Israel's judicial proposals prompt startups to relocate -govt agency

Story by By Steven Scheer • 

 Israel's hi-tech sector protests against Israeli government's judicial overhaul, in

ÊTel Aviv

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The government's plan to overhaul the judicial system is harming investor confidence and pushing high-tech firms to relocate abroad, Israel's state-backed agency that supports high-tech companies said on Monday.

A survey by the Israel Innovation Authority found 80% of startups established so far this year were opened outside Israel and that companies also intend to register their future intellectual property overseas - which would result in a severe blow to Israel's tax coffers.

Israel's high-tech sector employs 10% of the country's workforce accounting for around 15% of economic output, more than half of exports and a quarter of tax income.

Proposals by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right coalition to give the government greater say in the selection of judges while limiting the Supreme Court's power to strike down legislation have worried current and potential investors.

Opponents say the proposals would remove vital checks and balances, threaten minority rights and undermine Israel's democratic foundations.

Final approval of the government's bitterly disputed judicial overhaul package has been delayed after widespread protests to try and find a compromise between proponents and opponents.

"Even if the legal-judicial crisis is solved, it will take time to reach a solution, and even after this, it will take time to build confidence with investors once more," said Dror Bin, chief executive of the Innovation Authority, adding that the legal plan was exacerbating harm from a weaker economy.

Benny Gantz, head of the largest opposition party, said Israeli parties have made no progress towards a compromise after a month of meetings.

"We set out with a number of principles, first and foremost that there will be no politicisation of the judicial system. It hasn't changed and it won't change," he said, as the Knesset parliament returned from its spring break.

In a report delivered to of Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis, the Innovation Authority cited a significant gap between tech stocks traded in Tel Aviv and on Nasdaq.

While the Nasdaq is up 17% this year, Israel's tech index is down 4%.

Should the gap widen further, "many Israeli hi-tech companies will find it very hard to raise investment and will be forced to close or move to other countries," it said.

It added that high-tech fundraising in the first quarter was just $1.7 billion, the lowest quarterly figure since 2019.

The authority recommended a number of steps such as easing regulations, incentives to encourage investment and incentives for startups to register intellectual property in Israel.

"The findings...require the government to take rapid action in order to reverse the worrying trends it highlights," said Akunis, a long-time Netanyahu adviser.

(Reporting by Steven ScheerEditing by Christina Fincher)

Arm’s-length Six Nations development corporation has amassed $150 million in assets since 2015

Story by The Canadian Press • 

A new parking lot at Mohawk Village Memorial Park. A spruced-up cafeteria and gymnasium at Six Nations Polytechnic. Vehicles to transport visitors and equipment at Woodland Cultural Centre.

These are some of the projects that received funding through the Six Nations Economic Development Trust (EDT) earlier this month.

In total, eight recipients split just over $703,000, with almost $433,000 going to Six Nations Housing in support of a future housing project called Onondaga 2 Townhouse.

The EDT distributes the profits generated by the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC), which manages 20 renewable energy projects on and around the reserve.

“The trust doesn’t fund one-off things. They don’t fund political aspirations,” said Matt Jamieson, president and CEO of the development corporation.

“They fund things that are designed to fuel a better future for our children.”

SNGRDC recently announced significant changes to how it funds capital projects on Six Nations. The development corporation is also getting out of the property management and tourism businesses in favour of ventures that will bring in cash and grow the organization’s economic clout.

“We’ve had to re-evaluate our strategy as a corporation,” Jamieson told The Spectator. “We are really focused on things that are going to move the needle.”

That means having Six Nations Elected Council take over the management of nine properties whose development has stalled for “political factors which are beyond the control” of the SNGRDC.

On properties not currently part of the reserve, like a parcel of land on West Street in Brantford, elected council has to negotiate with outside governments as to how those lands will be zoned and developed. Such negotiations, Jamieson said, “are beyond the circle of influence of the development corporation.”

Properties on the reserve — which include three decommissioned internet towers and two former school sites — sit on land owned by the elected council, which again puts the development corporation in the back seat since council “is ultimately the landlord” of properties like the Oneida Business Park, a nearly 90,000-square-foot commercial complex on Fourth Line near Highway 6.

“They’re the ones who can enter into long-term binding leases with third parties to develop that property. The development corporation doesn’t have the power to do that,” Jamieson said of council.

“So essentially, we were a middle person in the equation that didn’t need to be there.”

Land claims, or jurisdictional issues between the elected and hereditary governments on the reserve, did not play a part in the decision to divest the nine properties from the development corporation’s holdings, Jamieson said.

Ceding Six Nations Tourism to the elected council is a “strategic move” to allow council to apply for grants to support Chiefswood National Historic Site and the Mohawk Chapel that the for-profit development corporation cannot access, he added.

The corporation will still run Chiefswood Park and manage the bookings at the popular glamping site.

The restructuring of the development corporation is the result of a year’s worth of conversations with elected council.

“The new agreement ... will strengthen our working relationship,” elected Chief Mark Hill said in a statement.

“We are excited to develop more strategic and long-term plans to meet community needs and better serve the Six Nations community in unity with SNGRDC.”

Funding community needs

The development corporation on Six Nations was designed “to separate business from politics,” as the organization puts it.

Since launching in 2015, SNGRDC has amassed more than $150 million in assets and currently manages projects like Oneida Energy Storage, a planned operation near the reserve in Haldimand County which, when completed, is expected to be Canada’s largest battery-based electricity storage site.

A main benefit to a First Nation of having a for-profit development corporation is the revenue generated by such projects can stay on the reserve. Were elected council, which receives its funding from Ottawa, to oversee economic development directly, any profits would be clawed back from federal transfer payments.

Instead, profits from those ventures flow back to the community through the EDT, with elected council routinely getting the lion’s share. Of the $17.3 million distributed since 2016, elected council got more than $12 million.

Jamieson said rather than having council “compete” for funding with community groups, it makes more sense for EDT to guarantee a set amount for capital projects and leave more money available — specifically, 10 per cent of the development corporation’s free cash — for outside organizations.

So for the next 15 years, under a new agreement that came into effect March 31, elected council will receive $1.4 million annually from the EDT or 40 per cent of the development corporation’s unallocated cash, whichever amount is greater.

The funding hinges on annual reporting that proves the grant money is being spent on projects that align with the reserve’s long-term community plan.

“It gives them that long-term certainty,” Jamieson said.

“If you think about roads or health or housing, they can factor that in for the next 15 years and start building their capital plans.”

The grant money also makes a difference for organizations like the Woodland Cultural Centre, a language and interpretative centre located at the site of the former Mohawk Institute residential school in Brantford.

“We are so grateful to the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporations’s Economic Development Trust for their generous contribution of two multi-passenger golf carts and a utility cart to allow us to continue to provide access for Elders, Survivors and tourists alike to visit Woodland during our ongoing phase three renovation of the former Mohawk Institute and grounds,” Woodland’s executive director, Heather George, said in an email to The Spectator.

“The placement of an accessible trail and operation of shuttle vehicles while the driveway is being resurfaced will mean that Woodland can continue to welcome visitors to experience all that our Hodinosho:ni culture has to offer.”

J.P. Antonacci, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator

Water pressure: Indigenous leaders from U.S., Canada still demanding pollution probe

Story by The Canadian Press •


WASHINGTON — Indigenous and tribal leaders from Canada and the U.S. are keeping up the pressure on both countries to investigate toxic mining runoff from British Columbia.

They want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier David Eby to agree to a bilateral investigation under a long-standing transborder water treaty.

That's despite last month's vow by Trudeau and President Joe Biden to seek a deal they say would "reduce and mitigate" pollution in the Elk-Kootenai watershed.

Indigenous groups from sides of the border were in Washington, D.C., on Friday to press their case to the International Joint Commission, which oversees transborder water issues.

They say they want a bilateral investigation under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty into Elk Valley mining operations they say have been poisoning their watershed for more than a decade.

But Trudeau says he believes the negotiations that are already underway are more likely to yield results.

"We believe that there are processes that are being followed right now that have a better chance of getting to a resolution," Trudeau said Friday during a news conference in New York.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Sanders warns lawmakers not to ‘go to war on the working class’ during debt negotiations

Story by Julia Mueller • Yesterday 

Sanders warns lawmakers not to ‘go to war on the working class’ during debt negotiations © Provided by The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said he’s open to some spending cuts as Congress works out how to deal with the debt ceiling and the threat of default, but knocked House Republicans’ recent proposal and warned lawmakers not to “go to war against the working class.”

“I think we can move toward cutting military spending. We’re now spending 10 times more than … any other country on Earth, massive cost overruns in the Pentagon. I’m certainly open to demanding that the largest corporations in this country and the wealthiest people start paying their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked whether he’d consider other spending cuts as part of an ultimate deal.

“And I’m willing to look at any other proposals. There’s a lot of waste within government. Let’s go after it. But don’t go to war against the working class of this country, lower-income people. Don’t tell kids that they can’t afford to go to college or cut back on public education in America. We have already too much inequality in America. Let’s not make it worse,” he added.

The Republican-controlled House last week passed a bill to raise the borrowing limit and cut spending, which now has little chance of getting through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sanders on Sunday said President Biden is “right” to push for a “clean” debt limit increase instead.

“What we need is a clean debt ceiling bill. You pay your bills, and then you can sit down and negotiate what a sensible budget is,” Sanders said.

“What the Republicans are saying in their budget proposal is that, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the richest people are becoming much richer, while working-class people are struggling, what they want to do is to cut programs for nutrition, for education, for health care, throw hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people off the health care they need,” the senator said.

Sanders also said Biden can “start negotiating tomorrow” on possible spending cuts.

“But you cannot be holding the American people or the world’s economy hostage. What the Republicans have got to say is, absolutely, we are going to make sure that we pay our debts. Let’s sit down and negotiate a budget.”

State Republicans have gone from opposing Democrats to opposing democracy

Opinion by Lauren Leader and Donna Brazile, opinion contributor • THE HILL

State Republicans have gone from opposing Democrats to opposing democracy© Provided by The Hill

Across the country, from Tennessee to Montana, Republican-controlled state legislatures are quietly and effectively eroding democracy on a near-daily basis. Amassing outsized power is enabling them to push a radical agenda, including expelling and silencing elected leaders, banning abortion, loosening gun laws, targeting trans families and banning books.

Too many Republican-controlled legislatures have gone from opposing Democrats to opposing democracy itself.

This didn’t happen overnight. Years of investment and aggressive gerrymandering have led to veto-proof Republican supermajorities in 20 state legislatures, while Democrats hold supermajorities in just nine. Moreover, Republicans hold trifectas — governorship and both state houses — in 22 states and control 58 out of 99 State legislative chambers across the country.

In at least four states — Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Wisconsin — Republicans are also profoundly overrepresented in state governments relative to the voter party affiliation. This outsized, unrepresentative power has huge implications for two of the most urgent issues facing the country today: gun control and abortion access — both life and death issues where Americans are largely united.

Recent polls show that more Americans than ever, including a majority of Republican voters, want their representatives to prioritize gun control over the rights of gun owners. And poll after poll shows that huge majorities of voters, including Republicans, are against banning abortion early in pregnancy.

North Carolina presents exactly this case. Although it is a state with evenly divided voters, a large share of young, unaffiliated voters and a Democratic governor, Republicans there have been manipulating the legislative districts for years, engaging in highly partisan gerrymandering. One newly elected Democratic legislator who switched parties recently under dubious circumstances gave Republicans a veto-proof supermajority.

With this unaccountable power, among their first actions was filing a bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state, despite that 57 percent of North Carolina voters want abortion to be legal with some restrictions. So far this year, guns have killed nearly 14,000 people in homicides, suicides and accidents in the U.S.

No other nation has this many gun deaths per capita. Yet Republican-controlled state legislatures in Tennessee, Florida and other trifecta states have ignored the will of the people and continue expanding permit-less carry laws or pushing to arm teachers and school personnel. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) passed such a bill against the will of a whopping 77 percent of Florida voters who opposed it. By contrast, in Washington State, where Democrats are in the majority, lawmakers passed an assault weapons ban and did so with some bipartisan support.

Related video: GOP-Controlled States Fail to Pass Anti-Abortion Bills (Cover Video)

Duration 1:29 View on Watch

It’s said that democracy dies in darkness, which is exactly how state legislatures have become so out of touch with the mainstream. Indeed, if it weren’t for the appalling expulsion of Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Tennessee House and the barring of transgender Montana lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from taking to that state’s House floor (rare instances in which the national news media shined a spotlight) most Americans would not know how bad things have gotten in state government.

A study by Johns Hopkins University found that only 20 percent of Americans could even name their state representatives. This widespread ignorance has allowed a proliferation of political gamesmanship and radical extremism that is dangerous for our country. Lawmakers can’t be held accountable for their actions when voters are unaware of them.

One reason is that local and regional newspapers have sharply reduced their coverage of state and local governments in recent years as a consequence of declining circulation and earnings that cut the number of journalists employed at U.S. newspapers from nearly 72,000 in 2004 to just 31,000 last year.

But money and political investments are another reason. In the 2022 cycle, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which helps elect Republicans in state legislative races, raised a record $71 million, compared to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which broke fundraising records but raised only $47 million. This differential reflects a general lack of focus from Democrats on state elections.

With the notable exception of Michigan going blue in 2022, Democrats failed even to challenge all the Republican-held state seats that were open. In Florida, 45 Republican State legislators ran totally unopposed. A stunning 57 percent of Missouri State legislative seats were unopposed, and in Ohio, only 1 in 4 Republican seats were challenged.

To stem this undemocratic tide, Democrats must do three things.

First, they must recruit, fund and support candidates to run in competitive races everywhere. It won’t be easy — many legislative districts are so gerrymandered that they are not winnable now.

But this leads to the second urgent solution. Democrats and groups that support democracy must mount even more aggressive legal challenges to hyper-partisan gerrymandering everywhere they are wreaking havoc.

Third, national Democrats, including President Biden, must do more to highlight critical state races throughout the 2024 campaign. Biden did the right thing by inviting the then-ousted Tennessee legislators for an Oval Office meeting, and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville to deliver one of her most passionate speeches.

Of course, flipping state houses requires time, money and resources — Democratic donors must invest more consistently and aggressively for the long term to fund all three of these solutions. The presidential election matters hugely, but 2024 can and should be a galvanizing moment at the state level too. As states push for extreme abortion bans, try to silence opposition and pass legislation most Americans oppose, Democrats should relentlessly highlight the contrast and make sure voters understand just what is at stake; quite simply, everything.

Lauren Leader is co-founder and CEO of All In Together, a non-profit women’s civic education organization. She tweets at @LaurenLeaderAIT.

Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of “Hacks: Inside the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.”

Montana trans lawmaker Zooey Zephyr sues state over censure

Montana state legislator Zooey Zephyr is suing the state, House Speaker Matt Regier and Sergeant at Arms for the Montana House of Representatives Bradley Murfitt after being censured by House Republicans.

"The recent actions violate my 1st amendment rights, as well as the rights of my 11,000 constituents to representation," Zephyr said in a tweet Monday. "Montana's State House is the people's House, not Speaker Regier's, and I'm determined to defend the right of the people to have their voices heard."MORE: Map: Where gender-affirming care is being targeted in the US

Zephyr's calls to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth on bill SB99 prompted days of being ignored by Republican leaders on the House floor in April.

Some legislators, including Regier, argued she had broken House rules of decorum when she said legislators would have "blood on your hands" if they passed the transgender youth care ban.


Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr leaves the House chamber after a motion to bar her passed, at the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Mont., April 26, 2023.

© Mike Clark/Reuters, FILE

ABC News
Transgender lawmaker censured by Montana House Republicans
Duration 1:51  View on Watch

Demonstrators in support of Zephyr interrupted House business several days later to protest her being silenced. Zephyr showed her support by holding up her mic and failing to leave the House floor.

House Republicans voted to censure her in response, getting just over the two-thirds needed to bar her from participating in the legislature from the House floor.

Zephyr has since participated from the public seating in the state Capitol building.

LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

A global ‘anti-gender’ movement is coming for our democracy. Here’s how we fight back.

Opinion by Pamela Shifman, opinion contributor •

This year alone, over 460 bills targeting LGBTQ rights have been introduced in states across the country. Twenty-four states have now banned abortion or are likely to do so, cutting off millions from bodily autonomy and essential health care. This month, Missouri became the first state in the country to severely restrict gender-affirming care for people of all ages.

What some Americans might not realize is that many of these crackdowns draw from a strikingly similar playbook used by extremists in other countries. Understanding threats to our own democracy now demands that we see the connections to these tactics around the world.

As the London School of Economics explains, “Right-wing agendas have consistently identified feminism, gender equality and anti-racism as a problem, and have used ‘anti-gender’, anti-feminist, and anti-migrant feeling as a way of garnering support for nationalist, cultural, religious or political agendas.” Commonly referred to as “anti-gender” movements, they are gaining steam, even as many Americans have yet to hear of them.

News coming out of Florida has clear echoes in Budapest and Warsaw. Just this month, Florida’s Board of Education approved a proposal to forbid classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, a dramatic expansion of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” ban that originally applied only to kindergarten through the third grade.

In 2021, Hungary’s parliament passed a law banning gay people from being featured in school educational materials or on television shows for kids under 18. For the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, demonization of LGBTQ communities is a key ingredient in his nationalistic vision of Hungary as the last holdout against godless, western liberals.

In Poland, far-right president Andrzej Duda fearmongers about the “LGBT ideology,” which he describes as “worse than communism” and a direct threat to traditional family values.

Transgender influencer responds to conservative backlash (Reuters)

Duration 3:30 View on Watch

GOP pushes transgender restrictions, but majority of Americans oppose

2:19

 

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken confronts countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia, he warns that backlash against LGBTQ communities is a “canary in the coal mine” for broader human rights and democratic freedoms. More Americans are waking up to this terrifying reality: if it’s true in other countries, it’s also true at home.

The same lesson applies to the erosion of abortion rights. As Macarena Sáez of Human Rights Watch has pointed out, “In the United States, the criminalization of abortion also becomes an issue of freedom of speech, expression and information, as well as privacy,” since state governments may now prosecute people seeking information about abortion on social media. The results curtail the freedom of everyone by increasing “the arbitrary power of the government over community.”

Through this lens, it’s easier to connect the dots of what we are witnessing in the United States. When Gov. DeSantis, for example, asks state universities to complete a survey about students who accessed treatment for gender dysphoria, it’s simply one tactic in a broader strategy. Mix in the headline-grabbing claims that an AP African American studies course “lacks educational value,” and the purpose seems clear: to sow chaos, mistrust and opposition to funding for public education itself. As Becky Pringle of the National Education Association has explained, the ultimate goal is “the destruction of public education, the very foundation of our democracy.”

What might shock many Americans is that the global anti-gender movement is largely funded by rightwing U.S. forces. U.S.-based organizations working against LGBTQ and women’s rights have funneled more than $1 billion overseas to bolster anti-gender groups.

And that’s where we can help to turn the tide. It all begins with naming these attacks for what they are: the tip of the spear in a campaign against our democracy itself. As The Bridgespan Group and Shake The Table have outlined, it’s time to marshal a wave of resources to counter funding for anti-gender and white supremacist movements, so that more resources flow to women — especially Black women and other women of color — and LGBTQ activists whose fight for their rights is the existential fight for our democracy.

For our political leaders, the charge is even more fundamental: It’s time to move from defense to offense. Sixty-four percent of Americans say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases. The same percentage favors protecting trans people from discrimination. The vast majority of Americans want students to learn accurate U.S. history, including the ongoing legacy of slavery and racial inequality. Connecting the dots between attacks on abortion rights, trans communities and communities of color — and tying them to the democratic freedoms of everyone — is not just good policy, it’s a path to victory.

Rather than pivot away from these issues, it’s time for progressive leaders to take them on, and win. And it can be done. Look at Gov. Tim Walz in Minnesota, who just signed an executive order guaranteeing that gender-affirming care will remain available in the state, a key part of his winning agenda. Under Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s leadership, Michigan this year joined 10 other states who have moved to boldly protect reproductive freedoms and access to safe, legal abortion in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

With critical elections of 2024 rapidly approaching, crackdowns on LGBTQ people, women and communities of color have moved to center stage. Until more of us see these attacks for what they are, and come together to defeat them, the these forces will keep gaining ground.

Pamela Shifman is president of the Democracy Alliance, a network of progressive donors committed to defending democracy and building the progressive infrastructure in the United States, and founder of Shake the Table, a global research and action hub that connects philanthropy and social movements to advance racial, gender, and economic justice.

The Evolving Politics of NASCAR
Story by Alanis King 

Alanis King© Illustration by Nicole Rifkin

In 2009, my mom came home from work one day with a stack of free NASCAR tickets. She’d overheard some co-workers quietly bartering for them in the corner of a meeting, and she knew they were our only shot at a family vacation during the Great Recession.

This story originally appeared in Volume 13 of Road & Track.

I shrugged off the idea, preferring to stay home. Back then, I was a 13-year-old kid who didn’t know a thing about cars. I couldn’t have told you who Dale Earnhardt Sr. was or what the V in V-8 means. Cars were merely a way to get from one place to another, and racing them seemed like a waste of time and resources. I’d clicked past NASCAR on television a few times, uninterested in watching a camera pan between advertisement-plastered cars for four hours, and I figured the same would be true in person.

Mom convinced me to go anyway. It changed my life.

When I saw Texas Motor Speedway for the first time, its towering white, red, and blue walls engulfed the horizon. Climbing into the grandstands and seeing 1.5 miles of thick asphalt was like discovering a new civilization, and the earth shook when 40 cars screeched past me in a double-­file line to start the race. I didn’t know exactly what I was watching, but I knew whatever it was, I wanted to pursue it for the rest of my life.



Alanis King and Jay Leno© Jay Leno’s Garage/NBC Universal

These days I tell that story often. When people hear I’m a NASCAR reporter, they wonder why I would get involved in something they find so boring. They also ask me what it’s like to be a NASCAR fan. As a progressive young woman, am I out of place in a sport known to attract the opposite demographic?

It’s a hard question to answer. Like I did, most people base their opinions about NASCAR on stereo­types, like left turns and a lack of diversity. But stereotypes can sometimes illuminate kernels of truth. A few months after Danica Patrick became the first woman to win the pole for the Daytona 500 in 2013, former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty said she was “still not a race-car driver, and I don’t think she’s ever going to be a race-car driver.” In 2017, team owners Richard Petty and Richard Childress said they’d fire anyone who knelt during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. In 2019, NASCAR announced a partnership with Barstool Sports, whose founder once told a 20-year-old employee she’d be too ugly to be on camera in five years. In 2020, Kyle Larson, one of the sport’s stars, said the N-word on a live­stream. (Larson was fired from his team, expressed remorse, then returned to the Cup Series with a different team in 2021 and won the championship.)



Alanis King and Max Verstappen© Honda

NASCAR has never been a sport to push back too hard, for fear of angering its longtime fan base, so I always figured I wouldn’t see things evolve much. But recently, I’ve started to change my mind.

In the past couple of years, I’ve seen the Cup Series have its first Mexican-­born race winner, Daniel Suárez. I’ve seen Bubba Wallace become the first Black winner in the Cup Series since 1963, when Wendell Scott was originally denied his victory despite lapping the field twice. I’ve seen more modern race teams—like Trackhouse Racing, co-owned by Pitbull, and 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan—join the grid. I’ve seen NASCAR ban spectators from bringing Confederate flags to its events, celebrate Pride Month, and explore more urban venues, like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and a Chicago street course. It finally feels like NASCAR is seeking out new crowds rather than hoping to stumble upon them.


Joe Gibbs Racing Pit Crew Training© William Crooks

I have loved NASCAR since my mom dragged me to a race that day in 2009. It was the last passion I ever expected to develop, and it’s also the thing I’m most passionate about. I hope one day any little kid can walk into a race and fall in love with NASCAR without feeling out of place among its fans.

I know it’s possible—and every day I have more faith that we’ll get there.

Willie Nelson inhales the love at 90th birthday concert

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Willie Nelson 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Are there any more real cowboys?” Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare evening when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even close to the oldest artist on the bill.

Providing an instant answer, Willie Nelson, wearing a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue guitar strap, slowly strolled on to the stage on his 90th birthday, bringing the crowd of more than 17,000 to its feet.

Nelson sat in a chair — one of the few onstage concessions he's made to age — and joined Young for the rest of their 1985 duet, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?”

“I want to thank all the artists who came out tonight to help celebrate whatever it is we're celebrating,” said Nelson, feigning senility and getting a laugh.

The moment came three hours into the first of a two-night celebration of the country legend at the open-air Los Angeles amphitheater, where generations of stars sang his songs in tribute

“As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like there was nothing bigger than Willie Nelson,” said Owen Wilson, one of the evening's emcees along with Helen Mirren, Ethan Hawke and Jennifer Garner. “And looking out at the Hollywood Bowl tonight, it still feels like there's nothing bigger than Willie Nelson.”

After Young, Nelson brought out George Strait, a country superstar of the following generation, for their self-referential duet, “Sing One With Willie,” followed by the Willie perennial, “Pancho and Lefty,” with Strait singing the part once played by the late Merle Haggard.

Nelson then shouted, “Come out and roll one with me Snoop!”

Strutting out came rapper Snoop Dogg, sitting next to Nelson as they launched into their stoner anthem, “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die." Perhaps fittingly, each seemed to forget the words at times. The two friends looked too happy to care.

“Somebody make some noise for the legend Mr. Willie Nelson!” Snoop shouted mid-song.

The parade of partners illustrated one of the night's themes: Willie brings people together.

“All of the sudden, it didn't matter if you were a hillbilly or a hippie, everyone was a Willie Nelson fan," Wilson said of Nelson's late-blooming emergence as a singing superstar when he left Nashville, Tennessee, and returned to his native Texas in the 1970s. “Even the Dalai Lama is a Willie Nelson fan. It's true."

The crowd, which ranged from small children to seniors, illustrated the point. The stands were dotted with cowboy hats while hippies danced in the aisles and weed smoke wafted in the air.

Willie Nelson turns 90: What we love about the long-haired country music outlaw

View on Watch

Miranda Lambert thrilled them with a rousing, sing-along version of “Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” Nelson's 1978 hit with Waylon Jennings. The Chicks blazed through 1970's “Bloody Mary Morning” at the same break-neck pace that Willie and his Family Band played it live in their prime.

Nelson has outlived nearly every member of that band, which backed him for decades of constant touring and recording. His little sister and piano player, Bobbie Nelson, died last year. She got her own tribute from Norah Jones, who banged the keys through the younger Nelson's saloon-style solo song, “Down Yonder,” from Willie Nelson's definitive 1975 album, “Red Headed Stranger.”

While many of the women who took the stage played rousing rockers, most of the men went in for quiet emotion.

Chris Stapleton kept his guitar at his side through a soft, reflective rendition of “Always on My Mind," Nelson's biggest solo hit of the 1980s. Nelson's son Lukas sang “Angel Flying Too Close to The Ground” alone with his acoustic guitar, his voice a dead ringer for his dad's.

Another surviving member of the Family Band, harmonica master Mickey Raphael, was part of the weekend's house band, led by Don Was, which backed almost everyone.

Nelson also has outlived most of his classic collaborators. But an essential one, his 86-year-old Highwaymen bandmate Kris Kristofferson, made it to the stage to join Rosanne Cash, the daughter of another Highwayman: Johnny Cash.

Rosanne Cash was singing Nelson's “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)” when Kristofferson, who wrote the song, came out and harmonized with her on the choruses.

Nelson's musical diversity was another evening theme.

“He blends and bends genres," Mirren said from the stage. “His timing and categories are his own.”

Leon Bridges' “Night Life” showed off Nelson's affinity for the blues, as did Jones' jazzy trip through “Funny How Time Slips Away” from 1961, when Nelson was known primarily as a songwriter of hits for others.

Ziggy Marley sang “Still Is Still Moving To Me,” which Nelson recorded in 1993 and later sang with Toots and the Maytals in one of his occasional forays into reggae. Marley shouted “Wee-lay!” in his Jamaican accent during the song.

Sunday's night show will feature a whole different range of acts including Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris.

Young first took the stage with his early collaborator Stephen Stills. The pair played a revved up version of “For What It's Worth,” swapping guitar solos on the classic hit they made as members of Buffalo Springfield in 1966.

Nelson brought out all the evening's artists to join him for the Carter Family's 1935 song, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” a longtime live favorite of his and the classic closing song for all of country music.

It was clearly intended to be the end, as Hawke took the mic and started to thank everyone for coming.

But the 90-year-old wasn't ready to stop. He interrupted and broke into Mac Davis' “It’s Hard to Be Humble,” which Nelson and his sons recorded in 2019.

It was a funny choice for a final song, but its chorus was a perfect comic coda for a man who had been drowned in adoration all night:

“To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble. But I'm doing the best that I can."

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press

Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl

Story by Chris Willman • Yesterday 


Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl© Provided by Variety

“Thanks for coming to my dad’s birthday party,” said Micah Nelson, a few songs into an all-star tribute to Willie Nelson at the Hollywood Bowl, attended by a sold-out house happy that Willie had found a way to schedule the 90th anniversary of his birth on a Saturday night. With roughly seven decades of songwriting and recording to commemorate, though, the party is stretching over two nights, bundled together and sold as a single ticket, where by the end of Sunday night everyone will have heard about 50 artists perform a total of about 75 songs.

Saturday’s show climaxed with Nelson emerging more than three hours into the 220-minute proceedings to join forces with George Strait, Neil Young and Snoop Dogg, symbolically representing how welcome Willie has been in the worlds of country, rock and cannabis, respectively. In the preceding hours, he was serenaded by such disparate musical figures as the Chicks, the Lumineers, Ziggy Marley, Miranda Lambert, Beck, Chris Stapleton, Tom Jones, Norah Jones, Bob Weir, Jack Johnson, Margo Price and the rare surviving figure that can still count as one of his actual contemporaries, Kris Kristofferson. (Scroll through for a complete setlist from night 1.)

It was a savvily assembled mixture of talent and song choices — some of them very, very deep cuts — that paid tribute to a songwriting mastery that began in the Eisenhower era and will end well into the legal weed era. Except you can’t really say it paid testimony just to the writing, since Nelson had so many substantial hits with songs he didn’t pen himself, too. It was a tribute to the persona as well as the pen, of course… a salute to Zen made flesh.

Although the lineups for each night were not announced in advance, a majority of the artists announced are appearing both evenings, as it turns out, albeit not repeating the same numbers from night to night. Some of those who played Saturday will not be returning for night 2 — like Stapleton, obviously, who is headlining Stagecoach on Sunday. Some other big names had not yet appeared by the end of night 1, like Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris. Sheryl Crow and the Avett Brothers.

Oh, and how about a couple of surprises that may yet be in store: Attentive fans in the merch lines noticed that the T-shirts being sold for the two-nighter mention Keith Richards and Justin Timberlake in the fine print. Did those two titans cancel before they ever got a chance to be announced, or are they being held back for a last-minute surprise — to everyone except the thousands of people who bought a poster Saturday?

The most emotional moment during Saturday’s opening night came not while Nelson was on stage for the final stretch, but literally hours earlier, when Rosanne Cash brought out Kristofferson to join her for a song he wrote, “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again).” Kristofferson’s longstanding issues with memory took him off the road years ago, and his voice wasn’t built for sweet harmony singing even in the best of days. But how sweet it was, regardless, as Cash gave her spiritual uncle all the support he needed to make this sad memory song feel like a warm, communal hug.


Kris Kristofferson and Rosanne Cash sing at the Hollywood Bowl for Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday (Josh Timmermans for Blackbird Presents)© Provided by Variety

Asked on the red carpet about her song picks for the two nights, Cash said, “Oh, I got in there early, man, and asked for what I wanted!” — “Lovin’ Her” (or “Him,” in this case) on night 1 and the Townes Van Zandt-penned “Pancho and Lefty” for night 2. “I got to sing that for Willie when he got the Gershwin Award, and it was so much fun, I asked for that again… the ultimate story-song.” Of Nelson’s enduring appeal, Cash cited his command of multiple genres, his authenticity and, last but maybe not least, “his perseverance. You know, it’s not just about talent, it’s about showing up for work every day. And that’s what he’s done… Getting to witness him reaching 90, reaching this momentous point in his life, and he’s still gonna go out and play and sing? I mean, how many people get to say that they do that?” What would her dad be thinking? “I think he would’ve been jealous.”

For a comic high point, there might’ve been a tie, late in the game. It was hard to top Snoop coming out for their duet on “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” with the rapper doing a rare instance from his career of pure singing… and not sounding that bad at it. The crowd proved particularly suggestible during this number. “Is anybody out there smoking tonight? Roll one for Mr. Nelson,” Snoop suggested, and within 30 seconds, the amphitheater was filled with an obvious aroma. You might have expected that to happen a lot earlier, without any prompting, but maybe much of the crowd was like Nelson himself — long since moved on to edibles or other means of consumption that boomers took up to protect their lungs — but clearly many in the crowd had been bogarting the traditional stuff until this moment.

The other purely comedic number was the actual finale, where Nelson called an audible. The official backstage setlist showed the birthday boy finishing with “On the Road Again,” a gospel medley of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “I’ll Fly Away,” and a round of “Happy Birthday to Me.” But then, with most of the cast on stage, perhaps feeling there was not enough levity in closing it out with something quite so seriously self-celebrating, he felt compelled to add, “I know what we’re gonna do. You all have to help me sing this one. My old friend Mac Davis wrote it.” That was the prompt for “It’s Hard to Be Humble,” a tune that’s so ridiculous a seminal humble-brag, it actually kind of counts as humbling.

Strait also provided his share of light-heartedness a bit earlier by joining Nelson on “Sing One With Willie,” the ultimate meta song, inasmuch as the 2019 track literally has as its sole subject Strait and Nelson finally getting to record a tune together. A bit more solemnly, they followed that with a duet of “Pancho and Lefty” (beating the aforementioned Rosanne Cash to that pick by one night).



Neil Young and Willie Nelson (Jay Blakesberg for Blackbird Presents)© Provided by Variety

Neil Young and Nelson shared the stage, backed by Lukas Nelson’s band Promise of the Real, for a loose version of “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?,” a track from Young’ mid-’80s Americana album “Old Ways.” Prior to Nelson making his first on-stage appearance as a sorta surprise guest midway through that number, Young and Stephen Stills teamed up for two numbers they had done together the previous weekend at the Greek at a benefit for an autism charity, “Long May You Run” and “For What It’s Worth.” These were outliers in the evening’s setlist, as far as neither of those numbers having anything ostensibly to do with the night’s honoree — although “Long May You Run” makes for a good birthday song. It would’ve been cool if Young had whipped up a Willie cover, but Neil’s ways are not our own, and the crowd did not register any objections.

Norah Jones had one of the most justifiably well-received mini-sets of the night, with a strong two-fer that showed off the more rollicking and/or gospel-inflected part of her piano range. On the first number of the two she did, Jones was actually paying homage to a different member of the Nelson family, Willie’s not-so-long-lost sister and longtime house pianist. “I would’ve done anything they asked me to do,” she explained on the red carpet. “There’s no bad song choices here. But I got asked to do a tribute to Bobbie Nelson, and so I get to play ‘Down Yonder’ on the piano, which is a real thrill because she was a huge influence on my piano playing, and I just loved her so much. From the first night I met Willie and the whole family and the whole crew and band 22 years ago, she was always so sweet to me, so I’m thrilled to be doing that. And also I get to sing one of my favorite songs, ‘Funny How Time Slips Away'” — a song that only grows more resonant each year for anyone cognizant of their own aging… and yet, for Nelson or any of his faithful interpreters, utterly tranquil in its wistfulness.\

Norah Jones at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

Jones was the only participant of the night who actually started a band named after Nelson: her side project the Little Willies. “It started out as a Willie Nelson cover band,” she recalled on the carpet. “We ended up opening it up to different songwriters as well, but that’s how it started. I knew Willie would get a kick out of it, and we thought the Little Willies was a funny name. Well, the guys didn’t, but I thought it was.”

Billy Strings was the only performer of the night who could lay claim to having released a record with Nelson this very weekend: their duet on a Strings-cowritten original, “California Sober,” which happens to be the neo-bluegrass artist’s first release for Reprise. On the red carpet, he allowed that this collaboration might get a performance of some sort for night 2, although he did two other songs, the Nelson standard “Whiskey River” and “Stay All Night,” to kick things off Saturday.

Said Strings, “What happened is, I was on the Outlaw tour (Nelson’s annual multi-artist outing), and then after that, I was just so into him, I was listening to ‘Redheaded Stranger’ exclusively for a couple weeks. So when I was sitting out by the burn pile at my house, I was ripping off a piece of cardboard to start my fire, and I came up with ‘I’m California sober, as they say’ and I started writing this down on the piece of cardboard that I ripped off. I said, ‘Man, this is such a Willie tune.’ We finished the demo of it and I sent it to Willie, and he said, ‘Hell yeah.’

“We went and cut it down in Austin. There was one moment where he sat down and was like, ‘Do you want me to do the first verse, do you want me to sing harmony — what do you want me to do?’ To have Willie Nelson sit down behind a microphone with his coffee and say, ‘All right, what do you want me to do?’ — I froze. But it was great. I mean, he’s 90 years old and he kicked ass on it. And when I was in the studio with him, I started hearing his younger voice — his younger self — coming out when he started singing on a couple certain takes.”



Billy Strings at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

The new duet seems to reflect Nelson’s philosophy about weed, versus other substances. “Well, yeah, that’s in the very first verse: ‘I don’t get to acting mean when I keep my buzzes clean / Keep the hard stuff and the whiskey from my head.’ That’s another reason why I thought me and Willie could do this song, because it’s been like seven years since I’ve had a drink, but I smoke lots of weed and I’m like, well, who else is like that?”

Margo Price, whose earliest releases established her as part of Nelson-and-company’s outlaw country tradition, discussed her picks on the red carpet. For night 1’s “I Can Get Off on You,” “which is a Willie and Waylon (Jennings) song that I have loved forever, I recruited Nathaniel (Rateliff) to sing the harmony with me. And then tomorrow night I’m singing ‘Georgia on a Fast Train’ with Waylon Payne,” Jody Payne and Sammi Smith’s son.



Margo Price at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

Maybe even more so than most of the performers, Price has had a lot of Nelson songs in her repertoire in the past, as regular parts of the set or one-offs. “Whiskey River” has often been part of a medley with her own seminal signature song, “Hurtin’ on the Bottle”; she’s covered “Shotgun Willie” and “Sister’s Coming Home” live; and for a Spotify Sessions series of singles to commemorate Nelson’s 90th, she recorded “Hands on the Wheel,” which she calls “one of my favorite songs ever. There’s just endless Willie songs that we have learned — it’s like trying on a dress, and seeing how it fits,” said Price. “It’s like a masterclass in songwriting.” Her favorite part of the catalog is “that ‘Outlaws’ record he and Waylon and Jessi Colter had, with the country-funk stuff.” (Price has produced a yet-unreleased Colter album.) “To me, the really funky kind of vibe that he had, that’s what we’ve pulled from the most. And the way that he is unafraid to kind of talk about anything that he is going through … (yet) I like that Willie does not explain what any song is about. If you ask him, he won’t really tell you, because he wants you to find your own interpretation of it.”

Some of the most authentic-seeming “outlaw country” moments of the night came from a pair of true I-did-it-my-way performers, Jamey Johnson, who sang Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever,” and Sturgill Simpson, who did “I’d Have to Be Crazy,” a song popularized (or semi-popularized) by Nelson that Simpson covered for one of this own albums. They were the two performers on the lineup least likely to crack a smile, but the authoritative air they both brought outweighed whatever they didn’t bring in the way of party hats.

“I didn’t have the nerve to say this to his face,” Simpson told the crowd, “but there’s only one reason I went to Nashville to make country records, and that’s because I grew up listening to country records made by Willie Nelson. And I wanted to make country records that were outside of the box of what most people think a country record can be. I only signed a record deal with Atlantic Records because Willie Nelson made those records on Atlantic. That didn’t work out too well for me,” he said, referencing his problems with record labels over the years, “but everything else did, thanks to you guys.”

Jack Johnson was one of the few Saturday night to perform an original song instead of a cover. “I wrote a song called ‘Willie Got Me Stone and Took All My Money,’ and it’s a true story,” he said on the carpet. “I’ve played it over the years and this is a perfect night to be playing it again… It’s probably about 10 years ago that it happened. It was one fun night in Maui where I borrowed a little money from my dad because I didn’t have any in my pocket at the time, and Willie took it all. It was well worth it. I had a lot more me great memories from that night than the amount of dollars that that left my pocket.”



Jack Johnson at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

(Strings also shared a similar story, saying, “He took a thousand dollars from me (at poker). I thought he was a nice guy. (But) I’d spend another couple grand to sit there and shoot the bull with him and his buddies who’ve been sitting there playing cards for 50 years.”)

The Lumineers sang “A Song for You” on night 1, which Nathaniel Rateliff will get to on night 2; on the second night, they’ll be doing the sad holiday perennial “Pretty Paper.” They remember growing up on Nelson and trying to figure out how his unusual phrasing fit into the musical pantheon they were otherwise being exposed to.



The Lumineers’ Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

“He doesn’t have the traditional timing of like most singers,” remarked Wesley Schultz on the carpet. “I would say it’s almost like on Valium or something. It’s just like, ‘I’m gonna say it when I want to say it and it still feels correct, but you have to get used to it.’ That’s probably why as a kid, when you first hear it, you’re like, ‘That guy’s just doing whatever he wants to do right now!’ … It’s rare that I hear a singer where I know them by the first note they sing and by the first note they play on their guitar.”

Miranda Lambert covered one of the best-known Nelson songs (or Nelson and Jennings, that is): “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” “Yeah, we’re going for the big guns,” she said on the carpet, while confessing, “It was hard to pick and I just picked randomly. Because you can’t really go wrong with anything you pick, you know?” As a native Texan, she said, “It’s the sound of my home and it always has been.”



Miranda Lambert at the Hollywood Bowl (Jay Blakesberg for Bluebird Presents)© Provided by Variety

Lambert had a lot of company from other Texans on the bill, like Crockett. “Tonight I’m doing ‘The Party’s Over’ and tomorrow night I’m doing ‘Yesterday’s Wine,’ the title track to his first concept album,” said the rising star. “There’s 50 Willie Nelson songs I would’ve been honored to sing tonight.” And Crockett really does know a lot of them, from close proximity, from their touring together.



Charley Crockett at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

“I played about 30 shows with him last year, and I was side-stage on every one of those nights and I never missed a single song. And he made me cry every night, because all of those songs that he was doing were a soundtrack to our lives,” Crockett said. “I’m not missing a single word because I never got to see him” growing up. Even as an adult he’d only seen him once, at Luck Ranch in 2016, “until he called me up out of the blue and asked me to start playing shows with him. And it’s not even that I just want to watch this iconic master play. It’s that those songs are so deeply ingrained in us, as Texans growing up, that it was bringing things out in me listening to him that I just didn’t even know were there.”



Lyle Lovett at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

Lyle Lovett sang the early hit “Hello Walls” Saturday and will follow that by covering “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” for the closing night. “I have never performed the songs that I’m singing this weekend, and I’ve always loved them, but when you learn what a song, you, it speaks to you in a different way. You appreciate everything about it — the construction, the choice of words, the choice of conjunctions. Down to the finest point, you realize that every word was intentional and it just makes you think. I’ve always thought of ‘Hello Walls’ as the perfect song… I’ve always pictured somebody sitting alone in his apartment house, a guy like me, and he writes what’s around us” — even if that’s just feeling the walls closing in around him as his only friends to talk with. “I mean, it’s just really just looking around and writing something that specifically poignant… that’s focus.”

Added Lovett: “You learn a lot from bumper stickers, but ‘What Would Willie Do?’ is a great way to approach writing a song as well.”

The full set list for Saturday’s show at the Hollywood Bowl:

Billy Strings: “Whiskey River,” “Stay All Night”

Charley Crockett: “The Party’s Over”

Particle Kid with Daniel Lanois: “The Ghost”

Edie Brickell with Charlie Sexton: “Remember Me”

Lyle Lovett: “Hello Walls”

Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff: “I Can Get Off on You”

Beck: “Hands on the Wheel”

Norah Jones: “Down Yonder,” “Funny How Time Slips Away”

Warren Haynes: “Midnight Rider”

Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson: “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”

Lukas Nelson: “Angels Flying Too Close to the Ground”

Leon Bridges and Gary Clark Jr.: “Night Life”

Gary Clark Jr.: “Texas Flood”

Jack Johnson: “Willie Got Me Stoned and Took All My Money”

Tyler Childers and the Food Stamps: “Healing Hands of Time,” “Time of the Preacher”

Ziggy Marley: “Still Is Still Moving to Me”

Tom Jones: “Opportunity to Cry”

Jamey Johnson: “Live Forever”

Bob Weir: “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”

The Chicks with Keith Sewell: “Bloody Mary Morning”

The Lumineers: “A Song for You”

Nathaniel Rateliff: “City of New Orleans”

Sturgill Simpson: “I’d Have to Be Crazy”

Miranda Lambert: “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”

Chris Stapleton: “The Last Thing I Needed the First Thing This Morning,” “Always on My Mind”

Neil Young and Stephen Stills with Promise of the Real: “Long May You Run,” “For What It’s Worth”

Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Lukas Nelson, Micah Nelson with Promise of the Real: “Are There Any More Real Cowboys”

Willie Nelson and George Strait: “Sing One With Willie,” “Pancho and Lefty”

Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg: “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”

Willie Nelson with ensemble: “On the Road Again,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”/“I’ll Fly Away,” “Happy Birthday,” “It’s Hard to Be Humble”



Miranda Lambert at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety


Rosanne Cash at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety


Tom Jones at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety


Nathaniel Rateliff at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety


Charlie Sexton at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety


Daniel Lanois at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety


Ethan Hawke at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” held at the Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.© Provided by Variety

Related video: Willie Nelson turns 90: What we love about the long-haired country music outlaw (USA TODAY)   Duration 0:51   View on Watch

Erdogan, rival draw vast crowds ahead of May 14 vote

Story by AFP • Yesterday 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan drew huge crowds in opposition-controlled Izmir on Saturday© HANDOUT

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main opponent staged massive rival rallies on Sunday, setting the stage for a bruising battle in the final two weeks of Turkey's election campaign.

The veteran Turkish leader filled a central Ankara square that can fit a few hundred thousand people with flag-waving supporters, showing no signs of an illness that sidelined him for three days this week.

"Are we ready to come out with a crushing victory?" Erdogan, draped in a scarf of the Turkish capital's main football club, demanded from the enthusiastic crowd.

"On May 14, our nation, God willing, will eliminate them from the political scene," he said of secular leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and his six-party opposition alliance.

The 69-year-old president has bounced back strongly from what was described as a digestive problem in the run-up to one of Turkey's most important elections of its post-Ottoman history.

The illness shook Erdogan's strongman image, which he has cultivated over two decades of economic booms and busts, social transformation and crackdowns on dissent.

"As you know I was sick recently, and from every house people were praying for me," Erdogan told the crowd.

"I am trying to be worthy of those prayers."

Kilicdaroglu, 74, and his multi-faceted alliance are posing Erdogan's toughest election challenge since the Turkish leader's Islamic-rooted party first swept to power in 2002.

Related video: Turkey elections: A closely-fought cliffhanger on the cards (WION)

Duration 2:16 View on Watch

Erdogan became prime minister a year later, consolidating control as a powerful president under a new constitution in 2018.

- 'Rebuild our democracy' -

The upcoming vote is too close to call and likely heading to a runoff on May 28.

Kilicdaroglu and his allies have fanned out across the country, holding daily events that are starting to get coverage on pro-government media that dominate Turkey today.

He staged an equally massive rally along the embankment of the opposition-controlled Aegean city of Izmir, where Erdogan drew slightly smaller crowds on Saturday.

"These elections are elections to rebuild our democracy," Kilicdaroglu, a former civil servant told the cheering crowd after walking out on stage with his wife, Selvi.

"We will bring peace to this country, I will bring brotherhood to this country," Kilicdaroglu said.

The massive turnout is a sign of the huge interest Turks have in the election, which has turned into a referendum on Erdogan's rule.

His party is also in danger of losing control of parliament, which it holds through an alliance with an ultra-nationalist group.

Erdogan in 2019 lost landmark municipal votes in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir -- Turkey's three biggest and most economically powerful cities.

But his decision to campaign in all three hints at the close nature of the vote.

"Ankara has a huge responsibility," Erdogan told the crowd.

zak/jm