CRIMINAL CAPITALISM PRO SPORTS: FIFA

Federal Prosecutors Said Russia And Qatar Paid Bribes To Host World Cups

Former executives at 21st Century Fox also paid millions in bribes for soccer tournament rights, according to a new indictment in the long-running FIFA case.

Ken Bensinger BuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on April 6, 2020

Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
The 2022 World Cup African Qualifiers Draw in Cairo on Jan. 21.

Russia and Qatar paid bribes in order to win hosting rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, according to a sweeping new indictment in the federal government’s long-running soccer corruption case unsealed Monday.

The new charges lay out a complex series of bribery and money laundering schemes related to the buying and selling of rights to international soccer tournaments and implicate multiple new defendants, including two former high-ranking Latin American executives of 21st Century Fox, the former media conglomerate that has since been acquired by Disney.

But the boldest allegations relate to the World Cup, soccer’s most esteemed and lucrative tournament, held every four years. Although there has long been public suspicion about corruption during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 events, the new charges mark the first time the US government has formally put those suspicions into a charging document.

According to the prosecutors, Russia in 2010 paid $5 million to Trinidad’s Jack Warner, then a FIFA vice president, in exchange for his vote to host the event in 2018; it also offered — though never paid — an additional $1 million to Rafael Salguero, a Guatemalan official who, as a member of FIFA’s executive committee, also had a vote.

In addition, the indictment claims, Qatar paid bribes to three South American soccer officials, including Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira and Paraguayan Nicolás Leoz, for their votes for it to host the 2022 tournament. The third official is not named in the document, but is widely acknowledged to be Julio Grondona, also a former FIFA vice president. The size of those alleged bribes was not enumerated in the court filing. According to trial testimony from 2017, however, Qatar paid at least $1 million and as much as $15 million to those three officials for their votes

Both Russia and Qatar ultimately won their bids in a secret vote in December 2010, beating out rival bids from England, the US, Australia, and several other countries.

Russia held the tournament in 2018, and the day after it concluded, President Trump held a press conference with Vladimir Putin, congratulating him “for having done such an excellent job in hosting the World Cup. It was really one of the best ever, he said. “It was a great job.”

Yuri Kadobnov / Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin offers a 2018 World Cup 
ball to US President Donald Trump during a joint press 
conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace
 in Helsinki on July 16, 2018.

Qatar is slated to host the tournament in late 2022, although the new allegations cast fresh doubts over an event that has been dogged by a series of controversies and accusations of corruption since the vote results were announced. Because of the extremely hot summer weather in Qatar, the tournament was moved to December for the first time in its history and human rights groups have accused the country’s leaders of using forced labor to build the stadiums required to host the tournament.

The US investigation of international soccer corruption dominated headlines in 2015 when the first round of indictments were released, and again in late 2017 when three defendants went on trial in Brooklyn. But it has been relatively quiet for some time. The indictment, handed down by a grand jury on March 18 and unsealed Monday, marks the first new charges in nearly two years and suggests that the sprawling case is far from over.

“The charges unsealed today reflect this Office’s ongoing commitment to rooting out corruption at the highest levels of international soccer and at the businesses engaged in promoting and broadcasting the sport,” said Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.

FIFA, which like other sporting institutions has been forced by the coronavirus pandemic to shut down all tournaments and other competitions, has cooperated with the US criminal investigation, as well as probes in other countries. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new allegations.

Warner, Salguero, Teixeira, and Leoz were all indicted in 2015, although Salguero is the only person in that group to have faced justice in the case, pleading guilty in Brooklyn federal court in 2016. Leoz died in 2019; Teixeira is in Brazil, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States; and Warner, a former member of parliament in Trinidad and Tobago, has been fighting his extradition. Julio Grondona was never indicted and died in 2014.

Separately, the new indictment charges Hernán Lopez and Carlos Martinez, the former CEO and president, respectively, of Fox International Channels, Latin America, of conspiring with an Argentine sports marketing firm to pay bribes to South American soccer officials in exchange for television rights to the continent’s most popular professional soccer tournament, the Copa Libertadores.

Those allegations build on testimony given during the 2017 trial of three South Americans charged in the case. Multiple witnesses described a complicated bribery scheme involving the Fox units and shell companies in the Caribbean and Europe, and prosecutors showed the jury what were described as fraudulent documents signed by Fox executives that they alleged were used to cover up millions of dollars in bribes and make them look like legitimate business deals.

According to the new charges, Lopez and Martinez used the bribery scheme to “advance the business interests of Fox beyond” the tournament by acquiring “confidential information” that helped the network win rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in the United States.

A spokesperson for Fox Sports, which still holds the rights to the 2022 tournament, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the indictment or on allegations that the rights might have been illicitly obtained.

Lopez left Fox in early 2016 and went on to found Wondery, a podcast network that produced three of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year, including The Shrink Next Door.

His attorney, Matthew Umber, denied the charges, saying it is “shocking that the government would bring such a thin case,” and adding that “Mr. Lopez can’t wait to defend himself at trial.”

Martinez departed Fox last May.

“We are certain a jury will swiftly exonerate Carlos,” said his attorney, Steven McCool. “These charges are nothing more than stale fiction.”


Jacques Demarthon / Getty Images


Ken Bensinger is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. He is the author of "Red Card," on the FIFA scandal. His DMs are open.

Qatar, Russia deny buying World Cup rights
 
AFP/File / Fabrice COFFRINI
An indictment unsealed in New York on Monday detailed
 corruption allegations around the 2010 vote for 2018 and
 2022 World Cups

Qatar and Russia hit back at allegations of bribery on Tuesday after US prosecutors accused them of paying millions in bribes for the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

According to US Justice Department documents released Monday, FIFA officials received bribes to vote in favour of awarding the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

Doha said it "strongly denies the allegations contained within the court papers" while the Kremlin said it "absolutely legally got the right" to host the 2018 global football spectacle.

The US legal action is linked to a wide-ranging 2015 corruption scandal that left world governing body FIFA in turmoil and led to the downfall of then-president Sepp Blatter.

In the ensuing years, the US government has accused a total of 45 people and various sports companies of more than 90 crimes and of paying or accepting more than $200 million in bribes.

"Russia absolutely legally got the right to organise the World Cup," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery said in a statement the allegations "are part of a long-standing case, the subject of which is not the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process."

The timings of the competition, due to be held in November and December of 2022, remain unchanged by the coronavirus pandemic which has already forced the postponement of the European football championships and the Tokyo Olympics. Both will now take place in 2021.

The latest US legal action centres on two former executives of US media giant Fox who were charged with corruption, bank fraud and money-laundering on Monday.

But Federal prosecutors have also shed fresh light on the scandal-tainted bidding war for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

- 'A gentlemen's agreement' -

 
AFP/File / Mohamed el-Shahed
The World Cup trophy was on display during the African
 qualifying draw in Cairo in January


An unsealed superseding indictment released on Monday detailed corruption surrounding the 2010 vote in Zurich which saw FIFA award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Blatter told AFP that "there was a gentlemen's agreement at the heart of FIFA's executive committee" to award the 2018 tournament to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar.

"That's all," added Blatter who presided over both bidding processes and is currently banned from football.

The indictment said former Brazilian FIFA member Ricardo Teixeira and late Paraguayan official Nicolas Leoz, both members of the FIFA committee which voted on the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, received payment of bribes in exchange for voting for Qatar's bid.

In addition, Trinidad's long-serving FIFA official Jack Warner "was promised and received" bribe payments totalling $5 million to vote for Russia while Guatemala's Rafael Salguero was promised a $1 million bribe to vote for Russia.

Salguero pleaded guilty to multiple corruption charges in 2016 and was banned from FIFA while Warner, who faces charges in the United States, is currently battling extradition to the US from his native Trinidad.

In a statement FIFA said it "supports all investigations into alleged acts of criminal wrong-doing regarding either domestic or international football competitions".

"(FIFA) will continue to provide full cooperation to law enforcement officials investigating such matters," it said.

"FIFA has itself been accorded victim status in the US criminal proceedings and senior FIFA officials are in regular contact with the US Department of Justice."

burs-gw/mw

Virus may spark 'devastating' global condom shortage

AFP / Mohd RASFANSupplies of contraceptives will be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic

A global condom shortage is looming as the coronavirus pandemic shutters factories and disrupts supply chains, the world's top maker of the contraceptives said, with the United Nations warning of "devastating" consequences.

Over half of humanity has been confined to their homes as the highly contagious virus marches round the planet, while governments worldwide have ordered the closure of businesses deemed non-essential.

Malaysia -- one of the world's top rubber producers and a major source of condoms -- imposed a nationwide lockdown last month as infections surged to the highest level in Southeast Asia.

But restrictions on the operations of Malaysian contraceptive giant Karex, which makes one in every five condoms globally, mean the firm expects to produce 200 million fewer condoms than usual from mid-March to mid-April.

With other producers around the world likely facing disruption and difficulties in getting condoms to market due to transport problems, supplies of contraceptives will be hit hard, warned Karex chief executive Goh Miah Kiat.

"The world will definitely see a condom shortage," Goh told AFP.

"It's challenging, but we are trying our best right now to do whatever we can. It is definitely a major concern -- condom is an essential medical device.

"While we are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, there are also other serious issues that we need to look at," he said, adding he was particularly worried about supplies of condoms to developing countries.

- UN sounds alarm -

Karex, which supplies condoms to many companies as well as governments and for distribution by aid programmes, had to close its three Malaysian factories for a period at the start of the country's lockdown, which is due to last until April 14.

AFP / Mohd RASFANKarex supplies condoms to many companies as well as governments and for distribution by aid programmes

The company has since been allowed to resume operations but with only 50 percent of its usual workforce, and Goh wants permission to ramp up production.

The UN is also sounding the alarm, with its sexual and reproductive health agency warning it can currently only get about 50-60 percent of its usual condom supplies due to virus-related disruptions.

"Border closings and other restrictive measures are affecting transportation and production in a number of countries and regions," said a UN Population Fund spokesperson, adding they were taking steps such as adding extra suppliers to support urgent needs.

The agency, which works with governments worldwide to support family planning, said a key concern was being able to ship condoms to where they were needed quickly enough -- and warned the poorest and most vulnerable would be hit hardest if stocks run low.

AFP / Cristobal BOURONCLE, CRIS BOURONCLEThere could be an increase in unsafe abortions and an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, the UN says

"A shortage of condoms, or any contraceptive, could lead to an increase in unintended pregnancies, with potentially devastating health and social consequences for adolescent girls, women and their partners and families," said the spokesperson.

There could also be an rise in unsafe abortions and an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, the agency said.

Even as factory shutdowns and border closures throw the condom industry into chaos, demand appears to be increasing.

Goh said Karex had seen growing demand as people worldwide are confined to their homes, while Indian media reported that condom sales had jumped 25-35 percent in the week after the country of 1.3 billion people announced a lockdown.

- China to the rescue? -

Despite the warnings about a potential shortage, there are positive signs from condom makers in China, where the virus first emerged last year but which has largely managed to bring its outbreak under control.

Major producers there have resumed operations as authorities eased tough restrictions to halt the virus, which has claimed more than 80,000 victims worldwide.

AFP / Mohd RASFANOver half of humanity has been confined to their homes as the highly contagious virus marches round the planet

HBM Protections, which makes more than one billion condoms a year, said production is back to normal levels and it is pushing ahead with earlier plans to triple its number of manufacturing lines by the end of the year.

And Shanghai Mingbang Rubber Products said it was ready to ramp up condom exports, which currently make up only about 10 percent of its output, if there is a global shortfall.

"If the international market runs into such problems... we will be willing to export more," chief executive Cai Qijie told AFP.

burs-sr/kaf

LET'S MAKE A DEAL
Taliban end 'fruitless' meetings with Afghan govt over prisoner swap

AFP / WAKIL KOHSAR
The Taliban's political spokesman has blamed the administration
 of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for delaying the prisoner release

The Taliban said Tuesday they were pulling negotiators out of "fruitless" discussions with the Afghan government over a prisoner swap that had formed a key part of an accord with the United States.

The Taliban's political spokesman Suhail Shaheen accused the administration of President Ashraf Ghani of "intentionally postponing the release and breaching the deal".

He wrote on Twitter that the Taliban were recalling the technical team that had been sent to Kabul for negotiations.

He earlier said that the team "will not participate in fruitless meetings".

The two foes have been holding talks in Kabul since last week to try to finalise the prisoner swap that was originally supposed to have happened by March 10 and pave the way for "intra-Afghan" peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban.

POOL/AFP / LEAH MILLISUS
 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses a news conference
 at the State Department


The United States signed a deal with the Taliban in late February that required the Afghan government -- which was not a signatory to the accord -- to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and for the insurgents to release 1,000 pro-government captives in return.

In the accord, Washington promised the withdrawal of US and foreign troops from Afghanistan by July next year, provided the Taliban start talks with Kabul and adhere to other guarantees.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met last month with leaders in Kabul as well as the Taliban, said he had still seen progress overall and accused Afghan stakeholders of "posturing in the media".

"I'm confident in the days ahead we'll have things that look like steps backward. But I'm also hopeful that all the parties are sincere in wanting what's good for the Afghan people," Pompeo told reporters in Washington.

- 'Killers of our people' -

Matin Bek, a member of the government's negotiating team, said the release had been delayed because the Taliban are demanding the release of 15 "top commanders".

"We cannot release the killers of our people," Bek told reporters on Monday.

"We don't want them to go back to the battlefield and capture a whole province."

Bek added that the government was ready to release up to 400 low-threat Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in return for a "considerable" reduction in violence, but the Taliban rejected that offer.

Javid Faisal, spokesman for Afghanistan's Office of the National Security Council, said on Twitter that the prisoner swap talks had "entered an important phase ahead of release".

AFP/File / Banaras KHAN
Activists in Quetta, Pakistan of the Jamiat Ulema-e Islam
 Nazryate party celebrate the signing of a US-Taliban deal
 on March 1, 2020

"Withdrawing from talks at such time indicates a lack of seriousness about peace," Faisal wrote, adding that the government remained "committed to pursuing peace".

Many observers see the Taliban as receiving a better deal than Afghanistan's internationally recognized government, from which the United States is withdrawing at least $1 billion in aid due to an unresolved feud between Ghani and his nemesis Abdullah Abdullah.

On Sunday, the Taliban released a statement accusing the Afghan government of violating the "peace agreement" between the US and the insurgents, even though the Taliban have killed scores of security forces since the deal was signed.

The insurgents issued a new statement Tuesday, accusing the US of killing civilians in continued bombing operations and night raids.

"These acts if continued will seriously dent the peace process and it will prompt strong response from the (Taliban)," the group wrote on their website.

INTERNET SNAKE OIL

Internet overseers seek crackdown on coronavirus website scams

AFP/File / Mark RALSTONThe internet's online address manager ICANN is calling for stronger efforts to stop the proliferation of fake websites using the coronavirus pandemic to scam consumers

The agency that oversees online addresses on Tuesday called for those issuing website address to vigilantly thwart cyber scams exploiting coronavirus fears.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers took the unusual step of firing off a letter to "registrars" entrusted with the business of issuing website names around the world.

"As you're also aware, ICANN cannot, under our bylaw and practically speaking, involve itself in issues related to website content,"

ICANN chief executive Goran Marby said the global agency does not have authority to manage website content but added: "That does not mean we are unconcerned or unaware of how certain domain names are being misused in fraudulent activities during this global pandemic."

The deadly coronavirus and dramatic steps taken to combat its spread have led to "an explosion of cybercrime" with criminals preying on people desperate for ways to protect themselves and those they love, according to recent report prepared for ICANN.

Online criminals typically use deceptively named websites for phishing, spam or malware campaigns, the report concluded.

In March, at least 100,000 new website names were registered using terms such as "covid," "corona," and "virus," according to the report.

Thousands of such websites unleash floods of spam ads for coronavirus-themed scams, according to the report.

"COVID-19 is unique in that it is truly global; and the cyber bad guys haven't drifted toward it, they have rushed toward it like a barrel off Niagra Falls," ICANN security chief John Crain told AFP.

"This is a new low, preying on people at a time like this."

The latest warning was issued to the hundreds of internet registrars around the world accredited by ICANN to issue new website domain names.

"We are trying to remind them that this is not about business as usual," Crain said, noting tha ICANN is not a regulator in the typical sense so has no outright enforcement authority.

US navy chief out over handling of ship virus outbreak

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / CHIP SOMODEVILLA

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly sparked outrage after 

he flew from Washington to Guam, where the warship is docked,

 to defend his actions to the crew

US Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday over his mishandling of an outbreak of the coronavirus on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced.

Modly stepped down five days after removing the Roosevelt's captain, Brett Crozier, for writing a letter -- that was leaked to the media -- describing the virus-struck vessel's dire situation and alleging the Pentagon was not paying adequate attention to it.

The removal of Crozier, respected in the military and popular with his crew, was seen as heavy-handed and decided too quickly, before an investigation was carried out.

Modly sparked outrage Monday after he flew from Washington to Guam, where the warship is docked, to defend his actions to the crew.

In a forceful, profanity-laced speech, he accused Crozier of "betrayal," called him "too naive or too stupid" and suggested the sailors' love for him was misplaced.

Hours later, back in Washington, Modly issued an apology, but President Donald Trump publicly questioned Crozier's treatment and said he would get directly involved.

Modly "resigned of his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward," Esper said in a statement.

Esper said Modly's replacement as acting Navy secretary will be current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson, a retired admiral.

- Ship captain's letter sparked 'panic' -

  

Navy Office of Information/AFP / Nicholas V. HUYNH

The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier is in dock in Guam

 after an outbreak of Covid-19

Modly was the second navy chief to depart in just over four months.

In November, Esper fired Navy secretary Richard Spencer after he pushed back against Trump's protection of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who had been charged with war crimes and convicted of lesser charges.

Gallagher was demoted and was to lose his identity as a member of the elite SEAL corps until Trump stepped in, drawing accusations that he was undermining the authority of the military leadership by condoning Gallagher's behavior.

But that case, according to some analysts, put pressure on Trump to also give some support to Crozier, whose career was spotless.

The navy veteran had written a letter to his superiors in late March complaining of an uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak among the Roosevelt's 4,800 crew, and called on the Pentagon to allow him to vacate the nuclear-powered ship and sterilize it.

"The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating," Crozier wrote. "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die."

The letter was published by the San Francisco Chronicle, a leak Esper and Modly insinuated was deliberate and violated the Pentagon's chain of command.

Crozier "demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis" in his handling of the letter, Modly said.

"It misrepresented the facts of what was going on the ship" and created "a little bit of panic" that was unnecessary, he said.

Still, the Roosevelt has been docked for 11 days in Guam so the crew, with well over 100 confirmed coronavirus cases, can be tested and the vessel cleaned.

Trump said Tuesday that he was not involved in Modly's departure, but said Crozier was wrong for writing the letter and that Modly "probably shouldn't have said quite what he said."

"I didn't speak to him but he did that, I think, just to end that problem," he said of Modly's resignation


Modly resigns after ripping sailors, ousted captain on open microphone

By Christen McCurdy UPI

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly, shown here

 at the April 2 press briefing where he announced his decision

 to remove Capt. Brett Crozier from his role, resigned on

 Tuesday. Photo by Lisa Ferdinando/Department of Defense

April 7 (UPI) -- Defense secretary Mark Esper confirmed Tuesday that he had accepted the resignation of Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly after Modly called the aircraft carrier captain he fired last week " stupid" in an address to the ship's crew, multiple sources reported Tuesday.

Esper's statement also confirmed that Army Undersecretary James McPherson has been appointed to replace Modly.

"Secretary Modly served the nation for many years," Esper wrote in a statement on Modly's resignation, which had already been reported by CNN, Politico and the Wall Street Journal. "I have the deepest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who places the greater good above all else. Secretary Modly did that today, and I wish him all the best."

Ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees both released statements supporting Modly's resignation.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., wrote on Twitter that Modly "mishandled the situation" and that he supported Esper's decision to accept his resignation.

"Acting Secretary Modly submitting his formal resignation to Secretary Esper was the right thing to do," wrote Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who had called for Modly's resignation Monday. "After mismanaging the COVID-19 outbreak on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, it became obvious that Acting Secretary Modly had forfeited his ability to lead the Navy. His actions had become a distraction at a time when we need the Navy to be focused on preserving the safety of our Sailors and maintaining the readiness of our fleet."

Modly's comments in the address were first reported by Task and Purpose, and he initially he said he "stood by every word," but later he apologized for the comments.

Modly announced Thursday that he had relieved Capt. Brett Crozier of his role as leader of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after Crozier wrote a letter pleading with the Navy for more resources to isolate sailors amid an outbreak of the novel coronavirus on the ship, which is docked in Guam to test personnel.

RELATED Sailors cheer USS Theodore Roosevelt captain who was relieved of command

The decision drew criticism from lawmakers, and videos that surfaced Friday -- showing hundreds of sailors chanting Crozier's name as he deboarded the carrier -- suggest Modly's call was not popular with sailors.

Modly was appointed in November following the resignation of Richard V. Spencer due to a conflict over the administration's handling of a Navy SEAL who was photographed with a dead prisoner of war.

RELATED Aircraft carrier captain dismissed after sounding alarm on COVID-19 outbreak

RIP
Celebrated singer-songwriter John Prine has died at 73 from COVID-19

I WAS INTRODUCED TO JOHN PRINE BY A ROOMATE GUITAR PLAYER OF MINE WHEN I WAS IN UNIVERSITY IN LETHBRIDGE.

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS April 7, 2020

Musician John Prine performs onstage during the 

2014 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival

 at the Empire Polo Club on April 27, 2014 in Indio, 

California.

FRAZER HARRISON—GETTY IMAGES FOR STAGECOACH


John Prine, the ingenious singer-songwriter who explored the heartbreaks, indignities and absurdities of everyday life in “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” “Hello in There” and scores of other indelible tunes, died Tuesday at the age of 73.

His family announced his death from complications from the coronavirus; he died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where he had been hospitalized last month.

Winner of a lifetime achievement Grammy earlier this year, Prine was a virtuoso of the soul, if not the body. He sang his conversational lyrics in a voice roughened by a hard-luck life, particularly after throat cancer left him with a disfigured jaw.

He joked that he fumbled so often on the guitar, taught to him as a teenager by his older brother, that people thought he was inventing a new style. But his open-heartedness, eye for detail and sharp and surreal humor brought him the highest admiration from critics, from such peers as Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson, and from such younger stars as Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves, who even named a song after him.

In 2017, Rolling Stone proclaimed him “The Mark Twain of American songwriting.”

Prine began playing as a young Army veteran who invented songs to fight boredom while delivering the U.S. mail in Maywood, Illinois. He and his friend, folk singer Steve Goodman, were still polishing their skills at the Old Town School of Folk Music when Kristofferson, a rising star at the time, heard them sing one night in Chicago, and invited them to share his stage in New York City. The late film critic Roger Ebert, then with the Chicago Sun-Times, also saw one of his shows and declared him an “extraordinary new composer.”

Suddenly noticed by America’s most popular folk, rock and country singers, Prine signed with Atlantic Records and released his first album in 1971.

“I was really into writing about characters, givin’ ‘em names,” Prine said, reminiscing about his long career in a January 2016 public television interview that was posted on his website.

“You just sit and look around you. You don’t have to make up stuff. If you just try to take down the bare description of what’s going on, and not try to over-describe something, then it leaves space for the reader or the listener to fill in their experience with it, and they become part of it.”

He was among the many promoted as a “New Dylan” and among the few to survive it and find his own way. Few songwriters could equal his wordplay, his empathy or his imagination.

“I try to look through someone else’s eyes,” he told Ebert in 1970. His characters were common people and confirmed eccentrics, facing the frustrations and pleasures anyone could relate to. “Sam Stone” traces the decline of a drug-addicted Vietnam veteran through the eyes of his little girl. “Donald and Lydia” tells of a tryst between a shy Army private and small-town girl, both vainly searching for “love hidden deep in your heart:”

They made love in the mountains, they made love in the streams

they made love in the valleys, they made love in their dreams.

But when they were finished, there was nothing to say,

‘cause mostly they made love from ten miles away.

“He writes beautiful songs,” Dylan once told MTV producer Bill Flanagan. “I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about Sam Stone the soldier-junkie-daddy, and Donald and Lydia, where people make love from ten miles away -- nobody but Prine could write like that.”

Prine’s mischief shined in songs like “Illegal Smile,” which he swore wasn’t about marijuana; “Spanish Pipedream,” about a topless waitress with “something up her sleeve;” and “Dear Abby,” in which Prine imagines the advice columnist getting fed up with whiners and hypochondriacs.

“You have no complaint,” his Abby writes back:

You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t

so listen up Buster, and listen up good

stop wishin’ for bad luck and knocking on wood!”



Prine was never a major commercial success, but performed for more than four decades, often selling his records at club appearances where he mentored rising country and bluegrass musicians.

“I felt like I was going door to door meeting the people and cleaning their carpets and selling them a record,” he joked in a 1995 Associated Press interview.


Many others adopted his songs. Raitt made a signature tune out of “Angel from Montgomery,” about the stifled dreams of a lonely housewife, and performed it at the 2020 Grammys ceremony. Bette Midler recorded “Hello in There,” Prine’s poignant take on old age. Prine wrote “Unwed Fathers” for Tammy Wynette, and “Love Is on a Roll” for Don Williams.

Others who covered Prine’s music included Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, John Denver, the Everly Brothers, Carly Simon, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Norah Jones and Old Crow Medicine Show.

Prine himself regarded Dylan and Cash as key influences, bridges between folk and country whose duet on Dylan’s country rock album “Nashville Skyline” made Prine feel there was a place for him in contemporary music. Though mostly raised in Maywood, he spent summers in Paradise, Kentucky, and felt so great an affinity to his family’s roots there he would call himself “pure Kentuckian.”

Price was married three times, and appreciated a relationship that lasted. In 1999, he and Iris DeMent shared vocals on the classic title track of his album “In Spite of Ourselves,” a ribald tribute to an old married couple.

In spite of ourselves we’ll end up a-sittin’ on a rainbow

Against all odds, honey we’re the big door-prize

We’re gonna spite our noses right off of our faces

There won’t be nothin’ but big ol’ hearts dancin’ in our eyes




Prine preferred songs about feelings to topical music, but he did respond at times to the day’s headlines. Prine’s parents had moved to suburban Chicago from Paradise, a coal town ravaged by strip mining that inspired one of his most cutting protest songs, “Paradise.” It appeared on his first album, along with “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” which criticized what he saw as false patriotism surrounding the Vietnam War.

Many years later, as President George W. Bush sent soldiers to war, Prine had a song for that, too. In “Some Humans Ain’t Human,” he wrote: “You’re feeling your freedom, and the world’s off your back, some cowboy from Texas, starts his own war in Iraq.”

Prine’s off-hand charisma made him a natural for movies. He appeared in the John Mellencamp film “Falling From Grace,” and in Billy Bob Thornton’s “Daddy and Them.” His other Grammy Awards include Best Contemporary Folk Recording for his 1991 album “The Missing Years,” with guest vocalists including Raitt, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Phil Everly. He won Best Traditional Folk Album in 2004 for “Beautiful Dreamer.”

Prine didn’t let illness stop him from performing or recording. In 2013, long after surviving throat cancer, he was diagnosed with an unrelated and operable form of lung cancer, but he bounced back from that, too, often sharing the stage with DeMent and other younger artists. On the playful talking blues “When I Get to Heaven,” from the 2018 album “The Tree of Forgiveness,” he vowed to have the last laugh for all eternity.

When I get to heaven, I’m gonna shake God’s hand

Thank him for more blessings than one man can stand

Then I’m gonna get a guitar and start a rock-n-roll band

Check into a swell hotel; ain’t the afterlife grand?

John Prine, revered American folk songwriter, dies of coronavirus complications
 

AFP/File / Angela WeissJohn Prine performs onstage during the 2019 Songwriters Hall Of Fame Gala, where he was among those inducted
John Prine, an American folk legend widely considered one of his generation's most influential songwriters, died following complications of coronavirus Tuesday, his publicist told AFP on behalf of his family. He was 73 years old.

On April 3 Prine's wife Fiona had posted on social media the beloved country and folk star was on his eighth day in the ICU on a ventilator, and had pneumonia in both lungs.

Once dubbed the "Mark Twain of American songwriting," over his five decades in the music business Prine carved an image as an off-the-cuff wordsmith who forged melancholy tales with a dose of surrealist wit.

Bob Dylan has named Prine among his favorite songwriters, citing the literary yarn "Lake Marie" as a favorite from his fellow folk bard's vast catalogue.

"Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism," Dylan said in 2009.

"Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree."

Born October 10, 1946 in Maywood, Illinois, Prine took up music as a hobby before emerging on the Chicago folk revivalist scene in the late 1960s, when he was discovered by country star Kris Kristofferson.

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / Scott DudelsonSinger John Prine, recipient of the 2020 Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, performs during a pre-Grammy show honoring Willie Nelson


His 1971 self-titled debut album was a critical hit, a first collection of his unique social commentary and protest songs that would make the troubadour a staple of Americana for decades to come.

His anti-Vietnam War hit "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" found a second coming in the early 2000s as the United States embarked on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, earning Prine both standing ovations and angry hate mail.

"When someone turns the country backwards," he told Florida's St. Petersburg Times in 2005, "they should at least expect to be called out on it."

- 'Homespun sense of humor' -

The bluegrass-loving musician with a penchant for allegory enjoyed riffing on country music tropes with stereotypical spoofs, adding whimsical touches to heavier lyricism.

Prine spun tales of past loves as well as solitude, estrangement and regret, in work often streaked with prominent threads of mortality.

"His is just extraordinarily eloquent music -- and he lives on that plane with Neil [Young] and [John] Lennon," said Pink Floyd's Roger Waters of Prine in 2008.

In 1981, tired of the recording establishment he considered exploitative of artists, Prine founded his own record label Oh Boy Records in Nashville.

The Grammy winner with 19 studio albums to his name this year received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, which praised him as "one of the most influential songwriters of his generation."

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / KEVORK DJANSEZIANBonnie Raitt performed a tribute to John Prine at the 62nd annual Grammy awards, where he received a lifetime achievement award

In 2019 Prine was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and in 2016 joined elite company including Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen in earning a prestigious songwriting award from the PEN literary organization.

"The combination of being that tender and that wise and that astute mixed with his homespun sense of humor -- it was probably the closest thing for those of us that didn't get the blessing of seeing Mark Twain in person," said fellow musician Bonnie Raitt, who covered one of Prine's most cherished songs "Angel From Montgomery" in 1974.

- 'National treasure' -

Prine's storied career included two battles with cancer. In 1998 he received a squamous cell cancer diagnosis and had surgery to remove diseased tissue in his neck, severing several nerves.

After a year of speech therapy he was able to perform again, albeit with a new gravelly timbre.

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / Scott DudelsonSinger John Prine's 1971 self-titled debut album was a critical hit, a first collection of his unique social commentary and protest songs that would make him a staple of Americana for decades to come

In 2013 he fought lung cancer and had part of his lung removed, a process he rehabilitated from by running up and down his stairs and singing two songs with his guitar while still breathless.

The artist's wife Fiona had said on March 17 that she had tested positive for COVID-19, and his family on March 29 said Prine was intubated and in "critical" condition due to the virus that's left more than 80,000 people dead worldwide.

Tributes poured out for the deeply influential artist, with Justin Vernon of experimental folk band Bon Iver calling Prine "my number 1."

"A simple majority of who I am as a person, let alone a musician, is because of John prine," Vernon said.

Bruce Springsteen declared Prine a "true national treasure and a songwriter for the ages," writing "over here on E Street, we are crushed by the loss of John Prine."

"John and I were 'New Dylans' together in the early 70s and he was never anything but the loveliest guy in the world."

Ever fun-loving in the face of tribulation, the heaven Prine envisioned on his last album, released in 2018, would allow him to resume his youthful habits: "I'm gonna get a cocktail: vodka and ginger ale / I'm gonna smoke a cigarette that's nine miles long."

"I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl on the tilt-a-whirl," Prine sang. "'Cause this old man is goin' to town."

FORGOTTEN HEROES OF THE ROAD
'MAYDAY': The largest organization of independent truck drivers is demanding that Trump provide masks, testing, and quarantine zones for truckers

Truckers are asking President Donald Trump for "urgent and immediate action." 

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File ASSHOLE BEHIND THE WHEEL

America's largest organization of independent truck drivers is demanding that President Donald Trump act quickly to protect drivers.

There are nearly two million truck drivers in the US, and they have been deemed as "essential" workers while much of the nation has been told to stay home. 

Truckers are at an increased risk for contracting the coronavirus.

In a letter that begins "HELP – MAYDAY – 9-1-1," America's largest organization of independent truck drivers is demanding that President Donald Trump act quickly to protect drivers.

Rachel Premack BUSINESS INSIDER Apr 4, 2020

Todd Spencer, the president and CEO of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, wrote in a letter dated April 3 that truck drivers are key to the nation's supply chain and have been deemed "essential" workers, but they're at more risk than ever as the coronavirus sweeps across the US.

"Right now, professional drivers are busting their butts to care for the nation," he wrote in the letter to Trump. "Their hard work and personal sacrifice should not include their health or even their lives if at all possible or preventable."

There are nearly two million truck drivers in the US, and they move around 71% of the nation's freight by weight. If truck drivers got sick en masse, that would put at risk Americans' abilities to buy groceries, go to the ATM, get gas, and, of course, get online orders delivered.

Spencer argued that this critical service could be at risk. "Once word spreads that drivers are testing positive, we could very well see a tremendous reduction in drivers willing to risk everything for the rest of us," he wrote.

Here are the three safeguards Spencer wrote that Trump needs to make available to truck drivers immediately:
Access to personal protective equipment, like masksTesting on truck routes that show results within hoursA place for truck drivers to quarantine or seek treatment if they test positive for the coronavirus

The massive trucking companies that employ drivers have not made clear if they have paid time off for truck drivers, or what infrastructure they have for drivers who have the coronavirus. Business Insider contacted 10 of the largest public trucking companies in the US, and few revealed policies for what happens if a truck driver gets sick.

One large public trucking company is even asking truck drivers with symptoms of the coronavirus to self-quarantine in their trucks for several days, according to emails sent to Business Insider.
 

A truck driver in Luling, Texas in 2015. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

As Americans buy more and more cleaning goods and food, and hospitals require quick shipments of key medical supplies, the country's trucking network is getting pushed to the limit to ensure those items are delivered on time, experts say. During the week of March 22, for instance, trucking shipments to grocery stores jumped by 81% compared to the same week last year, and by 16% from just the week before, according to freight data company project44.

Meanwhile, truck drivers are at a greater risk than other Americans to get the coronavirus and to experience complications from it.

Truck drivers are twice as likely as the average working American to not have health insurance, according to a 2014 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Paid sick leave is also not a common benefit across many trucking jobs.

More than half of truckers smoke cigarettes, according to the CDC. Epidemiologist Saskia Popescu, who practices at the Honor Health medical group in Arizona, previously told Business Insider that those with a history of smoking may be more vulnerable to coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the American Diabetes Association has warned that people with diabetes should expect more complications with coronavirus should they contract it. Truckers are twice as likely as the general population to have diabetes, according to the CDC.

Read more about how coronavirus is affecting America's 1.8 million truck drivers

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America's largest trucking companies won't reveal how — or if — they'll get their drivers home if they get coronavirus, and truckers are terrified

Leaked memo reveals trucking giant mistakenly distributed faulty sanitation wipes to its 10,000-plus drivers

Walmart leadership is urging its 9,000 'Elite Fleet' truck drivers to buy cleaning supplies with their company cards amid coronavirus fears

After weeks of silence amid the coronavirus outbreak, Amazon tells its giant network of truck drivers to stay home if feeling sick

'The whole world's f---ed': A former Goldman Sachs hedge-fund chief says coronavirus fallout will cause the 'largest insolvency event in all history' — and warns of another 20% plunge in stocks

Reuters
Christopher Competiello BUSINESS INSIDER Apr 4, 2020

Raoul Pal, the former hedge-fund manager who founded Real Vision, thinks the fallout from the coronavirus will have immense impacts on the global economy. 

The duration and severity of the pandemic is something that Pal thinks hasn't yet been accounted for properly.

Pal thinks a further 20% decline in stocks is on the horizon.

In October, Pal predicted the Federal Reserve would cut rates to zero and the US would have negative rates.

In late February, Pal told investors to buy bonds and said the impacts from the coronavirus would be "meaningful and real."

"The whole world's f---ed."

That's what Raoul Pal, the former hedge-fund manager who founded Real Vision, said on the "Lindzanity" podcast while speaking about when he learned that the coronavirus was uncontrolled and spreading rapidly.

"The moment the spread hit Iran ... and then Italy — that all happened over the span of three or four days — I was like: 'time to panic before everybody else,'" he said. "It's human behavior function. If the Chinese closed every single border and every city, everybody's going to do it."
To bring you up to speed, Pal retired at 36 after quitting jobs at Goldman Sachs and GLG Partners. He lives comfortably on a 140-person island in the Cayman Islands and spends his days writing market research, which comes with a hefty price tag of $40,000 per year.

"I said, 'Listen, this is the biggest economic event of all of our lifetimes — and it's coming,'" he added. "And that was, in retrospect, the greatest call I've ever had."
But this isn't the first time Pal has nailed a prescient call. In October, he said the Federal Reserve needed to cut interest rates to zero and warned of negative interest rates in the US, both of which have materialized.

What's more, as the market was topping out in late February, Pal expressed his affinity for owning bonds — a trade that would've immensely rewarded investors who took his advice. He also said the implications of the coronavirus would be "meaningful and real."

That was before things really started to fall apart.


Today, Pal thinks the coronavirus will cause "the largest insolvency event in all history." And given his track record lately, that's not reassuring.

"I think the balance of probabilities are that this is a much longer event — in terms of economic impacts — than anybody is pricing in," he said. "I think it's a huge societal change that's coming from all of this."

To Pal, the duration of the fallout from the coronavirus is the key factor here — one that he thinks investors aren't paying enough attention to. In his mind, those who are a projecting sharp V-shaped recovery in the third and fourth quarters are incorrect in their assumptions.

"Isolation is going to be a real event for a significant period of time," he said. "You've got a world that's going to be much more closed, and that's leading to complications in supply chains."


He added: "It makes people become more local."

Pal's prognosis echoes that of billionaire "bond king" Jeffrey Gundlach.

"We're going to be getting much more less connected to globalization," Gundlach said in a DoubleLine webcast earlier this week. "We're going to be bringing manufacturing back and thinking about things in very different ways."

But the changes that Pal and Gundlach expect don't happen overnight, which is why Pal thinks the fallout could worsen. Every day that the pandemic drags on is one less day without production and consumption. Then that, in turn, heightens bankruptcy risk.

"So I'm now in the point of thinking we've got another 20% downside or so to come before we get the three-, four-month bounce of hope," he said. "For the average guy, this is a very, very, very difficult world we're going to go into — and I can't sugarcoat it because there is no nice answer."