Turkey demands 11 years behind bars for senior journalist

ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor's office demanded 11 years in jail for a prominent journalist on charges of insulting President Tayyip Erdogan and two ministers in his cabinet, Turkish news agencies reported on Friday.


© Reuters/Murad SezerFILE PHOTO: Turkish President Erdogan is pictured with Turkish Justice Minister Bozdag during the International Istanbul Law Congress in Istanbul

Last month, a court ordered Sedef Kabas, a 52-year-old television journalist who mainly covers Turkish politics, to be jailed pending trial on a charge of insulting Erdogan, which carries a jail sentence of between one and four years.

The prosecutor also asked Kabas to be charged with insulting Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoglu, for a combined jail term of 11 years.

Kabas was jailed pending trial over a proverb she cited during a political discussion on opposition TV channel Tele 1 and repeated on Twitter, which Erdogan's communications head and the justice minister condemned as a swipe at the president.

Earlier on Friday, The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) and 37 press freedom organizations and journalists called on Turkey to release Kabas.

"The unfounded imprisonment of the noted journalist was met with widespread condemnation from local and international press freedom organizations as well as rights organizations and press freedom defenders," the joint statement said.

"Yet, the Turkish government and judiciary appear relentless and Sedef remains behind bars," it added.

Tens of thousands have been charged and convicted over the crime of insulting the president since Erdogan took office in 2014 after serving as prime minister for 11 years.

Between 2014 and the end of 2020, 160,169 such investigations were launched, 35,507 cases were filed and there were 12,881 convictions, official data shows.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

PANDEMIC PROFITEERING
It's not just inflation — corporate greed is also partially to blame for the rising prices you're paying

insider@insider.com (Paul Constant) -


© Provided by Business InsiderMeat prices have skyrocketed during the pandemic. Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty Images

Paul Constant is a writer at Civic Ventures and the cohost of the "Pitchfork Economics" podcast.

He said inflation is measured using a "market basket" of goods and services.
The CPI can't fully explain inflation's rise — some price increases go to corporate profits, he says.

The media often reports on a single monthly "inflation rate," as though prices always rise by a uniform number across the board.

But when inflation rose by 7% in December, that didn't mean that every item in your grocery basket — to say nothing of haircuts, movie tickets, lawnmowers, and paperclips — increased by exactly 7% over the past year.

The federal government tracks and reports the inflation rate through something called the Consumer Price Index, which builds a "market basket" from a wide variety of goods and services in locations around the country and then runs the numbers through a complex weighting process to come up with the monthly average. Drew Desilver at Pew Research Center wrote a great deep dive explaining this process last month.

Our own experience as consumers informs us that prices on various goods and services are rising, and the inflation rate, derived from the CPI, confirms that our experience is true. But what the CPI can't explain — at least, not fully — is how and why inflation is rising.
The first thing to note is that inflation isn't just a problem in the United States

Virtually every nation in the world is struggling with skyrocketing inflation rates, though the rate is increasing higher in the US than in most nations. The United Kingdom, for example, reported a 5.4% inflation rate in December.

The reason for this universal price hike is relatively simple: The pandemic shut down the global supply chain, which then caused a worldwide traffic jam for goods ranging from auto parts to semiconductors at the exact same time that demand for goods like electronics and home-improvement items increased for hundreds of millions of locked-down consumers around the world.

Chad Stone at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, among others, believes that inflation is largely the result of global consumer demand switching almost overnight from services to goods during the pandemic.
The second thing is that even if supply-chain problems were completely smoothed out over the next few months, inflation is still likely to be a big problem in the US for at least the next year

That's because rents and shelter costs, which make up a third of the CPI's "market basket," are soaring right now.

As Zach Silk writes in the most recent issue of The Pitch, the sister newsletter to the "Pitchfork Economics" podcast, "The average rent in the United States is nearly $1,900 a month, an increase of nearly $300 over this time last year — and that's the average, remember, while some cities like Miami have seen a 40% year-over-year increase of rents."

Economists warn that due to a variety of complex CPI aggregation issues, even if every price in America magically stopped rising tomorrow, rising rents alone would continue to drive up the overall inflation rate for the next year or so.

The last point to keep in mind with inflation is that, like everything else to do with the economy, those rising prices aren't established by some objective, all-seeing, all-knowing "free market" that assesses every aspect of the economy and sets prices accordingly.
In fact, a good number of the rising prices we're paying weren't strictly necessary at all

During the last quarter of 2021, for example, Starbucks reported an eye-popping 31% increase in profits, and revenue increased for the quarter by almost 20% to just over $8 billion. On the same call that Starbucks announced those terrific numbers, the corporation also announced that it would raise its prices over the next year — probably more than once.

The company blamed "supply-chain disruptions" and higher costs for labor for the price hikes, but Jake Johnson at media nonprofit Common Dreams said that they didn't mention one raise in particular: Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson's pay increased by almost 40% last year to more than $20 million.

It's not just Starbucks: Many American corporations see inflationary panic as an opportunity to boost their profits. The Wall Street Journal reported that Todd Kahn, the CEO of luxury fashion brand Coach, even admitted that his company's "rise in [prices] isn't really about inflation … it's about reducing discounting."

Journalist Matt Stoller estimated that 60% of the price increases that ordinary Americans are paying are going directly to corporate profits, not to compensate for global supply issues or compensate for higher-priced goods.
Of course, none of this context about inflation helps the ordinary American consumer, who's paying more for everyday items

All those wage increases that have happened since the labor market turned in favor of workers last year weren't enough to keep up with inflation, which took a 2.4% bite out of the average American paycheck.

These inflationary stresses are a complicated global problem, and it's going to take a suite of policies — from using government muscle to help smooth out lingering supply-chain snags to combating shameless corporate price gouging and exploitative rent hikes — to push inflation back down to healthy levels.

But you shouldn't buy finger-pointing that tries to pin inflation solely on lockdowns, stimulus checks, or other policies that were passed to help keep Americans safe and supported through the worst of pandemic.

That's the worst kind of trickle-down fear-mongering — meant to keep workers angry with workers and everyone's eyes off the real profiteers.

Honduran supreme court orders release of six anti-mining protesters

Nina Lakhani - The Guardian


The Honduran supreme court has ordered the release of six anti-mining protesters, ruling that they should never have been put on trial.

The environmentalists, who have been held on remand for two and half years for trying to protect a river in a national park, faced up to 14 years in prison after being convicted on Wednesday of criminal damage and illegal detention. Two others were absolved of the same charges.

Wednesday’s verdict, which cemented Honduras’ ranking as the most dangerous country in the world for environmentalists and land rights defenders, was condemned as “appalling” by the UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders.

Amnesty International described the verdict as “outrageous” and said the Guapinol activists were prisoners of conscience.

Related: UN rapporteur ‘appalled’ by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine

But in a dramatic move, the supreme court accepted an appeal filed months earlier that challenged the constitutionality of the charges and the refusal to grant bail.

The court found that the case should never have gone to trial because the judge who sanctioned the indictment against the defenders – and later ordered pre-trial detention – was not authorised to do so. The charges must be annulled and the men freed, as the judge violated due process by presiding on cases outside her jurisdiction.

The eight men, from a poor, semi-rural community called Guapinol, have been held in an overcrowded prison throughout the pandemic as a result of bail being denied – yet the conditions requiring pre-trial detention were never met, according to Thursday’s supreme-court decision.

“The rulings confirm that the case should never have proceeded and that the pre-trial detention was illegal,” said defence lawyer Edy Tabora. “The Guapinol defenders were arbitrarily detained.”

The case stems from a huge open-pit mine in Tocoa, owned by one of the country’s most powerful couples, which was sanctioned inside a protected national park without community consultation in a process mired by irregularities, according to international experts.

The Guapinol community set-up a peaceful protest camp after the mine polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people. Security forces violently evicted the encampment and dozens of arrest warrants were issued against the protesters.

International legal and human rights experts widely condemned the criminalization of the activists and the subsequent militarization of the community, which has forced several people to flee and seek asylum in the US.

After a trial mired my delays, irregularities and accusations of judicial bias and falsified evidence, the criminal court ruled on Wednesday that José Márquez, Kelvin Romero Martínez, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto Cedillo, Orbín Nahúm Hernández, and Ewer Alexander Cedillo Cruz were guilty of criminal damage of the mining company’s property and illegal detention of its private security chief.

Arnold Alemán and Jeremías Martínez were absolved of the same charges and allowed to return home.

As a result of the supreme court rulings, defence lawyers will today petition the court to immediately release the six imprisoned men.

Juana Zuniga, partner of Jose Albino Cedillo was among the six found guilty, said: “We the families are in shock, but full of joy. We hope that our companions will be freed as soon as possible and allowed to return home as the defenders that they are and have always been.

“Our struggle will continue until the national park is free from mining and environmental destruction.”

Mexico on track for one of deadliest years for media

AFP - Yesterday 


Mexico is on course for one of its deadliest years yet for the press, with five journalists murdered already in 2022, prompting calls for authorities to end a culture of impunity.

Reporters in the Latin American country are killed "because it's cheap," Juan Vazquez, spokesman for media rights group Article 19, told AFP.

"Those who run the greatest risk are the journalists with their pen, computer, recorder or microphone. In the end those who run the least risk are those who pull the trigger," he said.


© PEDRO PARDOA man holds a sign reading

 "Do Not Shoot. The Truth Does Not Kill" 

at a protest against the murders of journalists outside

 the interior ministry in Mexico City

The latest victim was Heber Lopez Vazquez, the 39-year-old manager of news website Noticias Web in the southern state of Oaxaca who was shot dead on Thursday.

Two suspects were arrested as they tried to flee the scene of the crime, according to prosecutors.

Lopez had previously received threats that he believed were linked to allegations of corruption against a local mayor, said Balbina Flores, representative for media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).


© Guillermo AriasA protester holds a candle with a photo of

 Lourdes Maldonado, one of five journalists murdered already in 2022 in Mexico

Even so, he was not part of a government program providing protection for around 500 journalists.

His murder puts Mexico on course to surpass the toll of seven journalists killed in 2021.

"The first six weeks of 2022 have been the deadliest for the Mexican press in over a decade," said Jan-Albert Hootsen, representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The media rights group said it "urges Mexican authorities to immediately and transparently investigate all murders and bring the perpetrators to justice."

Mexican authorities said Wednesday that three men had been arrested over the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado last month in Tijuana.

Her death came in the wake of the shooting of photographer Margarito Martinez in the same northwestern border city.

Roberto Toledo, who worked with a news site in the central state of Michoacan, as well as Jose Luis Gamboa, a journalist and social media activist in eastern Veracruz state, were also killed in January.

- 'Zero impunity'

Around 150 journalists have been murdered since 2000 in Mexico, and only a fraction of the crimes have resulted in convictions, according to RSF.

Around 100 of them were killed under presidents Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) and Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018), whose terms were marked by a bloody war on drug trafficking.

Another 29 murders have been registered since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018 championing a "hugs not bullets" strategy to tackle violent crime at its roots by fighting poverty and inequality.

"This six-year term (of Lopez Obrador) will be classified as one of the bloodiest" for the press, Flores predicted.

Mexico's president on Friday promised "zero impunity" for the latest murder.

His critics argue that his outspoken attacks against a media that he calls "mercenary" and accuses of serving the interests of his opponents only add to the difficulties facing journalists.

The fact that more than 90 percent of the murders of media workers go unpunished in Mexico is a major driver of the violence, according to activists.

If the authorities had taken tougher action to prevent such crimes, relatives would not be burying more victims, said Vazquez.

Mexico was failing to comply with its obligations in terms of protection and prevention of deadly attacks against journalists, he said.

This country of 126 million people plagued by drug cartel-related violence, ranks 143rd out of 180 nations in RSF's World Press Freedom Index.

Most of the crimes against Mexican media involve small outlets whose journalists are "very vulnerable" and sometimes unaware of the protection mechanisms available to them, Flores said.

Given the poor pay this kind of work offers, they often combine journalism with other jobs.

This means authorities can sometimes be quick to separate the crimes from the victims' media activities and not to investigate them as violations of press freedom.

Journalism is a "very precarious" way of eking out a living in Mexico, said Flores.

jla-axm-dr/mdl/dw

Push for global treaty to cut ocean plastic pollution

Pamela Falk - Yesterday 

© Rich Carey/Shutterstock.comocean-pollutioncropped620x350.jpg

United Nations – The United Nations, the U.S. and France have set their sights on forging an ambitious U.N. treaty to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. They're hoping to get other nations to sign onto a deal modeled on the 2015 Paris climate pact.

"Plastic waste is choking the seas," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message delivered Friday to a global summit in France on the state of the world's oceans.

National delegations will start negotiating to establish staffing and the agenda for a plastics treaty at the U.N.'s Environment Assembly in Nairobi from February 28-March 2, but the U.S. and France lost no time, announcing on Friday at the three-day "One Oceans Summit" in Brest, on France's coast, their intention to cut plastic pollution.

More than 57 million pounds of pandemic waste polluting oceans

"With rising waters, coastal landfills are threatening to release their waste into the sea," French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday.

The White House said in a statement the two nations "are committed to protecting our environment for future generations," announcing negotiations with France to promote a "global agreement to address the full lifecycle of plastics."

"The agreement should include binding and non-binding commitments, call on countries to develop and implement ambitious national action plans, and foster robust engagement of stakeholders to contribute toward the agreement's objectives while complementing national government contributions," the White House said.

Other aspects of ocean protection were being discussed at the One Oceans Summit, as well as at other upcoming conferences. The U.N. will meet June 27-July 1 in Lisbon, Portugal, and coral reefs will be the focus of the "Our Ocean" conference, sponsored by the U.S. and the Republic of Palau from April 13-14.

"The 'One Ocean Summit' in France is the first in a series of ocean action meetings in 2022 that we hope will stop the decline in the ocean's health this year … urgent action is required," Peter Thomson, U.N. Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, told CBS News.

The flurry of meetings on the human impact on the oceans is a result of the increasingly apparent urgency of the problem, and because the coronavirus pandemic has largely curbed international gatherings for the past two years.

Experts from the U.S. say that at least 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the world's oceans each year — the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute, according to the report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in December.

The National Academies report said that as far back as 2016, "the U.S. generated more plastic waste than any other country, exceeding that of all European Union member states combined."

The U.N. plan is to try to negotiate a plastics treaty in just two years, which would be record speed for any global accord, according to Inger Anderson, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme.

The U.N.'s estimate is even higher than the U.S.'s numbers: "We currently dump 11 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean each year, and this figure is projected to double by 2030 and nearly triple by 2040."

"Even people that don't live near a coast, they have seen pictures of sea turtles with plastic choking him… they've seen examples of the plastics that are in necks of seabirds," Susan Gardner, director of UNEP's Ecosystem Division, told CBS News.

"People really understand that when you see plastic on the beach of a remote desert island coming from far away, that we're all contributing to that problem."

The European Union's Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries said at a U.N. press conference last week COVID-19 had stalled talks needed to clean up the oceans. "This year must be the year of the oceans," said Virginijus Sinkevičius. "This year must be the year of biodiversity… it is essential to get plastics under control and the only way to do it is globally."

Bolsonaro allies allegedly pushing fake news effort, Brazil police document says

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A group of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's allies allegedly is coordinating a disinformation campaign and targeting of his political rivals ahead of the Oct. 2 presidential election, according to a public extract from a federal police probe.

The partial report, which became publicly accessible after it was sent to the Supreme Court on Thursday, is from the so-called "Digital Militias" investigation led by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a crusading justice who has headed previous high-profile probes into Bolsonaro and his supporters.

Moraes, accused by Bolsonaro of favoring leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in this year's presidential election, is probing what lead police investigator Denisse Ribeiro has described as a "cabinet of hate" comprised of supporters of the far-right populist who are allegedly flooding social media with fake news and trashing Bolsonaro's enemies.

Ribeiro said in the partial report that there is evidence to suggest an "orchestrated action" to identify targets, and create and spread disinformation for "ideological, party-political and financial gains."

The partial report has not yet named any of the people allegedly engaged in the fake news effort. Bolsonaro's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The report is likely to worsen relations between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court, and stoke growing institutional tensions ahead of a vote in which the incumbent faces an uphill re-election battle.

Moraes has become a key Bolsonaro antagonist and a lightning rod for the president's supporters.

In December, the justice ordered that a probe be opened after Bolsonaro said during a live broadcast on multiple social media platforms that COVID-19 vaccines might raise the chance of contracting AIDS.

Bolsonaro, however, faces little jeopardy from the probes while in office, experts say. Earlier this month, the federal police said the president committed a crime by revealing details about a sealed criminal probe, but chose not to recommend he be charged due to his immunity while in office. Bolsonaro's office did not respond to a request for comment when contacted earlier this month about the matter.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Paul Simao)

Indonesia to urge G20 to establish global health fund


JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will urge the Group of 20 leading economies to establish a global body that can dispense emergency funds during a health crisis, functioning in a similar way to international financial institutions, its health minister said on Friday.

Under the current system, countries are "basically on their own" if they need emergency funds, vaccines, therapeutics or diagnostics, and as G20 president this year, Indonesia will seek to change that, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a news conference.

"There is no global health institution that has enough power or money to jump in and help, you are basically on your own," he said.

The idea adds to a proposal by Indonesia and the United States last year to create an international pandemic response system.

Budi likened the health fund proposal to the creation of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) following the Bretton Woods conference of 1944.

His remarks come a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) and other aid groups said a global health initiative to make COVID-19 vaccines and testing available to poorer countries had received just 5% of targeted donations for this year's aims.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo on Thursday urged support for that initiative from developed countries, saying all nations needed equal chance to prepare themselves for future pandemics.

Budi, a former banker, said he doubted the WHO would be up to the task of managing a global health fund of the scale Indonesia was proposing.

"Whether the WHO is equipped to raise a trillion USD like the IMF, to be honest, (after) 30 years in finance, I don't think so," he said. "The WHO is not built to do this job."

Indonesia's WHO chapter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Budi said organisations like the Global Fund, an international financing organisation, or GAVI, the global Vaccine Alliance, might be better suited.

Indonesia would also push for a global genomic data sharing platform, harmonised global health protocols and a global manufacturing and research hub, especially for developing countries, he added.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto in Jakarta and Kate Lamb in Sydney; Editing by Martin Petty)

BRIT BYKE

This Stunning 1936 Brough Superior SS80 

Is Looking For A New Home

Enrico Punsalang - Yesterday 
 RideApart.com

A legendary machine from the early days of motorcycling.

If you wanted to standout in any outlandish way, shape, or form in the thirties, being into motorcycles—fast ones, at that—was a surefire way to do so. Back then, a certain motorcycle company called Brough Superior, pronounced the same way you'd say "rough" was considered the Rolls Royce of two-wheels. It had a certain model which went down in history as one of the most iconic bikes of all time: the SS80.



The SS80 was, quite possibly, the very first iteration of a Super Sport bike to ever exist. Although it looks nothing like what we would consider as supersports of today, the SS80 was all about performance when it was first introduced. The SS80 model was created shortly after George Brough founded Brough Superior in 1920. Brough's promise that it could achieve 80 miles per hour—super fast for the time—was the basis for the SS80's model name. The SS80 established the main features of all Brough Superior models to come, as it wasbuilt to a standard that put it way beyond the reach of most motorcycle enthusiasts of the time.



The SS80's engine was updated by Brough Superior in 1935. From that year forward, models were equipped with a 982cc Matchless V-twin engine, which was similar to the one used in the Matchless Model X, but with key modifications. A total of 1,086 SS80s were produced before the onset of World War II in 1939. Only 460 Matchless V-twin models were produced, making them a rare breed.



This stunning 1936 model was delivered new to Hooleys Garage in Nottingham. A copy of the Works Record Card confirms that it's a correct numbers machine. Since 1982, the bike has only had two registered owners and has spent the last few years dry-stored in a private collection. As a result, the bike will require some servicing and maintenance before it can be used on the road again. The seller claims that the engine has good compression and that the bike is in excellent condition, as evidenced by the photos.

The auction is set to take place on Saturday, February 12, 2022. Interested bidders can register via the Silverstone Auctions official website linked below. Bidding can be done live on site, online, over the phone, or via commission.

Republican state senator joins Democrats to block ban on transgender youth health care

Natalie Prieb - Yesterday 
The Hill

A Republican state senator in Arizona broke with his party over legislation that would have banned gender-affirming treatment for transgender and nonbinary minors.

State Sen. Tyler Pace (R) on Wednesday voted with three Democrats, which split the vote among the state's Health and Human Services Committee 4-4, effectively axing the legislation.

"The testimonies we heard today about the many people who are using these avenues of medical treatments to save lives, to improve lives, I don't want my vote to stop those great things," Pace said during the committee hearing.

Lizette Trujillo testified in front of state lawmakers about SB 1138 in defense of her teenage transgender son and told NBC News that although she was "very surprised" that Pace chose to vote with Democrats, she views his decision as one that was made as a result of hearing the stories of transgender youth.

"When you meet our kids and you see them and you meet our community, a lot of those biases that people carry are dispelled, because we're just families trying to do the right thing," Trujillo said. "I think that Senator Pace saw that in that moment."

Republican state lawmakers have introduced more than 160 bills this year that would negatively impact the LGBTQ community, 92 of which target transgender people, according to NBC. Arizona state lawmakers have introduced the most anti-LGBTQ bills of any state, at 15 pieces of legislation.

Arkansas and Tennessee also enacted bills that restricted gender-affirming care into last year. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Arkansas legislation in July following a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Arizona lawmakers will hear oral arguments Monday on a bill that would criminalize transgender people using bathrooms that match their gender identity, NBC reported. On Wednesday, the state's House Judiciary Committee will examine a similar bill to SB 1138 that would restrict gender-affirming treatment among transgender youth.

Deaf musicians part of Super Bowl halftime show for 1st time

The Super Bowl will include a spectacular halftime show, as usual, with some of the biggest names in hip-hop entertaining the masses while championship-contending teams take a break.

And for the first time, two of the performers are deaf.

Dr. Dre added deaf stars Warren “Wawa” Snipe and Sean Forbes to Sunday's lineup that also includes Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar

Wawa and Forbes will use their hands, body and facial expressions to deliver unique renditions of the songs in American Sign Language as the superstars sing on stage in an inclusive and accessible show.

“The opportunity to be here at the Super Bowl is just unreal," Forbes said from Los Angeles in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “I never in a million years dream of, imagined, ever being here. As a performer, this is about as high as it gets. It’s the biggest stage in the world.

“To be here, to represent the deaf community, and to really put ASL on the map."

Deaf culture and ASL have increasingly become mainstream, showing that men and woman who have hearing loss can let their talent shine if provided with opportunities. Earlier this week, two films with deaf actors earned Oscar nominations.

“CODA," a drama that follows the child of deaf adults, is nominated for best picture and best adapted screenplay. Troy Kotsur became the second deaf actor nominated for an Oscar, joining co-star Marlee Matlin, who won best actress for her performance in the 1987 film “Children of a Lesser God.”

“Audible," a documentary short focused on a football team at the Maryland School for the Deaf, also earned a nomination.

“The 21st century, we’re starting to be seen," Snipe told the AP through an interpreter. “Many doors are opening throughout our community. Many people are seeing what our talented deaf people can do as actors, musicians, producers, directors, writers, artists in general.

“We are here and we are ready. We’ve been here and we've been knocking on that door for a long, long time, trying to gain this access."

Snipe is making a return engagement to the NFL's annual showcase. He signed the national anthem and “America the Beautiful," before last year's game alongside Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church.

“It’s different and it’s historic,” said the 51-year-old Snipe, who is from Virginia. “This has never happened before, where deaf people actually sign. Now is the time. I hope that this is a door open and it continues to be open for the halftime show from this point. We need that.”

Matlin has also been a part of three Super Bowl pregame performances. The National Association of the Deaf began working with the NFL in 2010 to connect the league with deaf artists to perform the anthem in ASL.

“The mission of the NAD is to advance equal access and equality of deaf people, and there’s no bigger way to elevate visibility of ASL as an art form and to showcase the talents of deaf artists than the Super Bowl," NAD CEO Howard A. Rosenblum told the AP Thursday night.

Actress Sandra Mae Frank will perform the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” in ASL as country star Mickey Guyton and R&B hitmaker Jhené Aiko sing before the Los Angeles Rams face the Cincinnati Bengals.

Members of the California School for the Deaf football team, as honorary captains, will be at midfield for the coin toss.

“It's all about us continuing to be more inclusive and providing more opportunities for everyone," NFL spokeswoman Jordyn White said. “It's all about celebrating people for their differences, and coming together for the things we love. Inclusion is a priority for the league, and we hope the fans get to see that, especially at halftime and pregame."

While closed captioning has been available for decades, the text on the screen in English does not truly provide access to the deaf community that uses ASL as its first language.

“The captions are often delayed, they're often not on time and they miss a lot of words," said the 40-year-old Forbes, who is from Michigan. “To see this performance in ASL, it’s not just an interpretation. It's a full-blown performance."

NBC's broadcast is expected to show glimpses of the Snipe and Forbes, whose entire performance will be available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

“It's time," Forbes said. “The deaf community has worked so hard. ASL is such a beautiful and rich language. I’ve been in this business for 16 years, and to see like how we've come with all of this, it has just been incredible."

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Lage, whose parents and nephews are deaf, is a Michigan-based sports writer.

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Follow Larry Lage at https://twitter.com/larrylage

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More AP Entertainment: https://apnews.com/hub/arts-and-entertainment

Larry Lage, The Associated Press