HORSE RACING KILLS

Baffert's National Treasure wins Preakness, hours after one of his horses euthanized

BALTIMORE (AP) — Bob Baffert’s National Treasure won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, ending Mage’s Triple Crown bid in the trainer’s return from a suspension — and just hours after another of his three-year-old horses was euthanized on the track.

Baffert headed to the winner’s circle on the same day that his colt Havnameltdown went down with a fatal left leg injury in an undercard race. Baffert said he and his team were in shock.

“Winning this,” Baffert said, choking back tears after National Treasure's win, “losing that horse earlier really hurts. It’s been a very emotional day.”

The fatality was another dark moment for a sport already reeling from the deaths of seven horses at Churchill Downs in a 10-day span leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

Derby winner Mage finished third in the Preakness after going off as the 7-5 favourite. His defeat means there will not be a Triple Crown winner for a fifth consecutive year.

National Treasure, the 5-2 second choice, held off hard-charging Blazing Sevens down the stretch to win the 1 3/16-mile, $1.65 million race by a head.

Jockey John Velazquez won the Preakness for the first time.

Baffert had a roller-coaster day in his return to Pimlico Race Course from a suspension that kept him from entering a horse in the Preakness last year. The thrill of victories by National Treasure in the Preakness and Arabian Lion in an earlier stakes race contrasted with the agony of Havnameltdown’s death.

Related video: First Mission scratched from Preakness, Bob Baffert returns to Pimlico (WMAR Baltimore, MD)   Duration 2:48   View on Watch

Horse trained by Bob Baffert euthanized after injury at Pimlico

1:28

 LouisvilleBob Baffert Horse put down

0:40

Horse safety a high priority at this year's Preakness

2:12

“It’s sickening,” Baffert said. “We are so careful with all these horses, and it still happens. It is something that is disheartening. I feel so bad for that horse, and I just hope that (jockey Luis Saez) is OK.”

Saez was conscious and transported to a local hospital for treatment. A team of veterinarians determined Havnameltdown’s left front leg injury to be inoperable.

Black barriers were propped up on the dirt track while the horse was put down. All the while, 2Pac’s “California Love” blared from the infield speakers at what is intended as an annual daylong celebration of thoroughbred racing.

By evening, Baffert was celebrated for winning the Preakness for a record eighth time, breaking a tie with 19th-century trainer R. Wyndham Walden. In 2018, Baffert matched Walden with seven wins at the Baltimore race with Justify, who went on to become the sport’s 13th Triple Crown winner — and Baffert’s second, after American Pharoah ended a lengthy drought for the sport in 2015.

This was Baffert’s first Preakness in two years because of a ban stemming from 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit’s failed drug test that led to a disqualification in that race. Medina Spirit was Baffert’s most recent Preakness horse, finishing third.

Baffert didn’t arrive in Baltimore until Thursday this week, seeking to keep a lower profile than usual given the questions that have dogged him and clouded his reputation. A Hall of Famer and a longtime face of horse racing, Baffert sought to move past his suspension when asked Friday.

“We just keep on moving forward,” he said. “We have other horses to worry about. A lot of it is noise, so you keep the noise out and continue working.”

While horse racing deaths in the U.S. are at their lowest level since they began being tracked in 2009, adding another at the track hosting a Triple Crown race will only intensify the internal and external scrutiny of the industry. Those inside it have said they accept the realities of on-track deaths of horses while also acknowledging more work needs to be done to prevent as many as possible.

In that vein, new national medication and doping rules are set to go into effect on Monday. The federally mandated Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which already regulated racetrack safety and other measures, will oversee drug testing requirements for horses that should standardize the sport nationwide for the first time.

Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press

Eighth Horse Dies in Past 3 Weeks at Churchill Downs, Home of Kentucky Derby

Story by Marissa G. Muller • May 15, 2023

Another horse was euthanized at Churchill Downs in the wake of the Kentucky Derby

Michael Reaves/Getty© Provided by People

Eight horses have now died at Churchill Downs over the past three weeks, with the most recent death after a race on Sunday.

Rio Moon, a 3-year-old horse, was euthanized after the sixth race on Sunday. According to the notes in the Equibase chart, Rio Moon "suffered a catastrophic injury to his left foreleg a few strides after the wire," as the Associated Press reports.

The loss of Rio Moon comes in the wake of the death of seven horses at Churchill Downs, in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby and the aftermath. Wild on Ice and Take Charge Briana were both euthanized after suffering "musculoskeletal injuries from which they could not recover."

Parents Pride and Chasing Artie died suddenly on May 2. The two horses' trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was later suspended indefinitely.

Related:Four Horses Die at Churchill Downs in Days Leading Up to Kentucky Derby

Code of Kings died on April 29 before a race after flipping and breaking his neck.

Related video: Horseracing marks 50 years since Secretariat's Triple Crown win (WBAL TV Baltimore)
Duration 0:55 View n Watch

Chloe's Dream and Freezing Point, were injured on the day of the Kentucky Derby and subsequently euthanized. During Race 2, Chloe's Dream sustained a right knee fracture at the top of the first turn, and during Race 8, Freezing Point sustained a biaxial sesamoid fracture.

After the deaths of the horses, the racetrack and home of the Kentucky Derby issued a statement and maintained that it will "fully and actively work with the Kentucky Horseracing Commission (KHRC) and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) to thoroughly investigate each incident to determine, to the degree possible, any underlying health or environmental causes and apply those learnings to continue to improve the safety of this sport."

Related:Seven Horses Died at Churchill Downs in the Lead-Up to the 2023 Kentucky Derby

"While each incident reported has been unique, it is important to note that there has been no discernable pattern detected in the injuries sustained," Churchill Downs said in its May 6 statement. "Our track surfaces are closely monitored by industry experts to ensure their integrity. Each horse that participates in racing at Churchill Downs must undergo multiple, comprehensive veterinarian exams and observations to ensure their fitness to race."

After the seventh horse died at Churchill Downs, Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, called the deaths "unacceptable" in a statement to PEOPLE, adding that the "deaths of so many young horses surrounding the Kentucky Derby this year underscores the urgent need for reform to protect the lives of horses, including the immediate and full implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act which has been held hostage by some horsemen obstructing the anti-doping provisions."

According to World Animal Protection, an animal welfare nonprofit, the deaths result from the racing industry prioritizing "profit over animals."

"The deaths of Parents Pride, Chasing Artie, Wild on Ice, Code of Kings, Chloe's Dream, Freezing Point, and Take Charge Briana prove it's time to address the ethical implications of this so-called 'sport,'" World Animal Protection executive director Lindsay Oliver said in a statement to PEOPLE. "How many more horses have to die before action is taken?"

Technology a valuable tool in the fight against food insecurity
Story by Adriana Diaz • May 20, 2023

0520-wn-diaz1.jpg© CBS News

Detroit — At the Sharing Table in Detroit, Michigan, food is put out for anyone in need.

"You can see who's hungry, you can see it in their eyes," said Bonnie Askew, a regular attendee.

"Times are hard," she adds. "People don't have a decent meal."

Some of the food at the Sharing Table comes from Chad Techner, with Metro Food Rescue. Techner drives a truck around Detroit collecting food that is about to be thrown out and delivering it to local food banks — part of the more than 33 million Americans lacking stable food at home, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It is a stunning fact of life in America.

Trucks, technology a valuable tool in the fight against food insecurity
Duration 2:23  View on Watch

"It's unconscionable to me that, like, we waste 40% of the food in this country," Techner said. "Well, one in four kids don't have enough food to eat. I have four young kids. It's a statistic that really gets home."

Techner's team filled a truck at Bimbo Bakeries USA, maker of Thomas' English muffins, with food just past the best buy date.

"If we wouldn't get it to a food bank, we would have to throw it out so it would completely go to waste," said Matt Zuidema with Bimbo Bakeries.

Each year, nearly 120 billion pounds of food goes uneaten in the U.S., worth about $408 billion, according to numbers from the nonprofit group Feeding America.

"There's more than enough for everyone to eat," Techner said. "We just don't get it to the right place at the right time."

But technology is helping curb waste, linking people with affordable meals. Apps like Too Good To Go lets users buy a bag of items from restaurants and stores at a deep discount, before it is thrown out.

"There's a bit of randomness to it," said 28-year-old Kevin Suggs, a resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. "But when you're paying $3, $4 or $5 a pickup, it's always, you know, net [return on investment]."

In Detroit, Askew said that Americans need to understand that there is a need.

"If you don't see it, the hunger, go look for it," Askew said. "It's out there. Donate your leftovers. Buy a couple extra boxes of this or that. Find a pantry and donate."

'Listen to us': LGBTQ activists seek help, prudence in raising human rights abroad

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday, May 19, 2023


OTTAWA — LGBTQ activists say Canada should ramp up its help in the fight against an organized movement to clamp down on sexual and gender minorities in Africa, while being cautious about when to raise issues in public.

"We are being bullied into silence," said Alex Kofi Donkor, the founder of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, on a visit to Ottawa.

"We always have a strategy and I hope you always listen to us."

Ghana has outlawed homosexual acts since British rule, including under an existing criminal offence of "unnatural carnal knowledge." Human Rights Watch says LGBTQ people in the country face a climate of fear and violence.

Donkor, 33, has tried to change that reality by starting a blog years ago to document human rights issues.

Eventually, the medical researcher launched an organization to inform media, preachers and politicians about LGBTQ issues. The group opened a physical office in January 2021, which police raided a month later and ordered closed.

By August 2021, the country's parliament was debating a bill that would ban gender-affirming care and jail people for up to a decade for purportedly promoting LGBTQ activities.

And yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made no mention of the bill in the public portion of his meeting with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo two weeks ago on the sidelines of King Charles's coronation in London.

That was the right move, Donkor said.

"There are times where we need that outward speaking and there are times where we don't."

Comments from foreign leaders can lend weight to the narrative that the West is trying to impose LBGTQ issues on Africa.

In March, Ghana's presidential palace was lit up in the colours of the Ghana and U.S. flags to mark Vice-President Kamala Harris's visit.

The lights resembled a rainbow, causing outcry from conservatives who claimed the U.S. was trying to push its agenda.

Then at a joint press conference with Akufo-Addo, Harris was asked to comment on the bill by an American journalist, and called it a "human rights issue."

Donkor said he was already fielding interview requests about the projected rainbow lights, and the Harris exchange created more pushback.

"It caused another wave, like 'Oh, let's hurry up and pass the bill. How dare Harris come and tell us who we are? We are Africans, who have values blah, blah, blah.' And then we have to come and defend that."

Related video: Legislature Passes Law Expanding LGBTQ Adoption Rights - TaiwanPlus News (TaiwanPlus)  Duration 0:29  View on Watch

AFP  LGBTQ activist fears return to Uganda after adoption of anti-gay law

2:16

France 24   Hate speech spikes in Kenya after LGBT rights group given green light

11:47

KXXV Waco, TX   LGBTQ+ Rights center of attention in Austin

4:30

Donkor spoke at an event in Ottawa this week about how countries with feminist foreign policies should address sexual orientation and gender identity.

The panellists noted that in reality, some anti-LGBTQ groups are getting Western funding.

A report by the left-leaning Political Research Associates think tank found Evangelical groups in the U.S. are funding anti-gay organizations across Africa, and an investigation by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change that tracked U.S. aid dollars funding anti-gay campaigns in Uganda.

Damjan Denkovski of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy in Berlin said Russian laws against "homosexual propaganda" are being replicated in other countries, and that Moscow derails United Nations investigations into human rights in various countries by claiming that the West is imposing on local values.

"We cannot allow fundamental human rights and dignity to be a sideshow to geopolitics in this way."

Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, head of the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, said that means activists and governments need to step up.

"We are dealing with a well resourced, well co-ordinated transnational movement against the rights of 2SLGBTQ people, women, and all other oppressed folks, and it's going to require that level of co-ordination and funding to respond to it," she told the panel.

Owusu-Akyeeah's parents immigrated from Ghana and she said the crackdown in that country impacts the diaspora abroad.

"It impacts how our parents here and how our elders here view queer and trans rights, even though they live in Canada," she said in an interview.

Owusu-Akyeeah said she's often in touch with LGBTQ activists and Canada's diplomats in Ghana, and uses her past experience as a Global Affairs Canada analyst to suggest ways to advance rights.

"It's not necessarily positioning ourselves as knowing what's best, but it's listening to the people directly impacted and having their suggestions, recommendations inform what decisions we make," she said.

Still, Donkor said a political and cultural calculation needs to be made by world leaders in deciding whether to raise these issues while visiting other countries.

Last November, Trudeau took it upon himself to denounce Uganda's "appalling and abhorrent" legislation that prescribes a death penalty for having sex while being HIV positive, and life imprisonment for homosexual acts.

And on Friday, Trudeau called out the Italian government during a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

Meloni's far-right-led government has moved to limit recognition of parental rights to the biological parent in families with same-sex parents. "Obviously, Canada is concerned about some of the (positions) that Italy is taking in terms of LGBT rights," Trudeau told Meloni at the start of the meeting.

As for Donkor, he's returning Saturday to Ghana despite death threats and physical attacks that would likely give him a shot at a refugee claim in Canada. He has hope his country can embrace its past as a matriarchal society that welcomed diversity.

He said colonial churches imposed a gender binary, but there are still rural communities with people who "integrate between two genders, and are revered within the society."

Donkor similarly blames colonial policies for the political instability that has produced coups and poverty, which he said is what drives many to a hard line form of Christianity espoused by U.S. missionaries in the 1980s.

The end result, he said, is a society where doctors read out Bible passages to transgender people who visit a hospital for a stomach illness, and nurses who refuse to treat gay people for fear of going to hell.

Donkor said Canadians can help, but only if they let Ghanaians take the lead.

"We have the answers because we are the ones who are facing it," he said.

"We will tell you what to say, and what will work."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Chinese authorities slap comedy firm with $2 million fine after military joke

Story by By Casey Hall • May 19,2023

A person walks past a show venue of stand-up comedy company Xiaoguo Culture Media Co that has closed its business, in Beijing© Thomson Reuters


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China on Wednesday slapped one of the country's best-known comedy companies with a 14.7 million yuan ($2.13 million) penalty, accusing it of "harming society" after a military joke made by one of its comedians drew strong public criticism.

The Beijing arm of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism Bureau said it would fine Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Co 13.35 million yuan and confiscate 1.35 million yuan in "illegal gains" from the firm after finding that a recent show by Li Haoshi, who performs under the name House, had breached rules.


A person walks past a show venue of stand-up comedy company Xiaoguo Culture Media Co that has closed its business with a notice of show cancellation, in Beijing© Thomson Reuters

The incident has strongly divided the Chinese public over what sort of jokes are inappropriate as performances such as stand-up comedy become increasingly popular and also highlighted the limits of appropriate content in China where authorities say it must promote core socialist values.


The entrance of a show venue of stand-up comedy company Danliren Culture Media is pictured in Beijing© Thomson Reuters

Li went viral on Chinese social media earlier this week after an audience member posted online a description of a joke he had made at a live stand-up set in Beijing on May 13, describing it as demeaning to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Related video: Chinese Comedian's Joke Causes Uproar, Arrest (unbranded - Newsworthy)

Duration 1:42  View on Watch

NBC News  Chinese stand-up comedian under criminal investigation for joke accused of insulting the army

1:58

WION  Gravitas: China slams comedian for cracking a joke

3:29

In the joke, Li recounted seeing two stray dogs he had adopted chase a squirrel and said it had reminded him of the phrase "have a good work style, be able to fight and win battles", a slogan Chinese President Xi Jinping used in 2013 to praise the PLA's work ethic.

"We will never allow any company or individual use the Chinese capital as a stage to wantonly slander the glorious image of the PLA," the cultural bureau said, adding that Xiaoguo Culture would be barred from staging any future shows in Beijing.

In response to the fine, Xiaoguo Culture blamed the incident on "major loopholes in management" and said it had terminated Li's contract.

Reuters could not immediately reach Li for comment and Weibo appears to have banned him from posting to his account there.

Founded in Shanghai in 2015, Xiaoguo Culture's popularity has grown in sync with China's embrace of stand-up comedy and had known for raising the profile of hundreds of local comedians.

The firm and its artists have fallen foul of authorities before. In July 2021, the company was fined 200,000 yuan for publishing advertisements that featured a comedian endorsing a lingerie brand with comments said to objectify women.

(This story has been refiled to add a dropped word in the headline and fix a typo in paragraph 1)

($1 = 6.9121 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Casey Hall; Editing by Michael Perry)

FIRST THE RIGHT WAS ANTI-SJW

NOW IT IS ANTI-WOKE

Ford Motors commercial accused of destroying '120 years of American history in one minute'

Story by Lynn Chaya • May 19,2023


Ford Motors has become the latest target for conservatives after an old commercial showing a rainbow-wrapped Raptor went viral.

Like many corporations’ marketing strategies, the automobile manufacturer hopped on the inclusion bandwagon and aired the ad during Pride Month last June.

The video resurfaced after TikTok user Brian Michael posted it on May 16 with a text overlay claiming the company had “destroyed 120 years of American history in 1 minute.”


Conservative political commentator Dave Rubin, with a YouTube following of over 1.94 million subscribers, expressed his discontent with “the obsession to market everything” towards the LGBTQ+ community.

“Why would you be marketing towards a very niche audience?” he asked.


“What gay person is walking in when you want to buy a car… ‘Well which one of these trucks is gayer? Do you have this in rainbow?’ None of it makes any sense,” he continued.

Over the last few weeks, the controversy surrounding “woke ads” have caused an uproar on social media.

Six weeks ago, transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney received backlash for a social media post about cans of Bud Light beer that were personally sent to her.
Miller Lite draws calls for boycott over 'woke' advert: 'Did nobody learn from Bud Light?'
Gun maker goes into damage control after Twitter manager supports feminist Miller Lite ad

Two Republican senators went so far as to ask the U.S. federal government to investigate the ad. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee presented a letter from the Senate’s commerce committee urging Anheuser Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth to “sever its relationship” with Mulvaney, “publicly apologize”, and force her to delete “any Anheuser-Busch content” on her social media platforms, or submit to an investigation from a trade association, the Independent reported.

Following that controversy, Miller Lite released an ad apologizing for decades of sexist imagery in beer commercials. It features comedian and actor Ilana Glazer explaining to viewers that “women were among the very first to brew beer, ever. From Mesopotamia to the Middles Ages to Colonial America, women were the ones doing the brewing.”

The ad drew criticism from conservative personalities on social media.

“Miller Lite saw the Bud Light disaster and decided they needed their own woke beer ad,” said radio host Clay Travis.

Graham Allen, the host of the Dear America podcast, added: “Did NOBODY learn from Bud Light’s COSTLY mistake? Miller Lite just dropped this WOKE advertisement!!!”

Gun maker goes into damage control after Twitter manager supports feminist Miller Lite ad
Story by National Post Staff • Thursday, May 18, 2023

An image from the Miller Lite ad, featuring Ilana Glazer.

© Provided by National Post

A German gun maker has become the latest well-armed combatant in America’s culture wars, after the company’s Twitter feed came out in favour of a Miller Lite ad that has U.S. conservatives riled.

In early March, Miller unveiled the ad, which featured comedian and actor Ilana Glazer explaining to viewers that “women were among the very first to brew beer, ever.” She adds: “Centuries later, how did the industry pay homage to the founding mothers of beer? They put us in bikinis.”

The ad drew criticism from conservatives, many of whom had already been protesting a Bud Light ad featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. Miller was accused of following Bud’s lead, although its ad had actually debuted first.

Then gun manufacturer Heckler & Koch joined the fray, tweeting: “Wow – woke? Allow me to translate: objectifying women was never a good marketing strategy. In the firearms industry, that was a prominent strategy up until recently. Many industries have done that (including beer corps). As an actual woman typing this, I’ll use more words for you to comprehend: using bunnies to sell products is trash marketing. Supporting women by not doing that is good.”

Several additional tweets – all since deleted – added further praise for Miller’s ad, with a few caveats.

One said: “ Now to address the rest, non-bikini parts, of the ad: seems like they should have given sources for the info they’re throwing out. And, for them to isolate a huge part of their target consumer base makes no sense. Annnd, their virtue signaling ad doesn’t even make me want to drink their beer. [woman shrugging emoji] But, at least they used actual women for it (presumably).”

After the tweets were taken down, the company then posted another that said: “The Road Forward.” It showed a road sign that read: “HK does not engage in identity politics. A policy was violated. Changes were made.” No further explanation was given.

In an odd postscript, right-wing U.S. website Revolver News then revealed that the marketing manager behind the tweets had at one point been a bikini model. It also suggested that “major corporations had better fire their female-dominated marketing teams, stat, if they want to stop stepping on woke landmines.”

Miller Lite becomes the latest beer to draw calls for boycott over 'woke' advert: 'Did nobody learn from Bud Light’s mistake?'

Story by Chris Knight • Tuesday, May 16,2023


Miller Lite and Bud Light have both drawn calls for boycotts by consumers

Miller Lite is facing a brewing backlash over an advertisement that apologizes for decades of sexist imagery in beer commercials, and offers reparations of a sort.

The 90-second spot features comedian and actor Ilana Glazer explaining to viewers that “women were among the very first to brew beer, ever. From Mesopotamia to the Middles Ages to Colonial America, women were the ones doing the brewing.”

She adds: “Centuries later, how did the industry pay homage to the founding mothers of beer? They put us in bikinis.”

Glazer then goes on to explain Miller’s “Bad S#!T to Good $#!T” campaign, which involves turning old advertising material into compost, feeding that to worms, using the resulting fertilizer to grow hops, and donating those crops to women brewers.

But the message has angered many on social media who are now calling for a boycott of the Molson Coors product. This barely six weeks after a similar furor erupted over a TikTok post by transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, who had received free samples of Bud Light beer.

That boycott hurt sales of the rival Anheuser-Busch brand among U.S. conservatives, although Business Insider magazine subsequently reported that global sales for the company had dropped by only one per cent during that time, and that the company’s stock had risen after it reported strong quarterly earnings.

The Miller Lite ad has been pilloried by the likes of radio host Clay Travis, who tweeted: “Miller Lite saw the Bud Light disaster and decided they needed their own woke beer ad.” Graham Allen, host of the Dear America podcast, added: “Did NOBODY learn from Bud Light’s COSTLY mistake? Miller Lite just dropped this WOKE advertisement!!!” And conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley chimed in with: “Miller Lite apparently wants the Bud Light boycott treatment too. Well they can have it.”

Others have pointed out that the advertisement is humorous; that women make up half the population of potential customers; and that, far from following in Bud Lite’s sudsy footsteps, the Miller campaign was 

“Many in the beer industry (Miller Lite included) alienated the very people who helped create it,” the company said in a March 7 press release. “How? By dividing women as consumers, objectifying them in their ads, and frankly, putting a lot of bad $#!T out there.”

Last year, Miller Lite launched a line of Mary Lisle cans, in celebration of the first female brewer in American history, who inherited her late father’s brewhouse in Philadelphia in 1734.

It was a far cry from 2003, when Miller released its “Catfight” commercial, featuring two women wrestling in mud and tearing off each other’s clothes over whether Miller Lite “tasted great” or was “less filling.”

That ad also drew criticism (over email rather than Twitter), with image consultant Laura Ries remarking: “It’s explicit. It’s degrading. It has no real message, except all men are idiots and all they think about are girls mud wrestling.”

'Woke mind virus' has turned San Francisco into a zombie town, Elon Musk says

Story by Chris Knight • Wednesday, May 17, 2023

A hazy San Francisco skyline as a result of wildfires is seen from Dolores Park in San Francisco, California on September 9, 2020.

The City by the Bay is being overrun by zombies, according to Elon Musk, who treated a strange agreement to recent comments by comedian Dave Chappelle.

In a recent standup performance at the Masonic in San Francisco, Chappelle said the city had become “Half Glee, half zombie movie,” as he told the crowd about seeing someone defecating in front of a restaurant in the city’s Tenderloin neighbourhood as he was walking in. He concluded: “Y’all [N-word]s need a Batman!”

The comments struck a chord with the billionaire Telsa/SpaceX chief, who tweeted: “Rightly so. The disaster that is downtown SF, once beautiful [sic] and throving, now a derelict zombie apocalypse, is due to the work mind virus.”

The term “woke mind virus” is one that Musk has been using since late 2021, about the same time that author and longtime San Franciscan Michael Shellenberger published San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, a book that attributed the city’s woes to progressive policies that, he said, went from tolerating crime and homelessness to enabling them.

Despite his repeated use of the phrase, the precise meaning of “woke mind virus” has been difficult to pin down. Musk told Bill Maher during an interview on HBO: “I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic, and anything that … results in the suppression of free speech. Those are two aspects of the woke mind virus that I think are very dangerous.”

Musk’s unhappiness with San Francisco is nothing new. In April he tweeted that one could “literally film a Walking Dead episode unedited in downtown SF,” adding: “This is where San Francisco politics leads and Twitter was exporting this self-destructive mind virus to the world … Evil in guise of good.”

And earlier this month, in the wake of Nordstrom announcing the closure of two stores near Union Square, he remarked: “So many stores shuttered in downtown SF. Feels post-apocalyptic.”

This is also not the first time Musk and Chappelle have been on the same page — or stage. In December, during a performance at Chase Center, he invited the tech billionaire to join him, asking the crowd to “make some noise for the richest man in the world.”

They did, with many booing lustily, so loudly and for so long that much of their ensuing conversation was drowned out by the noise. And Chappelle was not particularly kind, remarking: “His whole business model is f— Earth, I’m leaving anyway,” while asking Musk if he could have the first comedy club on Mars.

Musk’s comments have not endeared him to city leaders either, with San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins calling his tweets “reckless and irresponsible” in the wake of the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in the city’s Rincon Hill neighbourhood.

'Woke policies' will make NASA lose the space race to China: Republican senators

Story by Lynn Chaya • Thursday, May 18, 2023

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during a business hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill May 11, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Two U.S. Republican senators challenged NASA’s 2024 budget request during a hearing on Wednesday, accusing the space agency of standing behind President Joe Biden’s liberal initiatives.

While Democrat and Republican senators both confronted NASA administrator Bill Nelson on an array of issues pertaining to the 2024 US$27.2 billion budget proposal, conservative senators Ted Cruz and Eric Schmitt focused on two points: initiatives to combat climate change and investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Cruz, a Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Schmitt, Ranking Member of its Space and Science Subcommittee, claimed the space organization has veered away from its nonpartisan roots and has become overly politicized by aligning with Biden policies.

China may beat U.S. in bid to return samples from the surface of Mars

NASA Mars rover loses its pet rock, and other developments on the Red Planet

“If NASA is seen as partisan, that is very bad for space and space exploration,” Cruz said during the hearing.

Related video: The new space race: China vs US over lunar landing (WION)  View on Watch

 

 

“So I hope NASA will continue its tradition of staying out of those battles.”

By implementing policies concerning the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and a US$22 million investment in diversity, equity and inclusion, Cruz claimed the funding “has little to do with winning what you have called a space race between the free world and China,” Space Policy Online quoted.

Schmitt chimed in by voicing his disagreement with the administration’s “obsession with misguided woke policies related to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“China has no interest in out-DEIing us and they’re not intimidated at all by this divisive radical policy that’s found its way into this budget,” he said.

Nelson did not offer comprehensive answers to the Senators’ questions, though he assured the committee that NASA will remain “not only bipartisan, but non-partisan.”

Saudi Arabia's surge of diplomacy brings Syria's Assad, Ukraine's Zelenskyy to Arab summit

Story by The Canadian Press • Friday May 19,2023


JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia hosted an Arab League summit on Friday in which Syrian President Bashar Assad was welcomed back after a 12-year suspension and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to rally support against Russia.

Russian airstrikes have have left a swath of destruction across both countries, but in Syria they came at Assad's invitation and helped him cling to power through years of grinding civil war. Several other Arab states have maintained warm ties with Moscow while remaining largely neutral on the Ukraine war.

The odd pairing of the two leaders in the same forum is the result of a recent flurry of diplomacy by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pursuing regional rapprochement with the same vigor he previously brought to the oil-rich kingdom's confrontation with its archrival Iran.

In recent months, Saudi Arabia has restored diplomatic ties with Iran, is ending the kingdom’s yearslong war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen and led the push for Syria’s return to the Arab League.

The Saudi crown prince welcomed both Assad and Zelenskyy, expressing support for “whatever helps in reducing the crisis between Russia and Ukraine." He added that the kingdom, which brokered a prisoner exchange last year, “is ready to exert efforts for mediation between Russia and Ukraine."

Addressing the summit in English, Zelenskyy appeared to invoke the Arab world's own troubled history of invasion and occupation, saying their nations would understand that Ukraine "will never submit to any foreigners or colonizers. That's why we fight.”

He took a swipe at Iran for supplying attack drones to Russia and spoke about the suffering of ethnic Muslim Tatars living under Russian occupation in Crimea. He also accused some in the hall of “turning a blind eye” to Russia's violations, without naming them.

The visit comes amid a whirlwind of international travel by the Ukrainian leader, but until now he has mostly visited allied countries.

Saudi Arabia pledged $400 million in aid to Ukraine earlier this year and has voted in favor of U.N. resolutions calling on Russia to end its invasion and refrain from annexing Ukrainian territory. But it has resisted U.S. pressure to increase oil production in order to squeeze Russia's revenues.

Leaders from the 22-member league, who were meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, were also expected to focus on Sudan. The East African country's top generals — both of whom have been backed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states — have been battling each other across the country for over a month, killing hundreds and sparking an exodus from the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, leader of the armed forces, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, agreed to a pact in Jeddah last week that promised safe passage for civilians fleeing the fighting and protection for aid groups. Saudi Arabia and the United States have meanwhile been leading international efforts to broker a lasting truce.

The fighting has killed over 600 people and caused tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The Arab League is also expected to reiterate its perennial support for the Palestinians at a time of soaring Mideast tensions.

In recent years, Assad's forces have recaptured much of Syria's territory from insurgents with crucial help from Russia — which intervened militarily on his behalf beginning in 2015 — and Iran. Saudi Arabia had been a leading sponsor of the opposition at the height of the war but pulled back as the insurgents were eventually cornered in a small pocket of northwestern Syria.

“Saudi Arabia’s push to bring Syria back into the fold is part of a broader shift in the kingdom’s approach to regional politics,” says Torbjorn Soltvedt, a leading Mideast analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“The previously adventurist foreign policy defined by the Yemen intervention and efforts to confront Iran are now being abandoned in favor of a more cautious approach,” he said.

Assad’s first official meeting on Friday was with his Tunisian counterpart, Kais Saied, who is waging his own crackdown on dissent in the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests that swept he region in 2011.

“We stand together against the movement of darkness,” Assad said, apparently referring to extremist groups that came to dominate the Syrian opposition as his country's civil war ground on, and which drew a large number of recruits from Tunisia.

The Saudi crown prince later welcomed each leader to the summit, including a smiling Assad wearing a dark blue suit. The two shook hands and kissed cheeks before the Syrian leader walked into the hall.

There are some Arab holdouts to Damascus' rehabilitation, including gas-rich Qatar, which still supports Syria's opposition. Qatar has said it won't stand in the way of the Arab consensus on readmitting Syria but would also not normalize bilateral relations without a political solution to the conflict.

Western countries, which still view Assad as a pariah over his forces’ aerial bombardment and gas attacks against civilians during the 12-year civil war, have criticized his return to the Arab fold and vowed to maintain crippling sanctions.

That will likely continue to hamper any reconstruction. Years of heavy fighting involving Assad's forces, the opposition and jihadi groups like the Islamic State group left entire villages and neighborhoods in ruins.

American lawmakers advanced bipartisan legislation this week that would bar any U.S. federal agency from recognizing or carrying out normal relations with Syria’s government as long as it’s led by Assad, who came to power in 2000, following the death of his father.

The legislation would also plug holes in existing U.S. sanctions targeting Assad and mandate Washington create a formal strategy to counter efforts by countrSaudi Arabia's surge of diplomacy brings Syria's Assad, Ukraine's Zelenskyy to Arab summit

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 7:10 a.m.

Saudi Arabia's surge of diplomacy brings Syria's Assad, Ukraine's Zelenskyy to Arab summit

Saudi Arabia's surge of diplomacy brings Syria's Assad, Ukraine's Zelenskyy to Arab summit

© Provided by The Canadian Press

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia hosted an Arab League summit on Friday in which Syrian President Bashar Assad was welcomed back after a 12-year suspension and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to rally support against Russia.

Russian airstrikes have have left a swath of destruction across both countries, but in Syria they came at Assad's invitation and helped him cling to power through years of grinding civil war. Several other Arab states have maintained warm ties with Moscow while remaining largely neutral on the Ukraine war.

The odd pairing of the two leaders in the same forum is the result of a recent flurry of diplomacy by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pursuing regional rapprochement with the same vigor he previously brought to the oil-rich kingdom's confrontation with its archrival Iran.

In recent months, Saudi Arabia has restored diplomatic ties with Iran, is ending the kingdom’s yearslong war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen and led the push for Syria’s return to the Arab League.

PGIM Official Site - The Value Of Active Management

PGIM Official Site - The Value Of Active Management

Ad

www.pgim.com/Official_Site

The Saudi crown prince welcomed both Assad and Zelenskyy, expressing support for “whatever helps in reducing the crisis between Russia and Ukraine." He added that the kingdom, which brokered a prisoner exchange last year, “is ready to exert efforts for mediation between Russia and Ukraine."

Addressing the summit in English, Zelenskyy appeared to invoke the Arab world's own troubled history of invasion and occupation, saying their nations would understand that Ukraine "will never submit to any foreigners or colonizers. That's why we fight.”

He took a swipe at Iran for supplying attack drones to Russia and spoke about the suffering of ethnic Muslim Tatars living under Russian occupation in Crimea. He also accused some in the hall of “turning a blind eye” to Russia's violations, without naming them.

The visit comes amid a whirlwind of international travel by the Ukrainian leader, but until now he has mostly visited allied countries.

Saudi Arabia pledged $400 million in aid to Ukraine earlier this year and has voted in favor of U.N. resolutions calling on Russia to end its invasion and refrain from annexing Ukrainian territory. But it has resisted U.S. pressure to increase oil production in order to squeeze Russia's revenues.

Leaders from the 22-member league, who were meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, were also expected to focus on Sudan. The East African country's top generals — both of whom have been backed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states — have been battling each other across the country for over a month, killing hundreds and sparking an exodus from the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, leader of the armed forces, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, agreed to a pact in Jeddah last week that promised safe passage for civilians fleeing the fighting and protection for aid groups. Saudi Arabia and the United States have meanwhile been leading international efforts to broker a lasting truce.

The fighting has killed over 600 people and caused tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Related video: Arab states are trying to 'lure' Syria's Assad away from Iran, analyst says (CNBC)

The Arab League is also expected to reiterate its perennial support for the Palestinians at a time of soaring Mideast tensions.

In recent years, Assad's forces have recaptured much of Syria's territory from insurgents with crucial help from Russia — which intervened militarily on his behalf beginning in 2015 — and Iran. Saudi Arabia had been a leading sponsor of the opposition at the height of the war but pulled back as the insurgents were eventually cornered in a small pocket of northwestern Syria.

“Saudi Arabia’s push to bring Syria back into the fold is part of a broader shift in the kingdom’s approach to regional politics,” says Torbjorn Soltvedt, a leading Mideast analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“The previously adventurist foreign policy defined by the Yemen intervention and efforts to confront Iran are now being abandoned in favor of a more cautious approach,” he said.

Assad’s first official meeting on Friday was with his Tunisian counterpart, Kais Saied, who is waging his own crackdown on dissent in the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests that swept he region in 2011.

“We stand together against the movement of darkness,” Assad said, apparently referring to extremist groups that came to dominate the Syrian opposition as his country's civil war ground on, and which drew a large number of recruits from Tunisia.

The Saudi crown prince later welcomed each leader to the summit, including a smiling Assad wearing a dark blue suit. The two shook hands and kissed cheeks before the Syrian leader walked into the hall.

There are some Arab holdouts to Damascus' rehabilitation, including gas-rich Qatar, which still supports Syria's opposition. Qatar has said it won't stand in the way of the Arab consensus on readmitting Syria but would also not normalize bilateral relations without a political solution to the conflict.

Western countries, which still view Assad as a pariah over his forces’ aerial bombardment and gas attacks against civilians during the 12-year civil war, have criticized his return to the Arab fold and vowed to maintain crippling sanctions.

That will likely continue to hamper any reconstruction. Years of heavy fighting involving Assad's forces, the opposition and jihadi groups like the Islamic State group left entire villages and neighborhoods in ruins.

American lawmakers advanced bipartisan legislation this week that would bar any U.S. federal agency from recognizing or carrying out normal relations with Syria’s government as long as it’s led by Assad, who came to power in 2000, following the death of his father.

The legislation would also plug holes in existing U.S. sanctions targeting Assad and mandate Washington create a formal strategy to counter efforts by countries that do normalize relations with his government.

The White House National Security Council said in a statement Friday that the administration opposes the legislation. It fears the additional measures “would make it unduly difficult to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people – who are suffering because of the actions of the Assad regime.”

The administration remains committed to a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 2015 that endorsed a roadmap to peace drafted three years earlier. But several rounds of talks held over the years between Assad's government and the opposition went nowhere, and he has had little incentive to compromise with the beleaguered insurgents since Russia entered the war on his side eight years ago.

Arab leaders appear to be focused on more modest goals, like enlisting Assad's help in countering militant groups and drug traffickers.

___

Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Bassem Mroue, The Associated Pressies that do normalize relations with his government.

The White House National Security Council said in a statement Friday that the administration opposes the legislation. It fears the additional measures “would make it unduly difficult to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people – who are suffering because of the actions of the Assad regime.”

The administration remains committed to a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 2015 that endorsed a roadmap to peace drafted three years earlier. But several rounds of talks held over the years between Assad's government and the opposition went nowhere, and he has had little incentive to compromise with the beleaguered insurgents since Russia entered the war on his side eight years ago.

Arab leaders appear to be focused on more modest goals, like enlisting Assad's help in countering militant groups and drug traffickers.

___

Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press

Former world leaders urge G7 to get nuclear arms control back on track

Story by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor • 

 The Guardian

Wednesday, May 17,2923

Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images

Aglobal array of former world leaders and defence ministers, nuclear experts and diplomats have called on the leaders of G7 countries at their meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, not to let progress on nuclear arms control continue to be the victim of growing geopolitical conflict, including the conflict between the west and Russia over Ukraine.

The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, who is from Hiroshima, chose the G7 venue to lend seriousness to his personal call to world leaders to at least agree a roadmap to resume nuclear arms control talks.

In February, Russia pulled out of the 2010 New Start treaty, a pact that sets limits on the deployed strategic nuclear arsenals of the world’s two largest nuclear powers, although Moscow said it would nevertheless abide by the limits for the moment.

Kishida intends to take world leaders arriving this week for the summit to the harrowing Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where they will see graphic depictions of the US attack in 1945.

An open letter signed by six former heads of state, 20 cabinet-level ministers and experts from 50 different countries including China, Russia and the US lends momentum to Kishida’s G7 theme by saying the world needs more nuclear arms control, not less.

The letter says: “United States-Russia strategic stability talks are in limbo and the New Start treaty, which has played an indispensable role in ensuring reciprocal security, is now in question.

“As the only existing nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, the world’s two largest nuclear-armed countries, the treaty’s collapse or expiration without a replacement would threaten a destabilising arms race.”

Worsening big-power competition is making nuclear war more likely, the leaders warn, and “failure to agree on a new nuclear arms control framework to replace New Start before it expires in February 2026 would also make it moredifficult to bring China, France and the United Kingdom into multilateral arms control, as all three are not ready to consider limits on their nuclear arsenals until the United States and Russia bring down their nuclear stockpiles”.

Related: Hiroshima survivors urge G7 leaders to unite against atomic weapons

The letter was organised by the European Leadership Network and Asia-Pacific Leadership Network and signed by former world leaders, including Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico, Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand and Ingvar Carlsson, the former prime minister of Sweden.

In Russia, the signatories include Alexei Arbatov, the director of the International Security Center at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations; Pavel Palazhchenko, the head of the international centre at the Gorbachev Foundation, and Sergey Rogov, who until March last year, was a member of the scientific council of the national security council and a former adviser to the Duma international affairs committee.

One of the most prominent signatories in China is Prof Chen Dongxiao, the president of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. China has been clear in warning Russia not to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict, a threat that has repeatedly been made by Moscow, including by transferring nuclear weapons to Belarus.

UK signatories include the former head of MI6 John Scarlett, the former foreign secretaries Malcolm Rifkind and David Owen, as well as the former defence secretaries Des Browne and Tom King.

The 256 signatories acknowledge they all have different views about geopolitical competition but say “we all agree that it is long past time to start prioritising nuclear arms control and taking unilateral, bilateral and multilateral actions”.

The letter urges Russia and the US to compartmentalise nuclear arms control and isolate it from other disputes by confirming that they will not exceed the New Start limits on deployed nuclear forces, which thus far have not been violated, as well as agreeing to remove the obstacles to full implementation of their New Start obligations.

It also calls for the resumption of the work of the Bilateral Consultative Commission, the body that agrees details of US and Russian inspections of each others’ military sites under the terms of the New Start treaty. The body has not met for nearly two years.

Hiroshima survivor to Putin: 'You don't know the reality of a nuclear weapon'

ABC News
Hiroshima survivors ensuring their history is not forgotten
Duration 5:24   View on Watch

Nearly eight decades after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, 85-year-old Keiko Ogura had this message for Russian President Vladimir Putin: "You don't know what is a nuclear weapon, the reality of a nuclear weapon. So come here and see."

Ogura spoke to ABC News' Britt Clennett ahead of the arrivals of President Joe Biden and other leaders in Hiroshima for the annual summit of G7 leaders, held this year in the Japanese city amid new nuclear threats from countries like Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy planned to join the world leaders this weekend for the summit. His presence in Hiroshima is particularly significant amid Putin's recent decision to move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine.

Putin last year suggested he could use the weapons in Russia's invasion of Ukraine but subsequently denied he would.

"Threats by Russia of nuclear weapon use, let alone any use of nuclear weapons by Russia, in the context of its aggression against Ukraine are inadmissible," Biden and the other G7 leaders said Friday in a joint statement, calling for "a world without nuclear weapons."

Ogura was 8 years old when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, but she says she can still vividly remember the events of that day.

"First there was a bright flash, and then soon after that, I couldn't stand. Because soon after that, there was a strong blast — I mean wind, like a typhoon or tornado. And then I was beaten to the street and became unconscious, because of the blast," Ogura said. When she opened her eyes, everything was dark; gradually she could see that her neighborhood was engulfed in flames, she said.


Keiko Ogura, 85, is shown during an interview with ABC News' Britt Clennett in Hiroshima, Japan.

© ABC News

Ogura met with G7 leaders on Friday during their visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, according to Japan's foreign ministry. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the G7 leaders a private tour of the museum.

According to Japan's Kyodo News, Kishida later told reporters: "We felt the reality of the atomic bombing and shared a sobering moment that will be etched in our hearts. It was historic from the viewpoint of showing our resolve for a world free of nuclear weapons."MORE: Biden tells G-7 leaders he supports joint training for Ukrainians on F-16s

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompted Japan's surrender to the Allies, precipitating the end of World War II. In Japanese, survivors of the bombings are known as "hibakusha."

During her interview with ABC News, Ogura said this would be her message to Biden: "I say, you have the power and we need a leader…Underneath this land you're standing there were so many dead souls and so and so, please feel, and please imagine."

The Hiroshima bombing killed an estimated 140,000 people.MORE: A Look Back at the Destruction in Hiroshima

"Black rain, rain contaminated with radiation, dark color, charcoal colored rain fell onto my blouse," Ogura said.

"Their [the people coming towards her] skin was hanging down from the tip of their finger, and they're coming like a ghost or a zombie or something…coming to my area, and they started to die," Ogura said.

"When I recall those days, I can't help but want to cry," Ogura continued.

After the G7 leaders toured the museum, they walked to the continuously lit "flame of peace" at the surrounding memorial park, laid wreaths and participated in a tree-planting ceremony. In the background was the Genbaku Dome, the only structure that remained standing in the area where the bomb was dropped.


The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, or Genbaku Dome, was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945.© ABC News

Biden was the second sitting American president to visit the memorial site. No U.S. president has apologized for the bombing. The White House said that Biden didn't plan to do so, either. Biden didn't make any public remarks during his visit to the memorial and museum.

Ogura added, "I know the fear, the reality when the nuclear weapon was used, and I can't stand this evil existing, the nuclear weapon, even a single weapon existing in this world, on this planet…We need to think about the future generation."

ABC News' Karson Yiu, Anthony Trotter, Gamay Palacios and Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.