THE NEED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE $$$

Probe into collapse of US east coast’s main north-south road after tanker fire

The collapsed section of the road as crews continue to work on the scene 

(WPVI-TV/6ABC/AP)

MON, 12 JUN, 2023 
MIKE CATALINI AND MARC LEVY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

An investigation was under way on Monday into why a tanker fire collapsed a section of the US east coast’s main north-south road, throwing hundreds of thousands of morning commutes into chaos and disrupting commerce for untold numbers of businesses.

Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be closed in both directions for weeks at the start of the summer travel season.

Motorists should expect extensive delays and street closures, and avoid the north-east corner of the sixth-largest city in the country, transport officials said.

The accident also disrupted the car route from Canada to Florida through the Boston, New York and Washington metropolitan areas.

A investigator surveys the aftermath of the collapse (Matt Rourke/AP)

Pennsylvania transportation secretary Michael Carroll said the I-95 segment carries roughly 160,000 vehicles per day.

Sunday’s fire sent plumes of black smoke into the air. The north-bound lanes collapsed and the south-bound counterparts were compromised, according to the Philadelphia fire department.

Authorities have not publicly identified the lorry owner or the driver, indicated whether the driver survived, or said what exactly fuelled the blaze.

Governor Josh Shapiro signed a disaster declaration on Monday, saying it gives state agencies the ability to skip normal bidding and contracting requirements so that the road can be repaired more quickly.

 

The road collapsed after a tanker caught fire (Matt Rourke/AP)


Mr Shapiro said Sunday that no motorists on the highway were injured or died, although videos shared on social media showed some close calls, with people driving through as flames licked upward from the fire below.

Officials said the tanker contained what may have been hundreds of gallons of petrol. The fire took about an hour to get under control.

High heat from the fire or the impact of an explosion could have weakened the steel beams supporting the overpass, according to Drexel University structural engineering Professor Abi Aghayere.

Crews on the scene in Philadelphia (WPVI-TV/6ABC/AP)

Bridges like the one that collapsed do not typically have fire protection, like concrete casing, he added. It could have been coated in a fire-retarding paint, but even then the beams could have been weakened.

“It just gives you time,” he said.

The collapsed section of I-95 was part of a 212 million dollar (£170 million) reconstruction project that finished four years ago, state transportation department spokesman Brad Rudolph said.

The 104ft elevated section was in “good” condition earlier this year, with another inspection set for 2025.

USA: Elevated Section Of Major Highway Collapses In Philadelphia

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 Interstate onto the road below in northeast Philadelphia. 

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Photograph of the Interstate 95 highway that collapsed in Philadelphia 

Twitter/Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management

SHREYA BASAK
AP
UPDATED: 11 JUN 2023 

An elevated section of Interstate 95 collapsed early Sunday in Philadelphia after a vehicle caught fire, closing the main north-south highway on the East Coast and threatening to upend travel in parts of the densely populated Northeast, authorities said.

Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area.

Early reports indicated that the vehicle may have been a tanker truck, but officials could not immediately confirm that.

The fire was reported to be under control.

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 onto the road below in northeast Philadelphia. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The northbound lanes of I-95 were gone, and the southbound lanes were “compromised” due to heat from the fire, said Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department.

Runoff from the fire or perhaps broken gas lines were causing explosions underground, he added.

Mark Fusetti, a retired Philadelphia police sergeant, said he was driving south toward the city's airport when he noticed thick plumes of black smoke rising over the highway. As he passed the fire, the road beneath began to “dip”, creating a noticeable depression that was visible in video he took of the scene, he said.

He saw traffic in his rearview mirror come to a halt. Soon after, the northbound lanes of the highway crumbled.

“It was crazy timing,” Fusetti said. “For it to buckle and collapse that quickly, it's pretty remarkable.”

Officials were also concerned about the environmental effects of runoff into the nearby Delaware River.

“Today's going to be a long day. And obviously, with 95 northbound gone and southbound questionable, it's going to be even longer than that,” said Dominick Mireles, director of Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management.

Heavy construction equipment would be required to start to remove the debris, he said.

Officials planned to launch a drone to assess the damage.

The fire was strikingly similar to another blaze in Philadelphia in March 1996, when an illegal tire dump under I-95 caught fire, melting guard rails and buckling the pavement.

The highway was closed for several weeks, and partial closures lasted for six months. Seven teenagers were charged with arson.

The dump's owner was sentenced to seven to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million of the $6.5 million repair costs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

More recently in Atlanta, a massive fire collapsed an elevated portion of Interstate 85, shutting down the heavily travelled route through the heart of the city in March 2017.

A homeless man was accused of starting the blaze, but federal investigators said in a report that the state transportation department's practice of storing combustible construction materials under the highway increased the risk of fire.

Philadelphia Highway Collapse Could Impact Major Interstate 'For a Long Time'

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would declare an emergency on Monday so the state could access federal money for repairs, which could take months.

In this handout photo provided by the City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, smoke rises from a collapsed section of the I-95 highway on June 11, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to reports, a tanker fire underneath the highway caused the road to collapse.
(Photo: City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management via Getty Images)

COMMON DREAMS STAFF
Jun 11, 2023

A tanker truck fire caused a raised portion of Interstate 95 (I-95) to collapse in northeastern Philadelphia Sunday, indefinitely blocking one of the nation's busiest highways and threatening the Delaware River with an oil spill.

The fire and collapse was triggered by a crash under the northbound ramp around 6:15 am ET, The Associated Press reported. The fire then caused the northbound lanes above it to collapse and "compromised" the southbound ones, Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department, said. There have been no injuries reported at this time.

"I-95 will be impacted for a long time, for a long time," Philadelphia managing director Tumar Alexander said Sunday morning, as ThePhiladelphia Inquirer reported.



I-95 is the main East Coast artery connecting Florida to Maine, The Washington Post explained. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would declare an emergency on Monday so the state could access federal money for repairs, according to the Inquirer.

"With regards to the complete rebuild of the I-95 roadway, we expect that to take some number of months," Shapiro said Sunday.

Shapiro added that the length of repairs would depend on the results of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Pennsylvania State Police investigation into the cause of the crash.

"I found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died," Shapiro said Sunday, according to AP.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney promised to keep residents updated about detours and alternative routes.


The federal government has already pledged support to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.

"The President has been briefed on the collapse and White House officials have been in contact with Governor Shapiro and Mayor Kenney's offices to offer assistance," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also said he was in contact with Shapiro, Kenney, and other regional leaders.

"This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete."

"This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete," he tweeted. "Our department will be there with support throughout the process of I-95 returning to normal."



The truck that caught fire had a capacity for 8,500 gallons of gasoline, the U.S. Coast Guard said, as The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. While it's not clear how much gasoline the truck was carrying, it was not empty.

The highway follows the Delaware River, and some of the gasoline drained into the waterway, The Washington Post reported.

"It hasn't made its way to the water that much," Ensign Josh Ledoux, a spokesperson for the Delaware Bay sector of the Coast Guard, told the Post.

The spilled oil has left a slight sheen on the river, the Inquirer reported, which authorities are attempting to contain with floating booms.

Otherwise, air and water quality have not been impacted by the crash, city agencies said.

Democratic strategist Larry Huynh pointed to the collapse as an example of why federal infrastructure funding is so important.

"People from every political perspective in America use I-95 in Philadelphia," he tweeted. "But only one party will defend it. What does a Republican do when they see roads like this? They steal our tax dollars, and give it to billionaires. Then they DEMAND spending cuts."

He noted that most Republicans opposed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021.

"Getting Republicans out is essential for our roads. For our country. For our lives," he said.

Every lane of I-95 is blocked thanks to a tanker truck crash in Philadelphia: ‘Today’s going to be a long day’

 
BYRON TODT AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 11, 2023 

This screen grab from video provided by WPVI-TV/6ABC shows fire and smoke near the collapsed section of I-95 in Philadelphia on Sunday.
WPVI-TV/6ABC VIA AP

An elevated section of Interstate 95 collapsed early Sunday in Philadelphia after a tanker truck carrying a petroleum product caught fire, closing a heavily traveled segment of the East Coast’s main north-south highway indefinitely, authorities said.

Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area in the northeast corner of the city. Officials said the tanker may have been hauling hundreds of gallons of gasoline. The fire was reported to be under control.

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 onto the road below. There were no reports of injuries.

The northbound lanes of I-95 were gone, and the southbound lanes were “compromised” due to heat from the fire, said Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department. Runoff from the fire or perhaps broken gas lines were causing explosions underground, he added.

Some kind of crash happened on a ramp underneath northbound I-95 around 6:15 a.m. The northbound section above the fire collapsed quickly, state Transportation Department spokesman Brad Rudolph said.

Mark Fusetti, a retired Philadelphia police sergeant, said he was driving south toward the city’s airport when he noticed thick black smoke rising over the highway. As he passed the fire, the road beneath began to “dip,” creating a noticeable depression that was visible in video he took of the scene, he said.

He saw traffic in his rearview mirror come to a halt. Soon after, the northbound lanes of the highway crumbled.

“It was crazy timing,” Fusetti said. “For it to buckle and collapse that quickly, it’s pretty remarkable.”

The southbound lanes were heavily damaged, “and we are assessing that now,” Rudolph said Sunday afternoon.

There was no immediate time frame for reopening the highway, but Rudolph said officials would consider “a fill-in situation or a temporary structure” to accelerate the effort.

Motorists were sent on a 43-mile (69-kilometer) detour, which was going “better than it would do on a weekday,” Rudolph said. The fact that the collapse happened on a Sunday helped ease congestion.

He expected traffic “to back up significantly on all the detour areas.”

Most drivers traveling the I-95 corridor between Delaware and New York City use the New Jersey Turnpike rather than the segment of interstate where the collapse occurred. Until 2018, drivers did not have a direct highway connection between I-95 in Pennsylvania and I-95 in New Jersey. They had to use a few miles of surface roads, with traffic lights, to get from one to the other.

Officials were also concerned about the environmental effects of runoff into the nearby Delaware River.

“Today’s going to be a long day. And obviously, with 95 northbound gone and southbound questionable, it’s going to be even longer than that,” said Dominick Mireles, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management.

Thousands of tons of steel and concrete were piled atop the site of the fire, he said, and heavy construction equipment would be required to start to remove the debris.

The fire was strikingly similar to another blaze in Philadelphia in March 1996, when an illegal tire dump under I-95 caught fire, melting guard rails and buckling the pavement.

The highway was closed for several weeks, and partial closures lasted for six months. Seven teenagers were charged with arson. The dump’s owner was sentenced to seven to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million of the $6.5 million repair costs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

More recently in Atlanta, an elevated portion of Interstate 85 collapsed in a fire, shutting down the heavily traveled route through the heart of the city in March 2017. A homeless man was accused of starting the blaze, but federal investigators said in a report that the state transportation department’s practice of storing combustible construction materials under the highway increased the risk of fire.

___

Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.

AMERIKAN TALIBAN

In a last-ditch effort, longtime Southern Baptist churches expelled for women pastors fight to stay

The Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, right, prays with a member of Fern Creek Baptist Church during a service, Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Louisville, Ky. In February, Fern Creek was one of five churches disfellowshipped from the Southern Baptist Convention 

By Peter Smith - Associated Press - Sunday, June 11, 2023

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The robed choir performed a rousing missionary chorus, the worshippers sang from the Baptist Hymnal, and the pastor preached on the need to listen to God before inviting people to come forward and profess faith in Jesus.

If there was ever a blueprint for a traditional Southern Baptist worship service, Fern Creek Baptist Church followed it to a tee on a recent Sunday.

Except for one key detail.

The pastor is a woman.

And because of that, Fern Creek is no longer a Southern Baptist church.

In February, the Southern Baptist Convention‘s Executive Committee voted to oust Fern Creek for having a woman pastor — the same issue it cited for expelling four other churches, including the massive California-based Saddleback Church. All Baptist churches are independent, so the convention can’t tell them what to do, but it can decide which churches are “not in friendly cooperation,” the official verbiage for an expulsion.

Fern Creek and Saddleback are appealing the decision to the SBC’s annual meeting being held Tuesday and Wednesday in New Orleans.

The Rev. Linda Barnes Popham has been pastor of the modest-sized Fern Creek in Louisville for the past 30 years, and involved in church work since her teen years in her native Alabama.

“When I was 8 years old, I knew that God was calling me in some sense,” she recalled. She’s not doubting her calling now, and neither are Fern Creek churchgoers.

“I’ve never seen anybody with a more dedicated heart for the Lord than Linda,” said longtime attendee Rick Pryor.

The SBC’s official statement of faith says the office of pastor is reserved for men, but this is believed to be the first time the convention has expelled any churches over it. Both of the congregations say Baptists should be able to agree to disagree — while making a common cause for evangelism.

“I want to worship under that same umbrella and do missions together like Southern Baptists have done all of these years,” Popham said.

Plus, Popham and supportive members of Fern Creek said, it’s not just about her. “We want women to rise up and be able to answer God’s call, just like men do,” Popham said.

Holly Blansette, a recent college graduate who grew up in the church and was baptized by Popham, said the pastor is “not just an outstanding woman role model but a role model in general.”

Some members questioned whether there are other agendas at play — whether the denomination was seeking to divert attention from its struggles to address a sex abuse scandal, or if their removal was part of a wider political effort to push the conservative denomination even further to the right.

“I think that they’re very much fueling this conservative political ideology in religion that is going to be harmful in the long run, especially when you do lose out on great churches like Saddleback or Fern Creek Baptist,” Blansette said.

The controversy is not the only one anticipated at the SBC’s annual meeting, which will also feature a contested presidential election and deliberations on how and whether to continue reforms following a sexual-abuse scandal that has drawn a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.

They’re also gathering in the wake of a recent failed vote by the Executive Committee to elect its own leader.

And the denomination is aging and experiencing long-term declines in membership and baptisms.

The issue of women in ministry has long been debated among Southern Baptists, dating back to the late 20th century controversies that led to a sharp rightward shift in its leadership. That movement culminated in a revised statement of belief in 2000, which included a declaration that while “both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

Much of the debate in the 1980s and 1990s had more abstract theological claims, but often the dividing lines centered on issues like who could stand in the pulpit.

“Something like, ‘Do you believe the Bible?’ is pretty hard to show one way or the other,” said Nancy Ammerman, author of “Baptist Battles,” a history of the denomination’s late 20th century controversies. “They needed a concrete issue, something they could point to.” Both sides backed their positions with the Bible.

Saddleback’s retired founding pastor, Rick Warren, is urging SBC delegates to reinstate the megachurch, one of the largest in the nation. He said the Baptist Faith and Message represents a consensus but should not be used to enforce uniformity.

“All we’re asking is that Southern Baptists ACT like Southern Baptists … who agree to disagree on many things in order to AGREE to fulfill our mission together!” Warren said in a written statement.

Saddleback’s current pastor, Andy Wood, said in a video statement the congregation believes women can be pastors — if male elders are ultimately in charge. His wife, Stacie, is a teaching pastor at Saddleback. The congregation recently appointed a woman as campus pastor of its flagship location in Lake Forest, California.

But Fern Creek’s position is different — that women are empowered to serve at all levels.

“If they’re called by the Holy Spirit — and you can tell when someone is — who am I to doubt that?” said Fern Creek Deacon Phil Shewmaker.

Many Southern Baptist churches that had women pastors left years ago.

But Fern Creek remained, and Popham‘s status was no secret. A graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, she became the church’s youth and music minister in 1983, interim pastor in 1990 and pastor in 1993.

“Yes, it was a controversial issue, for some because of the whole female pastor concept, but just as many who thought I was too conservative,” Popham recalled.

Popham has been active in the local association of Southern Baptist churches, and guest speakers at Fern Creek have included some who went on to SBC leadership roles.

Fern Creek has had many traditional Southern Baptist hallmarks, including specific women and youth programs. Members value the opportunity to give to Southern Baptist missions funds, some bearing the names of stalwart women missionaries in past generations.

“We are in friendlier cooperation than most of the churches I know,” Popham said.

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the primary author of the 2000 revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message, said the issue is not something members can agree to disagree on.

“Theological commonality at the most basic level is a part of friendly cooperation,” said Mohler.

“You’ve got some especially younger pastors who are startled to find out there are churches that have some kind of SBC connection that are clearly far outside of SBC convictions,” he said.

At 67, Popham shows no signs of slowing down. The church is launching a kindergarten, and recently expanded its services to the homeless. A church-affiliated coffee shop is in the early planning stages.

And Fern Creek is also not done ordaining women. Recently it ordained a longtime member, the Rev. Renee Bryant, director of a multidenominational social-service agency.

“We are feeding the hungry,” Bryant said. “We’re clothing those that need clothes. We’re working with the elderly, we’re working with the sick, all those community ministries that Jesus told us to do.”

When the deacons asked her to consider being ordained, she said, “it was reaffirming the ministry that I’ve been doing all along.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. 

PATRIARCHY DOES NOT BEND
Gender biases not improved over past decade, U.N. says

Story by By Federica Urso • Yesterday

International Women's Day rally in Argentina© Thomson Reuters

By Federica Urso

(Reuters) - Gender inequality has remained stagnant for a decade, according to research by the United Nations released on Monday, as cultural biases and pressures continue to hinder women's empowerment and leave the world unlikely to meet the UN's goal of gender parity by 2030.

Despite a surge in women's rights groups and social movements like Time's Up and MeToo in the United States, biased social norms and a broader human-development crisis heightened by COVID-19, when many women lost their income, have stalled progress on inequality.

In its latest report, the United Nations Development Programme tracked the issue through its Gender Social Norms Index, which uses data from the international research programme World Values Survey (WVS).

The survey draws from data sets spanning 2010-2014 and 2017–2022 from countries and territories covering 85% of the global population.

Related video: Nearly Half of Women Think They Have More Social Barriers Than Previous Generations (Buzz60)   Duration 1:08  View on Watch

The latest analysis showed that almost nine out of 10 men and women hold fundamental biases against women and that the share of people with at least one bias has barely changed over the decade. In 38 of the surveyed countries the share of people with at least one bias decreased to just 84.6% from 86.9%.

The degree of improvement over time has been "disappointing," said Heriberto Tapia, research and strategic partnership adviser at UNDP and co-author of the report.

The survey also noted that nearly half of the world's people think that men make better political leaders, while 43% think men are better business executives.

"We need to change the gender biases, the social norms, but the ultimate goal is to change the power relations between women and men, between people," Aroa Santiago, gender specialist in inclusive economies at UNDP, told Reuters.

Though education has always been hailed as key for improving economic outcomes for women, the survey revealed the broken link between the education gap and income, with the average income gap at 39% even in the 57 countries where adult women are more educated than men.

More direct harm to women's wellbeing could be seen in views on violence, with more than one out of every four people believing it was justified for a man to beat his wife, the UNDP said.

(Reporting by Federica Urso in Rome; Editing by Simon Jessop and Matthew Lewis)

Cuba hits back at ‘slanderous’ US claims that China has had a spy base on the island since 2019




CUBA has hit back at further claims that there has been a Chinese spy base on the island since at least 2019.

An unnamed United States official briefed reporters that Washington believes that China has been using the Caribbean island as a base for intelligence gathering for at least the last four years.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US intelligence community has been aware of China's spying from Cuba and a larger effort to set up intelligence-gathering operations around the globe for some time.

But Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio hit back at the briefing in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Mr de Cossio wrote: “The slanderous speculation continues, evidently promoted by certain media to cause harm and alarm without observing minimum patterns of communication and without providing data or evidence to support what they disseminate.”

MORNINGSTAR UK CPBB

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island.

Without providing evidence, the White House called the report inaccurate but added that Chinese spying from Cuba was not a new development.

In a flurry of moves, Saudi Arabia lays groundwork for its post-oil future

ByLucy Cormack
June 12, 2023 — 

Marathon talks between the world’s biggest oil-producing nations in Austria saw Saudi Arabia commit to cut oil production by 1 million barrels a day in July – a unilateral stab at stabilising a volatile oil market.

The unexpected announcement following the meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last weekend was made against a backdrop of slumping oil prices, the war in Ukraine and soaring global inflation.

Saudi Arabia is cutting oil production by 1 million barrels a day, taking it to its lowest level in several years.CREDIT:AP

The International Monetary Fund suggests Saudi Arabia needs oil above $US80 a barrel to fund its pipeline of multibillion-dollar “giga-projects” at the centre of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 strategy.

But the kingdom is trying to talk a fine balance – keeping oil prices high, even as it looks to remake itself in a post-oil-dependent future.


RELATED ARTICLE

Antony Blinken tells Saudis reform means improving nation’s human rights

Saudi Arabia’s ambitious blueprint includes a plan to transform hundreds of kilometres of Red Sea coast into a climate-controlled future city, called Neom.

“There is a lot of spending going into these grandiose projects,” said Kate Dourian, a non-resident fellow of The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

“Presumably, the reason for the unilateral [oil production] cut is a test to see how it affects price. And if it does, then that will probably be extended.”

Vision 2030 is the crown jewel in the kingdom’s diversification plan, as it works to project a new image – recasting its reputation and boosting non-oil private sectors.

At the end of an inaugural two-day visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the “historic” plan was in the kingdom’s interests in pursuing modernisation, “including the expansion of human rights”.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the kingdom had gone through a “significant reform process” but the government was driven by “the needs and desires of the Saudi people”.

“We are always open to having a dialogue with our friends, but we don’t respond to pressure. When we do anything, we do it in our own interests,” he said.

NEOM: The Line future-city, a centrepiece of the Vision 2030 strategy for Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom’s hopes don’t just rely on nation-building at home.

Harnessing the soft-power of sport is another area Riyadh has set its hopes on.

At the core of Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia’s flex to woo the world’s most popular sports – and its stars – into its orbit, with billions already being pumped into football, golf, Formula 1 racing and pro-wrestling.

There is money to be made, as shown by Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup,

CREDIT:WORLD CUP AUTHORITY

Sporting event revenue has grown by an annual 8 per cent since 2018, and is forecast to reach $3.3 billion next year, according to global consultancy EY.

From a global sports industry worth somewhere in the region of about $750 billion – 40 per cent of which is accounted for by the US – there is money to be made, as shown by Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup, cricket in Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s annual Rugby Sevens tournament.

“We’re talking about countries that are hugely dependent upon oil … having to think about what else they can do,” said Simon Chadwick, a geopolitics and economics professor at SKEMA Business School.

“Whether it’s football, cricket, rugby or the Olympics; it’s a global language. It transcends lots of other things.”

This week’s stunning announcement that the LIV Golf tournament owned by Saudi’s $980 billion wealth fund would finally merge with the PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour was a win for the kingdom.

With the merger to form a new global golf entity, Saudi Arabia acquired its desired sporting legitimacy, Chadwick said. “It’s no longer an outsider – it’s at the top table.”

Dr Anas Iqtait, lecturer in Middle East economics at the Australian National University, said the pursuit of international sporting legitimacy sought to reshape the nation’s global image as a destination for sport, business and investment.



LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund governor Yasir al-Rumayyan and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

CREDIT:GETTY

“This redefined image is a significant factor in attracting foreign direct investment, which is integral to the successful implementation of the kingdom’s 2030 vision.”

While Saudi Arabia will bid to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, alongside Greece and Egypt, there are also hints it is eyeing an American NBA or NFL franchise.

Sport has long held currency in geopolitics, Chadwick argues, pointing to colonial era Great Britain’s deployment of sport around the Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. But he says its value has clearly escalated.

“We’re now beginning to see sport being used for diplomatic purposes … sport being used for the purposes of nation-branding and soft power projection.”

With Reuters

Arab-China conference in Saudi Arabia sees $10bn agreements signed on first day

The New Arab Staff
11 June, 2023

It is anticipated contracts will total over $40 billion across the two days of the business event in Riyadh, Saudi media said.

The 10th edition of the Arab-China Business Conference started in Saudi Arabia on Sunday [FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty]

The opening day of this year's Arab-China Business Conference in Saudi Arabia on Sunday has seen $10 billion in agreements signed, according to sources.

Deals in the electric car industry reached $5 billion, sources told Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya.

It is anticipated contracts will total over $40 billion across the two days of the business event in Riyadh, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper said.

Al Arabiya reported that the first day saw the host country's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan say China was a $430-billion trading partner for the Arab world, a higher figure than for any other country.

He also said Chinese leader Xi Jinping's trip to Saudi Arabia "further consolidated bilateral relations".

"The conference of Arab and Chinese businessmen is an opportunity for the private sector to discuss investment prospects," Prince Faisal said.

"It is also an opportunity to work on strengthening Arab-Chinese friendship and to work on building a shared future."

China in advanced talks for major Saudi, Egypt arms deals

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman spoke about the issue of oil.

"When it comes to oil, oil demand in China is still growing. So of course, you have to capture some of that demand. So as chemical," he said.

"So of course we have to capture some of that demand. We want to invest in China, because we also have an ambitious program on crude to chemicals."

The 10th edition of the Arab-China Business Conference came after Prince Faisal, in a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, said Riyadh's relations with Beijing were not a "zero-sum game".

Prince Faisal played down talk that the kingdom was moving away from the US in favour of its rival China.

"I don't ascribe to this zero-sum game," Prince Faisal said in Riyadh.

"We are all capable of having multiple partnerships and multiple engagements and the US does the same in many instances.

"So I'm not caught up in this really negative view of this. I think we can actually build a partnership that crosses these borders."

How China emerged as peacemaker in the Saudi-Iran deal

Analysis

Giorgio Cafiero

China's growing role in the Middle East was demonstrated when it brokered a surprise rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March, seven years after the two heavyweights severed ties.

The deal, announced in Beijing, followed recent tensions between Saudi Arabia and the US, its decades-old security guarantor, mainly over human rights and oil prices.

But Blinken said on Thursday: "We've also been very clear we're not asking anyone to choose between the United States and China.

"We're simply trying to demonstrate the benefits of our partnership and the affirmative agenda that we bring."

(AFP, The New Arab, Reuters)

'A Perfect Storm': Hundreds of Thousands of Fish Wash Up Dead on Texas Beach

"As we see increased water temperatures, certainly this could lead to more of these events occurring," one expert said.


A fish die-off caused by low oxygen levels as seen on June 9, 2023 along the Texas Gulf Coast.
(Photo: Quintana Beach County Park/Facebook)

OLIVIA ROSANE

COMMON DREAMS
Jun 11, 2023


Hundreds of thousands of fish washed up dead along Texas beaches over the weekend as a "perfect storm" of weather, water, and temperature conditions depleted the oxygen they needed to survive.

While die-offs like these are naturally occurring, the climate crisis can make them ever more likely.

"As we see increased water temperatures, certainly this could lead to more of these events occurring," Katie St. Clair, who manages the sea life facility at Texas A&M University at Galveston, toldThe New York Times Sunday, "especially in our shallow, near-shore or inshore environments."

"You could literally see a straight-across mass of fish floating on the water."

Thousands of dead fish began washing up on local beaches in Texas' Brazoria County Friday, Quintana Beach County Park wrote on Facebook. The park wrote that the fish were mostly Gulf menhaden.

The carcasses continued to wash in on Saturday. Park supervisor Patty Brinkmeyer toldCNN that the dead fish numbered in the "hundreds of thousands" since Friday morning.

In her 17 years at the park, Brinkmeyer said this was "by far" the largest of the three die-offs she had observed.

"You could literally see a straight-across mass of fish floating on the water," she told CNN. "It looked like a big blanket."

In the near-term, Brazoria County Parks Department director Bryan Frazier told The New York Times that the fish kill was caused by a "perfect storm" of conditions.

These were cloudy skies, calm waters, and warm temperatures, Quintana Beach County Park explained on Facebook.

"Cooler water is capable of holding much more oxygen than warmer water, and fish that find themselves in warm water can end up in big trouble," the park said. "When water temperature rises above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes hard for menhaden to receive enough oxygen to survive."

Because both water mixing and photosynthesis can add oxygen to the water, calm and cloudy days can also mean less oxygen for the fish to breathe.

In the longer term, a 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that the climate crisis was increasing low-oxygen events, also known as hypoxia, in coastal waters.

The Gulf of Mexico already has one of the largest low-oxygen areas in the world—known as a "dead zone" because fish and other marine life cannot survive there—caused by nutrient pollution from agricultural and urban runoff into the Mississippi River.

When oxygen gets too low near the sea floor, "fish and shrimp leave the area and anything that can't escape—like crabs, worms, and clams—dies," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

The Gulf is also extremely vulnerable to other climate impacts like sea level rise and more intense hurricanes.

"I would say all of those things, put together, are going to create enormous pressure on the coastlines in the Gulf of Mexico—leading to the potential loss of wetlands and damage to inshore communities," Dr. Lisa Levin, an oceanographer at University of California, San Diego, and one of the authors of the 2019 report, toldWWNO at the time.

Additional die-offs of menhaden specifically could add to those pressures, as St. Clair told the Times that the fish play an important role in the ecosystem.

"You could see cascading impacts if we continue to have these large fish kills," she said.

In the immediate future, things are looking up for the Texas coast.

"It appears the last of the fish have washed in. The most recent are deteriorated to the point of being shredded skeletons. Our beach crew should have the pedestrian beach cleared today and begin the Quintana public beach tomorrow," Quintana Beach County Park wrote on Facebook Sunday.

NOAA also predicted June 5 that this summer's Gulf dead zone would be smaller than average, at approximately 4,155 square miles rather than 5,364 square miles.

However, for some, the incident remains a sign of a mounting emergency.

"Another example of how the fossil fuel industry destroys the planet's life-nourishing ecosystems," lawyer and human rights advocate Steven Donziger tweeted Sunday.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

OLIVIA ROSANE is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

$$$ FOR ANTI-MIGRANT AUSTERITY 

Tunisia: EU considering €1bn aid package as migration surges

The aid would develop Tunisia's battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with migration crisis, with funds contingent on it agreeing to painful economic reforms

Tunisians protest over worsening economic woes in Tunisia's second city of Sfax, 

18 February 2023 (AFP)

By MEE and agencies
Published date: 11 June 2023 

The European Union said on Sunday it may loan Tunisia over €1bn ($1.07bn) to help develop its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with a migration crisis, with most of the funds contingent on it agreeing to painful economic reforms.

The offer was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Tunisia along with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is anxious about migration across the Mediterranean.

Their effort, spurred by increasing concerns in Europe about Tunisia's economic stability, is part of a last-ditch push by major donors to persuade President Kais Saied to agree to the terms of a $1.9bn International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.

Saied has so far rejected the proposals, originally made by his own government, to cut subsidies and restructure loss-making state-owned companies, saying this risks a social explosion.

Tunisian state media cited Saied as saying he had "confirmed" during the meeting with the European leaders that "solutions cannot be in the form of diktats and the IMF should review its prescriptions".

Donors say time is almost up for Tunisia to agree to the loan and avert a collapse in its state finances, but they are unwilling to lend it money without the reassurance of fully costed reforms that could allow it to repay its debts.

A factsheet released by the EU said the body would lend Tunisia up to €900m to help its macro-finances once it finalised the IMF programme, for which a preliminary agreement was reached in October.

The EU could also provide €150m in budget support this year "in the context of a reform agenda", the factsheet said.

'Window of opportunity'

Von der Leyen added that the EU would also this year provide Tunisia with €100m for border management, search and rescue, anti-smuggling operations and returns "rooted in respect for human rights".

Tunisia's presidency said in a statement that it was creating a partnership with the EU to combat illegal migration. But Saied also said: "The solution that some secretly call for is to settle migrants in exchange for money, a solution that is neither humane nor acceptable."

Meloni, who also visited Tunisia last week, has pressed for the IMF to relax conditions for its loan programme.

She said on Sunday there was "an important window of opportunity" to finalise the aid agreement before the European Council at the end of June.

French migrant centre overwhelmed as sub-Saharan Africans flee Tunisia

Read More »

Von der Leyen also laid out a series of longer-term European efforts to help Tunisia's economy, including ongoing projects for a €150m digital cable link to Europe and a €300m renewable energy power export project.

She said the EU would also expand opportunities for young Tunisians to study, work and train in the EU to help them develop skills that could be used to boost the Tunisian economy.

In March, the World Bank suspended its work with Tunisia after African migrants were attacked in the country, following a xenophobic speech by Saied at the end of February.

The bank's outgoing president, David Malpass, said Saied's tirade had triggered "racially motivated harassment and even violence" and that the institution had postponed a planned meeting with Tunisia until further notice while it assesses the situation.

In Saied's speech, widely denounced as racist, the Tunisian president had said “there has been a criminal plan since the beginning of the century to change the demographic structure of Tunisia and there are parties that received large sums of money after 2011 for the settlement of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa”.

The US also weighed into Saied's comments.

“As you heard from the World Bank, we too are deeply concerned by President Saied's remarks regarding migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Tunisia and reports of arbitrary arrests of migrants in recent weeks," US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price had said.

"We urge Tunisian authorities to meet their obligations under international law to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants," he added.
Engulfed in crises

Tunisia has been engulfed in crises since July 2021, when Saied unilaterally suspended parliament and dissolved the government in what many have called a "constitutional coup".

He subsequently ruled by decree, before pushing through a new constitution that enshrined his one-man rule.

Tunisia’s economy has imploded, with the country wracked by high inflation and shortages of basic commodities from fuel to cooking oil, a crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Saied has also become more bellicose with western officials. In February he ordered the expulsion of Esther Lynch, Europe's top trade union official, over a speech his office called "blatant interference" in the country's internal affairs.

 'UNTARNISHED DIAMOND OF EUROPE'S JEWISH HERITAGE'?

In Tel Aviv, Lithuanian PM extols Israel alliance but sidesteps Nazi collaboration

Holocaust expert calls Ingrida Šimonytė’s speech at AJC confab ‘pathetic’ for ignoring country’s role murdering Jews; Vilnius urges Israel to help Ukraine fend off Iranian drones

By CANAAN LIDORTOIToday

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė's speaks at the American Jewish Committee's Global Forum event in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 11, 2023. (Courtesy of AJC)

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė called Israel’s defenses “the best antidote against Iranian weapons,” in a speech in Tel Aviv Sunday, outlining security interests shared by Israel and other Western democracies in light of Russian-Iranian cooperation against Ukraine.

The remarks, delivered to an American Jewish Committee gathering, featured no mentions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or alleged Israeli wrongdoing, despite severe criticism of Israeli actions from the European Union, which Lithuania is a member of. But Šimonytė also did not mention Lithuanians’ role in persecuting Jews during the Holocaust, instead describing the Nazi’s systemic killing machine as a horror visited equally on Jews and Gentiles alike.

Šimonytė told the hundreds of Jewish leaders and activists at the Global Forum summit about certain aspects of the centuries-long presence of Jews in Lithuania, which she described in positive terms and as a bridge that unites Lithuanian-Israeli bilateral relations.

In a speech following Šimonytė, Greek lawmaker Margaritis Schinas, one of the European Commission’s eight vice presidents, also did not reference any of the Commission’s frustrations with Israel, including over the demolition of an EU-funded Palestinian school in the West Bank last month.

Both speeches underlined a well-documented split over Israel in the EU which often requires consensus for major foreign policy actions. Israel has forged warm relations with some of the bloc’s eastern member states – Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic –as well as with Greece and Cyprus, which reportedly helps block critical EU moves.

But to some, Šimonytė’s decision to paper over the widespread collaboration and murderous persecution of Jews by Lithuanians during the Holocaust, or the divisive debate this is generating in Lithuania today, also highlighted the price that sometimes comes attached to such support.

Efraim Zuroff at the Vilnius home of his uncle and namesake, Efraim Zar, who was murdered in the Holocaust, in this undated photo. (Ruta Vanagaite)

“It’s absolutely pathetic,” Efraim Zuroff, the Eastern Europe director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said of Šimonytė’s speech, which earned thunderous applause from the largely American audience.

He lambasted specifically her statement that the Holocaust was “an indescribable trauma upon Lithuania, leaving lasting scars that persist even to this day.” More than 90% of the country’s Jewry was murdered during the Holocaust, including at the hands of Lithuanians.

It “says that Lithuanians are suffering from the Holocaust, and then fails to mention that they’re the ones who carried out the Holocaust,” Zuroff told The Times of Israel.

A historian who specializes in the Holocaust in Lithuania, Zuroff has long criticized what he regards as Holocaust distortion there.

Zuroff criticized the AJC for hosting Šimonytė’s speech and not pushing back on what he said was her dishonesty about Lithuania’s Holocaust-era record.

The Vilnius University building is illuminated with the colors of Ukraine to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country, in Vilnius, Lithuania, February 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

According to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum, Lithuania was one of the few Nazi-occupied countries where locals showed “enthusiasm” for collaboration with Germany. Even when this enthusiasm “subsided … hostility towards Jews and denunciation persisted,” the museum says.

Zuroff’s criticism is part of a broader debate in Israel and the Jewish World about the tendency in Eastern Europe to ignore Nazi collaboration and the differences in how World War II impacted Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors.

In Poland, legislation from 2018 that made it illegal to blame the Polish nation for Nazi crimes sparked an uproar and a diplomatic crisis with Israel that has only begun to be resolved recently.

The Hungarian-Israeli alliance has also been the target of criticism amid controversies over what critics of the government consider an attempt to whitewash Holocaust-era complicity, though the Hungarian government disputes this.

In Kaunas, Lithuania, more than 50 Jews were murdered by Lithuanian nationalists on the eve of the German take-over of the city, June 1941 (public domain)

Multiple Nazi collaborators are widely celebrated as heroes in Lithuania because they opposed the Soviet Union, which ended up dominating Lithuania’s territory until 1990.

Glossing over those facts, Šimonytė declared Lithuania “can be rightfully called the untarnished diamond of Europe’s Jewish cultural heritage, forged over a generation by the Jewish community in Lithuania.”

A spokesperson for AJC declined to comment on Zuroff’s criticism. The Lithuanian embassy in Israel did not immediately reply to a request for its response to Zuroff’s remarks.

The issues she sidestepped have left a mark on Israel’s bilateral ties with Lithuania.

In 2019, then-Israel’s ambassador to the Baltic nation Yosef Levy told a Lithuanian audience, “The most patriotic thing you can do is teach history honestly,” because: “People have to know what happened here. It’s an open wound.”

A demonstrator beats a swastika-emblazoned drum at a far-right march in Kaunas, Lithuania on February 16, 2015. (Canaan Lidor)

Instead, Šimonytė spoke at length about Russia, joining voices from Ukraine and elsewhere who have urged Israel to shed what remains of its neutrality and supply Kyiv with air defenses, especially against drones allegedly produced and supplied by Iran.

Russia “gets access to Iran’s weapon supply and Iran at the same time is advancing its nuclear program and inflaming regional instability,” she said. She accused Moscow of sending drone parts to seven companies in Iran producing the UAVS, saying it showed the need for “a wider solution to ban export of drone components to Iran.”

But she added that “we all know that Israel’s defensive systems remain the best antidote against Iranian weapons.”

Ukraine and others have long pushed Israel to lend the hard-earned fruits of its experiences fighting Iranian drones, missiles and armaments to Ukraine as it battles the Russian invasion, including the Iron Dome air defense battery. Israel has largely refused, ana analysts have noted its interest in keeping an open line with Moscow, which controls the skies over Syria.

Much of Šimonytė’s speech was about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which sparked fears in Lithuania that an increasingly belligerent Russia could threaten their country’s sovereignty. She suggested that Israel, which has attempted to avoid worsening its ties with Russia over the Ukraine war, belongs firmly to the anti-Russian coalition and should share from its experience to prosecute Russian war crimes.

Despite their geographic distance, Israel and Lithuania “stand together as nations that have overcome great obstacles to secure our right [place] in the world,” Šimonytė said, adding that Israelis “have built a thriving nation that serves as a beacon of democracy and progress in the region.”

Israel’s “contributions to science, technology and culture are remarkable, and continue to make strides that benefit humanity as a whole,” she said.

Other dignitaries attending the four-day Global Forum, which began Sunday, include Austrian Federal Minister Karoline Edtstadler and US Ambassador Tom Nides. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked AJC for hosting its event in Israel to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its establishment.

Casting a shadow over the event was the government’s plans to shuffle the judiciary, which has roiled the country with months of massive demonstrations and heated political fighting.

Speaking at the event Sunday, President Isaac Herzog, who is hosting compromise talks between the government and opposition, described the crisis as an opportunity to “air out our differences” and a testament to the strength of Israeli democracy.

Critics of the overhaul say it risks compromising the judiciary’s independence. Supporters of the plan say it merely imposes necessary checks and balances on the judiciary to ensure democratic principles of government.

People attend a protest against the planned judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv, on June 3, 2023 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid warned in a Q&A with AJC chief Ted Deutch, a former Democrat congressman, that “having a democracy is existential for Israel. If we will not be a democracy, we will not be.”

In his speech, Deutch urged the Global Forum participants to consider Israel’s achievements.

“Think about Israel at 75 and the success that she has become. We’re standing here in Tel Aviv, the center in the world for innovation and technology, the kinds of technology that’s literally changing the way the world does business and how we confront the problems that the world faces,” Deutch said.

END HORSE RACING
2 horses die at Belmont Park, adding another black eye for sport during Triple Crown season

Excursionniste euthanized after Belmont Stakes; Mashnee Girl had same fate Sunday

IF HORSE DIES EUTHANIZE THE OWNER

By Scott Thompson | Fox News

Two horses were euthanized at Belmont Park, the site of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

The first came on Saturday following the final race of the Belmont Stakes, which came immediately after the main event in which Arcangelo won the 155th running.

Excursionniste was injured and ended up getting euthanized, marking a horse’s death at all three Triple Crown race sites, which includes Churchill Downs (Kentucky Derby) Pimlico Race Course (Preakness Stakes).


Arcangelo wins the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes on June 10, 2023, in Elmont, New York. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Then, Mashnee Girl was euthanized on Sunday following "catastrophic injury" to the left front leg during a race at Belmont Park, per the New York Racing Association.

It was the same injury that occurred to Excursionniste.

PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo released a statement Saturday following the death of Excursionniste.

"Racing couldn’t manage to keep all horses alive for even one Triple Crown day this year," she said in the statement. "Belmont Park did not do enough to prevent Excursionniste’s death. PETA urged the New York Racing Association and the New York State Gaming Commission to require CT scans for all horses racing today in order to screen for preexisting injuries, which are present in 90% of these fatalities. They refused."

"The racing industry is digging its own grave – as well as this horse's."



People gather around a giant statue of Secretariat at Belmont Park as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of Secretariat at the 2023 Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, on June 10, 2023. (Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

Churchill Downs suspended all racing until July 3 following 12 total deaths at the track this year, all of which are being investigated.

The announcement came Friday where Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanien said, "The team at Churchill Downs takes great pride in our commitment to safety and strives to set the highest standard in racing, consistently going above and beyond the regulations and policies that are required."

"What has happened at our track is deeply upsetting and absolutely unacceptable. Despite our best efforts to identify a cause for the recent horse injuries, and though no issues have been linked to our racing surfaces or environment at Churchill Downs, we need to take more time to conduct a top-to-bottom review of all of the details and circumstances so that we can further strengthen our surface, safety and integrity protocols."


Arcangelo with Javier Castellano up wins the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10, 2023, in Elmont, New York. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Bob Baffert’s horse Havnameltdown suffered an injury to the left front ankle during an undercard race before the Preakness Stakes ran, which led to being euthanized at the Maryland track.

Horses die in consecutive races at Belmont Park, following history-making event

Mashnee Girl didn't survive the first race on Sunday, nor did Excursionniste in the 13th on Saturday.

The field breaks from the starting gate in the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race in Elmont, N.Y., on June 10.

Seth Wenig / AP


June 11, 2023,
By David K. Li

Horses died in consecutive races at Belmont Park, dealing more untimely blows to the beleaguered sport which had little time to celebrate of its most uplifting events of the year.

Mashnee Girl, trained by Mark Hennig, broke down in the first race on Sunday, suffering a catastrophic injury to her left front leg at the storied race course just outside of New York City before she was put down.

"Despite the immediate response and best efforts of on-site attending veterinarians, the horse was humanely euthanized due to the severity of the injury," New York Racing Association Vice President Patrick McKenna said in a statement on Sunday.

About 17 hours earlier, in the 13th race on Saturday, a similar fate befell Hennig-trained Excursionniste, was also suffered a fatal injury to the front left ankle.

Both tragedies happened on Belmont's turf course as the field was nearing the top of the stretch.

"I'm not holding up very well," an emotional Hennig told NBC News, sniffling throughout the conversation. "It's been very emotional. I just can't fathom this ever happening, two horses you run in a row. I mean I've run over 10,000 horses and have never had anything close to this."

That tragedy unfolded just after the 12th race, when Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes and made Jena Antonucci the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown jewel.

Animal rights group PETA was quick to blame Belmont for the twin tragedies.

“Two dead Thoroughbreds in two days with the same trainer on the same track means one thing: Belmont Park is failing to protect horses," PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said in a statement. "Like Churchill Downs, Belmont must suspend racing immediately to avoid the same bloodbath. Anything less makes Belmont complicit in the fatalities.”

Including Mashnee Girl and Excursionniste, four horses have died during races at Belmont Park's spring/summer meet, which began on May 4 and has encompassed 1,670 horses starting in 214 races, according to McKenna.

"NYRA’s comprehensive safety strategy is informed by the most advanced science and research in consultation with independent experts, veterinarians, and horsemen," the NYRA rep said. "The health and safety of horses and jockeys competing at NYRA tracks is our highest priority and one that stands above all other considerations."

Mashnee Girl and Excursionniste both had clean bills of health with no concern for racing, their trainer said.

"Neither one of them has been on a vet's list, they're clean-legged horses," Hennig said. "It's just horrible, horrible, horrible luck. These horses were in good, sound racing condition. These two horses never had issues with these ankles, the same ankles that fractured."

Saturday’s Belmont Stakes capped a tumultuous five weeks of racing that normally shines a bright light on the sport of kings. Instead, a string of untimely death raised questions about the sport’s viability.

A week ago Friday, Churchill Downs, host of the Kentucky Derby, announced it had temporarily stopped racing there to investigate its recent fatalities.

And shortly before National Treasure won the Preakness, the ordinarily party-filled day at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore was overshadowed by tragedy when Havnameltdown broke down at the top of the stretch of the $200,000 Grade IIII Chick Lang Stakes and had to be put down.