing more territory than following a peace plan.
“We now have a sound plan for a nationwide cease-fire with elements that would immediately address Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation directly. That plan has been before the Houthi leadership for a number of days,” said U.S. envoy Tim Lenderking on Friday.
The stated reason for delisting the Houthis as a terrorist organization was persuading them to stop interfering with humanitarian aid shipments. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Friday that while “all the warring parties” bear some of the blame for the horrifying situation in Yemen, the “most egregious” disruptions of humanitarian aid have been perpetrated by the Houthis.
Houthi leaders on Monday applauded Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for ostensibly pledging to remove all foreign influence from Yemen.
According to State Department spokesman Ned Price on Sunday, Blinken told the U.N. special envoy for Yemen that the Biden administration “supports a unified, stable Yemen free from foreign influence and that there is no military solution to the conflict.”
The Houthis took this as a “positive” sign the U.S. will pressure Saudi Arabia into withdrawing its military support for the government of Yemen, while the Houthis would continue to enjoy economic, political, and military support from Iran. | -1.012805 |
The Biden administration’s first encounter with Chinese diplomats in Alaska on Thursday was an utter debacle, as the Chinese disregarded protocols to lecture the stunned Biden team on American “human rights violations” and reject all American criticism of the tyranny in Beijing as meaningless bluster.
Diplomatic etiquette was quickly abandoned as top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi launched an 18-minute tirade against the U.S., touting Beijing’s foreign policy as superior because “we don’t believe in invading through the use of force, or to topple other regimes through various means, or to massacre the people of other countries.”
Yang insisted the U.S. is the “champion” of launching cyberattacks on other countries, said U.S. positions do not “represent international public opinion,” and said “many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States” – unlike China, where unelected leaders allegedly “have the wide support of the Chinese people.”
“China has made decisive achievements and important strategic gains in fighting COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus], and we have achieved a full victory in ending absolute poverty in China,” Yang boasted.
In the most astounding passage of his tirade, Yang – speaking on behalf of a government that has perpetrated brutal religious repression, genocide, and slave labor – said China hopes the U.S. will “do better on human rights” in the future:
China has made steady progress in human rights and the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well. The United States has also said that countries can’t rely on force in today’s world to resolve the challenges we face. And it is a failure to use various means to topple the so-called “authoritarian” states. And the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently. So we do hope that for our two countries, it’s important that we manage our respective affairs well instead of deflecting the blame on somebody else in this world.
Yang’s was followed by a shorter but equally truculent lecture from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who rejected “unwarranted accusations from the U.S. side” and claimed “China’s legitimate rights and interests have come under outright suppression” from the United States.
“China urges the U.S. side to fully abandon the hegemonic practice of willfully interfering in China’s internal affairs. This has been a longstanding issue and it should be changed,” Wang said, demanding the immediate reversal of sanctions imposed on March 17 against Chinese officials for their role in the oppression of Hong Kong.
“This is not supposed to be the way one should welcome his guests, and we wonder if this is a decision made by the United States to try to gain some advantage in dealing with China, but certainly this is miscalculated and only reflects the vulnerability and weakness inside the United States,” Wang said of the sanctions.
The flabbergasted Biden team was reduced to begging reporters to stay after a scheduled four-minute photo session so they could muster some sort of rebuttal to the Chinese attack. The best thing they could come up with was National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s attempt to zing China by saying “a confident country is able to look hard at its own shortcomings and constantly seek to improve” – which is just a weak sound-bite imitation of the 18-minute harangue Sullivan had just endured from his Chinese guests.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) provided an instructive comparison of the background comments made by members of the two delegations after the encounter. The Chinese took a victory lap and said they felt bad about pummeling Biden’s team, but they were overcome by righteous indignation over the rude reception they received, while the Biden official whined that the Chinese talked for too long:
Chinese state media later quoted an unnamed Chinese official – in a background briefing after the first day of talks – that China was sincere in its dialogue with the US, but the American side had overrun its opening remarks and made groundless accusations against China. “This is not a way of hospitality, nor does it conform to diplomatic etiquette. China has responded solemnly to this,” the official said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. In another sign of tension, the two sides did not sit down for a meal together, generally customary in meetings of this kind. And a senior US official, speaking on background afterwards, countered that the US side had arrived hoping to lay out “the principles, interests, and values that animate our engagement with Beijing” but that the Chinese side “seems to have arrived intent on grandstanding, focused on public theatrics and dramatics over substance”. The official also criticized the Chinese side for “violating protocol” by speaking for far longer than the agreed-upon two minutes.
The Biden team’s failure in Alaska is profoundly disturbing for several reasons. Firstly, the entire encounter was foolishly structured in a way that could only benefit the Chinese dictatorship. As the SCMP pointed out, the Biden White House treated the meeting like a meaningless bit of diplomatic theater all week, a “one-off with little chance of going anywhere.”
That made it a perfect venue for the kind of “grandstanding” by China that Biden’s people complained about. Much of the world is bowing to Beijing’s tyranny while being fully aware of its terrible actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the South China Sea; resistance is not a matter of “raising awareness” about China’s offenses. A bold, confident, aggressive, utterly amoral tyranny was not about to lose a grandstanding competition against an “America Last” White House.
The second problem flows from that America Last attitude: everything Yang and Wang threw at the visibly unnerved Blinken and Sullivan echoes the Democrat Party’s vicious critique of the American people.
The Chinese know exactly what they are doing when they invoke Black Lives Matter rhetoric to hector a Democrat administration about human rights in America. They were merely throwing the rhetoric of Blinken and Sullivan’s own party right back in their faces. What response could the Biden team have made? “No, black Americans aren’t getting slaughtered in the streets by racist cops, no matter what our party has been saying for the past year! You take that back!”
The third and most disturbing issue is that all of this was entirely predictable, but somehow the Biden team and its intelligence briefers were taken completely by surprise. The briefest perusal of Chinese state media reveals the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) constantly uses left-wing American rhetoric and media coverage to attack the United States. Everything Yang and Wang said came straight out of boilerplate editorials in the Global Times and People’s Daily.
Alaska was the most heavily-telegraphed diplomatic ambush in modern history, but somehow the Biden White House walked right into it and looked astonished to find themselves at the Red Wedding instead of a Brookings Institution roundtable discussion. | -1.316792 |
North Korea announced the abrupt end of diplomatic ties with Malaysia Friday in response to Kuala Lumpur’s “unpardonable crime” of extraditing a North Korean citizen to the United States for trial.
The Malaysian government reacted initially with dismay, then pressured North Korea’s embassy officials to vacate the country as swiftly as possible.
The North Korean in question, Mun Chol Myong, is the first citizen of the country extradited to the United States. According to the FBI, Mun, a businessman, routinely violated sanctions on the rogue communist regime by laundering money and shipments of goods to North Korea. American authorities accuse Mun of specializing in laundering “prohibited luxury goods” by shipping them illicitly from Singapore to North Korea.
Malaysia has an extradition treaty with America, which it has decided to honor in Mun’s case but never has before with any North Korean citizen.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a belligerent missive Friday declaring the nation would sever its diplomatic ties with Malaysia.
“On March 17, the Malaysian authority committed an unpardonable crime, in the end, of forcibly delivering the innocent citizen of the DPRK [North Korea] to the United States by having charged him with ‘criminal,'” the statement read:
This world-startling incident is an out-and-out product of anti-DPRK conspiracy created from the heinous policy of hostility by the United States aimed at isolating and suffocating our country and the pro-U.S. subservience by the Malaysian authority.
The statement defended Mun, without naming him, as a practitioner of “legitimate external trade activities.” It then referred to the government of Malaysia as “illegal and lawless riff-raff”:
It is nefarious act [sic] and unpardonably heavy crime that the Malaysian authority – a government as it is nominally called, though, – offered our citizen as a sacrifice of the U.S. hostile move in defiance of the acknowledged international laws, not content with its blind acceptance of and obedience to the U.S. unjust pressure.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry then accused Malaysian officials of enjoying a “drinking party” with American officials that resulted in a quid pro quo commitment to “sacrifice” a North Korean citizen.
“With regard to the grave situation that has prevailed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK hereby announces total severance of the diplomatic relations with Malaysia which committed super-large hostile act against the DPRK in subservience to the U.S. pressure,” the statement concluded. “From this very moment, the Malaysian authority will bear full responsibility for all the consequences to be incurred between the two countries.”
The North Koreans also warned America would “pay a price” for the extradition, without elaborating.
Malaysia’s New Straits Times reported Friday North Korean diplomats had already begun packing to go home.
“Yes, we will be shutting down. We are now discussing the plans with our staff here and liaising with our government,” the charge d’affaires of the embassy, Kim Yu Song, told the newspaper.
Malaysia’s government issued a statement shortly thereafter rushing the North Koreans, issuing a 48-hour ultimatum for diplomats to leave the country permanently.
“Malaysia denounces the decision as unfriendly and unconstructive, disrespecting the spirit of mutual respect and good neighborly relations among members of the international community,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in the statement.
Malaysia and North Korea enjoyed peaceful diplomatic relations for decades beginning in the 1970s, despite Malaysia’s amicable ties with the United States and the fact that North Korea and America have been technically at war since 1950.
In 2017, Malaysia expelled North Korea’s ambassador to the country, Kang Chol, in the aftermath of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, dictator Kim Jong-un’s brother. Kim Jong-nam died in Kuala Lumpur Airport after one of his assistants, according to airport surveillance footage, grabbed his face. He suffered a seizure shortly after and Malaysian authorities confirmed he had been exposed to VX nerve agent, a chemical weapon. The North Korean regime formally rejected the autopsy performed by Malaysian professionals on Kim Jong-nam, outraging Kuala Lumpur.
After expressing outrage at North Korea’s “shocking” and “rude” diplomatic broadsides, Malaysia expelled the country’s ambassador.
The spat with Malaysia is the first sign that North Korea’s most recent campaign against the United States has begun to involve third parties. Pyongyang attacked America on several occasions this week in light of a report surfacing in Reuters that the administration of President Joe Biden had repeatedly attempted to reach out to North Korean leaders since February, but had been met with silence.
Choe Son Hui, first vice minister of Foreign Affairs, issued a statement this week confirming the report.
“The U.S. has tried to contact us since mid-February through several routes including New York,” the statement read in part. “We have already declared our stand that no DPRK [North Korea]-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK. Therefore, we will disregard such an attempt of the U.S. in the future, too.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | -0.263262 |
The Foreign Ministry of Russia claimed on Thursday to have “started” working on setting up a virtual debate between the country’s leader, Vladimir Putin, and American counterpart Joe Biden – an invitation Biden has not and is unlikely to accept.
Putin personally invited Biden to a “dialogue,” broadcast live on global internet platforms, in response to Biden agreeing in an interview this week that Putin can accurately be described as a “killer.” Putin insisted this debate would have to take place either on Friday or Monday as soon as possible, as he hoped to “rest” during the weekend.
Neither Biden personally nor the White House has accepted the invitation, stating only that Biden had plans to travel on Friday. This has not stopped the Foreign Ministry from unspecified planning to make the event happen.
Russian news network TASS claimed to have reached out to the Foreign Ministry on Thursday, asking if any preliminary measures are being taken to ensure that the dialogue takes place. Unnamed sources replied, “yes, we have already started.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added some details on Putin’s proposal on Friday, stating that Biden’s lack of an answer on it did not mean that it could not happen and that it would most likely happen on Monday since White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had noted that Biden had travel plans on Friday.
“This means that it [the discussion] cannot take place today. But as President Putin said, it’s either Friday or Monday, because on the weekend, Putin won’t be in very comfortable conditions to organize communication with the US president,” Peskov told reporters, “so Monday is still an option. Another option is [to hold the talks] at any time convenient for the US president.”
“You know, there are open and secure channels. There are secure video channels that can be opened to the public. Actually, Putin meant a public conversation that would be open to the people of the two countries,” Peskov added.
Peskov added that Russian diplomats are working to communicate with their American counterparts to make the discussion happen, so Moscow is engaging in behind-the-scenes overtures as well as Putin’s apparently spontaneous remarks.
Peskov did clarify that, while Russia is moving to make the talks happen, Moscow will consider no clear answer from Washington as decline to the invitation.
Putin’s request was for a public talk from their respective capitals offered few details. In extending the invitation to Biden, Putin exhibited impatience, stating it should happen as soon as possible.
“I wouldn’t put this off for too long. I want to go to the taiga on the weekend to get some rest, but we could do it tomorrow or, let’s say, on Monday,” Putin said on Russian station Rossiya-24 on Thursday. “Please, we are ready at any time convenient for the Americans, I will give the corresponding directive right now to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Russia].”
The invitation was a response to remarks that Biden made during an interview broadcast this week with former Democrat Party operative George Stephanopoulos in which he threatened Putin with paying an unspecified “price” for international misdeeds.
“He will pay a price,” Biden said. “We had a long talk, he and I, when we — I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.’”
Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he thought of Putin as a “killer,” to which Biden responded, “I do.” The Biden interview followed the revelation in a report published this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that evidence suggested the Russian government had intervened in the 2020 American presidential election. “We assess that Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,” the report read, “supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the U.S. Unlike in 2016, we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure.” The report similarly accused other rogue states, like Iran and China, of attempting to meddle in the election. Russia has, in turn, accused the United States of attempting to discourage third party states from purchasing Sputnik V, a Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate Putin approved last year before it cleared Phase III clinical trials. Putin’s invitation followed an initial response in which he simply told reporters, “As far as statements by my U.S. counterpart are concerned. What would I say to him in response? I would tell him: ‘Stay healthy!’ I wish him good health.”
While Putin’s response was tepid, Peskov expressed outrage in response to the interview, calling Biden’s remarks “very bad.” The Russian Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to Washington as well, not specifying that the interview was the reason but insisting that bilateral ties were “in a difficult state.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | -1.652243 |
On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said that the U.S. needs to keep its tariffs on certain Chinese goods in place.
Krishnamoorthi said, “I think that, on the one hand, we have to be candid about our differences and figure out how do we resolve them. And we have to keep in place, for instance, tariffs on certain Chinese goods, especially where those goods are meant to drive out competition among American companies. But on the other hand, there are places where we can cooperate, whether it’s with regard to Afghanistan or manmade climate change or other issues. So, we have to walk and chew gum at the same time. I’m confident that Joe Biden can do that.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1.09579 |
Police in the southwestern Chinese city of Guiyang raided a Christian bible study session held at a private residence this week, detaining at least ten participants, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Thursday.
“The Ren’ai Reformed Church was raided by officials including the civil affairs bureau and the police on the morning of March 16,” Huang, a Christian resident of Guiyang – the capital of Guizhou province – told RFA on March 17.
“More than a dozen of our brothers and sisters were taken away [by police],” Huang said.
A Ren’ai leader named Zhang Chulei was also detained after visiting the local police station after the raid to inquire about his fellow church members.
“I heard that they called him in for questioning,” Huang said, adding, “Many of them [the detainees] have yet to be released, including Zhang Chunlei.”
Prior to Tuesday’s raid, Chinese state security forces had allegedly targeted Zhang with “repeated surveillance and harassment” and “barred [him] from participating in any religious activities, and from communicating with other church members,” according to the report.
RFA described the Ren’ai Reformed Church as a “Protestant house church,” which is a Christian worship service held within a private residence in China to avoid state persecution. China’s ruling Communist Party allows just five religions to operate in the country: Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, and “Christianity,” which the CCP refers to as the “Three-Self Church.” In practice, however, the officially atheist CCP creates hostile conditions for religious worshippers in China, and the Communist Party has increasingly persecuted Chinese Christians in recent years.
Another Christian resident of Guiyang surnamed Li told RFA on Thursday that while the reason behind the sudden raid on the Ren’ai Reformed Church on March 16 remains unclear, the CCP “has strict rules about what can be considered a house church” during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“As far as we can tell, the [CCP’s] United Front Work Department and the secret agencies of the Chinese government have their own definition of what can be called a house church in China,” Li said. “They think it should refer to a family gathering with only relatives present.”
“Currently, religious meetings involving more than one household are banned under pandemic restrictions,” Li added.
An official at a Chinese religious affairs bureau in Panyu – a city located near Guizhou in the province of Guangzhou – confirmed to RFA this week that house church gatherings in the region “are currently restricted to family members only.” | -1.028822 |
Nearly 60 percent of couples in China’s central city of Wuhan called off their planned divorces after being forced to rethink their separations during a new, state-mandated “cooling off” period, the Chinese state-run Global Times claimed on Thursday.
China introduced a mandatory “60-day cooling-off period” in January for couples considering divorce. The law, part of China’s first-ever “civil code” legislation, requires couples to wait two months before they are allowed to proceed with their divorce filing. “With a total number of 60 days before issuing the divorce certificate, it contains a 30-day cooling-off period, and another 30-day limit that allows the couple to get their certificate from the local civil affairs bureau,” the Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper, noted on Thursday. According to the new law, China’s divorce application process now requires couples to undergo “marriage and family counseling” during the cooling-off period.
Since the new policy was introduced, “around 58 percent of couples decided not to split up at the end of a 60-day cooling-off period,” according to a report published by Wuhan’s civil affairs bureau on March 16. Of 3,096 couples that registered for divorce in Wuhan in January, “1,309 were issued with a certificate for divorce as of March 5,” the report claimed.
The Wuhan civil affairs bureau surveyed 1,150 local residents as part of the report and found that the city’s “three killers” of marriage were “personality differences, trivial life problems and lack of communication.”
China’s divorce rate has surged over the past few decades. The country recorded 580,000 divorces in 1987 and 3.73 million in 2020. China’s marriage rate has inversely plummeted in recent years, the number of unions dropping from 13.47 million in 2013 to 8.13 million in 2020, according to a report by China’s Tsinghua University.
In response to the troubling marriage statistics, a Chinese legislator proposed this month that the Chinese state encourage couples to undergo premarital training before tying the knot to improve their chances of staying together. Chen Aizhu, a deputy of China’s National People’s Congress, the CCP’S rubber-stamp legislature, suggested that Chinese marriage and family associations organize the premarital training for young couples.
“Carrying out premarital trainings is to help to improve people’s sense of responsibility to the family, encouraging the new couples to be loyal in marriage and cherish their family,” Chen, who hails from East China’s Zhejiang Province, told state media on March 3.
“As people’s attitude toward marriage are getting more open now, some young people get married in haste without a solid base in their love relationship, and then divorce in haste over trivial disputes,” Chen said. | -0.870888 |
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) joined other Republicans in criticizing human rights violator China for denigrating America’s democratic ideals and its efforts to champion human rights during the first Beijing-Washington meeting under President Joe Biden Thursday.
“The Chinese delegation’s behavior was completely unacceptable,” Cotton, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote on Twitter Friday. “It’s time for the Biden administration to adopt a strategy to beat China.”
The Chinese delegation’s behavior was completely unacceptable. It’s time for the Biden administration to adopt a strategy to beat China.https://t.co/kmBbEwM2Ql — Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 19, 2021
In his tweet, Cotton featured his March 17 editorial published by the National Review, in which he asserted, “It’s that well past time for aggressive political and economic steps to counter the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] threat.”
Referring to Thursday’s U.S.-China meeting in Alaska. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added on Twiter Friday that Beijing “believes it can roll the Biden administration.”
#china believes it can roll the Biden administration https://t.co/5S8wjfk3bJ — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 19, 2021
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Yang Jiechi – a member of China’s Communist Party’s Politburo and the country’s top diplomat – and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi participated in the meeting.
During his opening remarks, Yang lectured his American counterparts on what they described as human rights violations on U.S. soil, adding that many people worldwide and in the United States have no faith in American democracy.
He urged the U.S. to let the world decide between America’s political system and China’s.
“We don’t believe in invading through use of force, topple other regimes, massacre people of other countries… Important for the U.S. to change own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world,” Yang said. “Many people in the U.S. have little confidence in U.S. democracy…”
“The challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter,” he added.
Reporters were supposed to leave after the opening remarks, but Sullivan reportedly waved them to stay, given that the Chinese officials, mostly Yang, spoke for more than the two minutes agreed.
“Given your extended remarks, let me add a few of my own,” Sullivan said, according to foreign affairs correspondents’ tweets. “It’s never a good bet to bet against America.”
That was supposed to be it. Opening statement over, US media pool excused. But @SecBlinken and @JakeSullivan46 told pool to stay: "given your extended remarks, let me add a few of my own." @SecBlinken: "It's never a good bet to bet against America." — Nick Schifrin (@nickschifrin) March 18, 2021
“A confident country is able to look hard at its own shortcomings and constantly seek to improve,” Sullivan added.
Then at 625p eastern, pool is forced to leave. But Chinese diplomats complained it wasn't fair. Poolers @EenaRuffini @jakesNYT @humeyra_pamuk pick up the story: Yang criticized US for speaking condescendingly, and said the removal of the media proved US doesn't support democracy. — Nick Schifrin (@nickschifrin) March 18, 2021
Yang lambasted the U.S. officials for speaking condescendingly, adding that the media’s removal after the heated exchange proves that America does not support democracy.
“We will use the remaining hours [after the press left] to outline for Chinese delegation in private same messages delivered in public,” an unnamed Biden Administration official reportedly said. “Chinese delegation, on other hand, seems intent on grandstanding, focused on public theatrics and dramatics.”
Thursday’s meeting came soon after Blinken visited Asia to coalesce support against China, marking his first visit abroad. In Japan, the secretary of State warned that the U.S. would “push back if necessary when China uses coercion or aggression to get its way.”
“We do not seek conflict, but we welcome stiff competition, and we will always stand up for our principles, for our people, and for our friends,” Blinken said Thursday.
During his opening remarks, Blinken vowed to hold China accountable for oppression against Hong Kong residents, what the United States has described as genocide of the Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang, and cyberattacks against the U.S., among other things. | 1.428279 |
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), referring to Chinese diplomats lecturing their American counterparts on human rights and democracy during the first Washington-Beijing meeting of the current U.S. administration Thursday, indicated that Communist China believes it can steamroll U.S. President Joe Biden’s representatives.
“[China] believes it can roll the Biden administration,” Sen. Hawley, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, wrote on Twitter Friday.
#china believes it can roll the Biden administration https://t.co/5S8wjfk3bJ — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 19, 2021
Hawley’s comment came in response to a tweet from Jordan Schneider, an analyst for the Rhodium Group focused on China, who wrote:
It’s crazy how Chinese officials, by and large, held their tongue when engaging with the Trump administration, but in their first interaction with Biden folks, who you think they’d want to make a decent first impression with, they decide to go full Wolf Warrior to impress [Chinese dictator] Xi [Jinping].
The meeting took place in Alaska Thursday between American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Yang Jiechi, a member of China’s Communist Party’s Politburo; and the country’s top diplomat and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
They opened the high-level meeting with an undiplomatic war of words.
During the first in-person meeting between the Biden administration and Chinese officials, Beijing indicated that it would do what it wants, irrespective of U.S. and its allies’ concerns.
The meeting came after Blinken visited Asia, marking his first visit abroad. In Japan, the secretary of State warned that the U.S. would “push back if necessary when China uses coercion or aggression to get its way.”
U.S. State Department officials provided a transcript of the meeting’s’s participants’ opening remarks.
Nevertheless, Yang said Thursday China does not respect “the so-called ‘rules-based international order” promoted by the U.S. and its allies after Blinken noted, “The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in which might makes right, and winners take all, and that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us.”
“We do not seek conflict, but we welcome stiff competition, and we will always stand up for our principles, for our people, and for our friends,” Blinken added. “We look forward to discussing all of these matters with you in the hours ahead.’
The secretary of State stressed that the Biden administration would not relent to hold Beijing accountable for its nefarious acts.
He pointed out:
We’ll also discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, and economic coercion toward our allies. Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability. That’s why they’re not merely internal matters and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today. I said that the United States’ relationship with China will be competitive where it should be, collaborative where it can be, adversarial where it must be.
China’s top diplomat, Yang, went on to attack America’s democracy, urging the United States “to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world.”
“Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States, and they have various views regarding the Government of the United States,” he said.
Saying that the U.S. is mistreating blacks, he blasted human rights in America.
Yang declared:
In human rights, we hope that the United States will do better on human rights. … The challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently. So we do hope that for our two countries, it’s important that we manage our respective affairs well instead of deflecting the blame on somebody else in this world.
He also criticized America for “invading” other nations while accusing China of doing the same. Yang said:
We do not believe in invading through the use of force, or to topple other regimes through various means, or to massacre the people of other countries, because all of those would only cause turmoil and instability in this world. .. So we believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image … many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States, and they have various views regarding the Government of the United States.
After the meeting, an unnamed U.S. official accused China of “grandstanding,” Politico reported. | -0.201392 |
China’s state-run Global Times on Friday defended Hong Kong’s practice of forcibly restraining babies to hospital beds while in coronavirus isolation wards as an anti-epidemic policy in need of “more understanding.”
“[T]he quarantine policy in Hong Kong regarding the isolation of children is flexible and has already taken humane considerations into account,” Jin Dongyan, a professor at Hong Kong University’s School of Biomedical Sciences, told the Global Times on March 19.
Responding to reports this week that babies are restrained to their beds and children as old as five years are forced to wear diapers while in mandatory coronavirus quarantine at Hong Kong public hospitals, Jin said, “It is more likely there was some misunderstanding, and the media should not sensationalize it. More understanding is needed given the epidemic at large.”
“[A]nti-epidemic measures that threaten individual freedoms should be given more understanding,” the newspaper added, citing the opinion of unnamed “Chinese observers.”
Hong Kong government policy currently requires all people who test positive for the Chinese coronavirus to admit themselves to a public hospital for observation and treatment if necessary. The patient’s close contacts must also enter government-run quarantine facilities for up to 14 days, according to a CNN report published March 17.
Parents who test positive for the virus must check themselves into a hospital and send their children to a quarantine facility alone. If children test positive for coronavirus but their parents do not, then their parents may accompany them to the hospital, but risk infection by doing so.
A Hong Kong parent identified as Ariel by CNN told the news site Wednesday that she was recently forced to admit her two young sons to a Hong Kong government hospital after they tested positive for coronavirus despite being classified as “asymptomatic” cases.
“Ariel joined her boys about a day after their admission after spending hours on the phone trying to navigate the bureaucracy of a major health care system and allay the fears of her crying son,” CNN reported. “The brothers — age 5 and 1 and both asymptomatic — were wearing vests that were tied to their beds to restrain them. They were covered in dirt and both wearing diapers, even the five-year-old.”
Ariel said a nurse at the hospital told her that the restraints and diapers “were standard practice because hospitals do not have the labor pool to care for every child with Covid-19 [coronavirus] and want to limit the risk to staff.” | -1.289504 |
After their highly contentious first meeting in Alaska Thursday, Chinese diplomats and President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team accused each other of violating protocols that were agreed upon in advance.
A senior U.S. official, speaking to reporters on background after the opening session, accused the Chinese of “violating protocol” by speaking for much longer than two minutes as previously agreed, according to the South China Morning Post. The opening exchange of statements wound up lasting for over an hour instead of the brief introduction and photo opportunity that was envisioned.
“We will use the remaining hours to outline for the Chinese delegation in private the same messages we have consistently delivered in public. The Chinese delegation, on the other hand, seems to have arrived intent on grandstanding, focused on public theatrics and dramatics over substance,” the American official said.
A Chinese official insisted the U.S. also violated the speech limits, and the American team’s “groundless accusations” against China for human rights violations and threatening the international rule of law were an abuse of diplomatic custom.
“This is not a way of hospitality, nor does it conform to diplomatic etiquette. China has responded solemnly to this,” the Chinese official said.
“It was the United States who provoked and provoked the dispute first. Therefore, the two sides were full of gunpowder and drama in the opening remarks from the beginning. This was not the original intention of the Chinese side,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said for the record.
“China attended the meeting with sincerity and constructive attitude. Alaska is the northernmost state in the United States. When the members of the Chinese delegation arrived in Alaska, they not only felt the cold weather in Alaska, but also felt the hospitality of the American host,” Zhao complained. | 0.952451 |
Chinese state-run media celebrated the performance of senior diplomats Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi on Thursday in which they berated American counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, on America’s alleged human rights abuses.
The Global Times and China Daily, two of the Communist Party’s loudest English-language mouthpieces, applauded the two Chinese officials for being “firm,” expressing “sincerity,” and offering “vigorous counterblows” to the Americans’ condemning China for its elimination of human rights safeguards in Hong Kong, its genocide of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, and other human rights atrocities.
The four diplomats met in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, chosen as a halfway point between Washington and Beijing. The Chinese state outlets — and the Foreign Ministry — complained that Alaska was inhospitable, “biting,” and unpleasant for the diplomats to visit.
Wang and Yang personally accused the United States of abusing them as guests at the meeting and flouting diplomatic protocol.
The Global Times, citing its usual stable of Communist Party-approved “experts,” applauded Wang, China’s State Councilor, and senior Politburo member Yang for delivering “vigorous counterblows to condescending U.S. representatives.” It assessed that the opening remarks of the talks, which will reportedly remain ongoing, were “beyond the expectations of observers” in their severity and bitter tone, blaming President Joe Biden’s diplomats for the acrimony.
“So far, the US’ aggressiveness and disregard for diplomatic protocol, and rapid and sharp counterattacks by the Chinese delegation, have made the world take notice,” the Times assessed. It complained that Washington choosing Anchorage as a diplomatic host city was uncomfortable, as it is “one of the coldest places on US soil with a freezing temperature of minus 19 degrees Celsius [-2.2ºF].”
One of the Times‘ experts, former diplomat Yang Xiyu, protested that Washington’s team entered the talks with a philosophy of “putting human rights over sovereignty,” which was unacceptable to the Chinese, who allegedly sought “peaceful coexistence and noninterference in internal affairs.”
The Global Times punctuated its coverage of U.S. foreign policy by showcasing on its frontpage on Friday a political cartoon featuring a shattered Statue of Liberty holding her head in her hands while hands decorated with the flags of several rogue states pointed menacingly at it, apparently a commentary on dictatorships at the United Nations Human Rights Council condemning alleged racism in America.
At China Daily, another state-run propaganda outfit, European bureau chief Chen Weihua shared an animated GIF of eagles and rabbits, the latter presumably representing the Chinese, throwing things at each other. “After four years of Trump’s rogue regime, no one should still think about coercing and blackmailing China,” Chen proclaimed.
This one goes viral in the Chinese social media. It’s a reminder to those in Washington that US loudspeaker diplomacy won’t work. After four years of Trump’s rogue regime, no one should still think about coercing and blackmailing China. pic.twitter.com/MufCw1QF5t — Chen Weihua （陈卫华） (@chenweihua) March 19, 2021
Chen Weihua has developed a reputation for profane and sexist posts on Twitter, including repeatedly referring to American Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as a “bitch” for questioning China’s human rights record and international criminal behavior. While Twitter has branded Chen’s account as a state-affiliated account, it has yet to censor his bigoted remarks.
It remains illegal for Chinese citizens in China not affiliated with the Communist Party to use Twitter.
China Daily described Blinken’s and Sullivan’s opening statements as “unreasonable” and applauded the Chinese diplomats for their replies, citing an anonymous official who traveled to Anchorage with the Chinese.
“The Chinese side, in response to the US’ invitation, traveled to Anchorage in sincerity to have a strategic dialogue with the US side, and China finished preparations for the dialogue in accordance with the procedures and arrangements that were agreed to by the two sides in advance, the unnamed official said,” China Daily reported.
The “official” protested, “this is not the way to treat guests, nor is it in line with diplomatic etiquette and protocols, and the Chinese side has made a solemn response to this.”
In an opinion piece, China Daily accused the Americans of “spew[ing] vitriol at China, taking potshots at its domestic and foreign policies and dictating what it should and should not do.”
“With their grandstanding, US politicians, trampling diplomatic protocol and violating every international relations norm, used the meeting that began on Thursday not to iron out differences and put Sino-US relations back on the right track, but to brazenly interfere in China’s internal affairs,” the propaganda outlet lamented.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry echoed the displeasure of its state propaganda arms during its regular press briefing on Friday.
“The Chinese delegation went to Anchorage for the strategic dialogue with sincerity, fully prepared to engage in dialogue with the US according to the protocols and arrangements agreed on beforehand,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said. “However, as the US side first delivered opening remarks, they exceeded severely the set time limit and wantonly attacked and criticized China’s domestic and foreign policies, provoking disagreements. These are hardly good host manners or proper diplomatic etiquette. The Chinese side has made a solemn response.”
Zhao also complained Alaska was cold.
“Alaska is the northernmost US state. When the Chinese delegation arrived in Anchorage, their hearts were chilled by the biting cold as well as the reception by their American host,” Zhao claimed.
The Chinese communist regime expressed extreme displeasure with the opening statements at the meeting, which will be ongoing through at least Friday.
Blinken vowed to “discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, and economic coercion toward our allies,” without going into individual detail on each.
“Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability. That’s why they’re not merely internal matters and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today,” Blinken said.
Yang took the opportunity to urge America to stop promoting human rights and democracy on an international stage and to scold the country for its own alleged human rights abuses.
“And the United States has its style — United States-style democracy — and China has the Chinese-style democracy. It is not just up to the American people, but also the people of the world to evaluate how the United States has done in advancing its own democracy,” Yang insisted. “So we believe that it is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world.”
“Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States, and they have various views regarding the Government of the United States,” Yang continued. “[T]he challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | 1.690725 |
TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee are poised to finally make it official that most fans from abroad will be prohibited from attending the postponed Olympics when they open in four months.
The announcement is expected to come after “five-party” talks on Saturday with the IOC, local organizers, the Japanese government, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the International Paralympic Committee.
“People are waiting eagerly for an early decision so they can move to the next step,” Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the organizing committee, said Friday in a news briefing. “We need to be able to make the decision soon.”
Despite some calls to delay it, Hashimoto has promised a decision before the torch relay opens on Thursday from the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima.
Hashimoto said all five parties will have to agree on the decision. But she said two have more influence than others: the IOC and the Japanese national government.
“All decisions will be made by the IOC in the end,” Hashimoto said. “When it comes to immigration, this is a matter for the national government at the border.”
Japanese media, citing unidentified sources, have said for several weeks that the decision on the ban had already been reached. Hashimoto declined to confirm it.
About 4.5 million tickets have been sold to Japan residents. Perhaps another 1 million have been sold abroad. Before the postponement a year ago, organizers said a total of 7.8 million tickets would be be available for the Tokyo Games.
Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee, has said ticket holders from abroad would receive refunds. However, those decisions will be made on the ground by Authorized Ticket Resellers that are appointed by national Olympic committees and handle sales outside of the host nation.
The local organizing committee budget is sure to take a hit. Its budget projected income of $800 million from ticket sales, the third-largest source of revenue. Any shortfall will have to be made up by Japanese government entities.
John Coates, the IOC member who oversees preparations for Tokyo, said earlier this month there would probably be exemptions for some fans from abroad.
“We are looking at the other implications of accommodation, looking at implications for national Olympic committees who have sponsors who might have bought tickets. The same with international federations,” Coates said.
There is widespread skepticism in Japan about holding the Olympics, and particularly about admitting fans from abroad. Japan has attributed about 8,700 deaths to COVID-19 and has handled the virus better than most countries.
The torch relay will present a stern test with 10,000 runners crisscrossing Japan to reach the opening ceremony on July 23. Organizers are asking crowds to stay away, discouraging cheering, and are reserving the right to stop or reroute the relay.
The Olympics and Paralympics will involve 15,400 athletes from more than 200 nations, most operating inside a ’bubble” linking venues, training facilities, and the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay.
Many may arrive with vaccinations, but the IOC is not requiring this as condition of competing.
Ten of thousands of others will also arrive and be operating outside the bubble: officials, judges, sponsors, media, VIPs and broadcasters. | -0.387733 |
The Chinese Olympic Committee will provide Chinese coronavirus vaccines to athletes participating in the postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, slated for July, and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
“International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said on March 11 that the Chinese Olympic Committee will provide additional vaccines to participants of both Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games,” People’s Daily, an official Chinese Communist Party newspaper, reported Thursday.
Bach expressed gratitude to China for the offer, according to the newspaper, describing it as “in the true Olympic spirit of solidarity.” He added that the IOC “will pay for these additional doses” of coronavirus vaccines.
China on Monday approved another, domestically-made coronavirus vaccine candidate for emergency use in the country without releasing clinical data to demonstrate the shot’s safety or efficacy rate against the Chinese coronavirus.
Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, “led the development of a protein subunit vaccine that was approved by regulators last week for emergency use,” the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology said in a statement released March 15.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences joined forces with China’s Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical company to develop the new vaccine candidate.
“The team finished phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials in October and is currently conducting the last phase of trials in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Indonesia,” according to the press release.
“There is no publicly available information in peer-reviewed scientific journals about the clinical trial data showing efficacy or safety” for the shot, the Associated Press noted of the vaccine candidate Monday.
The shot’s efficacy data cannot be shared publicly at this time, a spokesperson for Anhui Zhifei Longcom said on March 15. He added that the Chinese biopharmaceutical company has been providing information about the vaccine candidate to relevant health authorities as it becomes available.
The efficacy rate for CoronaVac — another Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine candidate recently approved for emergency use in China — is 50.38 percent, according to late-stage clinical data released in January. CoronaVac is currently not approved for use in people aged 60 and over in China due to safety concerns. Hong Kong government officials waived health requirements in the city to approve CoronaVac’s use among senior citizens earlier this year. Weeks afterward, three people died and at least two people were admitted to intensive care units in Hong Kong after receiving doses of CoronaVac through a Hong Kong government program in March. | 2.093703 |
The trial of a Canadian businessman accused of spying in China ended in no verdict on Friday after a court appearance that lasted just under two hours.
Michael Spavor is one of two Canadians held in detention in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest on a U.S. extradition warrant of Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou.
Meng, the eldest daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, has been out on bail and living in a mansion in Vancouver, while the accused Canadians remain in China’s opaque penal system.
The BBC has described Spavor, who was formally charged last June with spying, as “a business consultant dealing with North Korea.”
Canada has attacked the charges against its citizens as “trumped up”, and the cases have sent relations between Ottawa and Beijing to their lowest point in decades, as Breitbart News reported.
WHAT!! Documents suggest that “6-8 personnel” from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were to participate in “winter survival training” at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa (CFB Petawawa) in Petawawa, Ontario. https://t.co/Fj5hwfX21R — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 9, 2020
AP reports Canada said its consular officials were refused permission to attend the proceedings against Spavor, who is defending himself against charges of stealing state secrets.
Jim Nickel, the Canadian Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, said following a meeting with Spavor’s lawyer the hearing ended at noon Friday after two hours.
Nickel declined to give other details, citing rules on protecting Spavor’s privacy.
In a statement posted on its website, the Intermediate People’s Court of Dandong in the northeastern province of Liaoning Province said it had held a closed-door hearing against Spavor on charges of spying and illegally sending state secrets abroad.
AP reports it said Spavor and his defense lawyers were present for the proceedings and the court would pronounce a sentence at a date “determined in accordance with law.”
Fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig, who is also charged with spying, is due to go before a court on Monday.
The two were detained in December 2018, days after Meng was arrested at the request of the U.S. at the airport in Vancouver.
AP contributed to this story | 1.224962 |
Babies are forcibly restrained to their beds while in coronavirus isolation wards in Hong Kong public hospitals for their own “safety and well-being,” Hong Kong health authorities claimed Wednesday.
“Generally speaking, the hospital will only consider the application of physical restraint on pediatric patients for the safety and well-being of the patient,” the Hong Kong Hospital Authority said in a statement March 17.
The body, which manages all Hong Kong government hospitals, issued the statement in response to mounting reports over the past week that Hong Kong public hospitals have physically restrained babies to their beds and made children up to five years old wear diapers while in mandatory quarantine in coronavirus isolation wards away from their parents.
Hong Kong’s government has mandated a strict containment protocol for residents who test positive for the Chinese coronavirus.
“Anyone testing positive for the virus is required to go to the hospital, while their close contacts must enter government-run quarantine facilities for up to 14 days,” CNN reported Wednesday. Parents who test positive for coronavirus must decide whether to enter quarantine “and send their children to the hospital alone,” or, if their children test positive, “accompany them to the hospital and risk infection themselves.”
One such parent, referred to by CNN as Ariel, told the news site she was recently forced to admit her two young sons to a Hong Kong public hospital with asymptomatic coronavirus cases.
“Ariel joined her boys about a day after their admission after spending hours on the phone trying to navigate the bureaucracy of a major health care system and allay the fears of her crying son,” according to the report. “The brothers – age 5 and 1 and both asymptomatic – were wearing vests that were tied to their beds to restrain them. They were covered in dirt and both wearing diapers, even the five-year-old.”
A nurse at the hospital told Ariel that the restraints and diapers “were standard practice because hospitals do not have the labor pool to care for every child with Covid-19 [coronavirus] and want to limit the risk to staff.”
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported an account that directly mirrored that of Ariel on March 17.
In one message on Facebook, it was claimed two brothers, aged one and five, were restrained, left unwashed and not given a change of clothes. The boys’ mother, who had been sent to the quarantine facility at Penny’s Bay, said she was finally allowed to visit them after repeatedly pressing the Department of Health and its Centre for Health Protection, only to find them crying in the beds surrounded by cornflakes, rice and other food debris.
Hong Kong, a city of more than 7 million people, has reported roughly 11,300 cases and 200 deaths from the Chinese coronavirus to date, according to official government figures. The city’s government began imposing “ambush-style” lockdowns on several neighborhoods and housing blocs across Hong Kong in January to contain the spread of new locally-detected coronavirus cases. The short-notice orders require all residents in the affected area to undergo mandatory coronavirus testing and prohibit locals from leaving their homes unless they present a negative coronavirus test result.
At least one resident of the Sham Shui Po area of Hong Kong was reportedly trapped inside a hair salon overnight after being caught off guard by one such lockdown in February. The same lockdown temporarily trapped a ten-year-old girl inside another hair salon in the area. The girl’s mother reportedly dropped her off for a haircut and left the salon to buy food, expecting to return minutes later. Local authorities issued Sham Shui Po’s lockdown order before the mother could return, however, effectively cutting the girl off from her parent.
“After the [Hong Kong] Home Affairs Department became aware of the situation, the girl was tested and had her information registered, then she was allowed to leave with her mother at our discretion,” a city government representative said at the time. | 0.991868 |
China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday dismissed sanctions against 24 Chinese officials announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, sneering at Blinken’s combination of “strategic aggression” and “diffidence” and jeering that the officials he threatened to punish for the oppression of Hong Kong were already sanctioned by the Trump administration anyway.
The Global Times accused Blinken of making hollow threats in a futile effort to pressure China ahead of upcoming meetings between American and Chinese diplomats in Alaska. Hong Kong is among the issues that are supposed to be discussed, along with Chinese human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang and China’s threats against Taiwan.
“We are clear-eyed about Beijing’s consistent failure to uphold its commitments, and we spoke about how Beijing’s aggressive and authoritarian behavior are challenging the stability, security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region,” Blinken said ahead of the Alaska meeting.
“There’s no room for China to compromise on issues related to sovereign security and core interests, and its determination and will to safeguard its core interests is unwavering,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded.
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against 24 Chinese officials for the crackdown on democracy and autonomy in Hong Kong. The sanctioned individuals included members of the Chinese Communist Politburo as well as officials of the Hong Kong government and police.
Blinken said the sanctions were a direct response to Beijing’s authoritarian “reform” of the Hong Kong political system on March 11, with the imposition of a law – bypassing Hong Kong’s ostensibly autonomous legislature – that permits only Communist Party members obedient to Beijing to run for office in Hong Kong.
“The focus of Blinken’s sanction statement is naming the vice chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee. But such sanction threats will not have any impact on Chinese officials. They have already been ‘sanctioned’ by the Trump administration, and China sanctioned a number of U.S. officials in response. If this U.S. administration carries out a new round of sanctions, China is bound to retaliate,” the Global Times warned.
The Chinese Communist paper dismissed the Biden administration’s actions as political theater meant for domestic consumption, to satiate “anti-China sentiment” and the “irrational desire of some forces to contain China.”
The propaganda outlet advised Blinken to try “courtesy” at the Alaska meetings instead of making “tough gestures” and pretending that the U.S. is dealing from a “position of strength.”
The Global Times said the Biden administration is trying to ice-skate uphill against the awesome power of the new planetary hegemon, which dominates global opinion and leaves America with little support for its moral posturing:
U.S. hyperbole over Hong Kong has turned off the appetite of most members of the international community. Hong Kong is part of China’s territory. Some Americans, in the form of public opinion, make a few comments on Hong Kong’s governance. Washington is trying to dictate how Hong Kong should be handled. If that is the case, China can only ask, who do they think they are? The more extreme their performances, the more they show that some of their old power is gone. They should remember this: China is not what it was a hundred years ago!
In reality, international criticism of China’s oppressive moves on Hong Kong is quite robust, and even the Hong Kong criticism the Global Times fulminated over was co-signed by Japan. International human rights organizations noted China’s return to the U.N. Human Rights Council last week with dismay, noting that Beijing’s general response to human rights criticism involves threatening the critics. | 1.994217 |
A little over a month after the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee resigned over sexist remarks, the creative director for the event announced he would resign after suggesting a plus-sized female comedian should perform at the Games as a character he dubbed the “Olympig.”
The remark that brought 66-year-old Sasaki Hiroshi’s association with the Olympics to a close was made during an online chat with his staffers last year and uncovered by Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun on Wednesday.
According to the transcript published by the magazine, Hiroshi floated the idea of inviting popular actress and comedian Naomi Watanabe to appear wearing a “cute pink costume” and pig ears.
“Ms Watanabe, 33, is one of Japan’s most famous comedians, and is known for her celebrity impersonations and body positivity advocacy work,” the BBC explained on Thursday. “In recent years she has spearheaded a body positive movement called ‘pochakawaii,’ which translates to ‘chubby and cute,’ and in 2014 she started one of Japan’s first brands to offer plus-size clothing.”
Pigs are conspicuously absent from the list of animals Watanabe’s first line of clothing invites its customers to compare themselves to when describing their body type. The choices are pigeons for buxom women, penguins for those with ample posteriors, and teddy bears for the well-rounded customer.
Japan has one of the thinnest populations on Earth, with only about 20 percent of its women considered overweight and only 3.2 percent classified as “obese,” and the Japanese are getting even thinner on average. Japan has government ordinances that require nutrition and exercise counseling for people whose waist size exceeds certain limits. The Japanese fat-acceptance movement is small but passionate.
Hiroshi had a successful career with a huge advertising company called Dentsu before he went to work as creative director for the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies.
Tokyo Olympics President Hashimoto Seiko said she was “shocked” by the Shukan Bunsun headline and quickly accepted Sasaki’s resignation.
“Gender equality and representation have been a priority since I was appointed president. These things should not and cannot be allowed to happen,” Hashimoto said.
The governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, said Sasaki’s remarks were “extremely embarrassing.”
“The world has been changing after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. As what message we will send from Tokyo has become important, why are we sending something negative?” Koike asked.
Sasaki said he realizes his “Olympig” suggestion was “very inappropriate” and apologized to both Naomi Watanabe and “people who have felt discomfort with such content.”
Watanabe, for her part, said she was “honestly surprised” by the Sasaki controversy.
“In fact, I am happy with my figure. So, as usual, I would like to express myself as ‘Naomi Watanabe’ without being particular about being fat,” she said in a statement released by her talent agency.
“However, as a human being, I sincerely hope that we can have a fun and prosperous world where we can respect and recognize each person’s individuality and way of thinking,” she added.
Hashimoto, herself a former Olympic competitor, was appointed to preside over the Tokyo Games after the previous president, Mori Yoshiro, stepped down over sexist remarks in February.
Mori complained women talk too much during meetings, so nothing gets done.
“If one member raises her hand to speak, all the others feel the need to speak too. Everyone ends up saying something. If we increase the number of female board members, we have to make sure their speaking time is restricted somewhat. They have difficulty finishing, which is annoying,” Mori said in a Feb. 3 meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
After assuming the presidency of the Olympics, Hashimoto promised to make “gender equality” one of her top priorities and added a dozen female directors to her executive board. | 1.796046 |
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday published an expose on the World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) “investigation” of the origins of the coronavirus.
According to the WSJ report, the Chinese government had near-total control over the W.H.O. visit to Wuhan, from deciding who could be on the team to dictating what the visiting scientists were allowed to see. The government also forced the W.H.O. team to watch Chinese political propaganda instead of seriously digging into the early days of the pandemic.
The WSJ said it uncovered “fresh details about the team’s formation and constraints that reveal how little power it had to conduct a thorough, impartial examination – and call into question the clarity its findings appeared to provide.”
The WSJ detailed the shocking amount of control Beijing reportedly ended up having over the belated investigation that finally occurred in January and February 2021 – right down to Chinese operatives being allowed to “review” W.H.O.’s final report and “make possible changes” before it gets published next week.
The investigation was a bit of a sideshow right from the start, since it was widely known the Chinese had already sanitized the Wuhan seafood market where the virus is widely assumed to have jumped from animals to humans, and Chinese officials were clearly lying about the issue of live animals that might have been disease vectors being sold there. The WSJ included a photo of a mob of body-suited cleaners busily destroying all of the evidence investigators really needed to see in March 2020, almost a year before the investigators finally got there.
U.S. officials told the Journal’s investigators the Chinese fought hard to delay the investigation as long as possible, quibbling over “every comma” in the W.H.O. resolution to authorize one. W.H.O. obligingly cut its 34-nation executive board out of the negotiations and worked out the details directly with China.
What they produced was a “terms of references” deal preserving China’s political fiction that the coronavirus might have come from another country, failing to demand inspections of Chinese laboratories, refusing to mention the possibility the Chinese coronavirus came from a Chinese lab, and giving China “veto power over who would join the team.”
China used that power to ensure the only American on the team was Dr. Peter Daszak, an acknowledged expert in zoonotic viruses who presides over a nonprofit organization that funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the very lab U.S. and other intelligence agencies suspect could be the true origin point of the Chinese coronavirus.
Even that level of veto power was not enough for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because it blocked two of the W.H.O. investigators at the last minute in January with spurious accusations they tested positive for the coronavirus. The 13 investigators who finally made it to Wuhan were locked in quarantine for two weeks, and then reportedly controlled like laboratory mice by the CCP once their work finally began:
On Jan. 28, a year to the day from the WHO director-general’s meeting with President Xi, they were cleared to begin field visits and face-to-face meetings with Chinese counterparts. For the remainder of the trip, they were restricted mainly to one part of a hotel due to more quarantine rules and forced to eat separately from Chinese counterparts—preventing the kind of informal conversations team members said were often the most fruitful in such efforts. Their contact with anyone outside the team was limited. It soon became evident to foreign officials and scientists tracking the mission that the team’s itinerary was partly designed to bolster China’s official narrative that the government moved swiftly to control the virus. The team’s first visit was to a hospital where they met a doctor Beijing feted as the first to raise alarms through official channels about an outbreak of unknown pneumonia. The next day, after another hospital visit, the team went to an exhibition commemorating Chinese authorities’ early “decisive victory in the battle” against the virus, paying tribute to President Xi’s leadership.
“People think you can just waltz into a country, any country, and say ‘I want to see the books.’ I don’t think diplomacy works that way,” said Australian W.H.O. team member Dominic Dwyer.
W.H.O.’s stage-managed visit did include some valid scientific research by all accounts, but it culminated in a scandal so huge it rattled even the delicately diplomatic World Health Organization and the Biden administration, which was determined to reset relations with Beijing. China has refused to hand over valuable source data, including medical records and samples, dating from the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Chinese told W.H.O. to take their word for what happened in and around Wuhan a year ago, presenting them with completed “analysis” from Chinese sources and refusing to let them see the original data.
The WSJ on Wednesday revealed a few previously unknown or downplayed details of this CCP stonewalling: the Chinese did not complete “some short-term tasks the team had hoped for, including detailed studies of blood samples from before December 2019 and compiling a definitive list of animals sold at the Huanan market,” and half of the Chinese team that presented its “analysis” to W.H.O. were political operatives, not scientists.
Some of that Chinese “analysis” was a pack of painfully obvious lies to boot. Some of the source data hidden from the W.H.O. team pertained to how many people were hospitalized in the Wuhan area with coronavirus-like symptoms before December 2019, the official beginning of the outbreak. The Chinese claimed there were only 92 such patients and none of them tested positive for antibodies, but they did not test for antibodies until “a few week’s before the team’s arrival,” when their samples were over a year old, and the Chinese coronavirus’s clearest symptoms are so common that it is nearly impossible for a population of almost 60 million to produce only 92 possible cases in three months.
When W.H.O. pointed these inconsistencies out to their Chinese hosts and demanded to see the source data, the response was a demand to go searching for coughs and fevers from November 2019 in other countries, to bolster the CCP’s political narrative that the coronavirus began somewhere else and was shipped to China by either frozen European seafood or sweaty American soldiers.
Another confrontation reportedly occurred when W.H.O. asked to test frozen blood samples from the winter of 2019 kept at a Wuhan blood bank, reasoning that if the Chinese coronavirus was spreading through the area before December, it might show up in some of the frozen specimens. The Chinese refused, claiming they have regulations against such testing, even though W.H.O. noted every other country in the world permits it, and one would think any competent blood bank would be eager to know if its frozen blood donations contained one of the most devastating viruses in human history.
The W.H.O. team got to spend all of three hours at the notorious Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is less time than cops would spend investigating a stolen bicycle, and much of that time was spent watching “presentations on the institute’s research, safety procedures, and the health of its staff.”
This was somehow good enough for the W.H.O. team to “unanimously” agree with a panel of CCP scientists that the institute was “unlikely” to be the source of the virus, a conclusion W.H.O. has been curiously reluctant to stand by since it was first announced. The WSJ article concluded by quoting Dr. Dywer admitting that his team did not see any “actual data” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but wistfully hoping the Chinese might get around to providing it someday.
As far as the CCP and its state media are concerned, it is case closed in Wuhan. The state-run Global Times on Wednesday ran an interview with lead Chinese scientist Liang Wannian that was fronted by a comical “infographic” explaining why no one needs to ask any further questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, ever.
Laing said W.H.O.’s controversial visit to Wuhan was good enough, even though “the Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] outbreak remains an unsolved mystery.” He praised the hard-working Chinese scientists who prepared the analyses given to W.H.O. in lieu of actual data and samples, and accused foreign “politicians and media” who doubted China’s conclusions of “politicizing the scientific issue of tracing the source of COVID-19, regardless of scientific facts, for their own personal gain.”
Liang simply denied the documented fact that China refused to hand over source data to W.H.O. investigators and said there were no “conflicts” between China and foreign investigators at all.
“As for the original data of some cases, due to the privacy of patients, according to Chinese laws, we cannot let the international experts copy and take it out of the country, which they fully understood,” he claimed.
“After their field visits and study, the experts team agreed unanimously that it is extremely unlikely that the virus leaked from the [Wuhan] lab, so future virus origins-tracing missions will no longer be focused on this area, unless there is new evidence,” Liang concluded. | 0.37048 |
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged American counterpart Joe Biden to “stay healthy!” after reporters asked him Thursday to respond to Biden’s comments calling Putin a “killer.”
Biden made the remark in an interview with ABC News published Wednesday.
“He will pay a price,” Biden said of Putin in response to a question about reports of potential attempts by the Russian state to meddle in American politics. “We had a long talk, he and I, when we — I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.'”
Interviewer and former Democrat Party operative George Stephanopoulos asked Biden, “So you know Vladimir Putin. You think he’s a killer?”
Biden responded, “Mmm hmm, I do.”
Biden did not elaborate on any “price” he would make the Russian autocrat “pay.”
Putin responded to the interview the next day.
“As far as statements by my U.S. counterpart are concerned. What would I say to him in response? I would tell him: ‘Stay healthy!’ I wish him good health,” Putin said, according to Russian news agency TASS, which added that Putin insisted there was “not a hint of irony” in his well-wishing.
The Russian government in general reacted much more abrasively to the remarks.
“I would refrain from giving a wordy comment on that,” Putin’s presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters Thursday during his regular briefing. “I will say one thing: these are very bad remarks on the part of the U.S. president.”
Peskov added that “nothing like that has ever happened before,” referring to Biden’s comments, and similarly described the bilateral relationship between America and Russia as “very bad,” without elaborating.
Moscow recalled its ambassador to the United States and several other diplomats in light of the remarks, though in announcing the move, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not specify why the envoys returned home. Zakharova, like Peskov, stated only that the relationship between the two countries was in a “difficult state” and at a “dead end,” blaming the United States exclusively for this situation.
Biden’s rhetoric on Russia has not yet yielded any significant policy hindrances for Putin’s regime. As ABC News noted in its summary of the Stephanopoulos interview, Biden’s vow that Putin would “pay” for international crimes was not accompanied by any specific action. Biden’s most significant policy move with Russia was to agree to a five-year extension of the New START arms control treaty, which Moscow was eagerly urging. The Putin regime had asked the prior administration of Donald Trump for a one-year extension that Trump rejected on the grounds the treaty was antiquated and that, without including China, it did little to prevent arms proliferation. Biden added four years to the Russian request and approved it almost immediately after taking office.
The concession to Putin reportedly occurred during Biden’s first phone call with the Russian leader, the “long talk” Biden alluded to in his talk with Stephanopoulos. No reports have indicated Moscow conceded anything to Washington in exchange for the deal.
Stephanopoulos’s reference to Putin as a “killer” referred to several high-profile incidents of opponents to the Putin regime suffering unexplained or mysterious illnesses later identified as poisonings. Some of those poisonings were the product of a chemical weapon known as “Novichok,” used almost exclusively by the Russian government.
The most recent example of such an attempted assassination is the case of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who fell ill and was forced into a medically mandated coma in August while on a visit to Siberia. Navalny’s team flew him to Germany, where doctors found “unequivocal proof” of the use of Novichok to kill him. Navalny himself, following his recovery, claimed that he convinced a Russian intelligence agent to confess to an assassination plot against him.
The Russian government denied poisoning Navalny and immediately arrested him upon his return to Russia. He remains in a penal colony at press time.
Medical professionals also identified Novichok as the agent behind the 2018 poisoning of foreign Russian official Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia, which reportedly occurred in the United Kingdom. The incident, if proven to have been Putin’s doing, would be a case of the use of chemical weapons on foreign soil and, some observers asserted, an act of war. The elder Skripal served as a double agent for both Moscow and London. The Putin regime blamed unspecified “Western” actors for the poisoning.
The Russian government is also believed to have been behind the poisoning of yet another political opponent, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, while he campaigned against pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2004. Yushchenko was reportedly poisoned by dioxin, disfiguring his face and causing significant pain and swelling. Yushchenko survived the attack, won the presidential election, and blamed Putin for trying to kill him.
Unlike Yushchenko, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko did not survive severe radiation poisoning after falling ill in 2006. Doctors found the cause of Litvinenko’s death to be the use of polonium-210, a highly radioactive substance. Investigators traced the substance to tea that he drank during a meeting with an allegedly former Russian government agent.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter. | -2.294937 |
In China, the problem doesn’t seem to be a shortage of vaccine
China urges unhurried public to get vaccinated against COVIDThe Associated PressBEIJING
BEIJING (AP) — In China, the problem doesn’t seem to be a shortage of vaccine. Rather, with the COVID-19 outbreak largely under control at home, not enough people want to get the shot.
Chinese health officials appealed to the public Sunday to get inoculated. They also said that with vaccination not a guarantee against infection they would still require anyone arriving in China to quarantine for 14 days, even if they have received a vaccine.
“China will continue the current prevention control measures to prevent imported cases and rebound of domestic cases,” Feng Zijian, the deputy director general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference.
Through Saturday, nearly 75 million vaccine doses have been given, the country’s National Health Commission said. The number of people inoculated would be less, as some people have taken two shots.
China, with 1.4 billion people, has a much lower rate of vaccination than many other countries.
“Many people mistakenly think there is no practical meaning to be vaccinated because the epidemic situation is under effective control and the virus is far away from us,” He Qinghua, a National Health Commission official, said at the same news conference.
He warned that no one is immune to the disease, and that with the pandemic still ravaging other parts of the world, imported cases could trigger fresh outbreaks in China.
Chinese officials want to get enough people vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Because the outbreak was not widespread in China, a relatively small proportion of the population acquired immunity through past infection, He said. Mainland China has reported 90,099 cases during the pandemic.
“Now that we have vaccines, we must let more people get immunity and protection through inoculation,” He said. “I once again suggest that people get vaccinated as soon as possible so as to acquire immunity.”
The relatively low rate of vaccination in China was one reason Feng cited for maintaining the current measures for overseas arrivals. He also noted concerns about how effective vaccines are against new variants of the virus.
China itself has had a vaccinated person get infected, its only recent case of domestic spread of the coronavirus.
Wang Huaqing, an immunization expert at China’s CDC, said that vaccines have failed to prevent infection in a small number or cases. He said the recent case is being studied to try to determine why the vaccine failed. | 0.137651 |
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing allegations that he sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately toward several women who have worked with him
A look at Cuomo aides’ sexual harassment allegations The Associated PressNEW YORK
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing allegations that he sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately toward women who worked with him — now including two current staffers in his office. One of them, Alyssa McGrath, came forward Friday in a report in The New York Times.
The accusations range from groping under a woman’s shirt and planting unwanted kisses to asking unwelcome personal questions about sex and dating.
The Democratic governor has said he “never touched anyone inappropriately” and “never made any inappropriate advances” and that “no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable.” He has called some allegations false.
Cuomo has also suggested that he was simply being an old-school politician in greeting people with hugs and kisses but that “sensitivities” have changed.
Here’s a look at some of the workplace allegations, in the order they became public:
LINDSEY BOYLAN, 36, a former state economic development adviser, says the governor kissed her on the lips as she was leaving a one-on-one meeting in his office and suggested playing strip poker on a state plane. Cuomo says both stories are false. Among her other allegations: Cuomo summoned her alone to his office after a holiday party and made what she took to be a reference to former President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The governor also sent Valentine’s Day roses to Boylan and other female staffers, she said.
CHARLOTTE BENNETT, 25, a former Cuomo aide, said the governor asked her about her love life — including whether she ever had sex with older men — and talked about his own, saying that age differences didn’t matter in relationships and he was open to dating women over 22. During a meeting alone in his office, the governor said he was lonely and talked about wanting to hug someone, Bennett said. She said she swiftly complained to Cuomo’s chief of staff and was transferred to another job. She said she spoke to a lawyer for the governor, but didn’t insist on further action because she liked her new post and wanted to move on.
ANA LISS, 35, a former aide, said Cuomo asked her whether she had a boyfriend, once kissed her hand at her desk and called her by patronizing names, including “blondie,” “sweetheart” and “honey.” At a reception, the governor hugged her then put his arm around her lower back and waist as they posed for photo, Liss said. She said she eventually asked for a job transfer. In an interview, Liss said she was “not claiming sexual harassment per se,” but felt the administration “wasn’t a safe space for young women to work.”
KAREN HINTON, who worked for Cuomo when he was Clinton’s federal housing secretary in the 1990s, said Cuomo gave her an overly long and intimate hug after calling her to his hotel room for a conversation that turned to personal topics on a trip where she was serving as a consultant to the housing agency. Cuomo said Hinton’s account was “not true.”
A MEMBER OF CUOMO’S STAFF alleged that he closed a door, reached under her blouse and fondled her after summoning her to the governor’s mansion in Albany for help with his cellphone, according to the Times Union of Albany. The newspaper didn’t name the woman, who said that she told Cuomo to stop groping her and that he had touched and flirted with her previously.
The Times Union’s reporting is based on an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the woman’s accusation.
The woman recently told a supervisor, and at least one of her bosses reported the allegation to a lawyer for the governor this month, according to the newspaper.
Cuomo called the report “gut-wrenching” in a statement and said: “I have never done anything like this.”
ALYSSA McGRATH, 33, a current administrative assistant in Cuomo’s office, told The New York Times that he looked down her shirt, quizzed her about her marital status, and told her she was beautiful, using an Italian phrase she had to ask her parents to interpret.
McGrath didn’t say the governor made sexual contact with her but thought his behavior was sexual harassment. She recalled Cuomo kissing her on the forehead and gripping her firmly around the sides while posing for a photo at a 2019 office Christmas party.
Cuomo lawyer Rita Glavin responded by reiterating his denials of inappropriate advances and touching. She told the Times he has greeted both men and women with hugs and kisses on the cheek, has put his arm around people for photos and uses such Italian phrases as “ciao bella” (“hi, beautiful” or “’bye, beautiful”), though she said he didn’t say that to McGrath.
“None of this is remarkable, although it may be old-fashioned,” Glavin added. | 0.412108 |
Students, parents and teachers in Germany have been caught in the middle as authorities in the country take different and sometimes contradictory approaches to opening or closing schools in the pandemic
Teachers lament ‘chaotic’ virus rules in German schoolsBy FRANK JORDANSAssociated PressThe Associated PressBERLIN
BERLIN (AP) — Under pressure to ease Germany’s virus restrictions, officials last month agreed to gradually reopen schools. Confirmed COVID-19 cases started climbing again, leading some states to backtrack while others pressed on and insisted that in-class teaching must be the rule.
Caught in the middle are students, parents and teachers such as Michael Gromotka, whose plans to teach art to his year 7-9 students were upended last week when the state of Berlin nixed their return to school after months of remote learning.
“It was all very chaotic,” Gromotka said. “We got less than a week’s notice.”
Gromotka, who is married to a fellow teacher and has a child in primary school, says the back and forth reflects the absence of a coherent strategy in Germany for how to safely keep schools open.
Authorities in Berlin purchased about 1,900 air filters that experts say will reduce the risk of the virus spreading throughout classrooms. But the available number is only enough to supply each of the capital’s 900 schools with about two devices.
Berlin’s online teaching platform is so overloaded during the day that some elementary school students must wait until 6:30 p.m. to have their video lessons. More reliable commercial systems were rejected over privacy concerns.
And while Berlin now offers free tests for staff and students, there is no requirement for anybody to take them before going to school.
“Teachers are incredibly worried,” Gromotka told The Associated Press.
He launched a petition demanding that secondary school teachers be given priority when it comes to getting coronavirus vaccines, arguing that they deserve the same protection as elementary school and kindergarten teachers because of the large number of students they come into contact with each week.
Like other educators, Gromotka says officials have failed to learn the right lessons more than a year into the pandemic.
Figures published by Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, show the number of weekly confirmed cases among under-15s more than doubled over the past month as more children returned to schools and kindergartens.
The proposal to prioritize all teachers for vaccinations, like Italy is doing, has gained support from some education unions.
“We can’t pretend that schools are isolated from the rest of society,” said Juergen Boehm, who chairs VDR, an association representing certain secondary school teachers across Germany.
The former principal says it’s nearly impossible to police mask-wearing and social distancing rules in school hallways and buses, and that giving all of the country’s 1 million teachers the shots to protect them from COVID-19 would mean “far fewer problems.”
Likewise, Boehm backs a system of regular compulsory testing — if necessary, with help from the Red Cross or the army — and a firm threshold for reverting to online teaching in regions that top 100 new weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Many counties and cities already exceed that limit, which Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany’s 16 state governors agreed should trigger an “emergency brake” on looser restrictions. But several states have insisted that schools must nevertheless remain open, arguing that it is in children’s best interest to go to school.
As Merkel meets again with governors Monday to discuss extending the lockdown measures, some state officials are suggesting the threshold for closing schools and kindergartens should be as high as 200 newly confirmed cases a week per 100,000 inhabitants.
So far the government has said there’s little it can do under Germany’s federal system to enforce nationwide rules for schools. As in the United States, education policy is largely the purview of Germany’s 16 states.
Boehm says he supports the principle of local control of schools but thinks there needs to be a clear rule for all in a situation like the pandemic.
Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, said earlier this month that from an infection control perspective, “closing (schools) would of course be a good step.”
But he acknowledged that factors other than medical concerns should be considered, too, and said in-class teaching could continue if “intelligent plans” were put in place to ensure it was safe.
The institute has proposed how that could be done with rigorous testing, mask-wearing and hygiene policies that would significantly reduce the risk of infection.
“It just needs to be implemented,” Wieler said.
Amid growing fears among weary parents that schools will be closed again soon, the federal government recently boosted funding for school test kits but refrained from imposing rules for how to use them.
“It’s the responsibility of the states to organize this,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said.
Germany’s minister for families, Franziska Giffey, said Monday that kindergarten children should also be tested regularly, given the rising cases there. She suggested parents should be responsible testing their own children.
Gromotka said teachers want schools to be safe and reliable however that is accomplished, but that a clear testing strategy and vaccinating all teachers would be good ways to start.
“Otherwise I fear that schools will soon have to close again, and that would be terrible for everyone involved,” he said.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. | 0.172668 |
The European Union imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials accused of responsibility for abuses against Uyghur Muslims
EU slaps sanctions on 4 Chinese officials over Uyghur abusesBy LORNE COOKAssociated PressThe Associated PressBRUSSELS
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union imposed Monday sanctions on four Chinese officials accused of responsibility for abuses against Uyghur Muslims, part of a raft of measures targeting alleged human rights offenders around the world and provoking retaliation from Beijing.
The four are senior officials in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
The sanctions involve a freeze on the officials’ assets and a ban on them traveling in the bloc. European citizens and companies are not permitted to provide them with financial assistance.
China at first denied the existence of camps for detaining Uyghurs in Xinjiang but has since described them as centers to provide job training and to reeducate those exposed to radical jihadi thinking. Officials deny all charges of human rights abuses there.
Xinjiang had been a hotbed of anti-government violence, but Beijing claims its massive security crackdown brought peace in recent years.
China’s Foreign Ministry responded immediately, denouncing the sanctions as “based on nothing but lies and disinformation” and issuing its own retaliatory measures.
The ministry announced sanctions against 10 individuals and four institutions that it said had damaged China’s interests and “maliciously spread lies and disinformation.” They and their family members would be barred from entering mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao and cut off from financial dealings with those areas, the ministry said.
Among those targeted was Adrian Zenz, a U.S.-based German scholar who has publicized abuses against minority groups in China’s western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. China has said companies and individuals have petitioned to sue Zenz, but it wasn’t clear who the plaintiffs were or how they would pursue legal action across borders.
Others targeted for sanctions include five members of the European Parliament: Reinhard Butikofer, Michael Gahler, Raphael Glucksmann, Ilhan Kyuchyuk and Miriam Lexmann.
The ministry did not say what specific measures would be taken against the organizations. They were listed as the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, where the 27 national envoys decide foreign and security policy; the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights; the German-based Mercator Institute for China Studies; and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark.
Last week, China’s ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, had warned that Beijing would retaliate.
“We want dialogue, not confrontation. We ask the EU side to think twice. If some insist on confrontation, we will not back down, as we have no options other than fulfilling our responsibilities to the people in our country,” he said.
The new EU sanction system is similar to the Magnitsky Act — Obama-era legislation that authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets and ban them from entering the United States.
EU foreign ministers, as part of Monday’s move, also imposed sanctions over repression in North Korea, “extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Libya, torture and repression against LGBTI people and political opponents in Chechnya in Russia, and torture, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings in South Sudan and Eritrea,” a statement said.
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Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report. | -0.509211 |
Turkey’s weekly regional COVID-19 figures keep increasing as the country keeps relaxed restrictions in place for now
Infections continue to climb in Turkey amid relaxed measuresThe Associated PressISTANBUL
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s weekly regional COVID-19 figures keep increasing as the country keeps relaxed restrictions in place for now.
Health ministry statistics released late Saturday showed the rate of infection as more than 251 cases per 100,000 in Istanbul, the country’s largest city — up 41% since last week. That means about 40,000 new infections in Istanbul alone, which has quadrupled from numbers first released six weeks ago.
The government has divided its 81 provinces into four risk categories and said it would evaluate restrictions at a local level every two weeks. The latest figures show many cities turning “very high-risk” or “high risk.”
Turkey’s president announced this week that relaxed restrictions, like in-restaurant dining and reduced curfews, would continue “for some more time” despite rising infections, but said tougher measures could be brought back.
According to measures announced in early March, weekend curfews remained in place in “very high-risk” cities and Sunday lockdowns continued in “high risk” cities. Restaurants are open for indoor and outdoor dining in all the categories other than “very high-risk,” and nighttime curfews are applied across the country.
The seven-day average of infections across the country has climbed over 18,000, hitting daily rates last seen in December. The number of patients in critical care and deaths are also rising. The total reported death toll in Turkey is 29,959.
Facing an economic downturn, the government has been under pressure from business owners to resume operations during the pandemic.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak | 0.120594 |
Local bars and halls run by Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts have fallen on hard times during the coronavirus pandemic
A year into pandemic, veterans halls ‘barely hanging’ onBy PHILIP MARCELOAssociated PressThe Associated PressNEW BEDFORD, Mass.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Paul Guilbeault knew the writing was on the wall for the last Veterans of Foreign Wars post in this city south of Boston when businesses across Massachusetts were ordered to close as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last March.
Within six months, the 90-year-old Korean War vet was proven right. VFW Post 3260 in New Bedford, a chapter of the national fraternity of war vets established in 1935, had surrendered its charter and sold the hall to a church.
“The economic shutdown is what killed us,” said Guilbeault, who has overseen the post’s finances for years. “There’s no way in the world that we could make it. A lot of these posts are barely hanging on. Most don’t make a huge profit.”
Local bars and halls run by VFW and American Legion posts — those community staples where vets commiserate over beers and people celebrate weddings and other milestones — were already struggling when the pandemic hit. After years of declining membership, restrictions meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 became a death blow for many.
The closures have added to the misery from a pandemic that’s hit military veterans hard. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently estimated the death toll in its facilities alone was approaching 11,000.
In many states, veterans posts were ordered to close like other bars and event halls last spring. Their supporters argued that the spaces serve a greater community purpose than their for-profit counterparts and should have been allowed to reopen sooner.
They say many posts quickly pivoted their community service efforts to respond to the pandemic. In Lakeview, Michigan, VFW Post 3701 made hundreds of masks for workers and operated blood drives with the Red Cross. In Queens, New York, American Legion Post 483 ran a food pantry that fed thousands. And posts from Connecticut to North Carolina have been hosting vaccine registration drives and clinics.
The closure of some halls and bars also means vets dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and other wartime trauma have lost a critical safe space amid an isolating pandemic, leaders say.
“They can talk about things here that happened to them in the war that they’d never say to their psychiatrist or even their families,” said Harold Durr, commander of American Legion Post 1 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Like a number of posts nationwide, Durr says his facility qualified for federal and local pandemic relief, though most of it could only be used to cover employee salaries, not utilities and other expenses.
He says the shuttered post, which includes a bar and hall, has largely relied on donations to pay monthly costs.
“We’ve had a rough go,” says the 75-year-old Navy vet, who served in the Vietnam War. “But we’ve got to stay open. We’ve existed for 100 years. There’s no way we can let it close.”
How many vets halls and bars have permanently shuttered or risk closure because of the pandemic is hard to quantify.
The national VFW and American Legion organizations say the number of posts that dissolved completely last year was at or lower than prior years. But the organizations say they do not track bars and halls because they are locally controlled.
Many posts, they say, do not run halls or bars. Still, both organizations launched emergency grant programs last fall, doling out thousands of dollars to hundreds of posts to help cover facility costs and other expenses.
“A post could conceivably lose these things and still continue as a post,” said John Raughter, spokesman for the Indianapolis-based American Legion.
Some facilities have found workarounds to keep bringing in money, which goes to a wide range of community work, from hosting free lunches for disabled veterans to sponsoring high school ROTC programs and offering free gathering space for Scout troops and other groups.
Members of the VFW Post 2718 on Long Island, New York, have been dipping into reserves and organizing fundraisers until they can fully reopen their hall. Their next effort is a first-time Mother’s Day plant sale, said John McManamy, a former post commander.
In Massachusetts, the New Bedford post is the only one that’s dissolved for pandemic-related reasons so far, but the state risks losing some 20% of its VFW buildings if they are forced to remain closed into the crucial summer months, said Bill LeBeau, head of the VFW Massachusetts, which oversees local posts.
Closing VFW Post 3260 in the historic fishing port city some 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Boston has been bittersweet for longtime members.
Dennis Pelletier, a 75-year-old Marine who served in Vietnam, had his wedding reception at the hall in 1967, the year it opened. He’s been a dues-paying member pretty much ever since.
“It’s been a part of my whole adult life,” Pelletier said. “It’s been a second home at times.”
But like VFW posts nationwide, the New Bedford hall struggled to draw new members. In the ’60s, it had more than 1,000 paying members; by last year, it had roughly 100, the majority in their 70s and 80s.
“The stigma of just being a bar is hard to overcome,” said Delfino Garcia, the post’s last commander. “Younger vets want something different. You’ve got to be more family-oriented. You’ve got to make it more hospitable. VFWs are struggling to adapt to that new reality.”
Guilbeault, who joined the post in 1956 after serving in the Air Force, has no regrets about winding things down.
With mortgage payments and other bills mounting, he had put in more than $5,000 of his own savings in those final days. He eventually recouped the money when the building’s sale was finalized in September, and the remaining profits went to the state VFW.
“In a way, it’s been a blessing to let it go,” Guilbeault said. “If we’d kept going, we’d still be closed. There was no sense keeping it open. All we were doing was accumulating debt, debt, debt, debt.” | 1.924735 |
March 22 (UPI) — Select college prospects and a limited number of fans will be allowed to attend the 2021 NFL Draft in Cleveland, the league announced Monday.
The 2021 NFL Draft runs April 29 to May 1 at FirstEnergy Stadium, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center. All three days of the event will be broadcast on NFL Network, ESPN and ABC.
The live draft follows the unprecedented 2020 NFL Draft, which was planned to be in Las Vegas, but took place in a virtual fashion as a safety precaution for the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 NFL Draft featured prospects and fans watching from off-site locations while NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced draft selections from the basement of his Bronxville, N.Y., home.
Some prospects who don’t attend the 2021 event will participate remotely from their homes around the United States. NFL team personnel will be allowed to gather in respective draft rooms at locations “of their choosing,” the league said in a news release.
“We are thrilled to be heading to Cleveland for the NFL Draft, which has become one of the most highly-anticipated events in sports” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business and league events.
“Just months after executing a safe and successful Super Bowl LV, we look forward to bringing the excitement of our draft traditions to fans in collaboration with the Browns, Destination Cleveland, Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, the city of Cleveland, and all of our local Cleveland partners.”
The 2021 NFL Draft also will feature fans designated by each of the 32 teams as “draft ambassadors.” Those fans will sit in an “inner circle” section and must be fully vaccinated and wear masks.
The NFL Draft Experience — the league’s interactive football theme park — also will be free and open to the public around FirstEnergy Stadium, but will have a limited capacity.
“We greatly appreciate the continued collaboration by the NFL, local and state government officials and medical experts who are all focused on creating a memorable and safe experience, Dee and Jimmy Haslam, who own the Cleveland Browns, said in a statement.
“We are also extremely encouraged by the state of Ohio’s vaccination rates and advancements that are allowing us to make the progress needed to return to a safe and more normal environment. | 1.171556 |
A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife at a Georgia massage business last week said police held him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack
Shooting victim’s husband says police detained him for hoursBy KATE BRUMBACKAssociated PressThe Associated PressATLANTA
ATLANTA (AP) — A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife at an Atlanta-area massage business last week said police treated him badly, detaining him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack.
Mario Gonzalez said he was held in a patrol car outside the spa. The revelation, in an interview with Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language news website, follows other criticism of Cherokee County officials investigating the March 16 attack, which killed four people. Four others were killed about an hour later at two spas in Atlanta.
Gonzalez’s accusation would also mean that he remained detained after police released security video images of the suspected gunman and after authorities captured him 150 miles south of Atlanta. He questioned whether his treatment by authorities was because he’s Mexican.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, is accused of shooting five people, including Gonzalez’s wife Delaina Ashley Yaun, at the first crime scene near Woodstock, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Atlanta. One man was wounded. In all, seven of slain victims were women, six of them of Asian descent.
Cherokee sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker was removed as spokesman for the case after telling reporters the day after the shootings that Long had “a really bad day” and “this is what he did.” A Facebook page appearing to belong to Baker promoted a T-shirt with racist language about China and the coronavirus last year.
Sheriff Frank Reynolds released a statement acknowledging that some of Baker’s comments stirred “much debate and anger” and said the agency regretted any “heartache” caused by his words.
Gonzalez and Yaun, 33, had gotten a babysitter for their infant daughter and went to Youngs Asian Massage to relax. They were in separate rooms inside when the gunman opened fire.
Gonzalez heard the gunshots and worried about his wife but was too afraid to open the door, he told Mundo Hispanico in a video interview. Deputies arrived within minutes. Gonzalez said they put him in hand cuffs and detained him for about four hours, according to the website.
“They had me in the patrol car the whole time they were investigating who was responsible, who exactly did this,” Gonzalez said in the video.
During the interview with Mundo Hispanico, Gonzalez showed marks on his wrists from handcuffs. “I don’t know whether it’s because of the law or because I’m Mexican. The simple truth is that they treated me badly,” he said.
“Only when they finally confirmed I was her husband, did they tell me that she was dead,” he said. “I wanted to know earlier.”
Left alone to raise their daughter and his wife’s teenage son, Gonzalez said the shooter took “the most important thing I have in my life.”
“He deserves to die, just like the others did,” Gonzalez said.
Authorities have said the shooting in Cherokee County happened around 5 p.m., and just after 6:30 p.m. the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook still images from a surveillance camera showing a suspect in the parking lot outside. Reynolds said Long’s family recognized him from those images and gave investigators his cellphone information, which they used to track him.
Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said in a video posted on Facebook that night that his deputies and state troopers were notified around 8 p.m. that the suspect was headed their way. Deputies and troopers set up along the interstate and saw the black 2007 Hyundai Tucson around 8:30 p.m. A trooper performed a maneuver that caused the vehicle to spin out of control, and Long was taken into custody.
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Associated Press writer Michael Warren contributed to this report. | -0.432437 |
Saudi Arabia has announced a plan to offer Yemen’s Houthi rebels a cease-fire in the country’s yearslong war and allow a major airport to reopen in its capital
Saudi Arabia offers cease-fire plan to Yemen rebelsBy JON GAMBRELL and ISABEL DEBREAssociated PressThe Associated PressDUBAI, United Arab Emirates
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia announced a plan Monday to offer Yemen’s Houthi rebels a cease-fire in the country’s yearslong war and allow a major airport to reopen in its capital, the kingdom’s latest attempt to halt fighting that has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s poorest nation.
The move by Saudi Arabia comes after Yemen’s Houthi rebels stepped up a campaign of drone and missile attacks targeting the kingdom’s oil sites, briefly shaking global energy prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes as Riyadh tries to rehabilitate its image with the U.S. under President Joe Biden. Saudi Arabia has waged a war that saw it internationally criticized for airstrikes killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger in a nation on the brink of famine.
Whether such a plan will take hold remains another question. A unilaterally declared Saudi cease-fire collapsed last year. Fighting rages around the crucial city of Marib and the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes as recently as Sunday targeting Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. A United Nations mission said another suspected airstrike hit a food-production company in the port city of Hodeida.
“It is up to the Houthis now,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told journalists in a televised news conference in Riyadh. “The Houthis must decide whether to put their interests first or Iran’s interests first.”
A senior Houthi official, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity under regulations, said the rebels had been aware of the proposal and in direct communication with the Saudis, as well as Omani interlocutors. However, he said the Saudis needed to do more to see a cease-fire implemented.
Saudi Arabia said the plan would be presented both to the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government later Monday. Both would need to accept the plan for it to move forward, with any timeline likely to be set by U.N. Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.
Saudi Arabia made two concessions to the Houthis in the plan, while not offering everything the rebels previously wanted. The first involves reopening Sanaa International Airport, a vital link for Yemen to the outside world that hasn’t seen regular commercial flights since 2015. Officials did not immediately identify what commercial routes they wanted to see resume.
The second would see taxes, customs and other fees generated by Yemen’s Hodeida port while importing oil put into a joint account of Yemen’s Central Bank. That money would be accessible to the Houthis and Yemen’s recognized government to pay civil servants and fund other programs, officials said.
The Saudi government and the Yemeni government they back have accused the Houthis of stealing those funds in the past. A U.N. panel of experts’ report this year said the Houthis “diverted” some $200 million from that fund.
“Only a small portion of the funds were used to pay salaries,” the report said.
Whether the Houthis accept the Saudi proposal remains in question. On Friday, Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi proposed a nationwide cease-fire contingent upon Saudi Arabia reopening Sanaa’s airport to commercial flights and lifting restrictions on cargo shipments to Hodeida. The port there handles the majority of the country’s vital imports. Both are long-standing demands of the Houthis, who swept into Sanaa from their northwestern strongholds in September 2014.
“There is nothing new about the Saudi initiative,” another senior Houthi official told the AP on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. “First, the airport and the port must both be opened.”
A Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen’s war in March 2015 as the Houthis threatened to take Yemen’s port city of Aden and completely overrun the country’s internationally recognized government. The Saudis promised the offensive — the brainchild of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — would be over in short order.
Six years later, the fighting rages on. The war has killed some 130,000 people, including over 13,000 civilians slain in targeted attacks, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Project. Tens of thousands of children have died of starvation and disease. Just last week, Griffiths warned that “the war is back in full force.”
Yemen’s internationally recognized government praised the Saudi initiative as an effort to “ease the suffering of the Yemeni people.” But in a statement, its Foreign Affairs Ministry also warned that the Houthis had “met all previous initiatives with obstinacy” and had “worked to deepen the humanitarian crisis.”
Since Biden took office, his administration reversed a decision by President Donald Trump naming the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, allowing American aid to flow into rebel-held territory. He also ended U.S. support for the Saudis in the war.
Biden sent the U.S. envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, to the region to negotiate a political settlement. Lenderking said earlier this month that the Houthis had an unspecified cease-fire proposal before them for a “number of days,” without elaborating. He reportedly met with Houthi officials while on a February trip to Oman, something the State Department has declined to acknowledge.
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken to the Saudi foreign minister about the war in Yemen.
Blinken supports efforts “to end the conflict in Yemen, starting with the need for all parties to commit to a cease-fire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid,” the statement said.
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Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. | 1.007545 |
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed a conservative Georgia congressman in his bid to unseat the Republican secretary of state who refused to help overturn the November election results
Trump endorses challenger against Georgia elections chiefBy BILL BARROW and JILL COLVINAssociated PressThe Associated PressATLANTA
ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed a conservative Georgia congressman in his bid to unseat the Republican secretary of state who refused to help overturn the November election results.
Rep. Jody Hice, a tea party favorite and Trump acolyte, is the first major challenger to Brad Raffensperger since the secretary of state certified President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia and disputed Trump’s false allegations of fraud.
Trump’s endorsement marks his most direct attempt at retribution against those he blames for his loss and reaffirms his continued influence over the Republican Party.
“Jody has been a steadfast fighter for conservative Georgia values and is a staunch ally of the America First agenda,” Trump said in a statement that repeated the unsupported allegations of fraud. “Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity. I have 100% confidence in Jody to fight for Free, Fair, and Secure Elections in Georgia, in line with our beloved U.S. Constitution.”
Raffensperger declined comment through a spokesperson.
Hice didn’t mention Trump in his announcement but has said previously that he expected the former president’s support. Trump has said separately that he also wants to help defeat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, another Republican, in 2022.
“Every Georgian, in fact every American, has the right to be outraged by the actions and, simultaneously, the inaction of our Secretary of State,” Hice said in a statement Monday.
The former president has made clear his intentions to target Raffensperger and Kemp, also a Republican, for their parts in ratifying Biden’s victory.
“I’ll be here in a year in a half campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state,” Trump said at a Georgia rally on Jan. 4, the eve of two Senate runoffs that Democrats swept to win control of the chamber.
Both Kemp and Raffensperger have said they were simply following the state’s election law and fulfilling their required duties.
The developments Monday drew immediate plaudits from the right.
“The establishment still doesn’t get how popular Trump is with the base, but they will,” said Debbie Dooley, an early tea party organizer and Trump ally who is close to Hice. “We’ve known Raffensperger was dead, and Jody can excite the base and raise money. This is a serious challenge.”
No heavyweight primary opponent has emerged yet against Kemp. Some Georgia Republicans are looking to former Rep. Doug Collins as Trump conservatives’ ideal challenger. But those close to Collins, one of Trump’s most high-profile House defenders during impeachment proceedings, say he is more likely to make another bid for the Senate after his unsuccessful campaign last year in a special election ultimately won by Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.
Collins was Trump’s choice in 2019 for a Senate vacancy, opened by Republican Johnny Isakson’s retirement. But Kemp opted for Kelly Loeffler. Collins finished third in a jungle primary behind Warnock and Loeffler last November before Warnock prevailed in a runoff.
Hice has not cut as high a profile since his election in 2014 as Collins did, but the 60-year-old has been a loyal Trump lieutenant. He was part of a group of Republican officials in Georgia who relentlessly pushed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud last fall. He endorsed a lawsuit filed by Texas against Georgia and other battleground states seeking to overturn Biden’s victory in the U.S. Supreme Court — a suit the high court rejected — and he objected to the certification of Electoral College votes even after a pro-Trump mob violently stormed the U.S. Capitol. ___
Associated Press reporter Ben Nadler contributed to this story. | -0.036225 |
Stocks were slightly higher in early trading Monday as a modest drop in bond yields was helping lift the broader market
Stocks rise slightly as investors closely watch bond marketThe Associated PressThe Associated Press
Stocks were slightly higher in morning trading Monday as a modest drop in bond yields was helping lift the broader market. Technology stocks were among the better performers, while banks fell.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.6% as of 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.1%.
Stocks ended last week in the red as a rise in bond yields caused selling in many parts of the market. Bond yields have been moving steadily higher all year as investors have bet that the U.S. economy is poised to strongly recover later this year as vaccinations and trillions of dollars of government stimulus take effect.
But a rise in bond yields causes parts of the stock market to appear more expensive than others, the dominant example being technology stocks. Big technology stocks rose sharply last year, and their high valuations make them a prime target for selling when investors can find safer places to park their money.
The prospect of higher interest rates as bond yields rise has some investors concerned that economic growth could slow. There are also concerns that the rise in bond yields could be a harbinger of inflation.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.69% after trading as high as 1.74% last week. Amazon, Apple, Cisco and Microsoft all rose 1% or more.
Bank stocks fell. Lower yields potentially mean banks will only be able to charger lower interest rates to borrowers. The KBW Bank Index of the 24 largest banks was down more than 2%.
The U.S.-traded shares of British drug company AstraZeneca were up 2% after British and U.S. health officials said the company’s COVID-19 vaccine was safe and earlier reports of blood clots were outweighed by the health benefits of the vaccine.
Kansas City Southern was up 13% after a Canadian railroad announced it would buy the company for $25 billion.
Apollo Global Management rose 3% after the private equity company announced that its longtime chairman Leon Black would be retiring. Black’s reputation had been damaged in the last couple of years by his association with deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Turkish lira nosedived 17% after the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, removed central bank head Naci Agbal from his post on Saturday. The currency was trading at about 7.8 lira to the dollar Monday morning.
Agbal had been struggling to counter inflation by raising interest rates, while Erdogan contended that raising interest rates would contribute to inflation, contrary to economic experience and theory. | -1.508469 |
Romania on Sunday recorded its highest number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units since the pandemic began
The Latest: Romania sets record for virus patients in ICUsBy The Associated PressThe Associated Press
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania on Sunday recorded its highest number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units since the pandemic began.
The increasing pressure on ICU wards — where today 1,334 people are currently receiving care — comes amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in the Eastern European country.
Over the past week, Romania has been recording its highest number of infections in three months — on some days more than 6,000 new daily cases.
On Saturday, health officials convened in the capital as they looked for ways to increase ICU bed capacity in order to avoid a looming shortage.
But despite the pressure on Romania’s health care system, Prime Minister Florin Citu insisted that a strict national lockdown won’t be enforced.
“A lot of people are asking if we will end up in lockdown again. My very clear answer is: NO,” Citu wrote online Saturday.
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Romania, which has a population of more than 19 million, has recorded more than 897,000 infections, 22,208 deaths, and it has administered more than 2.4 million vaccines.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Pakistan Prime Minister Khan tests positive for coronavirus.
— Germany: Police clash with protesters against virus measures.
— Half of U.K. adults have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
— As the coronavirus made an end-of-the-year surge across New York, few nursing homes escaped unscathed. But some proved especially helpless at stopping the spread of COVID-19, despite having nine months to stockpile protective equipment and refine preventative measures.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s weekly regional COVID-19 figures keep increasing as the country keeps relaxed restrictions in place for now.
Health ministry statistics released late Saturday showed the rate of infection as more than 251 cases per 100,000 in Istanbul, the country’s largest city — up 41% since last week. That means about 40,000 new infections in Istanbul alone, which has quadrupled from numbers first released six weeks ago.
The government has divided its provinces into four risk categories and said it would evaluate restrictions at a local level every two weeks. The latest figures show many provinces turning “very high-risk” or “high risk.” Turkey’s president announced this week that relaxed restrictions, like in-restaurant dining and reduced curfews, would continue “for some more time,” but said tougher measures could be brought back.
The seven-day average of infections across the country has climbed over 18,000, hitting daily rates last seen in December. Patients in critical care and deaths are also rising. The total reported death toll in Turkey is 29,959.
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NEW DELHI — India has reported its highest number of coronavirus cases in four months amid a worrying surge that has prompted multiple states to return to some form of restrictions on public gathering.
The Health Ministry on Sunday reported 43,846 new cases in the past 24 hours, the worst single-day increase since mid-November.
The central Maharashtra state, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, accounts for more than half of the new infections. The state has imposed a lockdown in some districts until the end of the month and authorities in Mumbai city said they will roll out mandatory random coronavirus tests in crowded places.
According to the ministry, seven other states have been reporting a surge in new cases from the last week, leading some to reimpose containment measures, including focused lockdowns and restaurant and school closures.
India has so far reported more than 11.5 million cases of coronavirus infection, the world’s third-highest total after the United States and Brazil. The cases had been falling steadily since a peak in late September, but experts say increased public gatherings and laxity toward public health guidance is leading to the latest surge.
The government has announced plans to inoculate 300 million people by August. But only 44 million have been vaccinated so far, 7.4 million of them partially.
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LAS VEGAS — The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is changing course and now plans in-person spring graduation ceremonies in May as the coronavirus outbreak slows.
UNLV President Keith Whitfield on Friday announced the change from plans announced in February to hold graduation virtually.
Whitfield said in a letter to students and staff that he firmly believes the university “can offer a traditional commencement while adhering to public health guidelines.”
“Graduation is the culmination of a student’s educational journey and is a significant milestone in their UNLV career. We need to make every effort to provide an experience our graduates so richly deserve,” Whitfield wrote.
Whitfield said there would be two ceremonies for spring 2021 graduates at 8 a.m. on May 14 and May 15 and a third ceremony for 2020 graduates on May 14 at 6:30 p.m.
All three ceremonies will be held at Sam Boyd Stadium.
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PHOENIX — Arizona on Saturday reported 735 additional confirmed coronavirus cases with 42 more deaths amid indications of continued slowing of the coronavirus outbreak.
Arizona’s pandemic totals rose to 835,765 cases and 16,733 deaths, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard.
Johns Hopkins University data showed the rolling average of daily new cases dropped from 1,265.1 on March 4 to 456.9 on Thursday while the rolling average of daily deaths declined from 62.2 to 24.6 over the same two-week period.
The state’s dashboard reported that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients occupying inpatient beds rose to 700 as of Friday, up from 686 as of Thursday, but remained far below the Jan. 11 high of 5,082.
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BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo — The leading opposition presidential candidate in Republic of Congo was receiving oxygen at a private hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, a family member said, casting Sunday’s election into doubt on the eve of the vote.
Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, 61, had skipped his final campaign event on Friday after telling some reporters a day earlier that he feared he had malaria. A relative who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter said plans were underway for Kolelas to be evacuated abroad for further treatment.
A video circulating on social media dated Friday showed Kolelas wearing an oxygen mask and with a blood pressure cuff on his arm as he lay in a hospital bed.
“My dear compatriots, I am in trouble. I am fighting death,” the candidate says in a weak-sounding voice after removing his oxygen mask. “However, I ask you to stand up and vote for change. I would not have fought for nothing.”
A campaign spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the video and Kolelas’ hospitalization. Two people at the hospital who had seen the Kolelas’ test results confirmed to the AP late Saturday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
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LONDON — The U.K. says half of the country’s adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The National Health Service has put shots in the arms of 26.9 million people, or 51% of the adult population, according to the latest government statistics. The NHS passed the halfway point on Friday by delivering 589,689 doses.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Saturday that’s the highest daily total since the mass vaccination program began in early December.
The celebration comes amid growing concerns about the failure of wealthy countries to share scarce vaccine supplies with developing nations. The director of a London-based health policy think tank says while Britain should be proud of the success of its vaccination drive, it’s time to start thinking about the rest of the world. Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome, says the country has the rights to enough doses to vaccinate its entire population twice.
He says ensuring the world is vaccinated is a scientific and economic imperative: “Science has given us the exit strategy, but it will only work if its benefits can reach the maximum number of people around the world.”
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SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile has reported its highest daily count of 7,084 coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic despite widespread restrictions and progress on vaccinations.
The government on Saturday reported cases topping the previous record in June. It says coronavirus has become the country’s leading cause of mortality, causing 26% of deaths this year.
Chile has given at least one vaccine shot to more than 29% of the population and both doses to 15% — far more than in other nations in the region. But Health Minister Enrique Paris says people should remain cautious since population-level immunity isn’t likely until about 80% are vaccinated, probably by the end of June.
Officials say hospital bed usage has reached 94%, with rising numbers among those below 60 as older Chileans have been inoculated.
The government has imposed restrictions on three quarters of the country’s municipalities. Officials say Saturday they are tightening limits on people entering from abroad, especially from Brazil.
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DENVER — Colorado’s health department is moving to relax its statewide mask mandate and limits on gathering capacity.
Health officials say the state’s role in determining COVID-19 restrictions will lessen in favor of more local control as vaccination eligibility is extended.
For the majority of the state, masks will be required for indoor public places with 10 or more people, and the capacity restrictions remain in place.
The proposal would allow local authorities and “private entities” in the counties with the lowest coronavirus infection rates to determine whether masks would be required. It would end most restrictions on capacity for restaurants, retailers and outdoor events.
There are currently only two Level Green counties where this applies — the rural Crowley and Otero counties in southern Colorado — which means they have fewer than 15 cases per 100,000 people in a week.
Most of the state is in the next risk level up, while the Denver metro area is two levels higher than the least restrictive designation.
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WARSAW, Poland — Poland reported more than 25,000 coronavirus cases Saturday, compared to less than 15,000 in early March.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski blamed the increase on the British variant of the virus, which he described as “extremely infectious and vicious.” He urged Poles to observe restrictions that were reintroduced Saturday, closing hotels, shopping malls, theaters, galleries and sports centers.
Poland’s authorities have urged people to get vaccinated, saying they’re speeding up registration of more age groups for the inoculation. They use Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
Unlike many European countries, Poland never discontinued using the AstraZeneca vaccine, insisting it was medically approved and safe. However, many Poles were not turning up for their AstraZeneca inoculation and authorities blamed that on “panic” in other countries.
So far, more than 5 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccines, including some 1.8 million second doses, have been administered in the nation of 38 million.
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ZAGREB, Croatia — Several thousand people in Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro rallied against anti-virus measures on Saturday, despite a rise in daily infections in the past weeks.
Protests in Croatia were held in the capital Zagreb and several smaller towns. Local media say participants refused to wear face masks or keep distance among themselves. while holding banners reading “Enough tyranny,” or “Give us back the flu.”
In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, several hundred people protested after the Serbian government kept bars, restaurants and non-essential shops and businesses closed this week.
The state Montenegrin RTCG television reported about one hundred people came out in the rain to protest anti-virus rules. The report says that police urged them to respect distancing.
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BERGAMO, Italy — Promises to vaccinate all Italians over 80 by the end of March have fallen woefully short, amid well-documented interruptions of vaccine supplies and organizational shortfalls.
Just one third of Italy’s 7.3 million vaccine doses administered so far have gone to people in that age group. The new government of Premier Mario Draghi has pledged to accelerate the vaccination campaign. It is aiming to vaccinate 80% of the population by September.
On Friday, Draghi said Italy aimed to administer 500,000 shots a day by next month, from a current daily level of about 165,000.
Italy has recorded more than 104,000 confirmed deaths, the sixth-highest tally in the world. As of early March, two thirds of Italy’s virus-related deaths were among those over 80. | 0.287955 |
AstraZeneca says that its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection among all adults in a long-anticipated U.S. study
AstraZeneca: US data shows vaccine effective for all adultsBy MARIA CHENG and LAURAN NEERGAARDAP Medical WritersThe Associated PressLONDON
LONDON (AP) — AstraZeneca reported Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection among all adults in a long-anticipated U.S. study, raising hopes that the findings could help rebuild public confidence in the beleaguered shot in other countries and moving a step closer to clearance for American use.
AstraZeneca said the vaccine was 79% effective overall at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 — including in older people — and that none of the study volunteers who were vaccinated were hospitalized or developed severe disease. The company also said its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including finding no increased risk of rare blood clots identified in Europe.
The findings bolster AstraZeneca’s prior research in Britain and other countries, and add to real-world evidence that the shots are offering good protection as they’re used more widely. But confidence in the vaccine has been repeatedly hit because of concerns about how data was reported from some previous trials, confusion over its efficacy in older adults and a recent scare over clotting.
AstraZeneca said it will seek clearance in the United States “in the coming weeks,” putting it on track to arrive just as the country is projected to have a big boost in supplies of three other vaccines — from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — that already are in use.
AstraZeneca’s interim results are based on 141 COVID-19 cases in the 30,000-person trial, but officials declined to tell reporters during a news conference Monday how many were in study volunteers who received the vaccine and how many in those who got dummy shots. Two-thirds of the volunteers received vaccine.
“These findings reconfirm previous results observed,” said Ann Falsey, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine, who helped lead the trial. “It’s exciting to see similar efficacy results in people over 65 for the first time.”
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will publicly debate the evidence behind the shots before the agency decides whether to allow emergency use. Ruud Dobber, an AstraZeneca executive vice president, said that if the FDA OK’s the vaccine, the company will deliver 30 million doses immediately — and another 20 million within the first month.
The AstraZeneca shot, which has been authorized in more than 70 countries, is a pillar of a U.N.-backed project known as COVAX that aims to get COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries, and it has also become a key tool in European countries’ efforts to boost their sluggish vaccine rollouts. That important role in the global strategy to stamp out the pandemic make doubts about the shot especially worrying.
Stephen Evans, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the new data could help to allay concerns about the vaccine.
“The benefits of these results will mainly be for the rest of the world where confidence in the AZ (AstraZeneca) vaccine has been eroded, largely by political and media comment,” he said.
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the results were reassuring but that more details were needed to back up AstraZeneca’s claim that the vaccine was completely effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalization.
”It would be good to know how many severe cases occurred in the control group and so what the confidence intervals are for this 100% figure,” said Hunter, who was not connected to the study. “But this should add confidence that the vaccine is doing what it is most needed for.”
Scientists had hoped the U.S. study would clear up some of the confusion about just how well the shots really work, particularly in older people. Previous research suggested the vaccine was effective in younger populations, but there was no solid data proving its efficacy in those over 65, often those most vulnerable to COVID-19.
Britain first authorized the vaccine based on partial results from testing in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa that suggested the shots were about 70% effective. But those results were clouded by a manufacturing mistake that led some participants to get just a half dose in their first shot — an error the researchers didn’t immediately acknowledge.
Then came more questions, about how well the vaccine protected older adults and how long to wait before the second dose. Some European countries including Germany, France and Belgium initially withheld the shot from older adults and only reversed their decisions after new data suggested it was offering seniors protection.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine development was rocky in the U.S., too. Last fall, the FDA suspended the company’s study for an unusual six weeks, as frustrated regulators sought information about some neurologic complaints reported in Britain; ultimately, there was no evidence the vaccine was to blame.
Last week, more than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, temporarily suspended their use of the AstraZeneca shot after reports it was linked to rare blood clots — even as international health agencies insisted the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency concluded after an investigation that the vaccine did not raise the overall risk of blood clots, but could not rule out that it was connected to two very rare types of clots. It recommended adding a warning about these cases to the vaccine’s leaflet.
It’s not unheard of for such rare problems to crop up as vaccines are rolled out since trials typically look at tens of thousands of people, and some issues are only seen once the shot is used in millions of people.
France, Germany, Italy and other countries subsequently resumed their use of the shot on Friday, with senior politicians rolling up their sleeves to show the vaccine was safe.
The AstraZeneca shot is what scientists call a “viral vector” vaccine. The shots are made with a harmless virus, a cold virus that normally infects chimpanzees. It acts like a Trojan horse to carry the coronavirus’s spike protein’s genetic material into the body that in turn produces some harmless protein. That primes the immune system to fight if the real virus comes along.
Two other companies, Johnson & Johnson and China’s CanSino Biologics, make COVID-19 vaccines using the same technology but using different cold viruses.
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Neergaard reported from Washington.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. | 0.108575 |
Ikea’s French subsidiary and several of its executives went on trial Monday over accusations that they illegally spied on employees and customers
Ikea France on trial over claims it spied on staff, clientsBY NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY and OLEG CETINICAssociated PressThe Associated PressVERSAILLES, France
VERSAILLES, France (AP) — Ikea’s French subsidiary and several of its former executives went on trial Monday over accusations that they illegally spied on employees and customers.
Trade unions reported the furniture and home goods company to French authorities in 2012, accusing it of collecting personal data by fraudulent means and the illicit disclosure of personal information.
The unions alleged that Ikea France paid to gain access to police files that had information about targeted individuals, particularly union activists and customers who were in disputes with Ikea.
The company fired four executives and changed internal policy after French prosecutors opened a criminal probe in 2012. But at Monday’s trial in the Versailles court, lawyers for Ikea France denied any strategy of “generalized espionage.”
An Ikea employee and CGT union activist, Hocine Redouane, said at Monday’s trial that the company wrongly suspected him of being a bank robber because their investigation system found criminal records involving a bank robber with the same name.
“Such a system can easily slip into abuse,” Redouane said.
Another accusation alleged that Ikea France used unauthorized data to try to catch an employee who had claimed unemployment benefits but drove a Porsche. Another says the subsidiary investigated an employee’s criminal record to determine how the employee was able to own a BMW on a low income.
The former head of Ikea France’s risk management department, Jean-François Paris, acknowledged to French judges that 530,000 to 630,000 euros a year ($633,000 to $753,000) were earmarked for such investigations. Paris, who is among those accused, said his department was responsible for handling it.
Former Ikea France CEOs Jean-Louis Baillot and Stefan Vanoverbeke, former Chief Financial Officer Dariusz Rychert, store managers and police officers are also going on trial.
If convicted, the two ex-CEOs face sentences of up to 10 years in prison and fines of 750,000 euros. Ikea France faces a maximum penalty of 3.75 million euros. The trial is scheduled to last until April 2.
The company also faces potential damages from civil lawsuits filed by unions and 74 employees.
Anne-Solene Bouvier, lawyer for the employees, argued that the case is important for French society as a whole. “The right to privacy for employees should be sacred,” she said.
Ikea France, a subsidiary of Swedish furniture company Ikea, said Monday it has cooperated with French judicial authorities.
“Ikea France takes the protection of its employees’ and customers’ data very seriously,” the company said in a statement. It said it adopted compliance and training procedures to prevent illegal activity after the investigation was opened in 2012.
The lawyer for Ikea France, Emmanuel Daoud, said there was no poof of “a widespread system of spying.” The lawyer for the company’s former human resources director called the case “a fairy tale” invented by union activists.
In France, Ikea employs more than 10,000 people in 34 stores, an e-commerce site and a customer support center.
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Nicolas Vaux-Montagny reported from Lyon. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. | -0.397403 |
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will announce the names of this year’s rookie draft class within shouting distance of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
No basement blues: Goodell on hand for draft in Cleveland By TOM WITHERSAP Sports WriterThe Associated PressCLEVELAND
CLEVELAND (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be leaving his man cave to announce this year’s rookie draft class within shouting distance of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The league announced some its plans for this year’s three-day event in Cleveland, which will include some of the prospects being in person after last year’s draft in Las Vegas was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of Cleveland’s iconic downtown locations, including the Rock Hall, FirstEnergy Stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center, will be incorporated into the three-day festivities from April 29-May 1. Most of the events are are outdoors.
Goodell will be on hand to welcome the league’s newest players — but from a short distance. Building on the success of last year’s virtual event, when the commissioner read players’ names from the basement of his home, other draft picks will participate remotely from around the country.
The league said the three-day event will be open to the public, and protocols from the experiences of hosting the Super Bowl in Tampa will be in place.
The league will again partner with state and local public health officials to ensure the safety for fans and participants. Fans will be required to wear face coverings and adhere to physical distancing.
A main stage will be built along Lake Erie to serve as the central hub for draft activities, including unnamed musical acts
“We are thrilled to be heading to Cleveland for the NFL draft, which has become one of the most highly anticipated events in sports” NFL executive Peter O’Reilly said.
The NFL will also use this year’s draft to promote the COVID-19 vaccine.
This year’s draft coincides with the the Cleveland Browns’ 75th anniversary.
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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | 0.97856 |
As an aspiring comic in Los Angeles, Jo Koy often could only go on stage during ethnic theme nights
Comic, Netflix staple Jo Koy talks race, rejection in memoirBy TERRY TANGAssociated PressThe Associated Press
Like many famous comics, Jo Koy had early struggles at comedy clubs. But, unlike them, the half white and half Filipino comedian could only seem to book spots on ethnic theme nights like “Wonton Wednesdays” and “Asian Invasion.”
“There’s a lot of comics that had to do it. I’m not just saying Asians — Black people, Latinos, anyone that was ‘other’ had to do these themed shows. And it sucks,” Koy recalled recently.
Segregating comics may sound bizarre and offensive in today’s world but that underlying racism “baked into” the comedy club circuit was acceptable in the early 2000s, according to Koy. How he went from there to being a Netflix darling and having a movie deal with Steven Spielberg is part of the career journey Koy, 49, tells in his new memoir.
“Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo,” out Tuesday, is an ideal companion to Koy’s stand-up with its humorous — and at times painful — origin stories behind some of his most popular bits. The book shows how Koy’s mixed-race background ultimately shaped his brand of comedy and his determination not to give up on his childhood dream.
“I’m not trying to pat myself on the back. It was a long road,” Koy said. “And when I finally got to this point in my career, I just looked at my manager. I was like, ‘Man, I would really like to tell people, you know, this struggle, and how hard it was to really get here.’”
With the help of a writing partner, Koy, born Joseph Glenn Herbert, lays bare how he grappled with his mixed-race identity as a child growing up in Tacoma, Washington. He doesn’t shy away from deeply personal topics including an older brother with violent schizophrenia and a father who left when he was only 12 years old. (The book also documents their reconciliation.)
“I’ve always been open to just letting people be inside my life,” Koy said. “So when I said I was going to write a book, of course I’m going to tell them everything. Or else, you’re not going to really know the story of how I got there.”
Koy, who’s sold out stadium shows, has aspired to make people laugh since age 11. He didn’t “speak school” and was never interested in conventional pursuits like college. For him, earning $5 doing stand-up on an open mic in a coffeehouse was more thrilling. By the 1990s, he followed his mother and stepfather to Las Vegas and started doing comedy contests and small clubs there. In 2001, he decided to make the big move to Los Angeles.
The comedy club circuit wasn’t exactly receptive to his bi-racial appearance.
“You come to Hollywood, and they have no idea what they’re looking at — as horrible as that sounds,” Koy said. “‘What’s your story? We don’t get it. Where do we put you?’”
Koy took whatever gigs at clubs like The Improv and the Laugh Factory — even the ethnic “theme nights.” Meanwhile, he juggled as many as three part-time jobs. By 2003, he also had to factor in his newborn son.
In the book, he recounts performing at the Laugh Factory while a then-unknown Tiffany Haddish would be off to the side watching his son.
“We had that that little bond of ours, you know, that we both had seen struggle,” Koy said. “I love Tiffany, that she was she was there during that process. She still is in my life to this day, which is even more amazing.”
Seeing his toddler son play with his mother, it hit Koy that family life could be funny fodder. While mimicking his mother’s accent and mannerisms is now classic Koy, he initially hesitated for fear of being labeled “the Filipino comic.” But he saw that all audiences seemed to find anecdotes involving his mother relatable.
“That’s when I knew. I was like, ‘Oh, I got something good here. I know how to do it now,’” Koy said.
His Filipino roots shine brightly in the book. Koy may be the first comic with a memoir that’s part recipe book. There are instructions on how to make Filipino dishes like lumpia and chicken adobo. He wants to keep being “an ambassador for Filipino food” and culture.
With three Netflix comedy specials under his belt in the last four years, including one filmed in Manila, Koy said people often think that the streaming service discovered him. But like other times in his life, he was rejected by them for their 2017 comedy slate.
Determined to give them a reason to say yes, Koy put on his own special. He booked a theater in Seattle and paid for a high-quality crew to film it. The final product was enough to elicit an offer from Netflix.
Since then, Koy has built a reputation as an in-demand comedian. With plenty of on-screen experience including being a panelist on Chelsea Handler’s old E! talk show, “Chelsea Lately,” Koy seems one sitcom or film away from the next level of stardom.
One of his Netflix specials got Spielberg’s attention. The director’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, is producing a starring vehicle for Koy, “Easter Sunday.” Based on Koy’s own experiences, the movie comedy follows a family gathering on the titular holiday.
Even with all these opportunities, Koy’s mother sometimes asks him if he’ll drop stand-up for a regular job “with benefits.”
“I don’t think about retiring. I’m gonna die on that stage,” Koy said. “That’s kind of hard to explain to an immigrant parent. They don’t understand that. But you know what? We’re all enjoying this.”
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Tang reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP | 1.382835 |
March 22 (UPI) — Jorge Soler hit one of the longest home runs of 2021 spring training with a 484-foot blast in a Kansas City Royals win over the Colorado Rockies.
Soler’s homer came in the bottom of the fifth frame in the 6-1 win Sunday at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz.
The Royals led 2-0 as the game entered the fifth inning. Carlos Santana grounded out in the first at-bat of the half-inning. Soler then stepped in to face Rockies relief pitcher Dereck Rodriguez.
Soler fell behind 1-2 in the count. He then obliterated a Rodriguez fastball to left field for a solo homer. Royals third baseman Hunter Dozier struck out swinging in the next at-bat.
Rodriguez then allowed a triple to Ryan O’Hearn. Hanser Alberto then drove in O’Hearn with an RBI single for a 6-0 lead.
Rockies third baseman Josh Fuentes hit a solo home run to left field in the top of the eighth inning for the final run of the game.
Soler went 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored in the win. He is hitting .225 with four home runs and eight RBIs this spring. Royals second baseman White Merrifield also went 2 for 3 in Sunday’s win.
The Royals host the San Diego Padres in another spring training game at 4:05 p.m. EDT Monday in Surprise. | 0.987962 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment.
The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which carried out executions of 13 federal inmates in its final six months in office.
The case won’t be heard until the fall, and it’s unclear how the new administration will approach Tsarnaev’s case. The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.
But Biden has pledged to seek an end to the federal death penalty.
In late July, the federal appeals court in Boston threw out Tsarnaev’s sentence because it said the judge at his trial did not do enough to ensure the jury would not be biased against him.
The Justice Department had moved quickly to appeal, asking the justices to hear and decide the case by the end of the court’s current term, in early summer. Then-Attorney General William Barr said last year, “We will do whatever’s necessary.”
Tsarnaev’s lawyers acknowledged at the beginning of his trial that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the two bombs at the marathon finish line in 2013. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind the attack.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died following a gunfight with police and being run over by his brother as he fled. Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours later in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard.
Tsarnaev, now 27, was convicted of all 30 charges against him, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer during the Tsarnaev brothers’ getaway attempt. The appeals court upheld all but a few of his convictions. | -0.111077 |
The NFL is scrapping the virtual format it used for the 2020 NFL Draft, and planning to for a “large, live, in-person” draft in 2021, according to sources.
As Sports Business Journal reports, the NFL is moving forward with a plan to have their draft prospects on a stage and fans in attendance when the draft kicks off from Cleveland on April 29. However, the league is looking at an outdoor venue for the event and will enforce strict mask compliance.
“We have been characterizing it as a ‘large, live, in-person event,” said Greater Cleveland Sports Commission CEO David Gilbert. As Gilbert explains, the crowd is expected to be “the largest event in this city in many years, certainly since the [2016] Republican Convention.”
The NFL says it will use the draft to promote vaccines,” Pro Football Talk reports. “About a quarter of Ohio adults have already received at least one shot, and on March 29 all Ohio adults will become eligible, meaning that by the time the draft rolls around, a large percentage of those in attendance should be vaccinated.”
The NFL Draft Experience, a fan-friendly event held at each draft will be held at “FirstEnergy Stadium and the broad plaza between the stadium, the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock ‘n’ Roll HOF, all located just north of downtown Cleveland.” | 0.861572 |
Attorney Tony Buzbee claims that he is prepared to submit a large amount of new evidence to the Houston Police alleging more sexual misconduct allegations against Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson.
Buzbee, who is representing 12 women alleging sexual assault against the NFL quarterback, also said he will request that a grand jury review the evidence, according to the New York Post.
“Per advice from a well-known criminal defense attorney: Our team will be submitting affidavits and evidence from several women, who had experiences with Deshaun Watson, to the Houston Police Department and the Houston District Attorney, on Monday morning,” Buzbee wrote in a Saturday Instagram post. “We will request that a grand jury be empaneled to consider the evidence we provide.”
Buzbee added that his clients will file five more lawsuits against Watson.
The attorney also said that at least “10 additional women” are prepared to accuse Watson. Some, Buzbee said, are massage therapists and at least one alleges that she was forced to perform oral sex on the player.
The NFL said only that Buzbee’s accusations are “under review” while the Texans have said they are monitoring the situation.
Watson says he is innocent, but his legal team said that they will have an official statement sometime soon.
TMZ added that Watson claims that he has never crossed the line with any of the massage therapists and believes that the women are being represented by a “money-hungry attorney” looking for a fat payout.
Watson signed a $156 million contract last year.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston. | 1.434041 |
Authorities investigating Tiger Woods’ February 23 single-car crash now say that it appears the golf great didn’t hit the brakes before impact.
According to investigators reviewing the crash scene and the data from the vehicle’s black box. Indeed, he didn’t seem to take his foot off the gas pedal, Woods’ car never slowed down before he lost control of the car, the New York Post reported.
Woods was found unconscious immediately after the wreck, according to testimony from a bystander who was first on the scene.
However, the player regained consciousness before first responders arrived at the scene. The 45-year-old player was conscious and alert when he was pulled from the wrecked auto.
Woods is said to have no memory of the accident.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has taken criticism for how he has dealt with the incident. The sheriff, though, recently said that Woods got no special treatment during the investigation into the wreck.
Villanueva caught criticism for quickly coming out to say that the February 23 crash was “purely an accident” before the full investigation was finished. He also immediately said that there was “no evidence” that Woods was impaired while behind the wheel and insisted he would pursue no charges.
“I know there’s been a lot of concern about, was he received any treatment any different than anybody else — he did not. He received the same treatment everybody else would receive,” Villanueva said. “One, there’s no obvious evidence of impairment, and he’s compound fracture in a horrendous scene. Our concern shifts to the humanitarian, you know, life preservation, those kinds of things. And the accident becomes secondary.”
The sheriff’s department also insisted that they won’t release anything else about the case, saying, “We are not releasing any further information at this time.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston. | -0.105934 |
A new poll shows that there is a deepening racial divide over politics in sports, especially about taking a knee during the national anthem.
The Axios-Ipsos poll of 2,035 adults taken in March finds a deep racial divide in mixing politics with sports. A slight majority (54 to 44) feel it is inappropriate for athletes to take a knee during the national anthem. However, as Axios notes, that slight majority only exists because the preponderance of white respondents had serious objections to the practice.
According to the poll, 67 percent of whites find it is inappropriate to kneel during the national anthem. However, only 14 percent of blacks are against the practice. Also, 38 percent of Hispanics disagree with kneeling as did 42 percent of Asian respondents.
The divide is starker when broken down by party. Fully 89 percent of Republicans oppose kneeling during the national anthem while only 25 percent of Democrats are against it. For independents, 51 percent oppose kneeling.
The results were similar for the question of whether athletes should use their sport to speak out on political issues. The poll found a near-even split on the question with 60 percent of white respondents saying athletes should not use their sport to advocate for political causes. However, 84 percent of blacks, 63 percent of Hispanics, and 68 percent of Asians said it was OK for athletes to speak out.
There was, however, an agreement that athletes should not be fired for speaking out, regardless, and that they have a First Amendment right to speak.
Though, as to using Native American names, symbols, or mascots for sports teams, the poll found that most overall had no problem with the practice.
The poll found that 64 percent said that changing team names to get rid of Native American imagery had gone too far in America today. But there was a racial divide here, too, with blacks skewing to the far left on the topic. 61 percent of blacks said that teams should not be allowed to use Native American names or mascots. A strong majority of whites disagreed with the black respondents and slight majorities of Hispanics and Asians joined whites in their positive view of using Native American names and mascots.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston. | 0.106325 |
A minor league player in the Chicago Cubs organization has been arrested after police found 21 pounds of methamphetamines in his bag.
Jesus Camargo Corrales, 25, was pulled over Wednesday in Eagle, Colorado, after police spotted him driving erratically.
Police searched the vehicle using a K-9 who quickly took interest in the rear wheel well and seat area. A subsequent search revealed a duffel bag that contained “21 pounds of meth, 1.2 pounds of Oxycodone pills, several baseball gloves, cleats and $1,000 in cash.”
According to WGN 9:
There were two other people in the car during the search and police said they were released after they determined they had no knowledge of the drugs. Camargo Corrales now faces several felony drug charges. His bond was set at $75,000.
The Cubs minor leaguer told police he was driving from Arizona to Denver to teach a baseball clinic.
Camargo, originally from Mexico, was assigned to the Single-A South Bend Cubs in February. | -2.340558 |
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