The Thai 'boys' love' TV dramas conquering Asia

Agence France-Presse
June 10, 2024 

The boys' love genre, which features same-sex male romances, began as a strand of Japanese manga comics in the 1960s but has become a booming cultural export for Thailand 

(Yuichi YAMAZAKI/AFP

At her lowest point, fighting burnout and depression in her Chinese hometown, Huang Bingbing says she found comfort in watching the escapist love story of two young men on a then-unknown Thai TV drama.

She came across "Love by Chance", a same-sex romance, scrolling through clips on social media five years ago and quickly became hooked on the "immature love" depicted in the show.

Inspired by her favorite idol from the series, Huang moved to Thailand a year later to start a new life, becoming part of a growing legion of fans of the "boys' love" romance genre taking Asia by storm.

The boys' love genre, which features same-sex male romances, began as a strand of Japanese manga comics in the 1960s known as "yaoi" but has become a booming cultural export for Thailand, where the LGBTQ community is generally more accepted than in many Asian countries.

"People here don't care about genders, and all the loves are equal, no matter if it's between men, women or a third gender," Huang, 36, told AFP.

Storylines featuring good-looking couples, romantic scenarios and themes of being true to oneself are particularly popular among straight female viewers.

Commonly known as BL, the genre has proved a hit in the region, with episodes racking up tens of millions of views online.

Girls' love, a genre featuring same-sex women couples, is also increasingly popular.

At promotional events, fans queue for hours to meet the stars of their favorite shows, sometimes going to lengths more often seen among K-pop devotees.


At an event this year, Huang represented a Chinese fan group for girls' love, which donated huge floral displays made of baht banknotes worth around $1,000.

- Thais do it best -

Thai BLs are also a runaway success in China, despite the government banning Chinese firms from producing or broadcasting such dramas.

"Because we like it, we will find ways to search for it," Huang said.

"Even if we can't find a way (ourselves), we will ask how other people watch them and follow (them)."

Thai BL series have also won the hearts of fans in Japan.

Kira Thu-Ha Trinh is a regular customer at a tiny Thai-themed cafe in Tokyo that has become a hotspot for BL fans, with its walls covered in celebrity photos.

The genre became "explosively popular" during the Covid pandemic when there was little to do but watch TV, she told AFP.

"You've exhausted what Japan offers. There is usually... only one BL drama in one season. If you wanted to immerse yourself more in that kind of thing, you get suggestions by the algorithm," she said.

And, Trinh said, "this sounds kind of rude, but Thailand just made it better."

BL production in Thailand has rocketed in recent years and production houses have organised fan events at home and across Asia.

The number of BL shows produced has jumped from 19 between 2014 and 2018, to 29 in 2021 and 75 in 2022, according to data collected by Poowin Bunyavejchewin, a senior researcher from Thammasat University's Institute of East Asian Studies.

Poowin said the genre has become popular even in more conservative societies, such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia, although fans in these countries are often more discreet.

"There are a big group of fans (in those countries), but they cannot identify themselves as a big fan of BL publicly due to the socio-cultural constraints, like religious matters," he told AFP.

- Actors for change -

Thailand is expected to legalize same-sex marriage later this year -- the first country in Southeast Asia to do so -- but LGBTQ campaigners say there is still work to be done to change attitudes.

And despite their popularity, BL series do not reflect the challenges faced by Thailand's LGBTQ community, Poowin said.

"Sometimes the life of gay men in Thailand is kind of tragic. They have family problems. But no one wants to consume tragedy," he said.

Some in the BL industry hope their work can help promote LGBTQ rights, such as gender and marriage equality, in popular culture.

Actor Suppapong Udomkaewkanjana, who got his big break in "Love by Chance" and founded his own TV production company in 2020, says he is aiming to go beyond romance stories.

At a shrine in Bangkok, the 26-year-old joined the cast and crew of his latest drama, a girls' love show, who gathered to pray for the success of their new series.

"I see opportunities with BL series, such as advocating gender and marriage equality," he told AFP.

Pioneering black conductor melds opera with S. African dance music

Agence France-Presse
June 10, 2024 7:

Ofentse Pitse, 31, is the first black South African woman to run an all-black orchestra 

(Phill Magakoe/AFP)


Ofentse Pitse embodies a fierce sense of fun as she waves her conducting baton passionately in a dimly lit auditorium in Johannesburg, ahead of a one-of-a-kind show.

The pioneering 31-year-old who hails from Mabopane, a township some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Pretoria, is the first South African woman to own and lead an all-black orchestra.

Now, she is producing a show that brings together classical music and popular South African genre, amapiano, which developed from a mix of kwaito, South Africa's take on house music, and the more international variety.

Pitse grew up with a family that was deeply involved in a Salvation Army church and recalls her pastor urging her to play an instrument.

At 12 years old, Pitse said she "got taught how to play C scale... and the evolution of that was my love for classical music, my love for choral and opera."

By the age of 25, she had started her own youth choir.

Some of the musicians who were part of this first choir joined Pitse on stage last week for an opera featuring various amapiano artists such as Kabza De Small, one of the pioneers of the genre.

Speaking to AFP at a rehearsal, Pitse said De Small's approach to music is similar to opera and that inspired the idea of creating "an amapiano opera" where she would reimagine his songs.

An elegant, unfamiliar version of "Nana Thula", a popular song by Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa, filled the room as a choir sang softly, backed by violins and a saxophone.

The duo, who go by the name Scorpion Kings, each enjoy fame and an international following, having produced some of the most notable amapiano tracks.

"I want to do African works... imagine the juxtaposition of these classically trained musicians and these musicians who just feel by spirit, and we combine that," an excited Pitse said of the show.

-'A gift'-


As the ensemble performed some of the biggest amapiano hits, Pitse became lost in the music, dancing slightly to the beat while maintaining her poise, often with a face full of emotion.

She told AFP she steered away from being stern in her conducting and prefers to lead "with passion... to add that motherly, sensitive, very genuine" vibe.

But a career in classical music was not always her dream, rather "a gift".

Last year, the qualified architect led a 74-piece female orchestra rendition of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You" alongside the Grammy award-winning artist for Netflix's "Queen Charlotte", a spinoff of the popular "Bridgerton" televised drama.

The performance was the "greatest accomplishment of my career", she said. "For me it was like 'wow, so women can really create at this level?'".

Pitse said her driving force was advancing youth opportunities and inspiring women of color.

- 'Meticulous detailing' -

But success and recognition has also brought pressure, she admitted.

Being young and black in a white male-dominated industry, she said there was often someone checking to see if she really knew what she was doing.

Sometimes observers "would want to put in a sly comment that does not have anything to do with music... so you have to be overly prepared".

Sporting flared black pants, a white jacket, and her signature braided updo, Pitse joked with the crew in between takes.

As a zealous Beyonce fan, her ultimate dream is working with the US singer whose work ethic she simulates.

"Beyonce will spend four months on dance rehearsal, another four months on band rehearsal for a two-hour show. That's meticulous detailing," she marveled, adding that she approaches her own shows the same way.

Pitse's next move, she hopes, will be her own body of work.

"I want people to transcend, and I make music for the academics of classical music" and "those who have never been to a theatre", she said.

Kenyan police to deploy to Haiti within weeks: Ruto

Agence France-Presse
June 9, 2024 

(AFP)

Kenyan police will deploy to quell gang violence in Haiti probably within weeks, the east African country’s President William Ruto said on Sunday, despite court challenges that delayed the mission.

Kenya is aiming to lead a UN-backed mission to secure the Caribbean nation, stricken by violence, poverty and political instability.

The east African nation is scheduled to send 1,000 officers for the mission alongside personnel from several other countries.

“The people of Haiti are maybe waiting, by the grace of God, that probably by next week or the other week, we shall send our police officers to restore peace,” Ruto said in an address during a visit to central Kenya on Sunday.

A UN Security Council resolution in October last year approved the mission but a Kenyan court in January delayed the deployment.

It said the government did not have the authority to send police officers abroad without a prior agreement.
The government secured that agreement on March 1 and Ruto told the BBC last month that he expected a Kenyan force to go to Haiti within weeks.

But a small opposition party in Kenya filed a fresh lawsuit to try to block it. Kenya’s High Court is due to consider that case on June 12.

Aside from Kenya, other countries that have expressed willingness to join the mission include Benin, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Chad.

Global monitor Human Rights Watch has raised rights concerns about the mission and doubts over its funding.

Rights groups have accused Kenyan police of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings.

What a bath taken 1,000 years ago can tell us about a conflicted 11th century England

The Conversation
June 9, 2024 

Bathing in the Middle Ages. Codex Manesse, UBH Cod. Pal. germ. 848.







On June 8 1023, 1,001 years ago, King Cnut took a bath. In itself this was not particularly remarkable. Contrary to the image of a ubiquitously grubby middle ages that dominates film and television, there is evidence to suggest that among the upper classes, at least, bathing was a regular pleasure.




What is unusual is that Cnut’s bath seems to be the first in English history that a (fairly) reliable written source, Osbern of Canterbury, chooses to pin to a particular time and place. But why? What made this particular bath 1,000 years ago deserving of this honour? The answer lies in the complex world of 11th century national power politics.

First we need to go back to 1012 and the grisly fate of Ælfheah, archbishop of Canterbury. Captured the previous autumn by a band of Vikings, Ælfheah was considered a valuable prize. By the spring, the leader of the band, Thorkell the Tall, was trying to negotiate a ransom for him from the English, while holding him captive at an encampment in Greenwich.

Disappointingly for the Vikings, Ælfheah refused to be ransomed. This courageous move placed the archbishop in a distinctly perilous position. He was a rapidly depreciating asset in the hands of a bunch of rowdy and bloodthirsty men, who were happy to take their amusements where they found them.

At a feast on April 19 1012, his captors threw “bones and the heads of cattle” at him until eventually one of them, a Christian convert, took pity and despatched him with an axe-blow to the head. St Alfege’s church in Greenwich supposedly stands on the site of the martyrdom

.
St Ælfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury is asked for advice (1400). Vincent of Beauvais, Le Miroir Historial (Vol. IV)

Ælfheah’s body was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, where it lay for the next 11 years. In the meantime, the Danes completed their conquest of England.

The Dane Cnut, crowned king in 1016, set about the business of reconciling himself to his new English subjects. And as a dead man, Ælfheah gained more political power than he had had when alive. The corpse of the archbishop, casually slaughtered in a peculiarly gruesome way during a drunken binge, was a continuing reproach. It was a reminder of a version of the Danes that did not square with Cnut’s aspirations to godly English kingship – particularly while it remained uncomfortably close to where the deed itself had occurred.

Cnut decided to have Ælfheah reburied in Canterbury with full honours. The move would at once acknowledge the enormity of the crime and hail the sanctity of the archbishop (harnessing it to his own regime). He hoped it would neutralise Ælfheah’s power as a nexus of friction between his English and Danish subjects.

Putting his plan into effect, Cnut summoned Ælfheah’s successor as archbishop of Canterbury, a man named Æthelnoth, to London. He was to preside over proceedings so that they were seen to be carried out with the blessing of the church.

At this point we can return to Cnut’s bath. Barely had he entered it, Osbern tells us, when a messenger arrived to tell him of Æthelnoth’s arrival  

.

A 14th-century portrait of King Cnut.

Der Spiegel Geschichte/Wiki Commons

Cnut – achieving the dubious honour of being the first person recorded in English history to have been disturbed by something frustratingly urgent just as he had stepped into a bath – immediately arose, dried himself and embarked for St Paul’s to take control.

The body of a martyr was a valuable spiritual, and perhaps also commercial, commodity. Cnut knew that any attempt to take it away from London would almost certainly be resisted.

Cnut ordered his men to create a distraction while the tomb was opened by a vigorous pair of monks named Godric and Ælfweard the Tall (who proved surprisingly adept at surreptitiously demolishing cathedral walls). The corpse of Ælfheah was retrieved and spirited away to a ship on the Thames (with Cnut himself at the helm) under the very noses of the citizenry of London.

Ælfheah was then taken on to Canterbury to be reburied, becoming the focus of a minor, but politically useful cult. Canonised in 1078, there are a scatter of churches dedicated to him (normally as St Alphege) in England. The document which tells us the story (Translatio Sancti Aelfegi, Translation of Saint Aelphegus), was produced at Canterbury by Osbern in the 1080s. He wrote it alongside a Life of Ælfheah as part of a campaign to ensure his recognition as a legitimate saint in the aftermath of the Norman conquest.

The Normans regarded most pre-conquest English saints with scepticism. So Osbern, wrote these tracts to bolster Ælfheah’s status and guarantee that the saint would continue to attract gifts, pilgrimages and benefactions to the diocese with which he was strongly associated. To the city of Canterbury, Ælfheah was a valuable piece of intellectual property and it was vital to protect it.

There is a great deal to unpack in this story, but the focus on Cnut’s interrupted bath in Osbern’s account is an especially fascinating nugget. Writing some 60 or so years after the events in question and using sources that are entirely unknown, why did Osbern feel that this element of the story deserved attention?

It certainly brings the story alive and gives it – at least to modern eyes – a vividness, immediacy and interest it might otherwise lack. But for the medieval audience, the story of Cnut’s immersion at this critical moment would have overtones of a spiritual rebirth akin to Christian baptism.

Osbern’s implication is that as a reward for removing Ælfheah’s remains to Canterbury and doing them proper honour, the saint will cleanse Cnut of his sins – and of any residual guilt for deaths during his conquest of England. This is represented in physical form by his immersion in water, awakening him through this baptism to a virtuous life in Christ as a godly English monarch.

Through the surprising medium of this first recorded English bath, the divided and conflicted English kingdom of a millennium ago opens up to us.

Simon Trafford, Lecturer in Medieval History, School of Advanced Study, University of London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fossil-hunting diver says he has found a large section of mastodon tusk off Florida’s coast



This April 2024 photo taken by Blair Morrow and provided by Alex Lundberg shows a large section of tusk from a long-extinct mastodon that Lundberg and his diver companion found on the sea floor off Florida’s Gulf coast. They first thought it was just a large piece of wood. (Blair Morrow via AP)


This April 2024 photo taken by Blair Morrow and provided by Alex Lundberg shows Lundberg with a large section of tusk from a long-extinct mastodon that he and his diver companion found on the sea floor off Florida’s Gulf coast. They first thought it was just a large piece of wood. (Blair Morrow via AP)


This April 2024 photo taken by Blair Morrow and provided by Alex Lundberg shows Lundberg holding a large section of tusk from a long-extinct mastodon that he and his diver companion found on the sea floor off Florida’s Gulf coast. They first thought it was just a large piece of wood. (Blair Morrow via AP)

BY CURT ANDERSON
une 6, 2024Share


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — At first, fossil-hunting diver Alex Lundberg thought the lengthy object on the sea floor off Florida’s Gulf Coast was a piece of wood. It turned out to be something far rarer, Lundberg said: a large section of tusk from a long-extinct mastodon.

Lundberg and his diver companion had found fossils in the same place before, including mammoth teeth, bones of an ancient jaguar and parts of a dire wolf. They also have found small pieces of mastodon tusk, but nothing this big and intact.

“We kind of knew there could be one in the area,” Lundberg said in an interview, noting that as he kept fanning away sand from the tusk he found in April “it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I’m like, this is a big tusk.”

The tusk measures about 4 feet (1.2 meters) and weighs 70 pounds (31 kilograms), Lundberg said, and was found at a depth of about 25 feet (7.6 meters) near Venice, Florida. It’s currently sitting in a glass case in his living room, but the story may not end there.

Mastodons are related to mammoths and current-day elephants. Scientists say they lived mainly in what is now North America, appearing as far back as 23 million years ago. They became extinct about 10,000 years ago, along with dozens of other large mammals that disappeared when Earth’s climate was rapidly changing — and Stone Age humans were on the hunt.

Remains of mastodons are frequently found across the continent, with Indiana legislators voting a couple years ago to designate the mastodon as its official state fossil. Mastodons are on exhibit at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, one of the most significant locations in the world for fossils of the bygone era.


The age of the tusk Lundberg found has not yet been determined.

Under Florida law, fossils of vertebrates found on state lands, which include near-shore waters, belong to the state under authority of the Florida Museum of Natural History. Lundberg has a permit to collect such fossils and must report the tusk find to the museum when his permit is renewed in December. He’s had that permit since 2019, according to the museum.

“The museum will review the discoveries and localities to determine their significance and the permit holder can keep the fossils if the museum does not request them within 60 days of reporting,” said Rachel Narducci, collections manager at the museum’s Division of Vertebrate Paleontology. “This may be a significant find depending on exactly where it was collected.”

Lundberg, who has a marine biology degree from the University of South Florida and now works at a prominent Tampa cancer center, is optimistic he’ll be able to keep the tusk.

“You don’t know where it came from. It’s been rolling around in the ocean for millions of years. It’s more of a cool piece,” he said.

Anti-abortion activist convicted for blockading a reproductive health clinic, not for praying there


 Social media users are falsely claiming an anti-abortion activist was given prison time for praying outside a reproductive health clinic.

BY MELISSA GOLDIN
June 5, 2024Share

CLAIM: A 75-year-old woman named Paulette Harlow was sentenced to two years in prison for praying outside an abortion clinic in Washington.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harlow was convicted in August 2023 of federal civil rights offenses for her role in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic. Along with other anti-abortion activists, Harlow used force and physical obstruction to execute the blockade, according to the Department of Justice. She was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Friday.

THE FACTS: Social media users are misrepresenting Harlow’s crimes, alleging that she is being put behind bars because she chose to pray beside the clinic.

“A DC judge just sentenced 75-year-old Paulette Harlow, who is in poor health, to 2 years in prison for praying outside an abortion clinic,” reads one X post that had received approximately 15,000 likes and 9,800 shares as of Wednesday. “Her husband fears she might die there.”

An Instagram post that shared a screenshot of the X post states: “The justice system has been broken for a long time and needs a f---ing overhaul. It’s not going to happen overnight but it NEEDS to happen.”

The post, which received more than 3,800 likes, also referenced former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts last week. “Stop saying ‘if’ they can do it to Trump, they can do it to you,” it reads. “They already ARE doing it to you.”

But Harlow, who is named in court documents as Paula “Paulette” Harlow, isn’t getting prison time for praying outside the clinic.

The 75-year-old was sentenced to two years behind bars after being convicted on two charges for taking part in the blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic: felony conspiracy against civil rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, more commonly known as the FACE Act.

Enacted in 1994, the federal FACE Act prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services. The law also prohibits damaging property at abortion clinics and other reproductive health centers.

Harlow was charged alongside nine co-conspirators, including the blockade’s leaders, Lauren Handy and Jonathan Darnel. She was the last to be sentenced. All but one of the defendants were found guilty on the same charges as Harlow. The other pleaded guilty to violating the FACE Act. Handy and Darnel were sentenced to the most prison time, 57 months and 34 months, respectively. The rest received sentences ranging from 10 to 27 months.

“These 10 defendants have been held accountable for using force, threatening to use force and physically obstructing access to reproductive health care in the District of Columbia,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

Martin Cannon, one of the defendants’ attorneys, said in a statement responding to Handy’s sentencing on May 14 that she and her co-defendants were united in non-violence and that “they conspired to be peaceful.”
___
This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

Oregon closes more coastal shellfish harvesting due to ‘historic high levels’ of toxins


 Visitors look for clams to dig along the beach at Fort Stevens State Park, in Warrenton, Ore. Oregon has expanded shellfish harvesting closures along the state’s entire coastline to include razor clams and bay clams. The move comes after state officials closed the coast to mussel harvesting last week

. (Joshua Bessex/The Astorian via AP, File)

June 7, 2024


SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon authorities have expanded shellfish harvesting closures along the state’s entire coastline to include razor clams and bay clams, as already high levels of toxins that have contributed to a shellfish poisoning outbreak continue to rise.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the new closures were due to “historic high levels” of a marine biotoxin known as paralytic shellfish poisoning. The move, announced by the department in a news release on Thursday, came after state officials similarly closed the whole coast to mussel harvesting last week.

Agriculture officials have also closed an additional bay on the state’s southern coast to commercial oyster harvesting, bringing the total of such closures to three.

Elevated levels of toxins were first detected in shellfish on the state’s central and north coasts on May 17, fish and wildlife officials said.

The shellfish poisoning outbreak has sickened at least 31 people, Jonathan Modie, spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority, said in an email. The agency has asked people who have harvested or eaten Oregon shellfish since May 13 to fill out a survey that’s meant to help investigators identify the cause of the outbreak and the number of people sickened.

Officials in neighboring Washington have also closed the state’s Pacific coastline to the harvesting of shellfish, including mussels, clams, scallops and oysters, a shellfish safety map produced by the Washington State Department of Health showed.


Paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP, is caused by saxitoxin, a naturally occurring toxin produced by algae, according to the Oregon Health Authority. People who eat shellfish contaminated with high levels of saxitoxins usually start feeling ill within 30 to 60 minutes, the agency said. Symptoms include numbness of the mouth and lips, vomiting, diarrhea, and shortness of breath and irregular heartbeat in severe cases.

There is no antidote to PSP, according to the health agency. Treatment for severe cases may require mechanical ventilators to help with breathing.

Authorities warn that cooking or freezing contaminated shellfish doesn’t kill the toxins and doesn’t make it safe to eat.

Officials say the Oregon Department of Agriculture will continue testing for shellfish toxins at least twice a month as tides and weather permit. Reopening an area closed for biotoxins requires two consecutive tests that show toxin levels are below a certain threshold.

U.S. NEWS

A Christian group teaches public school students during the school day. Their footprint is growin




Joel Penton, founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy, poses at LifeWise Academy offices Thursday, May 30, 2024, in Hilliard, Ohio. The Ohio-based Christian nonprofit that organizes off-campus

Bible classes for public school students has taken off in Indiana since the state passed legislation forcing school districts to comply.

 (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)state passed legislation forcing school districts to comply. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

BY ISABELLA VOLMERT
 June 8, 2024

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Ohio nonprofit that provides off-site Bible instruction to public school students during classroom hours says it will triple its programs in Indiana this fall after new legislation forced school districts to comply.

To participating families, nondenominational LifeWise Academy programs supplement religious instruction. But critics in Indiana worry the programs spend public school resources on religion, proselytize to students of other faiths and remove children from class in a state already struggling with literacy.

LifeWise founder and CEO Joel Penton told The Associated Press that many parents want religious instruction to be part of their children’s education.

“Values of faith and the Bible are absolutely central to many families,” Penton said. “And so they want to demonstrate to their children that it is central to their lives.”

Public schools cannot promote any religion under the First Amendment, but a 1952 Supreme Court ruling centered on New York schools cleared the way for programs like LifeWise. Individual places of worship often work with schools to host programs off campus, and they are not regulated in some states.

LifeWise officials addressed the Oklahoma and Ohio legislatures in support of laws that would require schools to cooperate with off-site religious programs, Penton said, and Oklahoma’s Republican governor signed one such bill into law Wednesday.

Similar bills have been introduced in Ohio, Nebraska, Georgia and Mississippi this year, according to an AP analysis of Plural, a legislative tracking database.

LifeWise programs will be available at over 520 locations in 23 states next school year, up from 331 in 13 states this year, and about 31,000 students attend LifeWise programs in the U.S., Penton said.

Penton wants LifeWise to be available to “50 million public school students nationwide,” he said.

In Indiana, Republican state Rep. Kendell Culp introduced the legislation requiring principals to allow students to attend release-time religious education after a rural school stopped cooperating with LifeWise. The bill was signed into law in March and subsequently 45 Indiana schools will work with the company this fall, triple the number from last year.

LifeWise Academy, based in Hilliard, Ohio, is funded by donors, including more than $13 million in contributions from July 2022 to June 2023, according to its latest federal report.

The curriculum was developed in conjunction with the Gospel Project, a Bible study plan produced by an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, Penton said. Instructors are provided with guidance on how to respond to difficult questions, including about the afterlife and sex. LifeWise opposes same-sex marriage, as well as transgender and gender-fluid identities.

“Our guide helps classroom educators address these questions with compassion, humility and respect,” Penton said in a statement.

Chris Paulsen, CEO of LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group Indiana Youth Group, voiced concern that children can receive Christian religious instruction during the school day “yet no one can talk about queer families.” Indiana bans “human sexuality” instruction in schools through third grade.

LifeWise staff and volunteers either bus or drive students from school to the program sites, or use spaces near schools and supervise children walking there.

Indiana law and the 1952 Supreme Court ruling say no public funds can be spent on supplemental religious education, but critics worry schools expend public resources on scheduling and getting children to and from the programs.

“It just puts another burden on the teachers,” said Michelle Carrera, a high school English teacher in Culp’s district.

Democratic lawmakers derided the new law when literacy scores and attendance are down and said it violates the separation of church and state guaranteed in the First Amendment.

“Saying that a religious organization can mandate scheduling at a school strikes me as a fundamental violation of that important American principle,” said Indiana House Education Committee member Ed DeLaney, a Democrat.

Jennifer Matthias, on Fort Wayne Community Schools’ board of trustees, opposes a new program in her district, especially because recent Republican-led legislation establishes stronger literacy requirements for elementary students.

“How can removing students from the academic day benefit them?” she said.

Backers argue the LifeWise model allows low-income students who cannot afford after-school programs to receive supplemental religious instruction. Culp said the Indiana law gives parents a greater say in their children’s education.

“This is really more about parental rights,” he said.

Christa Sullinger, 46, began sending her 10-year-old son to LifeWise in Garrett, Indiana, last year. With baseball activities on Sundays, the family sometimes misses church and LifeWise fills in the gaps.

“What a great way to solidify our faith,” Sullinger said.

LifeWise says it does not teach programs during classes such as math or reading, but rather during lunch, recess or electives including library, art or gym. Children can attend for up to two hours a week under Indiana law.

The West Central School Corporation in rural Pulaski County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Indianapolis, said 64% of its 345 elementary school students attended LifeWise during library this past school year.

West Central School Corporation Superintendent Cathy Rowe said there may be students who feel left out if they don’t attend LifeWise, but that is up to the parents.

“It’s been very well supported in our community,” she said.

The district was often at the center of discussion during the passage of Indiana’s bill. Opponents said if only a handful of children are left at school, they may feel pressure to join or alienated if they are not religiously affiliated or practice another faith.

Some children promote the program to their classmates of their own volition, Penton said.

“We’re grateful when students find joy in our program and spread the word,” he said.

Demrie Alonzo, a tutor of English as a second language in Fredericktown, Ohio, said she saw one LifeWise representative tell one of her third-grade students, who is Hindu, that they could teach her about Jesus. An investigation ensued, resulting in school superintendent Gary Chapman reminding Fredericktown Local School District and LifeWise officials to refrain from soliciting student participation during school hours.

Children from “a diverse array of backgrounds” participate, Penton said.

“I felt it was extremely inappropriate,” Alonzo said.
___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.

#ME2

Howard University cuts ties with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs after video of attack on Cassie



 - Entertainer and entrepreneur Sean Combs poses next to his honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities during the graduation ceremony at Howard University in Washington, Saturday, May 10, 2014. In a decision, Friday, June 7, 2024, Howard University is cutting ties to Combs, rescinding the honorary degree that was awarded to him and disbanding a scholarship program in his name.

 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)Read More

 Entertainer and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs delivers Howard University’s commencement speech during the 2014 graduation ceremony in Washington, Saturday, May 10, 2014. In a decision, Friday, June 7, 2024, Howard University is cutting ties to Combs, rescinding an honorary degree that was awarded to him and disbanding a scholarship program in his name. 

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

June 9, 2024Share


Howard University is cutting ties to Sean “Diddy” Combs, rescinding an honorary degree that was awarded to him and disbanding a scholarship program in his name, after a recently released 2016 video that appeared to show him attacking the R&B singer Cassie.

“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” a statement from the university’s Board of Trustees said.

The statement said the board voted unanimously Friday to accept the return of the honorary degree Combs received in 2014. “This acceptance revokes all honors and privileges associated with the degree. Accordingly, the Board has directed that his name be removed from all documents listing honorary degree recipients of Howard University,” it said.

The board also directed university administrators to cut financial ties to Combs, including returning a $1 million contribution, ending the scholarship program and dissolving a 2023 pledge agreement with the Sean Combs Foundation.

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An email seeking comment was sent to a Combs spokesperson by The Associated Press on Saturday.

Combs admitted last month that he beat his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016 after CNN released video of the attack. In a video statement posted on social media, he said he was “truly sorry” and his actions were “inexcusable.”

“I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” Combs said.

A lawsuit filed last year by Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, set off a wave of similar cases and public allegations against Combs. That lawsuit was settled.

AMERIKA VOTES

Lewiston survivors consider looming election as gun control comes to forefront after mass shooting

 ABORTION, VOTING RIGHTS, GUN CONTROL


Voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District will consider the future of Rep. Jared Golden who has a history of supporting gun rights.

BY PATRICK WHITTLE
June 9, 2024

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Ben Dyer hasn’t decided how he’ll vote in one of the nation’s most closely watched congressional elections this year, but he knows guns will be on his mind when he casts his ballot. And he’s pretty sure he won’t be the only one.

Dyer, a 47-year-old father of two, was shot five times at Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston last October during the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history. He was rushed to a hospital in a game warden’s pickup truck. He still can’t use his right arm.

In the aftermath of a blood-soaked tragedy in which 18 people were killed and many more were wounded at two separate crime scenes, Dyer has watched his state enact a battery of new gun control laws. It is against that backdrop that he and other voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District will consider the political future of three-term Congressman Jared Golden.

Golden, a Democrat with a history of supporting gun rights in ways that bucked his party’s orthodoxy, has shifted his position since the Lewiston shooting. A former Marine who served in two wars overseas, he now supports an assault weapons ban. He’s unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Maine, but the two Republicans vying to run against him in November have both vowed to defend 2nd Amendment rights more vigorously than he has.


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The congressman’s shifting position worries Dyer, who has voted for him before. A gun owner who describes himself as politically independent, Dyer says stricter gun controls hurt law-abiding gun owners.

“The question is, who are you really helping if you make those changes, because it’s not the constituents,” he said. “That platform, AR, every single one of my friends owns a weapon on that platform. They haven’t been used to hurt anybody.”

That may be true of the guns owned by Dyers’ friends, but the same can’t be said for the assault weapon wielded by Lewiston shooter Robert Card.

Golden’s willingness to rethink his position was encouraging to Tammy Asselin, who survived the shooting at a bowling alley in Lewiston with her daughter Toni. She knows it was hard, but said she was “impressed at (Golden’s) strength and willingness to change his stance so quickly in the face of many resistors.”

Asselin supports an assault weapons ban unequivocally.

“There’s no need for such high-powered weapons to be in the hands of anyone except our military and first responders,” she said. “People claim it’s their right to carry, and I’m not opposed to that right, but there’s absolutely no reason on this Earth they can give that gives a reasonable reason for possessing these high-powered weapons.”

In Golden’s 2nd Congressional District, gun ownership for hunting and sport is commonplace. It’s a vast, mostly wooded swath of Maine that stands apart both culturally and politically from the liberal, beachy 1st District based around Portland. Forestry, papermaking and lobster fishing are signature industries in the 2nd, and the state’s moose hunt is a landmark event there every fall.

Golden said he believes an assault weapons ban would have saved lives in Lewiston, but he also knows his home district is a place where the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution matters to people.

“We cannot ignore the fact that gun laws, whether in Maine or elsewhere, must make room for the Constitution,” Golden said. “The Second Amendment is rooted in self-defense and protection of the family and home.”

Golden’s campaign for another term has larger consequences, with Republicans maintaining just a five-seat margin in the House. He was initially elected in 2018 by ranked-choice voting — a historic first for a member of Congress — and has won by about 6 percentage points in the two campaigns since then.

This campaign promises to be a harder fight, in part because of the volatility of the gun issue and in part because of the popularity of former President Donald Trump in the district, said Mark Brewer, a political scientist with the University of Maine. Trump, who’s on the presidential ballot again this year, has won an electoral vote in the 2nd Congressional District by comfortable margins twice.

“You could see it as a positive that (Golden) is able to change his views in response to a traumatic public event that everyone in his district experienced, everyone in the nation experienced,” Brewer said. “On the other hand, the 2nd Congressional District is highly rural, a lot of gun ownership.”

Republican State Reps. Austin Theriault and Michael Soboleski are set to face off in Tuesday’s GOP primary. Both men have vowed to be stronger 2nd Amendment defenders than Golden. Theriault has sent campaign emails to supporters casting Golden as inconsistent on gun rights, and Soboleski has said Maine lawmakers’ proposals for a “red flag” law to identify people who might be a threat before something tragic happens belong “in a paper shredder.”

But some in the district think Golden’s evolution on gun laws is appropriate. Golden came out publicly in favor of an assault weapons ban not long after the Lewiston rampage. He has since said he “would not have voted for” state-level gun law changes Maine Democrats have enacted, such as expanding background checks and creating penalties for illegal gun sales.

Gun control groups have welcomed Golden’s new stance on assault weapons. The Maine Gun Safety Coalition, which advocates for stricter gun laws, has not yet made an endorsement in Golden’s reelection race, but the group’s executive director, Nacole Palmer, said Golden “represents the courage, thoughtfulness, and leadership we hope to see in other candidates.”

In his hometown of Auburn, just miles from where he was shot on Oct. 25, Dyer isn’t so sure. He said the election would be a tough decision for him.

In the meantime, he’s re-learning to shoot guns with his left hand.

“A sick person did a sick thing that day,” Dyer said. “I think a lot of the gun laws they are trying are a reaction and not proactive to the proper situation.”

PATRICK WHITTLE
Whittle is an Associated Press reporter based in Portland, Maine. He focuses on the environment and oceans.