Proud Boys, far-right groups terrorize New York City drag event

Jesse Thomas

WSWS.ORG

A video showing New York City (NYPD) policemen holding the metro transit fare gates open for several members of the Proud Boys has surfaced on social media, garnering millions of views in the 48-hour period since its posting.

The individual filming the video can be heard questioning the officers’ actions in disbelief, demanding to know if the militia members were being allowed to evade the subway fare by the police.

The video was posted on TikTok on Sunday, and by Tuesday evening it had upwards of a third of a million individual user “likes,” 18,000 comments and 13,000 “shares.” A reposting of the video on Twitter showed 3.4 million more views, along with 13.9 million views of the thread to which it had been attached.

In an example of popular disgust with the collaboration between the police and the political far-right, one commenter wrote, “I’ve literally seen the NYPD chase people [for] fair evasion, this is insane.” Another user added, “cops let their own in.”

The video was filmed after the Proud Boys, along with the ultra-religious, anti-vaccine, anti-LGBTQ Guardians of Divinity, threatened a Drag Queen Story Hour (DSH) event at the Queens Public Library in Jackson Heights on December 29.

Between the two extreme-right organizations, over two dozen members were present at the event, while about 150 counter-demonstrators showed up in protest against the far-right provocateurs. Guardians of Divinity members and Proud Boys hurled slanderous epithets and attempted to intimidate supporters of the event.

Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio rallies in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 17, 2019 [AP Photo/Noah Berger]

Multiple publications reported that a masked neo-Nazi was on the scene, giving a “Heil Hitler” salute. Although the man was allegedly arrested, his identity has not been made public.

Dozens of NYPD police were on hand, ostensibly to hold the two groups of protesters apart, but essentially to protect the fascists.

DSH is a nonprofit organization that sponsors and arranges public events in which drag performers read stories aloud to children. The December 29 event followed similar incidents in New York City and a wave of extreme-right, anti-LGBTQ agitation around the country. Just a few weeks prior, a similar event organized by DSH was picketed by the Guardians of Divinity in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.

On December 19, both the office and the home of Democratic New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher were attacked and vandalized with homophobic graffiti. Videos posted on social media accounts tied the attack to the Guardians of Divinity. Bottcher and Hudson are both openly gay politicians who have been outspoken about their sexuality in their political campaigns.

Earlier this fall, a similar demonstration was staged against a DSH event and was subsequently followed by an attack on the offices of Democratic City Councilman Shekar Krishnan, who represents the Elmhurst/Jackson Heights district.

On Sunday, December 18, a DSH-organized event in Austin, Texas was cancelled due to concerns over safety following provocations by the New Columbia Movement hate group at multiple locations across the state. As with the December 29 event in New York, Proud Boys and neo-fascists were present.

On the same day, members of the Proud Boys marched near a bar in Jacksonville, Florida. The group had been harassing the club owner with violent threats in relation to drag performances that had been hosted there. 

A drag show in Columbus, Ohio in early December was cancelled after Proud Boys threatened performers and staged armed demonstrations through the streets of the city. A Columbus police officer was seen giving a high-five to a white nationalist militia member marching with the demonstrators. An article in the Nation cited multiple connections between the Proud Boys and police in Columbus, with one Proud Boy claiming to be an officer himself.

While the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post has attempted to paint the counter-demonstrators at the December 29 event as violently anti-police, the New York Times has, in milquetoast manner, referred to the Guardians of Divinity merely as “protestors.”

The Democratic Party, which controls both the state and city governments of New York, has done nothing in response to multiple demonstrations of tacit or open police support for fascist groups such as the Proud Boys, and the failure of the NYPD to defend targets of far-right provocation and terror from outfits such as the Proud Boys and the Guardians of Divinity.

Instead, Mayor Eric Adams, a retired police captain, and Governor Kathy Hochul have competed with the Republicans in demonstrating their “law-and-order” and pro-police credentials.

Irish data privacy regulator levies Meta more than $400 million in fines

Data Privacy Commission says Meta breached transparency obligations and orders the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg to comply with EU rules within three months.

The watchdog fined Meta 210 million euros ($222.6 million) for violations of the European Union's strict data privacy rules involving Facebook and an additional 180 million euros ($190.8 million) for breaches involving Instagram. (Reuters)

Ireland's data privacy regulator has fined Meta a total of 390 million euros ($414 million) for breaches at its Facebook and Instagram services, and said both must reassess the legal basis on how they run advertising based on personal data in the European Union.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in a statement on Wednesday that Meta breached "its obligations in relation to transparency" and used an incorrect legal basis "for its processing of personal data for the purpose of behavioural advertising".

The watchdog fined Meta 210 million euros ($222.6 million) for violations of the European Union's strict data privacy rules involving Facebook and an additional 180 million euros ($190.8 million) for breaches involving Instagram.

It is the commission's latest punishment for Meta for data privacy infringements, following four other fines for the company since 2021 that total more than 900 million euros ($954 million).

The decision stems from complaints filed in May 2018 when the 27-nation EU's privacy rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, took effect.

DPC, which is the lead privacy regulator for many of the world's largest technology companies within the EU, directed the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company to bring its data processing operations into compliance within three months.

READ MORE: Meta may face another huge fine after EU privacy ruling

Previously, Meta relied on getting informed consent from users to process their personal data to serve them personalized, or behavioral, ads. When GDPR came into force, the company changed the legal basis under which it processes user data by adding a clause to the terms of service for advertisements, effectively forcing users to agree that their data could be used. That violates EU privacy rules.

Fresh Investigation

The Irish watchdog initially sided with Meta but changed its position after the draft decision was sent to a board of EU data protection regulators, many of whom objected.

In its final decision, the Irish watchdog said Meta “is not entitled to rely on the ‘contract’ legal basis to deliver behavioral adverts on Facebook and Instagram."

The penalties brought the total fines levied against Meta to date by the DPC to 1.3 billion euros ($1.38 billion).

It currently has 11 other inquiries open into Meta services.

Meta said in a statement on Wednesday that “we strongly believe our approach respects GDPR, and we’re therefore disappointed by these decisions and intend to appeal both the substance of the rulings and the fines.”

READ MORE: Irish privacy regulator fines Facebook $277 million

Erdogan's Syrian Gambit

by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
December 28, 2022

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has partnered with Jihadi and Islamist organizations fighting the Kurds in northwest Syria.

The northernmost region of Syria, which has a 910-kilometer border with Turkey, offers one of the world's most complex war theaters. That is so not only because of the countless number of state and non-state actors operating in this third-world land with limited hydrocarbons, but also because of shifting alliances, conflicts with conventional and asymmetrical warfare tactics, and the surreal bedfellows that these factors often create.

The actors include countless radical jihadist groups and their 3.5 million civilian supporters; not-as-radical jihadist groups supported by Turkey, as well as Turkish, American, Russian and Syrian forces, and of course Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Peace in this area often means just a short interval between outbreaks of war. Recently, violence was more or less in the background until a bomb exploded -- not in northern Syria, but some 1,300 km away.

On November 14, a blast near Istanbul's busy Taksim Square killed six people and wounded 81. Turkish police quickly arrested Ahlam Albashir, who had allegedly placed a bomb there. The investigation later led to the arrest of 47 more suspects.

Albashir is a young Syrian woman with links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group designated as terrorists by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. According to the indictment, Albashir is an Arab who had been recruited by a Syrian Kurd. No organization claimed responsibility, and the PKK denied any involvement in the attack.

To further complicate matters, Turkey's security services claim that Albashir is a member of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the PKK's Syrian affiliate, which is a U.S. ally and happens to be fighting in Syria against the jihadists of the Islamic State. In short, the PKK is on the U.S. list of terror groups, while its Syrian branch is an American ally.

Once again, the attack heightened Turks' nationalistic feelings and united them behind Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shortly before he launches his campaign for the June 2023 presidential elections.

Six days after the Istanbul bombing, Turkey sent F-16 jets to hit PKK/YPG/Kurdish targets in northern Syria and Iraq.

Turkey warned Washington of the operation two days before it took place: Ankara did not want to harm any U.S. military assets in the area. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the air strikes killed 31 people.

In retaliation, Kurdish groups fired rockets into a Turkish border town, killing three people, including a child and a teacher, after one of the five rockets hit a school building. Rockets fired from Syria also wounded six policemen and two soldiers at a border crossing.

Since the violence resumed, Erdogan has threatened to launch a full-scale military incursion into Syria's Kurdish areas — which would be the fourth such major Turkish incursion since 2016.

Erdogan most likely calculates that fresh epic tales of military heroism would further consolidate his nationalistic voting base, especially at a time when most Turks are struggling to survive after their incomes have severely eroded under a year-on-year inflation rate of 84%.

A Turkish military incursion would be a fight in a land that already looks like hell.

In a speech on December 12, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that an estimated 15.3 million Syrians (out of a population of 22.1 million) will require humanitarian assistance in 2023, compared to 14.6 million people in 2022. That number represents the highest number of people in need since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011.

Data on humanitarian needs in Syria, collected by the UN and its partners from over 34,000 Syrian households in July and August, found that 85% of households were completely unable, or insufficiently able, to meet their basic needs -- an increase of 75% since 2021, according to the report.

The report also cited a 48% increase for 2022 in severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6 months to 5 years, compared to 2021. At least 25% of children under the age of five in some districts are stunted and at risk of irreversible damage to their physical and cognitive development as well as "repeated infection, developmental delay, disabilities and death."

In the predominantly Kurdish northeast Syria, the number of malnourished children has surged by over 150% just in the past six months.

What to do? In a December 7 speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov unsurprisingly put the blame on the U.S.:

Turkey is worried that the Americans are cultivating Kurdish separatism there. This also concerns other countries with Kurdish minorities, because it is an extremely explosive issue.

Lavrov did not mention that the PKK, on the U.S. list of terror groups, is a legal entity in Russia. So, Moscow is no help.

Washington also does not have a silver-bullet cure. James Jeffrey, Chair of the Middle East program at the Wilson Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ankara, wrote:

Washington fears that a new Turkish incursion into Syria—especially one in the northeast, near where U.S. forces and the SDF are operating against the Islamic State—could undercut the fight against that terrorist group and, in particular, the critical role the SDF plays in guarding thousands of Islamic State prisoners and family members and thus is urging Turkey in ever stronger terms not to launch an operation. The Turks do not appear to be heeding Washington's call, in part because they heard the same tune before their 2018 incursion against the SDF in Afrin, Syria, and didn't suffer any long-term consequences for ignoring it that time.

Jeffrey apparently thinks that Washington owes Ankara and U.S. citizens an answer to the question: "How does this all end?" No one knows, but further violence will not make an already miserable life better for any Syrian.

The only advantage of a Turkish military incursion might be for Erdogan, who may well be using a war in Syria to distract potential voters from the wretched economy he gave them.

Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based political analyst and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

 

White Lives Matter More In Ukraine? – OpEd

 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with US President Joe Biden.

 Photo Credit: The White House

 January 5, 2023  

By Margaret Kimberley

The accuracy of this commentary’s title is borne out by statements made and actions taken by the Ukrainians themselves. In 2020 millions of people around the world protested against racism in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. Ukrainians made it clear that they were not to be included amongst that mass of humanity and in fact expressed their support for white supremacy.

In June 2020, a group of football fans at a match in Ukraine unfurled a banner reading, “Free Derek Chauvin .” Chauvin is the man who murdered George Floyd. Not to be outdone, members of the neo-Nazi group Nazionalny Sprotyv, National Resistance, marched on October 14, 2020 with a banner that made the point very clear. The words “White Lives Matter ” were written in English and in much larger type than the name of the organization which appeared in small type below. October 14 is celebrated as the Day of the UPA, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought alongside Nazi Germany after it invaded Ukraine during World War II. The words in the pink graphic on the video read, “On the march of UPA Nazis carefully burned the poster of BLM.” Nazionalny Sprotyv is known for its racist, anti-Russian, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-Communist beliefs.

The war propaganda disseminated by the Biden administration and its friends in corporate media tells us to ignore the swastikas, Hitler salutes, and other clear indicators of Nazi sympathies when they appear in Ukraine. Suddenly symbolism which we were told to abhor as indisputable signs of hate speech are now to be accepted or explained away as figments of our collective imagination.

Nazi regalia and symbolism should make assistance to the Ukrainian government an automatic deal breaker. But the U.S. has always been rather flexible in its approach to Nazism. After World War II an intelligence program known as Operation Paperclip brought more than 1,600 German scientists to the U.S. to fight in the new cold war against the Soviet Union. Their links to the Nazi party were covered up so that they might be of assistance to the U.S. Werner von Braun and other Nazi linked scientists were instrumental in creating the U.S. space program.

Ukraine was a divided nation from its very beginnings after World War I, with half of the country hating the Soviet Union so much that they sided with and fought alongside the Germans. January 1 is officially celebrated not just as the first day of the year but as the birthday of Ukraine’s chief Nazi collaborator, Stepan Bandera. The 2023 celebration was no exception but not without embarrassment. The Ukrainian parliament was forced to delete a Twitter post featuring a photo of army commander General Valerii Zaluzhny juxtaposed with an image of Bandera. Bandera massacred thousands of Poles during the war and the Ukrainians had to be reminded through diplomatic channels that everyone isn’t as forgiving as clueless Americans. Just as Operation Paperclip is an inconvenient and rarely discussed truth, Ukraine’s continuing Nazi and white supremacist connections are now hushed up by the U.S. state and its media partners.

It is indeed awkward for Joe Biden to greet president Zelensky at the white house and for him to speak in congress if these facts are openly discussed. Of course Zelensky is president because the Obama administration helped to engineer a coup against an elected Ukrainian president in 2014. Members of congress like senator Chris Murphy and the late John McCain are among those who traveled to Kiev and addressed rallies sponsored by the right wing Svoboda and Right Sector parties and aided in the coup effort.

The Biden administration invitation to Zelensky was an effort to ensure that an additional $45 billion was allocated to Ukraine before the congressional session ended. The standing ovations and blue and yellow flags and cries of “Slava Ukraini!” were orchestrated to get more buy-in at a time when many Americans are asking why their needs go unmet and why Ukraine can’t resume the negotiations it was holding months ago with Russia. It has been reported that the U.S. sent the then prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, to tell Zelensky that any talk of peace had to end . Russia was ready to withdraw in exchange for security guarantees and an end to Ukraine’s efforts to secure NATO membership. But Ukraine is the latest U.S. forever war and its people have to suffer and die because of its dictates.

Perhaps the saddest sight of the night of Zelensky’s congressional speech was the adulation he received from some members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). CBC members Sheila Jackson-Lee and Barbara Leeeagerly sought to shake his hand. Perhaps they are unaware of Ukraine’s white supremacist leanings. But that can’t be true. After all, in 2015 their CBC colleague, the late John Conyers, co-sponsored an amendment that would have barred U.S. funding to the Azov battalion and other Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups. The amendment was ultimately removed from the final spending bill.

CBC member Gregory Meeks is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee and said, “This war is about Russian aggression against Ukraine and the security of Europe, and it is also about democracy over tyranny, and freedom over oppression.” Ukraine has banned left wing parties and collective bargaining rights. Its people are openly racist. Barbara Lee, now elbowing her colleagues to get a little Zelensky facetime, was the only member of congress to have voted against the authorization to invade Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Now she brags about her role in securing more funding for a white supremacist state.

White lives matter just as much in the U.S. as they do in Ukraine. Even Black politicians go along with supremacist ideology. As the war grinds on, and casualties and public spending go ever upward, it is wise to remember that there are very few anti-racists in positions of authority anywhere in the world. Apparently the war propagandists are right. The U.S. and Ukraine are united in every way.

Margaret Kimberley

Margaret Kimberley's is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. Her work can also be found at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com."

Challenging China: Turkey Walks A Fine Line On Repressed Uyghurs – Analysis

Uyghurs rally to press the US State Department to fight for the freedom of the majority-Muslim Uyghur population unjustly imprisoned in Chinese re-education camps, at the US Mission to the United Nations, Feb. 5, 2019. Photo: RFA

 January 5, 2023 

By James M. Dorsey

An official visit to Xinjiang to assess the fate of Turkic Muslims in the troubled north-western Chinese Province is a risky proposition by any definition.

Even so, it would be worth the risk if China and Turkey could agree on the terms of a visit.

The problem is that the terms constitute a zero-sum game.

China wins if it controls the program of a visiting Turkish delegation as it does with whoever else is granted access to a region where in recent years, more than one million Turkic Muslims were reportedly incarcerated in reeducation camps dubbed vocational schools.

“Why would we be a tool of Chinese propaganda?” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu snapped at a recent news conference when asked about a visit to Xinjiang by Turkey’s ambassador in Beijing, Abdulkadir Emin Onen.

“It’s been five years since (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping) proposed this. Why have you been preventing this delegation from visiting for five years? Why don’t you cooperate?” Mr. Cavusoglu said.

The foreign minister conceded that “Turkish-Chinese ties have suffered over Beijing being disturbed by our attitude on the Turkic Uyghurs issue,” including a Turkish refusal to extradite to China Uighurs resident in the country.

China and Turkey started discussing a Turkish visit in 2019. However, the talks were put on ice when China effectively closed to shield the nation from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an indication of the importance, both countries attribute to a possible visit, discussion of the terms restarted within weeks of China’s recent lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.

By controlling Mr. Onen’s program, China is seeking to ensure that he walks away from his visit praising the Chinese administration of Xinjiang.

Coming from Turkey, endorsement of China’s effort to Sinicise Islam and turn Uyghur identity into a folk tale would have particular significance.

Turkey has long fashioned itself as the hub of a Turkic world that stretches from the Turkish Diaspora in Western Europe through the Balkans across the Caucasus and Central Asia into Xinjiang and a defender of threatened Muslim communities.

Moreover, Turkey is home to the largest Uighur exile community.

The blue flag of East Turkistan, as Uighurs describe Xinjiang, is banned in China but flies in shop windows and restaurants in Istanbul neighborhoods heavily populated by the ethnic group.

Mr. Cavusoglu’s rare public challenge of China could prove a first test for China’s newly appointed foreign minister, Qin Gang. China has yet to respond to Mr. Cavusloglu.

A former ministry spokesperson, a deputy director-general of its information department, and most recently, ambassador to the United States, Mr. Qin made his name as a pioneer of China’s wolf warrior diplomacy involving confrontational and coercive responses to criticism of the People’s Republic.

Positioning Turkey as unwilling to walk on a Chinese leash, Mr. Cavusloglu is brandishing the nationalist credentials of his ruling Justice and Development or AK Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in advance of a critical election later this year.

With Uighurs on their minds, more than half of Turks polled in multiple surveys over the past two decades express critical and/or negative attitudes towards China.

In one of the latest polls, a survey conducted by the Center for Turkish Studies at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University concluded that only 27 percent view China positively.

Meral Akşener, the leader of the nationalist Iyi or Good Party, one of the opposition parties aligned against the AKP, and Ankara’s mayor Mansur Yavaş, viewed as one of Mr. Erdogan’s potentially most serious challengers, got significant traction on social media for commemorating the 1990 Baren Township Massacre during an armed clash between Uighur militants and Chinese security forces. Twenty-three people are believed to have died in the fighting.

Mr. Erdogan is seeking a third term as president in an election scheduled for June 18, the centennial of the founding of the Turkish republic on the ruins of the Ottoman empire.

Concerned that he could face the most serious challenge to date to his power, Mr. Erdogan uses every trick in the book to ensure that the election goes his way.

Recent polls suggest that the AKP could win less than 30 per cent of the vote.

Challenging China on the Uighurs follows sabre rattling in Syria, where Mr. Erdogan again wants to intervene to subdue Syrian Kurds.

At the same time, Turkey is engaging under Russian auspices with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to open a pathway for the return of up to four million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Anti-migrant sentiment is a major topic in the election campaign.

Mr. Cavusoglu’s refusal to “be a tool of Chinese propaganda” jars with the past acceptance by Turkey’s state-owned news agency, Anadolu Agency, and journalists working for other pro-government media, of Chinese paid and tightly controlled tours of Xinjiang designed to counter allegations of abuse against Turkic Muslims.

Even so, a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted that in the absence of much Turkish-language content in Chinese media that target foreign audiences, China “is now assertively developing new strategies to engage with local actors in Turkey.”

The strategy emphasises China’s economic and commercial ties to Turkey at a time when the country is struggling with an inflation rate that peaked at about 80 per cent in 2022 but dropped last month to 64.7 per cent.

It’s a strategy that may work.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, slated to build Turkey’s 5G network, has four times more Turkish followers on Twitter than the Chinese embassy in Ankara.

Now and then, Turkey reasserts itself as a rare Muslim nation willing to tackle China publicly on the Uighurs. But, by and large, Turkey shines by mainly remaining silent.

In the final analysis, domestic politics, rather than principled concern, determines if and when Turkey takes on China. This year, elections are the driver.

As a result, Uighur exiles fear that their utility is temporary and that they ultimately could be sacrificed on the altar of Turkish-Chinese economic relations.

Said one exile: “Our existence is tenuous. Our space in Turkey is shrinking.”

James M. Dorsey

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and scholar, a Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute and Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and blog.

Oklahoma announces another $226 million in settlements over opioid epidemic

About 3,000 Oklahomans died opioid overdoses between 2016 and 2020

Opioid epidemic was made 'much worse' during pandemic: Narcan inventor

Dr. Roger Crystal, CEO of Opiant Pharmaceuticals and inventor of Narcan, says the best way to combat the opioid epidemic is to reduce demand and previews a new opioid rescue medicine.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor announced new settlements totaling $226.1 million with three pharmacy chains and a drug manufacturer over the opioid epidemic on Wednesday, bringing the total recoveries in the state to nearly $1 billion.


"The opioid crisis has inflicted unspeakable pain on Oklahoma families and caused the deaths of thousands of Oklahomans," O'Connor said in a statement. "As with prior opioid settlement funds, Oklahoma’s recoveries must be used to abate and treat opioid addictions and to save lives across our state."

About 3,000 Oklahomans died from opioid overdoses between 2016 and 2020, according to O'Connor.

 

Tablets of the opioid-based Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Portsmouth, Ohio, June 21, 2017. (REUTERS/Bryan Woolston/File Photo / Reuters)

Oklahoma was the first state to reach a settlement with OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma for $270 million in 2019.

DRUG DISTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTED TO OPIOID CRISIS BY IGNORING SIGNS OF ABUSE, FEDS SAY

The latest wave of settlements includes $79.5 million from Walgreens, $73 million from CVS, $41 million from Walmart, and $32.6 million from the opioid manufacturer Allergan.

It's a small part of the nearly $50 billion in settlements that state and local governments have reached with pharmacy chains, drug distributors, and manufacturers in recent years.

 



A Walmart spokesperson noted that the company reached a nationwide deal to pay about $3.1 billion to settle opioid lawsuits.

Walgreens did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but the company announced a similar deal last year to pay about $5 billion to settle lawsuits.

CVS also reached a deal to pay about $5 billion in a nationwide framework.

"We are pleased to progress to a formal agreement and move forward in the resolution of these claims that date back a decade or more," a CVS spokesperson told Fox Business on Wednesday.

Allergan did not respond to a request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Sportswashed: Ronaldo Heads To Saudi Arabia – OpEd

 January 5, 2023 

By Binoy Kampmark

It just keeps getting darker and darker.  For the professionally ignorant, things are only getting better.  With one of history’s great events of sportswashing concluded – the 2022 Qatar World Cup – another state famed for its cosmetic distractions and moneyed seductions made a splash.  Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, his sun setting and his prospects diminishing among Europe’s top clubs, was signed to play in Saudi Arabia. 

He had been seething and fuming at Manchester United, increasingly cast into peripheral, bench warming roles.  The inner truculent brat screamed and found a voice on the ever humbly named show Piers Morgan Uncensored.  In a conversation between brats who felt they had been mistreated over the years, the impression given by Ronaldo was always going to be a love of the game over cash. 

“Is it also that you want to keep playing at the highest level?  That you want to play Champions League football, you want to keep breaking records?” asked Morgan.  In the manner of a ghost writer mulling over the bleedingly obvious, Morgan persisted.  “Again, it comes back to my gut feeling about you that, if it was just about the money, you’d be in Saudi Arabia earning this king’s ransom.  But that’s not what motivates you, you want to keep at the top…”

Whether he was already being courted by the money goons in Riyadh is hard to say, but if that was the case, Ronaldo was keen to keep up appearances.  He wanted goals, to score in the big leagues, to be in the service of the elite clubs.  “Exactly, because I still believe that I can score many, many goals and help the teams.  I believe I am still good and capable to help the national team and even Manchester United.”

The king’s ransom, however, is exactly what he came to accept, though he aggrandised his own appeal by claiming to be hot property on the international transfer market.  “I had many offers in Europe, many in Brazil, Australia, the US, even in Portugal.”  At around £172 million, it will be the largest amount forked out for a football player in history, beating that offered Lionel Mess for his final four years with FC Barcelona at £137.2 million per annum.  And Ronaldo only needs to play till June 2025.

Ronaldo will be helping Al-Nassr FC, whose administrators and backers are already moist with delight.  “History in the making,” their twitter account crowed. “This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves.”  

There is something sickly about such hailing: it projects a fantasy brand of equality, a delusion underwritten by cash. And there’s lots of it.  Ronaldo is there to add rich lashings of sugary cover to the Kingdom’s broader agenda, which has reached across sporting such fields as golf, boxing, tennis, and Formula One.  “We will support the rest of our clubs for qualitative deals with international stars soon,” came the solemn promise of the Saudi Minister for Sports, Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal.

As for the player himself, he shows little clue about who he is doing this for.  “It’s not the end of my career to come to South Africa,” he said at his first Saudi press conference, even with the message of “Saudi welcome to Arabia” in his backdrop.  The faux pas did little to dampen the enthusiasm of fans and officials.  “You don’t need to know the name of a country to make 200 million euros,” remarked one.   Nor, it would seem, its role in perpetrating humanitarian disasters, murdering journalists and indulging in mass executions.

Like Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is luring the big stars like stain removing agents for bloodstained clothes.  Messi may well be considered a footballing demigod among fans and his countrymen, but like Ronaldo, he is keen about the way money talks.  In May 2022, the Argentinian master became tourism ambassador for Riyadh.  “We are excited for you to explore the treasures of the Red Sea, the Jeddah Season and our ancient history,” exclaimed Minister for Tourism Ahmed Al Khateeb in twitter-land.  “This is not his first visit to the Kingdom and it will not be the last!”

The broader Saudi agenda here is clear enough.  Such signings are also intended to improve the country’s chances for hosting the 2030 World Cup.  Last year, Riyadh revealed it would be proposing a joint bid for the games that might also include Egypt and Greece.  “Definitely the three countries would invest heavily in infrastructure and would definitely be ready,” Al Khateeb insisted in an interview last November.  “And I know by then Saudi Arabia would have state of the art stadiums and fanzones built.”

Ronaldo, his challenged geography aside, is clear about one thing: he doesn’t want to retire gracefully and live off his accumulated treasure.  Football now is less relevant than Mammon’s calling.  That is something the House of Saud knows all too well.

Cristiano Ronaldo at the Mrsool Park Stadium for his first press conference ahead of his unveiling as an Al-Nassr player. (AN Photo)

Binoy Kampmark

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com