The UFO congressional hearing was ‘insulting’ to US employees, a top Pentagon official says


Ryan Graves, Americans for Safe Aerospace Executive Director, from left, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) Maj. David Grusch, and U.S. Navy (Ret.) Cmdr. David Fravor, testify before a House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing on UFOs, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

U.S. Air Force (Ret.) Maj. David Grusch, testifies before a House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing on UFOs, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Ryan Graves, Americans for Safe Aerospace Executive Director, left, and U.S. Air Force (Ret.) Maj. David Grusch, arrive to testify before a House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing on UFOs, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Ryan Graves, Americans for Safe Aerospace Executive Director, from left, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) Maj. David Grusch, and U.S. Navy (Ret.) Cmdr. David Fravor, are sworn in during a House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing on UFOs, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

BY NOMAAN MERCHANT AND TARA COPP

 July 28, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Pentagon official has attacked this week’s widely watched congressional hearing on UFOs, calling the claims “insulting” to employees who are investigating sightings and accusing a key witness of not cooperating with the official U.S. government investigation.

Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick’s letter, published on his personal LinkedIn page and circulated Friday across social media, criticizes much of the testimony from a retired Air Force intelligence officer that energized believers in extraterrestrial life and produced headlines around the world.

Retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch testified Wednesday that the U.S. has concealed what he called a “multi-decade” program to collect and reverse-engineer “UAPs,” or unidentified aerial phenomena, the official government term for UFOs

Part of what the U.S. has recovered, Grusch testified, were non-human “biologics,” which he said he had not seen but had learned about from “people with direct knowledge of the program.”

A career intelligence officer, Kirkpatrick was named a year ago to lead the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, which was intended to centralize investigations into UAPs. The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have been pushed by Congress in recent years to better investigate reports of devices flying at unusual speeds or trajectories as a national security concern.

Kirkpatrick wrote the letter Thursday and the Defense Department confirmed Friday that he posted it in a personal capacity. Kirkpatrick declined to comment on the letter Friday.

He writes in part, “I cannot let yesterday’s hearing pass without sharing how insulting it was to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community who chose to join AARO, many with not unreasonable anxieties about the career risks this would entail.”

“They are truth-seekers, as am I,” Kirkpatrick said. “But you certainly would not get that impression from yesterday’s hearing.”

In a separate statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough denied other allegations made by Grusch before a House Oversight subcommittee.

The Pentagon “has no information that any individual has been harmed or killed as a result of providing information” about UFO objects, Gough said. Nor has the Pentagon discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”

Kirkpatrick wrote, “AARO has yet to find any credible evidence to support the allegations of any reverse engineering program for non-human technology.”

He had briefed reporters in December that the Pentagon was investigating “several hundreds” of new reports following a push to have pilots and others come forward with any sightings.

Kirkpatrick wrote in his letter that allegations of “retaliation, to include physical assault and hints of murder, are extraordinarily serious, which is why law enforcement is a critical member of the AARO team, specifically to address and take swift action should anyone come forward with such claims.”

“Yet, contrary to assertions made in the hearing, the central source of those allegations has refused to speak with AARO,” Kirkpatrick said. He did not explicitly name Grusch, who alleged he faced retaliation and declined to answer when a congressman asked him if anyone had been murdered to hide information about UFOs.

Messages left at a phone number and email address for Grusch were not returned Friday.

Black Belt Eagle Scout’s latest record inspired by return home to Swinomish tribe’s ancestral lands


 Black Belt Eagle Scout performs during the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago, Saturday, July 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Casey, File)

Black Belt Eagle Scout, second right, performs during the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago on Saturday, July 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)

Black Belt Eagle Scout performs during the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago on Saturday, July 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)

BY MICHAEL CASEY
July 29, 2023Share

CHICAGO (AP) — The beginning of the pandemic was devasting for the leader of the indie rock band Black Belt Eagle Scout, Katherine Paul. All her tours, including one headlining across North America, were canceled and she feared her ascending music career might be over.

She got a day job at a nonprofit and returned to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s homelands in Western Washington. But as Paul, or KP to her friends, spent time in the cedar forests and walked along the Skagit River, she turned to her guitar to deal with the isolation and stress. Those snippets, recorded on her phone, provided the foundation for what would become songs on her powerful, grunge-soaked new record “The Land, The Water, The Sky.”

“I feel like if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have made this record,” said KP, who writes the songs, sings and plays guitar in the band that was the only Native American artist at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this month.

“I spent a lot of time outside. I spent a lot more time than normal going on hikes, being part of the land,” she continued. “It’s not like I never do that stuff but it brought me back to a place where this is who I am.”

The new record, which came out in February, helped launch what has probably been the most successful year so far for Black Belt Eagle Scout. The band toured Europe and will go to Australia later this year. Two of her songs, “Soft Stud” from an earlier record and “Salmon Stinta” from her latest, appear this season on the television series “Reservation Dogs.”

Reservation Dogs Music Supervisor Tiffany Anders said she was introduced to the band’s music by the show’s creator, Sterlin Harjo, when they started working on the second season.

“It’s always been important for us on this show to include Native American artists, but beyond representation, Black Belt Eagle Scout’s music is beautiful and emotional, and fits these characters, their world and landscape — and the vibe of the show,’” she said in a statement.

Then there was Pitchfork, a three-day festival that is a significant milestone for indie musicians. The festival is held every year in Chicago’s Union Park and this year’s headliners included Bon Iver, Big Thief and The Smile, which has members of Radiohead.

She admitted stepping on that stage last weekend was nerve-wracking given her high hopes for the show, a feeling compounded by concerns that storms could scuttle their performance. But as she launched into the blistering set of mostly new songs in front of thousands of eager fans, KP found solace in her guitar. She launched several long jams that were punctuated by her twirling her jet-black hair around to the point it obscured her face.

“It was totally a moment,” she said with a laugh.

“I kind of cried after we played because it felt so meaningful,” she added. “Like, I’ve always wanted to play this music festival. I remember trying to play one of the years before the pandemic when I was touring and it didn’t happen. This year, I was just so stoked to play.”

Reaching Pitchfork has been a long journey for the 34-year-old artist, who is a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and left her home on the reservation in LaConner, Washington, when she was 17 to attend Lewis & Clark College in Oregon and play rock music.

Growing up on the reservation off the Washington coast on islands in the Salish Sea, she drummed and sang cultural songs. As a teenager, she discovered local Pacific Northwest bands like Mount Eerie and the sounds of the Riot Grrrl movement and played one of her first gigs at a small bar called Department of Safety. She moved to Portland, Oregon, due to its outsized role in the indie scene that featured bands like Sleater-Kinney and quickly immersed herself in the music scene playing drums and guitar.

She joined an all-female outfit whom she met at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland. She went on to play a lot of small, basement shows with bands like Genders — whose wolf tattoo she still has on her left arm.

But she wanted to write her own songs and formed Black Belt Eagle Scout in 2013. Her early music was defined by her ethereal singing about love, friendship and healing — often only accompanied by minimal guitar strumming. But she did rock out on songs like “Soft Stud,” which featured searing solos.

“She is a really an authentic musician and she carries a lot of power on stage with her presence and sound,” Claire Glass, who plays guitar in the band and first saw KP seven years ago.

KP has said her Native American identify has always been present on her records. But her latest music paints a more vivid picture of life on the Swinomish reservation. There are references to chinook salmon, which are traditionally fished, and a powwow dance.

“I started thinking of feeling grateful for the life that I have been given; this place that I’m from; how much the land, the water, the sky means to me — being surrounded by it,” KP said of writing the song ”Don’t Give Up.” “It has so much more meaning because the land, that’s where my people are from.”

Her songs aren’t meant to directly confront issues like the crisis of missing and murdered Native American women or tribes’ forced relocation. It’s not the way she writes songs. Instead, she envisions them connecting with people, drawing more Native Americans to indie rock shows in places like Minneapolis, which has a vibrant Native American community, and inspiring young Native Americans to connect with her after shows.

“Isn’t me like being here existing with my music good enough? Can’t I just be who I am?” she asked, adding she doesn’t need to speak out from stage about these issues because being Native often means she is already wrestling with them. A judge, for example, ruled in March that BNSF Railway intentionally violated the terms of an easement agreement with the tribe by running 100-car trains carrying crude oil over the reservation.

“As a Native person, you know someone who is missing. Your tribe is trying to get your land back. Those are topics that are part of your every day life,” she said. ”I care about those things deeply but there are certain ways in which my music is, maybe not as direct, but it can be healing.”

KP also doesn’t want to be seen just as a rock musician or as a Native artist. “I am a musician who happens to be Native, but I am also a Native musician ... I think I am always both,” she said.

Her latest record aims to show that.

“I kind of had in the back of mind, just kept thinking what would Built to Spill do,” KP said of the guitar-heavy, indie-rock band from the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve gone on tour with them and seen their three guitars at one point playing together and how they overlap and all these other things.”

It’s also a more collaborative effort with more musicians playing on the record— a departure for KP, who is accustomed to doing everything herself. A cellist who played with Nirvana, Lori Goldston, is featured on several songs, as are two violinists, as well as a saxophone and mellotron player.

Takiaya Reed, a first-time producer who is also in a doom metal band, described the experience of working on the record as “beautiful and amazing” and said the two bonded over their love of punk. Reid also brought her classical training and love of “heavier sounds” to the studio.

“We approached it fearlessly. It was wonderful to be expansive in terms of sonic possibilities,” she said.

KP also wanted to find a place for her parents, whom she had grown especially close to during the pandemic, to play on the record. She chose the song “Spaces,” which she described as having a “healing vibe.” Her dad, who is one of the main singers at the tribe’s cultural events, embraced the idea of lending his powerful powwow chant to the song. Her mom sang harmonies.

KP said: “It meant the world to me to have my parents sing because it felt like it was full circle in who I am.”

RETURN OF BROWN BAG PORN LAWS

Judge blocks Arkansas law allowing librarians to be criminally charged over ‘harmful’ materials


 Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), looks at a book in the main branch of the public library in downtown Little Rock, Ark., on May 23, 2023. Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled Saturday, July 29. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins, File)

 July 29, 2023

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled Saturday.

U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids. The measure, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, was set to take effect Aug. 1.

A coalition that included the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock had challenged the law, saying fear of prosecution under the measure could prompt libraries and booksellers to no longer carry titles that could be challenged.

The judge also rejected a motion by the defendants, which include prosecuting attorneys for the state, seeking to dismiss the case.

The ACLU of Arkansas, which represents some of the plaintiffs, applauded the court’s ruling, saying that the absence of a preliminary injunction would have jeopardized First Amendment rights.

“The question we had to ask was — do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,” Holly Dickson, the executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas, said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes as lawmakers in an increasing number of conservative states are pushing for measures making it easier to ban or restrict access to books. The number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts.

Laws restricting access to certain materials or making it easier to challenge them have been enacted in several other states, including Iowa, Indiana and Texas.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in an email Saturday that his office would be “reviewing the judge’s opinion and will continue to vigorously defend the law.”

The executive director of Central Arkansas Library System, Nate Coulter, said the judge’s 49-page decision recognized the law as censorship, a violation of the Constitution and wrongly maligning librarians.

“As folks in southwest Arkansas say, this order is stout as horseradish!” he said in an email.

“I’m relieved that for now the dark cloud that was hanging over CALS’ librarians has lifted,” he added.

Cheryl Davis, general counsel for the Authors Guild, said the organization is “thrilled” about the decision. She said enforcing this law “is likely to limit the free speech rights of older minors, who are capable of reading and processing more complex reading materials than young children can.”

The Arkansas lawsuit names the state’s 28 local prosecutors as defendants, along with Crawford County in west Arkansas. A separate lawsuit is challenging the Crawford County library’s decision to move children’s books that included LGBTQ+ themes to a separate portion of the library.

The plaintiffs challenging Arkansas’ restrictions also include the Fayetteville and Eureka Springs Carnegie public libraries, the American Booksellers Association and the Association of American Publishers.

Official tells AP that Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in August


People hold signs as they gather outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, July 29, 2023, to mark one-year anniversary of the attack on a prison building in Olenivka, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of Ukrainian military prisoners. 

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

BY AAMER MADHANI AND JON GAMBRELL
Updated, July 29, 2023

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, an official said Saturday night. The kingdom and Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the planned talks.

The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as no authorization had been given to publicly discuss the summit.

Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official said. A high-level official from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend, the official said. Planning for the event is being overseen by Kyiv and Russia is not invited, the official said.

Details regarding the summit, however, remain in flux and the official did not offer dates for the talks. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the summit, said the talks would take place Aug. 5 and 6 with some 30 countries attending, citing “diplomats involved in the discussion.”

Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, nor did Ukraine’s Embassy in Riyadh. News of the summit comes after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom on Thursday.

The official who spoke to the AP said the summit would be the next step after talks that took place in Copenhagen in June.

Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the talks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah to press those nations to back Kyiv. Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.

Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organization’s oil production cuts, even as Moscow’s war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered Biden and American lawmakers.

But hosting such talks also help raise the profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to reach a détente with Iran and push for a peace in the kingdom’s yearslong war in Yemen. However, ties also remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Prince Mohammed ordered.
___

Madhani reported from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

LGBTQ+ community proud and visible at Women’s World Cup


United States’ Megan Rapinoe looks over the pitch before the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and Vietnam in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, July 22, 2023.According to a count being kept by Outsports, a website that covers the LGBTQ sports community, there are at least 95 out members of the LGBTQ community competing in this year’s tournament. 

BY MAX RALPH
, July 29, 2023

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand striker Hannah Wilkinson has helped create two milestones at the Women’s World Cup.

With her 48th-minute goal in the tournament opener against Norway, she led the co-host Football Ferns to their first win in six trips to the Women’s World Cup. She’s also one of at least 95 out members of the LGBTQ+ community competing in this year’s tournament, according to a count being kept by Outsports, a website that covers the LGBTQ+ sports.

The Ferns were greeted with a fan-made sign at their next match in Wellington: “Gay for soccer, gay for Wilkie,” it read.

The 95 out participants make up roughly 13% of the 736 total players at the Women’s World Cup, more than doubling the 40 players and coaches Outsports counted in 2019.

The 2023 tournament also is hosting the first openly trans and non-binary player in either a men’s or Women’s World Cup, Quinn of Canada.

“Last World Cup was so big, especially with the visibility of the U.S. women’s national team winning and (Megan Rapinoe) fighting with (Donald) Trump. So I think that was a huge year for LGBTQ+ visibility,” said Lindsey Freeman, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

“It’s just the ad hoc, fun culture of women’s soccer that you’re seeing in this World Cup,” said Freeman, who is in New Zealand conducting research on the topic.

Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports, agreed. “In the Western world, it’s such a non-issue that it really just doesn’t get talked about,” he said. “And I think that’s in a good way.”

VISIBILITY

Prior to the start of the tournament, FIFA designated eight socially conscious armbands team captains could wear throughout the Women’s World Cup. The decision came after “One Love” armbands were denied to men’s teams in Qatar in 2022.

The armbands being used this year include anti-discriminatory sayings and multiple colors, but the rainbow version Germany wanted to use is not allowed. None of the available options explicitly mention LGBTQ+ rights.

The decision has led many players to express their support in more creative ways across Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand midfielder Ali Riley was interviewed on the official Women’s World Cup broadcast after her team’s upset of Norway. Her painted fingernails, left hand in the colors of the pride flag and right hand as the trans flag, were clearly visible as she held her head and fought back tears.

“She’s such an advocate and she’s definitely someone who uses her platform in such a positive way. We are all so proud of her and the way she represents the LGBTQ+ community,” teammate CJ Bott said. “Good on her. We’re all backing her, and we all back the community as well.”

The Philippines, making its Women’s World Cup debut, took home its own historic win over New Zealand 1-0 thanks to the foot of Sarina Bolden. Bolden’s Instagram bio reads, “i just wanna have fun n b gay.”

Irish star Katie McCabe wowed fans with a goal directly from a corner kick. She’s also made tabloid news for her relationships with other players.

Thembi Kgatlana, who has scored in the tournament for South Africa, has a patch of her hair dyed rainbow colors.

“My personality is very big for me, and my hair has become a part of my personality,” Kgatlana said. “And I did this rainbow because I want to represent all the people that are part of the LGBTQ and cannot talk while in countries where they’re oppressed.”

FAN EXPERIENCE

Kristen Pariseau and her wife started a U.S. women’s national team supporters group on Facebook ahead of traveling to this year’s Women’s World Cup. Aside from some hateful users she blocked, it’s been “super LGBT friendly.”

She and her wife did not go to Qatar for the 2022 men’s World Cup to avoid referencing each other as friends and receiving questions on their sexuality. In New Zealand, she said she’s met many same-sex couples at games and while traveling around the country.

“Everywhere you turn, it’s like, ‘Oh, my wife, my girlfriend.’ It’s been so welcoming and open,” Pariseau said. “In a way, it is kind of cool to be where there’s a lot of other people like you.”

Kelsie Bozart took her own pride flag armband to the United States’ second match in Wellington, along with a pride scarf.

“If you look back a couple years, I feel like it just wasn’t really talked about or there just wasn’t much of a presence,” Bozart said. “But moving forward I feel like, especially for the U.S., they’ve done an amazing job of just incorporating pride and LGBTQ.”

NOT UNIVERSAL

Though this year’s tournament has highlighted vast gains for the LGBTQ+ community in women’s soccer, advocates feel there is still work to be done.

According to Buzinski and Outsports, there were at least 186 LGBTQ+ athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. Women outnumbered men by a 9:1 ratio. There also were no confirmed out players at the 2022 men’s World Cup.

“I think women’s sports have always been open,” Denmark striker Pernille Harder said, adding that there are many role models for women who want to come out.

Freeman said it would be good to see men feel the same level of comfort.

“What can happen in the women’s game, I would love to spill over to the men’s game,” she said. “Because obviously, there’s way more queer players in the men’s game and it’s just not safe for them to come out.

“If you want to say that you’re in an inclusive space, you really have to be an inclusive space,” Freeman added. “And I think that that includes also holding the World Cup in places where it’s fine to be a queer person.”
___

Max Ralph is a student in John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
___

Contributing reporters included Joe Lister in Wellington and Rafaela Pontes in Auckland, students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, and Clay Witt in Sydney, Australia, a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

AP Photos/Rafaela Pontes

A United States fan holds a flag that combines the Pride flag and the United States flag during the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and Vietnam in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, July 22, 2023.

A United States fan waves pride flags before the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and the Netherlands in Wellington, New Zealand, Thursday, July 27, 2023.

United States’ Megan Rapinoe gets familiar with the field before the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and Vietnam in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, July 22, 2023. 
A United States fan wearing a pride flag holds a sign during the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and the Netherlands in Wellington, New Zealand, Thursday, July 27, 2023.

A United States fan holds a rainbow sign during the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and the Netherlands in Wellington, New Zealand, Thursday, July 27, 2023. 

United States’ Megan Rapinoe prepares for a corner kick during the Women’s World Cup Group E soccer match between the United States and Vietnam in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, July 22, 2023. 

ABRAHAMIC FUNDMENTALISM

Hezbollah chief in new attack on same-sex relations

By AFP
Published July 29, 2023

Hassan Nasrallah, who heads the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, has called for the killing of gay people - Copyright AFP ANWAR AMRO

The leader of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement on Saturday stepped up his attacks against the region’s long-marginalised LGBTQ community.

“We are not making up battles, nor are we making up dangers. This is a real danger that is imminent and has begun,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech for the annual Ashura commemoration, among the most important in Shiite Islam.

Last week, Nasrallah had said gay people, “even if they do it once… are to be killed”.

In his latest comments Nasrallah said that, “In Lebanon, this danger started with some educational institutions, and NGOs,” which he accused of “promoting” same-sex relations to children. He called on the ministry of education to intervene.

Many Western governments consider Hezbollah to be a “terrorist” organisation.

It is the only side not to have disarmed following Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, and it is a powerful player in the politics of Lebanon, whose economy has collapsed since 2019.

Religiously diverse Lebanon is one of the Middle East’s more liberal countries, and the LGBTQ community has long been visible and outspoken, defying arbitrary crackdowns on its bars, nightclubs and community centres.

But it has continued to face systematic social, economic and legal discrimination — which an expert has warned could only be worsened by Nasrallah’s rhetoric.

“Hate speech functions as a tool of diversion, wielded by Nasrallah and political elites to divert public attention from profound economic disparities and governance failures,” Hussein Cheaito, an economist who focuses on queer political economy, wrote on Twitter, which is being rebranded as “X”.

“This calculated tactic perpetuates their grip on power,” he said, while adding to “a vicious cycle of discrimination, fear, and exclusion, entwined with Lebanon’s socio-economic fabric.”

Lebanon’s LGBTQ community in 2018 scored a success when a court ruled that same-sex conduct is not unlawful, but since then it has seen more setbacks than victories.

Last summer, the community was targeted by a crackdown that saw activists harassed and Pride gatherings cancelled after the interior ministry instructed security forces to clamp down on events “promoting sexual perversion”.

The ministry argued that LGBTQ events violate customs, traditions and “principles of religion” in Lebanon, where political power is split along faith lines between Shiite and Sunni Muslim, Christian, Druze and other groups.

Indian opposition lawmakers visit violence-wracked state in bid to pressure Modi’s government


1 of 7 
Indian army soldiers patrol a deserted village in Churachandpur, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. 

July 29, 2023Share

NEW DELHI (AP) — A group of Indian opposition lawmakers on Saturday visited a remote northeastern state where deadly ethnic clashes have killed at least 130 people, in a bid to pressure the government to take action against the violence which began in May.

The delegation of 20 lawmakers from 15 political parties, who are part of a new opposition alliance called INDIA, arrived in Manipur state for a two-day visit to assess the situation on the ground as the ongoing violence and bloodshed have displaced tens of thousands in recent months.

The conflict in Manipur has become a global issue due to the scale of violence, said Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, a lawmaker belonging to the opposition Congress party. “Our delegation is here to express solidarity with the people of Manipur in this time of distress. The top priority now is to restore normalcy as soon as possible,” he added.


Tucked in the mountains on the border with Myanmar, Manipur is on the brink of a civil war. Mobs have rampaged through villages, torching houses and buildings. The conflict was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand by mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.

After arriving in the state capital, Imphal, the lawmakers went to Churachandpur district, where they visited two relief camps and spoke to community leaders.

The conflict has triggered an impasse in India’s Parliament, as opposition members demand a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence roiling the state. On Wednesday, the opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government. This means the government will soon face a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which is likely to be defeated, as Modi’s party and its allies have a clear majority.

But opposition leaders say the move could at least force Modi to speak on the conflict and open a debate.

Two weeks ago, Modi broke more than two months of public silence over the conflict in Manipur when he condemned the mob assaults on two women in the state who were paraded naked - but he did not directly refer to the larger violence. He has also not visited the state, which is ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, since the violence broke out.

Both houses of Parliament were adjourned at various times last week as the opposition stopped proceedings with their demand for a statement from Modi.

Despite a heavy army presence and a visit earlier by the home minister, when he met with both communities, the deadly clashes have persisted.

The violence in Manipur and the assault on the two women triggered protests across the country last week. In Manipur, thousands held a sit-in protest recently and called for the firing of Biren Singh, the top elected official in the state, who also belongs to Modi’s party.

The European Parliament also recently adopted a resolution calling on Indian authorities to take action to stop the violence in Manipur and protect religious minorities, especially Christians. India’s foreign ministry condemned the resolution, describing it as “interference” in its internal affairs.

An armed tribal Kuki walks out of an underground bunker at a de facto frontline dissecting two ethnic zones in Churachandpur, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. 

Dozens of houses lay vandalised and burnt during ethnic clashes and rioting in Sugnu, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Wednesday, June 21, 2023. 

Displaced people from the Meitei community receive food at a relief camp in Moirang, near Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Wednesday, Jun 21, 2023. 

A displaced person from the Meitei community lives in a relief camp in Moirang, near Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Wednesday, Jun 21, 2023. 

A couple pulls a cart loaded with scavenged items from the debris of the burnt houses following ethnic clashes and rioting in Sugnu, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur,

 Wednesday, June 21, 2023. 


An armed tribal Kuki community member keeps a watch on the rival Meitei community bunkers, along a de facto frontline which dissect the area into two ethnic zones in Churachandpur, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. 

AP Photos/Altaf Qadri

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OUR LAND’ EXPLORERS SEEK TO FIND LAND SETTLED BY MAROONS IN GEORGIA

Sharelle Burt

July 29, 2023

Frontispiece and title page from 'The History of the Maroons', Frontispiece and title page from 'The history of the Maroons, from their origin to the establishment of their chief tribe at Sierra Leone, including the expedition to Cuba for the purpose of procuring Spanish chasseurs, and the state of the island of Jamaica for the last ten years; with a succinct history of the island previous to that period' by Robert Charles Dallas, London, 1803, 1803. (Photo by Robert Charles Dallas/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images)

Deep in Georgia, visitors may be stepping on sacred ground rooted in the history of slavery. The land in question comes from the descendants of the Maroons—the brave souls that escaped slavery to live in the wilderness, the New Yorker reports.

Novelist and nonprofit founder George Dawes Green and 13 others traveled to the land about 20 miles from Savannah, Georgia, to find any remains of a “fortress” built in the 1780s. Legend has it that close to 100 formerly enslaved people once lived there and secured their new homes with a wall, weapons, and guards until white military leaders found the sites and burned them to the ground.

After Dawes Green’s novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah, was published last year, several archeologists, historians, and wanderers are traveling there to see if they can find any artifacts buried within. However, archeologist Rick Kanaski said he didn’t think he would find much but would be able to get a sense of what life was like for the Maroons. “Eventually, we’ll be able to tell some life stories about these individuals who were essentially creating their own community, and reclaiming their own individuality, and their own personhood, and their own society, so to speak,” Kanaski said. “We’ll get a sense of place.”

The land is called Abercorn Island—also known as Belleisle. Kanaski and other explorers presented at an event in July, making a case to bring these stories out of the shadows. According to Savannah Now, he created a process that could identify the locations of the Maroons and possibly recover items from the communities. While it’s been close to 200 years since their demise, uncovering a lost history would draw wide support.

The Maroons didn’t just settle in deep Georgia. Some of them made it to Florida to Prospect Bluff within the Apalachicola National Forest.

GOOD FOR HER

Kamala Harris embraces new attack role, draws fresh Republican fire

US Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog (not pictured) in her ceremonial offices at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, US, on July 19, 2023.

PHOTO: Reuters file

PUBLISHED ONJULY 29, 2023 

BOSTON - Vice President Kamala Harris has shown a punchy side during a tour of nearly a dozen US states in recent weeks, attacking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for backing "revisionist history" about slavery, telling Iowa healthcare workers to rebel against the state's new restrictive abortion laws and rallying Latinos in Chicago to fight "extremist" Republicans.

On Saturday (July 29), Harris, the first woman and first woman of colour to serve as vice president, opened the NAACP's annual conference in Boston, a key political event for Black Americans that will help define the issues Democrats focus on in the 2024 election.

"We are in a moment where there is a full-on attempt to attack hard-fought and hard-won rights and freedoms and liberty. And what I know about the leaders here is that the members of NAACP are up to the challenge to fight," Harris, a lifetime member of the civil rights organisation, told several thousand people inside the city's convention centre.


The high-profile appearances are part of an expanded role for US President Joe Biden's much-scrutinized governing partner ahead of the election, senior Democrats say.

She'll engage in many more campaign-style events in months to come, designed to reacquaint Harris with supporters, burnish her image with independents and reach out to Democrats' who haven't been hearing the Biden administration's message.

It's a move that couldn't happen too soon, some influential Democrats say.


"We have constantly said to the White House that they need to send her out more because we need the base - that is Black voters and others - to understand what you are doing," Reverend Al Sharpton, a veteran civil rights activist and head of the National Action Network, told Reuters.

Biden credits Black voters for his 2020 victory, with exit polls showing he carried 87 per cent of the vote. But recent polls and turnout in the 2022 midterms reveal erosion in enthusiasm among the bloc that needs to be shored up before next November.

Harris also made a surprise visit to a congressional black caucus event at Roxbury Community College, where she reminded the crowd of the role Black voters played in capturing the White House for Biden.

She said as a result the administration capped insulin prices, increased removal of lead pipes and secured broadband for under served communities.

"Let's start registering folks now to vote," she said. "Remind your friends and your neighbours to do that."

The White House is also hoping to improve Harris' public image and historically low approval ratings. A recent NBC News poll showed 49 per cent of registered voters hold a negative view of Harris, compared to 32 per cent with a positive view, a net-negative rating of 17 that is the lowest for a vice president in the history of its poll.


US Vice President Harris fundraises for 2024 in Georgia


While it's too early to say whether her polls are improving, Harris's remarks are drawing new Republican fire, and highlighting divisions in the opposition.

DeSantis on Friday accused US Senator Tim Scott, the most high-profile Black candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential race, of accepting Harris's "lie" about Florida's new slavery curriculum requirements.

His campaign accused another Black Republican who criticised the changes, which include teaching that slavery had possible benefits to the enslaved, of being a Harris supporter.

Voters wary of the president's advanced age of 80 are expected to take a much harder look at the vice president. Some Republicans are already suggesting Harris could run the country if Biden wins in 2024.

"We are running against Kamala Harris. Make no bones about it...[it's] Kamala Harris that's going to end up being president of the United States if Joe Biden wins this election," Republican candidate Nikki Haley told Fox News in June.

Harris, who was more popular than Biden with women, young voters and even some Republicans when he picked her as his vice presidential running mate, has seen her ratings sag in office under a firehose of criticism from conservative media outlets and a portfolio that included the intractable US issue of immigration.

Some Democrats say she hasn't stepping up forcefully enough, or taken burdens off the President's shoulders. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade last year, though Harris has become increasingly vocal.

"She does better on subject matters and audiences she is comfortable with. Given the portfolio she was handed early on - and the challenges it represented - it's simple campaign management to get her out front of friendly audiences where she can get some of her mojo back," said an adviser at the Democratic National Committee.

Source: Reuters

Florida man & friends won’t tolerate Those People criticizing his slavery’s silver lining history curriculum

BY SHAKEZULA

 

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ON JULY 29, 2023

 

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AT 7:25 PM

 

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IN RACIST SHITHEADS

Unsplash

Republican outreach to African-Americans is reaching the next inevitable phase. The attacking Republican African-Americans who criticize attempts to whitewash slavery phase (Fox “News” link).

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit back at fellow White House contender Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., on Friday after the latter criticized Florida’s new school history curriculum and its approach to teaching about slavery.

“I think part of the reason our country has struggled is because D.C. Republicans all too often accept false narratives, accept lies that are perpetrated by the left,” DeSantis said during a campaign stop. “And to accept the lie that Kamala Harris has been perpetrating even when that has been debunked – that’s not the way you do it.”

“The way you do it, the way you lead is to fight back against the lies, is to speak the truth. So I’m here defending my state of Florida against false accusations and against lies. And we’re going to continue to speak the truth,” he added.

As an aside: Once again the man some Republicans hoped would provide all of the bigotry and tax breaks they got from tRump without the unpleasant side effects (open display of all seven deadly sins, being an ignorant lump and refusing to share all the money he gets from economically anxious Americans) shows he doesn’t have what it takes to be America’s next top fascist.

The Republican base doesn’t want wishy-washy whining about truth, lies and siding with Vice President Harris. They want someone to say chattel slavery was good, Black people should be thankful and joke about bringing it back. They want threats, they want slurs.

Meanwhile, human plushie Matt Walsh had an imaginary dialog with Scott.

Of course it included some whitesplaining based on the lamentably common assumption that Scott hadn’t given race a thought until someone “bad” told him about it.

And to start with, anytime you hear the left saying anything about anything related to race, never believe it on face value. Assume that they are lying because they always are.

No, Sen. Scott! Stay away from the forbidden apple of race that Vice Serpent Harris is offering you!

Walsh shifts from saying Scott is being manipulated by the left (because he’s a dumb blah person) to saying Scott knows what he’s doing (because he’s a conniving blah person). After some fumbling he settles on finding Scott guilty of attacking DeSantis from The Left. That is, Scott, a member of the right, holds an opinion that happens to be held by anyone on The Left and that opinion contradicts anyone else on The Right.

You never go after your own side from the left. Go after them. You criticize them. Never from the left. That is the unforgivable sin. If there is one sin among conservatives, it is attacking your own side from the left. You do that and you are — you should be dead to us at that point. The moment you did — do that, it’s over. You adopt the left’s talking points to go after your own side, screw you. You’re done.

LOL. Black Republicans aren’t going to leave the party because something like Matt wants them to step without fetching. However, it is interesting to see white Republicans raise the price of admission.

I just hope Vice President Harris attacks sticking a metal fork in an electric socket. From the left.

Gila River Indian Community Hosts Vice-President Kamala Harris’s First Visit to Indian Country

• Yahoo News

Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Lewis introduces U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the Gila Crossing Community School in Laveen, Arizona on July 6, 2023. (photo by Darren Thompson)

BY DARREN THOMPSON 

 

JULY 07, 2023

LAVEEN, AZ—On Thursday, the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) hosted Vice President Kamala Harris’s first visit to Indian Country at the Gila Crossing Indian School.

It was Harris’s first to Indian Country as the Vice President and the first by a sitting Vice President in United States history. 

“Representation matters,” said Junior Miss Gila River Sinica Sunflower Jackson, who was one of the people introducing Harris. “I have the privilege of welcoming one of my role models to the community.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Interior Bryan Newland and GRIC Governor Stephen Lewis also introduced the Vice President, touting the historic investments to Indian Country made by the Biden-Harris Administration. 

In his introductions, Newland said that the Biden-Harris Administration has invested more than $45 billion since the beginning of the administration in 2021. Newland said that the amount invested by the administration comprises 15 years of funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency he oversees.

“This administration has taken partnership to a whole new level, bringing Tribes generally to the table and working with us on important business,” said Lewis in his introduction. “Here in the community, I can easily point to our successful partnership. From federal funding to new investments in buildings like this one, this school, with more to come.”

Harris took the stage and announced the administration’s commitment to strengthening tribal sovereignty and self-determination. She said that the relationship between the federal government and Tribal Nations is sacred and acknowledged the contributions of American Indian people in the country’s armed forces. 

“President Joe Biden and I believe that the bonds between our nations are sacred,” she said. “We believe we have a duty to safeguard those bonds, to honor tribal sovereignty and to ensure Tribal self-determination.”

In an effort to address disparities that exist across Indian Country, the Vice President spoke on historic investments made by the administration, including more than $500 million in tribal entrepreneurship and small businesses in tribal communities.

“Disparities are a result of centuries of broken treaties, harmful assimilation policies, displacement, dispossession and violence,” Harris said.

She also spoke of investments in Tribal communities to support fund Native-led climate resiliency efforts.

“That is why we are investing billions of dollars to help fund Native-led—not Native-consulted — climate resiliency efforts,” Harris said. 

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration announced that the Gila River Indian Community would be receiving $83 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act for a pipeline that would move water from the reservation to its Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project Facility. Officials have said that the project will help conserve an additional 20,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River. Harris visited the project location after her visit to the community school. 

Harris also spoke of the recent Supreme Court decision that upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, sharing her former experience working as an attorney for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General of the state of California. She advised the community to be vigilant because attacks on tribal sovereignty will continue. 

“We are building a better future for this generation and the next seven generations to come,” Harris said. 

Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked closely with Tribal leaders and relaunched the White House Tribal Nations Summit, which was initially launched during the Obama Administration and ceased during the Trump Administration. 

A crowd of more than 800 people attended Harris’s scheduled visit, including leaders from all 22 Arizona based Tribes, with presentations by local youth dignitaries, including Jr. Miss Gila River Sineca Sunflower Jackson and Miss Gila River Lehua Lani Dosela, who sang the National Anthem in the O’odham language. A cultural display of song and dance was demonstrated by the Maricopa Bird Singers and a youth group from the Gila River Indian Community.

Robert Miguel, Ak-Chin Indian Community's Tribal Chairman, said the event was “wonderful” to Native News Online. “I’m really glad we were invited to witness this,” he said.