Braid: Smith is not a conservative and shouldn't have been allowed to run by UCP, says veteran activist

Author of the article:

Don Braid • Calgary Herald

Postmedia
Published May 10, 2023

UCP leader Danielle Smith makes a campaign announcement at Braeside Automotive in Calgary on Thursday, May 4, 2023.

 Gavin Young/Postmedia
Article content
Ken Boessenkool says the UCP would have disqualified Danielle Smith long ago if she were only a riding candidate for the party.

The poppy comment, equating vaccinated people with Hitler followers, denying child deaths in residential schools — all that and much more should not have passed muster, according to Boessenkool, a longtime conservative activist.

In fact, at the very beginning of the UCP leadership race last year, he tried to get Smith kicked out.

“I talked to numerous party officials about whether Danielle Smith should be allowed as a candidate, and was rebuffed at every turn,” Boessenkool says.

“My argument then was no different than it is now. I think she represents things that are not conservative. She represents things that will ultimately harm the party. Everything we’ve learned about her since has borne that out.”

Boessenkool’s views carry weight in conservative circles. A founding partner of Meredith Boessenkool Policy Advisors, he has worked for Preston Manning, Ralph Klein, Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, Ric McIver and Rajan Sawhney.

He ran Sawhney’s leadership campaign last fall. Under his guidance, she was the candidate most fiercely opposed to Smith.

“A Danielle Smith victory today means a Rachel Notley victory tomorrow,” Sawhney said, referring to the NDP leader. Smith’s sovereignty plan was “risky and hotheaded.”

Sawhney has since fallen into line with Smith, like every other UCP member and minister. Sawhney first said she wouldn’t run again, but then was appointed by Smith in Calgary-North West.

Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism, speaks during a press conference at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on April 3. 

PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

Beating the NDP is the priority that temporarily papers over grave private doubts about Smith.

Boessenkool refuses to keep the worries to himself.

“I am very proud of what we did in that campaign,” he says. “I think we ran an honourable campaign. Afterward, Rajan decided politics is a team sport and decided to join the team. I hold no ill will toward Rajan and told her that just last night.”

He also says he likes Smith personally.

“I’ve been friends with Danielle Smith for 20 years. I have been to conventions and had hundreds of conversations with her — many, many gatherings over the years. It’s not like I’m talking about somebody I’ve never met.

“She’s a kind person. I don’t have anything against her personally.

“But I’m friends with Shannon Phillips, too, and I’d never vote for her,” Boessenkool said, referring to the NDP member for Lethbridge-West.

Boessenkool says Smith’s lack of judgment is dangerous for the party. Regarding her entanglement with street pastor Artur Pawlowski, he says, “the very idea that you think you could associate with that guy and not get into trouble is just astonishing to me.”

But his main problem with Smith is that he says she isn’t really a conservative.

Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski speaks to protesters near the Coutts border blockade on February 3, 2022. 

PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA

In an article written recently with U of A professor Jared Wesley, he outlined the case in blistering detail.

“Danielle Smith is not a temperamental conservative. Indeed, she is rarely an ideological conservative. Instead, her politics amount to libertarian-laced populism, directly opposed to the sort of principled, incrementalist politics Albertans have appreciated from conservative governments in the past,” they wrote.

“Danielle Smith shows little understanding or respect for the rules and norms that guide our democracy.

“Not knowing whether Canadian premiers have the pardon or clemency powers of U.S. presidents and governors is unfathomable. Framing the treatment of Alberta by Ottawa as on par with Canada’s treatment of First Nations is unconscionable. Knowingly eroding our democratic institutions is unconservative.

“Her anti-scientific support for health-care quackery places her alone among government leaders in Canada. Her promotion of arguably antisemitic conspiracy theories has raised serious questions about her judgment and the ability of her advisers to provide her with a factual basis to make important decisions.

Other conservatives — including former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk — have been even more fierce in their opposition to Smith.

RECOMMENDED FROM EDITORIAL

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Danielle Smith says Nazi comments made during 'difficult and frustrating time' of COVID-19 pandemic

Danielle Smith says call with Artur Pawlowski was between two party leaders

But Ken Boessenkool is the ultimate insider. Some in Smith’s own government and caucus share his views.

They just wish he’d shut up during the election campaign.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

Twitter: @DonBraid

'Deeply concerning': Smith suggests privatizing major Alberta hospitals in 2021 video

The video, captured before Smith entered the UCP leadership contest, shows Smith outlining how an Alberta government could sell off hospitals to private operators  

LIKE ARMAK OR SODEXO

Author of the article: Jason Herring

Postmedia
Published May 10, 2023 •

UCP Leader Danielle Smith. 

The Alberta NDP is raising alarms over an October 2021 video of UCP Leader Danielle Smith suggesting a path to privatizing the province’s hospitals.

The video, which was captured about six months before Smith entered the UCP leadership contest, shows her outlining how an Alberta government could sell off hospitals to private operators.

She explains the province could have the Alberta Health Quality Council serve as an auditor and determine whether Alberta Health Services should continue to operate hospitals, specifically naming Calgary’s Peter Lougheed Hospital, Rockyview General Hospital and South Health Campus as examples.

“If they can’t meet the terms we want them to, we can do (a request for proposal) and then the Alberta Health Services can give a different contract to a different group of doctors . . . to run all of our hospitals,” Smith said. 

In the video, Smith said she presented her plan to Alberta’s health minister — a position recently assumed by Jason Copping at the time of Smith’s comments — but said the government didn’t act on the suggestions.

“These are extreme views and they are part of a defined pattern of extreme views held by Danielle Smith,” said Kathleen Ganley, the NDP candidate in Calgary-Mountain View.

The South Health Campus in Calgary was one of the hospitals mentioned by Smith. PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER/POSTMEDIA

Neither Smith nor NDP Leader Rachel Notley made any public appearances Wednesday.

In a statement, UCP spokesman Dave Prisco said the NDP were “doubling down on their fear and smear tactics” and said Smith has pledged Albertans will never have to pay to see their doctor or access needed medical services under her government.

“The UCP has a plan to improve Alberta’s public health-care system for all Albertans, and that plan is working. The NDP has no plan for anything — just old videos,” Prisco said.

The UCP elsewhere Wednesday touted what they called the largest recruitment of nurses in Alberta’s history, boasting they’ve attracted 1,413 new internationally educated nurses since last month, after the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta eased its requirements for foreign workers.

Smith’s past comments on contracting out hospitals currently run by AHS should spark concerns for Albertans, said Bradley Lafortune, executive director of the Public Interest Alberta advocacy group.

He called on Smith to retract and apologize for those comments.

“Quite frankly, it’s horrifying, and it’s very deeply concerning . . . It’s really, really fundamentally dangerous to play these kinds of privatization games with our health-care system, so I hope that she speaks to it,” Lafortune said.

“It’s really important for Albertans to know what their plans are in advance of the election.”

Voters head to the polls May 29.

More than 71 mn people internally displaced worldwide in 2022

"This perfect storm has undermined years of progress made in reducing global hunger and malnutrition."


Issued on: 11/05/2023 - 

A full 60.9 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2022 including in Sudan

 © - / AFP/File

Geneva (AFP) – A "perfect storm" of overlapping crises forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, sending the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said on Thursday.

An unprecedented 71.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2022 -- up 20 percent from a year earlier -- amid mass displacement for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as by the monsoon floods that drenched Pakistan.

A full 60.9 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2022, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

That marks an all-time high for new internal displacements, and an increase of 60 percent compared to the some 38 million fresh displacements seen in 2021.

That number is "extremely high", IDMC chief Alexandra Bilak told AFP.

"Much of the increase is caused, of course, by the war in Ukraine, but also by floods in Pakistan, by new and ongoing conflicts across the world, and by a number of sudden and slow onset disasters that we've seen from the Americas all the way to the Pacific."

'Very volatile'

Last year, new internal displacements from conflict surged to 28.3 million -- nearly doubling from a year earlier and three times higher than the annual average over the past decade.

Beyond the 17 million displacements inside Ukraine last year, eight million were forced from their homes by Pakistan's monster floods.

Sub-Saharan Africa saw around 16.5 million displacements -- more than half of them due to conflict, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Ethiopia.

The global internal displacement figures are only expected to grow this year, driven in part by fresh conflicts like the violence ravaging Sudan forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.

More than 700,000 people have already become internally displaced by the fighting that erupted on April 15, while another 150,000 people have fled the country, according to UN numbers.

"Since the start of the... most recent conflict in April, we've already recorded the same number of displacements as we did for the whole year in 2022," Bilak said.

"Clearly, it's a very volatile situation on the ground," she said, pointing out that those being newly displaced by the fighting were joining the ranks of more than three million people already displaced across Sudan.

'Food security crisis'

While internal displacement is a global phenomenon, nearly three quarters of the world's IDPs live in just 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

Many of them remain displaced due to unresolved conflicts that have dragged on for years and continued to force people to flee their homes last year.

And even as conflict-related displacement surged, natural disasters continued to account for most new internal displacement, spurring 32.6 million such movements in 2022 -- up 40 percent from a year earlier.

NRC chief Jan Egeland described the overlapping crises spurring ever more displacement around the world as a "perfect storm".

"Conflict and disasters combined last year to aggravate people's pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, triggering displacement on a scale never seen before," he said in a statement.

"The war in Ukraine also fuelled a global food security crisis that hit the internally displaced hardest," he said.

"This perfect storm has undermined years of progress made in reducing global hunger and malnutrition."

© 2023 AFP

Archbishop of Canterbury: UK migration bill is morally wrong

By SYLVIA HUI

1 of 5

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby stands at the entrance of Westminster Abbey The head of the Church of England on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, condemned a British government bill that would dramatically curb migrants’ ability to seek asylum in the U.K., calling the policy “isolationist, morally unacceptable and politically impractical.” (Andrew Milligan/Pool via AP, File)


LONDON (AP) — The head of the Church of England on Wednesday condemned a British government bill that would dramatically curb migrants’ ability to seek asylum in the U.K., calling the policy “isolationist, morally unacceptable and politically impractical.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made a rare intervention in Parliament to oppose the legislation. He told the House of Lords, Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, that the government’s proposal was a “short-term fix” that risked causing great damage to the U.K.’s reputation.

The legislation bars asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means, and compels officials to detain and then deport refugees and migrants “to their home country or a safe third country,” such as Rwanda. Once deported, they would be banned from ever re-entering the U.K.

Britain’s Conservative government says the measure would deter tens of thousands of people from trying to cross the English Channel in small boats each year in hopes of reaching the U.K. But critics, including the United Nations’ refugee agency, have described the legislation as unethical and unworkable, and some allege it would violate international law.

The bill passed the House of Commons last month. It was on a second reading Wednesday in the House of Lords, where it faces strong opposition. The Lords can amend the legislation but not block it.

Welby, who is also the spiritual head of Anglican churches worldwide and presided over King Charles III’s coronation on Saturday, said international protections for refugees were “not inconvenient obstructions to get ’round by any legislative means necessary.”

He added that it was wrong for the U.K. to leave the responsibility of accommodating refugees up to other countries, often much poorer ones.

“Of course we cannot take everyone and nor should we, but this bill has no sense at all of the long-term and the global nature of the challenge that the world faces,” Welby said. “This nation should lead internationally, not stand apart.”

Britain’s government has urged the House of Lords to back the bill, which it says “is designed to meet the will of the British people.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” carrying asylum-seekers across the English Channel and made that one of the key focuses of his time in office. His government has argued that the bill will clamp down on criminals who exploit desperate asylum-seekers and prevent migrants from dying during dangerous voyages from northern France in small dinghies.

“There is nothing compassionate about allowing vulnerable people to perish in the Channel,” Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, said. The government will “robustly defend” its migration bill, he added.

While Britain takes in fewer migrants than other European countries such as Germany and Italy, the number of people crossing the busy waterway in search of better lives in the U.K. has increased significantly in recent years.

More than 45,000 people, including many fleeing countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, arrived in Britain in small boats last year, up from 8,500 in 2020.

The government has housed many of those awaiting asylum decisions in hotels, which officials say costs taxpayers millions of pounds (dollars) a day. Authorities have said they plan to place new arrivals in disused military camps and a barge docked on the southern English coast.

Welby has been outspoken about his opposition to the Conservative government’s efforts to curb migration. Last year, he warned against official rhetoric that portrayed migrants as “invaders.” He also called a government plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda “the opposite of the nature of God.”

___

Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Germany's Scholz approves tougher measures to tackle migration

NEWS WIRES
Wed, 10 May 2023 



Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the heads of Germany's 16 states on Wednesday agreed on new measures to tackle soaring migration after crunch talks.

In the first four months of 2023, some 101,981 asylum applications were filed in Germany, an increase of 78 percent from the same period in 2022.

Almost 218,000 applications were filed in Germany last year, the highest number since 2015-16, with the largest number of newcomers hailing from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan, followed by Turkey and Iraq.

In addition, more than a million people arrived from Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion of the country.

In Wednesday's agreement, a modernisation of IT systems is due to help accelerate the processing of asylum applications, which currently takes 26 months on average, potentially speeding up the expulsions of those with unsuccessful bids.

An extension of the maximum detention period for migrants from 10 to 28 days was agreed to make it easier to order and maintain their detention before a possible expulsion.

Germany will also aim to reach "new migrant partnerships" with the countries of origin of the new arrivals, Scholz told a press conference.

Scholz said the agreements would facilitate the arrival of "qualified staff" from the relevant nations in exchange for deals allowing the return of irregular migrants.

The federal government and the regions opted against implementing permanent border checks with neighbouring countries, but refused to rule it out.

Currently, Germany only applies fixed controls to everyone passing through along its border with Austria.

(AFP)

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Jul 28, 2012 — File:Hardt Michael Negri Antonio Empire.pdf ... Hardt_Michael_Negri_Antonio_Empire.pdf ‎(file size: 1.33 MB, MIME type: application/pdf) ...                        

Egypt starts mediating an end to Israel-Gaza strikes, rockets

Issued on: 11/05/2023 - 

01:33

Smoke and flames rise into the sky after the Israeli military said in a statement that it struck Islamic Jihad targets, in Gaza, May 9, 2023. 

© Mohammed Salem, Reuters

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Israel hit Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza for a second day on Wednesday and Palestinian militants launched hundreds of rockets across the border, setting off sirens as far away as Tel Aviv, while Egypt began efforts to mediate an end to the fighting.

The second round of cross-border fire in a week came after Israel launched strikes on Tuesday against three Islamic Jihad commanders it said had planned attacks against Israelis, following months of escalating violence.

Cairo, which has mediated in previous rounds of fighting, had begun brokering a ceasefire, Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawoud Shehab said.

Israel was examining Egypt's proposals, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told public broadcaster Kan.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks that Islamic Jihad had sustained a serious blow, but cautioned: "The campaign is not over yet."

The Israeli military said it hit more than 130 targets, including rocket-launching sites, as blasts sounded across the Palestinian enclave.

A late-night bombing of a building in the southern Gaza area of Khan Younis killed the head of Islamic Jihad's rocket launching force, identified as Ali Ghali, and two other militants, the Israeli military and Islamic Jihad said.

Minutes after Wednesday's air-strikes began, sirens sounded in Israel - mostly among border communities but soon also in and around the commercial capital Tel Aviv, 60 km (37 miles) northof Gaza.

More than 400 rockets were fired, Netanyahu said, a quarter of which fell short in Gaza.

The joint command of Gaza's militant groups, which includes Islamic Jihad and the enclave's Hamas rulers, claimed responsibility for the salvoes.

However Israeli military officials said they had seen no signs that Hamas, which is believed to have hundreds of rockets in its arsenal, had fired any missiles itself.

They said Israeli strikes were directed only at targets linked to the smaller Islamic Jihad group, an Iranian-backed militant organization based in Gaza which has been increasingly active in the occupied West Bank for the past year.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan emphasised the need for de-escalation during a call on Wednesday with the head of Israel's National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, the White House said.

"Sullivan ... noted continued regional efforts to broker a ceasefire, and emphasized the need to deescalate tensions and prevent further loss of life," according to a White House readout.

CHILDREN AMONG FATALITIES

In total, 24 Palestinians, including at least five women and five children, as well as three senior Islamic Jihad commanders and four gunmen have been killed since fighting began, Palestinian health officials said.

Among the fatalities on Wednesday was a 10-year-old girl, although the circumstances of her death were unclear.

The militant groups said the rocket salvoes were a retaliation for the Israeli strikes, which it described as "a savage and treacherous bombardment of civilian houses that led to several innocent martyrs."

Multiple trails could be seen ascending over Gaza as rockets were launched. Mid-air explosions signalled interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system and there were no reports of casualties in Israel.

Last week, Islamic Jihad fired more than 100 rockets across the border and Israeli jets hit targets in Gaza in an hours-long exchange following the death of an Islamic Jihad hunger striker in Israeli custody.

Even before Wednesday's rocket barrage began, as many as 30% of residents of Israeli border communities had been evacuated as a precaution, municipal head Gadi Yarkoni told Kan radio.

In Gaza, businesses and schools remained closed, Israel kept its two commercial and people crossings with Gaza closed.

The move would stop the entry of goods, fuel and humanitarian aid as well as patients who receive treatment in hospitals in the West Bank and Israel.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian gunmen who the military said had opened fire on them in the West Bank. Islamic Jihad claimed the men as members.

(REUTERS)

GRIFTER Republicans claim Biden family earned millions from shady overseas deals


Wed, 10 May 2023 

© Kevin Lamarque, Reuters


Republicans charged Wednesday that President Joe Biden's family has earned more than $10 million from shady business deals crafted while he was vice president.

With Biden ramping up his bid for a second term as president in the 2024 election, the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee alleged that the family took in $1 million tied to a business deal with a Romanian tycoon when the then vice-president oversaw relations with the country in 2014-2015.

The deal was allegedly done by Rob Walker, a business partner of Biden's son Hunter.

In a detailed report, committee Republicans said Walker began receiving money from Romanian tycoon Gabriel Popoviciu shortly after Biden welcomed Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to the White House in September 2015.

A Cyprus company allegedly owned by Popoviciu, Bladon Enterprises, paid a private company owned by Walker over $3 million from November 2015 to May 2017.

They said the pattern matches that of an already well-reported business deal Hunter Biden and Walker had with an energy company in China.

Five takeaways from Trump’s CNN town hall

BY NIALL STANAGE -

THE HILL

 05/10/23 

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association Convention in Indianapolis, on April 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

The biggest event so far in the 2024 election cycle took place in New Hampshire Wednesday evening.

Former President Trump participated in a town hall event hosted by CNN, with Kaitlan Collins serving as moderator.


The fact that the event was happening at all had drawn some criticism beforehand — mostly, but not exclusively, from liberals and the left.

On the other hand, a ratings bonanza was forecast by many media-watchers.

After all the hype, here are the main takeaways.

A disaster for CNN

Trump did not so much win the event as CNN lost it — catastrophically.

Not all of the blame can be placed on Collins, though there were clearly moments when she could have pushed back faster or more strongly.

A far bigger problem was a decision, presumably taken by producers, to have a live audience “made up of Republicans and undeclared voters who tend to take part in New Hampshire’s Republican primary,” as Collins put it in her introductory remarks.

What that meant was an audience loudly supportive of Trump at every turn — and plainly disdainful of Collins.

Around halfway through the event, Trump’s description of Collins as “a nasty person” drew whoops of delight.

Not a single tough question was asked of Trump by any audience member.

Perhaps most strikingly of all, Trump’s denial of ever having met, much less abused, E. Jean Carroll, received raucous approval — despite a nine-person jury having found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll only the previous day.

Offering his own spin on Carroll’s story, Trump wondered “What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you are playing hanky panky in a dressing room, OK?”

Many in the audience laughed.

Media figures, as well as politicians on the left, reacted with horror.

“I can’t believe this is being allowed on @CNN,” tweeted Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News anchor whose allegations of sexual harassment sparked the downfall of that network’s one-time supremo, Roger Ailes. “This is promulgating the cult leadership of Trump — and people are laughing at sexual assault.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted, “CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim.”

Ocasio-Cortez added, “The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”

CNN shouldn’t create programming to please Ocasio-Cortez, of course — any more than it should mold coverage to please Trump.

But the network has serious questions to answer about an event that spiraled so abjectly — and set up one of its own rising stars for a humiliating failure.

Trump was strikingly evasive on abortion

Collins did have some sliver of success when she pressed Trump on his position on abortion.

She was not able to wring from him a specific answer on whether he would sign a federal abortion ban if he were to win back the presidency in 2024. Yet, the vagueness and evasiveness of his response was revealing.

Trump proclaimed that the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade last June was “a great victory.” His rationale was an unusual one.

The former president contended that the decision “was an incredible thing for pro-life because it gave pro-life something to negotiate with.”

The explanation that followed was not clear, but Trump appeared to be arguing that, with the erstwhile constitutional guarantee of a right to abortion gone, it was easier to make deals between liberals and conservatives on certain limits to abortion.

Trying to distance himself from the most rigid anti-abortion positions in his party — positions that have fared badly at the polls in recent months — he added, “I happen to believe in the exceptions” to outright bans.

Still, Trump several times avoided Collins’s question on whether he would sign a federal ban.

Trump on the debt ceiling: ‘You’re gonna have to do a default’

The former president encouraged his party colleagues on Capitol Hill to hold to a hard line in the ongoing talks about the debt ceiling — even if it came at the price of the kind of U.S. default that virtually all credible economists say would be disastrous.

Trump vigorously backed the position put forward by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) among others — that the debt ceiling should only be raised if President Biden and the Democrats accede to steep spending cuts.

The White House has declined to countenance that idea. Democrats often note that Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling three times during Trump’s one term, even as he added more than $7 trillion to the national debt.

Trump insisted Republicans in Congress should stand firm.

“I say to the Republicans out there — congressmen, senators — if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re gonna have to do a default,” he said.

He predicted that the Democrats would “absolutely cave” in the face of such a strong position.

But, he suggested, even if they did not and the U.S. went into default for the first time in its history, “it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors.”
Election lies and downplaying Jan. 6

Perhaps the most predictable part of Wednesday’s event came with Trump’s standard lines about the 2020 election, and his minimization of what took place on Jan. 6, 2021.

In both cases, Collins tried to push back, but a combination of the Trump-backing crowd and his brash demeanor contributed to her getting steamrollered.

Trump said that 2020 was “a rigged election.”

It was not.

He also said that the protesters on Jan. 6 2021 “were there with love in their heart.”

Around 140 police officers were injured on Jan. 6, when a crowd ransacked the Capitol while seeking to overturn a legitimate presidential election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump soon afterward became the first American president in history to be twice impeached. The second impeachment was for inciting the Jan. 6 riot.

A big night for Trump spells trouble for his GOP rivals

CNN may well have delivered Trump his biggest boost yet in his quest for the 2024 GOP nomination — an ironic twist for a news network to which the former president almost always used to append the term “Fake News.”

All of the traits that Trump’s hardcore supporters admire were on full display on Wednesday — the belligerence, the swatting-aside of criticism and the mocking of opponents and adversaries.

He never came close to being trapped in any politically awkward spot — save perhaps when declining to answer whether he wanted Russia or Ukraine to win the war sparked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion.

GOP lawmaker takes shot at Kaitlan Collins while on CNN panel after Trump town hall 

Trump snaps at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: ‘You’re a nasty person’

Above all, CNN got humiliated at his hands — a sweet victory for conservatives who detest the network.

The event plainly reinforced Trump’s position as the dominant player in the GOP field.

That is very bad news for the rivals who are already trailing in his wake.

Biden trolls Trump over CNN town hall

BY JARED GANS - THE HILL - 05/10/23 

President Biden trolled former President Trump on Wednesday over a contentious appearance at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, with Biden asking for supporters to donate to his reelection campaign if they don’t want “four more years of that.”

“It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that? If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign,” Biden tweeted. 

His campaign later sent an email seeking to fundraise with the subject line, “So, that happened.”

“If you missed Trump’s CNN town hall, you’re better off for it. But the choice is clear: It’s four more years of Trump or four more years of Biden,” the email states.

Biden’s tweet came after more than an hour of sometimes-intense exchanges between Trump and CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins over a range of topics, including his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election. 

Ocasio-Cortez on Trump town hall: ‘CNN should be ashamed of themselves’

BY JULIA SHAPERO THE HILL - 05/10/23

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed CNN over its decision to hold a town hall with former President Trump on Wednesday night.

“CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”

Trump doubled down on his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” suggested those that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had “love in their heart,” and called author E. Jean Carroll a “whack job” at Wednesday’s town hall.

The former president’s comments come just one day after a jury found that he sexually abused Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by denying the allegations. Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store. 

“This falls squarely on CNN,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.”

In an appearance on MSNBC after the town hall, the congresswoman said Trump’s attacks on Carroll were “a continued demonstration” of the sacrifices that survivors of sexual abuse make to “come forward and challenge power.”

“What we also saw tonight was the consequence of doing that,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They sacrifice their anonymity, they sacrifice their safety, and they sacrifice all of this because we continue to live in a society where an overwhelming amount of structures allow this abuse to happen and find it permissible.”

“I think it was a profoundly irresponsible decision,” she added of the town hall. “I don’t think that I would be doing my job if I did not say that.”

California readies for treasure hunt as floods wash up ‘Gold Rush 2.0

Party like it’s 1849

’BY SHARON UDASIN 

THE HILL

- 05/07/23

In the aftermath of an unusually wet winter, Californians are bracing not only for flooded fields and raging rapids, but also for a potential treasure hunt that experts are dubbing “Gold Rush 2.0.”

“It’s one of those 100-years events,” Mark Dayton, a Sacramento Valley metal detector expert, told The Hill.

With one atmospheric river after another this past winter, snowpack on the Golden State’s mountain peaks piled up to unprecedented heights. But as that snow gushes down the hillsides, the fast and furious flow is shuttling other materials along with it.

“When it melts, it comes rushing down at crazy speeds through narrow gorges and canyons, and it’s a torrent of raging water,” Dayton said. “This is even crazier than whitewater.”

The flow cascades like a waterfall from about 5,000 feet to 3,500 feet, at which point it begins “meandering into some of the foothills” and into creeks and streams, Dayton explained.

“What happens is the material is being ripped literally right off the walls of the creeks as they reshape themselves,” he added.

By “material,” Dayton means gold. And he said he anticipates a lot of it this year.

“It’s like a generational flood,” agreed Albert Fausel, the third-generation owner of the local Placerville Hardware Store, which opened in 1852.

“It’s been a flood that I’ve never seen in my life,” Fausel continued. “It’s all going to come down at once and just integrate a lot of new material into our river systems.”

El Dorado and the ‘Brass Medic’

Prospectors should expect to find “several different pockets of gold” in relatively shallow waters, as the snowmelt washes “all that material into the waterway,” according to Dayton. The heavier pieces, he explained, will stay up at higher altitudes.

“But most of the small stuff that we typically find year-to-year as gold prospectors is going to make its way not only down to where we typically look for it, in the 2,000-3,500-foot range, but all the way down literally to the Sacramento Valley,” he said.

Dayton, a former firefighter-paramedic turned self-proclaimed “Brass Medic,” has been treasure hunting for more than three decades in Northern California’s El Dorado County. From the Spanish meaning “The Golden,” the region is home to the original mid-19th century gold discovery.

That find came in 1848, when carpenter James Marshall spotted flecks of gold in a diversion channel adjacent to the sawmill he was building in Coloma, northeast of Sacramento.

News of his find soon spread, and the state’s non-American Indian population grew from about 14,000 in 1848 to some 250,000 by 1852, according to California’s Department Parks and Recreation.

That’s also the same year that the Placerville Hardware Store opened its doors, and its owner now believes that this season will bring “a little new mini gold rush.”

“I have a lot of people coming from all over. They’re looking for places to go, they’re planning their family vacations out here,” said Fausel, whose business is about 9 miles from the historic discovery site.

“I try kind of guiding them to local campsites, to good places to find gold, to the right tools to find gold — like gold pans or metal detectors,” he added.

In the “old days,” miners would begin by panning in a river, where they would find small pieces of gold, and then go up the river as the pieces became bigger and bigger, according to Dayton.

When the pieces “just dead stopped,” they’d know they were above the source of gold, he explained.

With the so-called “Forty-Niners” flocking into the region, the local Native American population particularly suffered as the newcomers devastated lands, water, space and other resources, the National Parks Service noted.

The Golden State lives up to its name

While gold mining occurred across California, the biggest concentration of mines was in the vicinity of the original discovery, according to a historic map from the California Department of Conservation.

From a geological perspective, this part of Northern California has a lot of quartz, which Dayton described as “the one matrix in which gold is formed in the Earth.”

“We have so much quartz here, and quartz outcroppings that are literally just sticking right out of the dirt all over the Gold Country,” he said.

Over time, he explained, the quartz that was “down inside the Earth has made its way up to the surface,” furnishing this region with gold.

Dayton is a jack of all trades when it comes to gold prospecting, although he said that metal detecting is his professional specialty. He stressed, however, that he likes to “do it all,” including methods such as panning, sniping and sluicing.

Sniping requires lying down in a creek bed and prying the gold piece by piece from the bedrock. Sluicing, meanwhile, involves flushing a gravel-gold mix with water in a tilted box designed to trap the gold, which is heavier than the gravel.

California has a lot of region-specific regulations, however, with many areas only allowing panning.

“We call it hands-and-pans — that means you cannot use a shovel to dig. You can only use your hands and a pan,” Dayton said, noting that this rule applies to most state park lands.

At state parks, one person can gather only up to 15 pounds of mineral material each day, and such material cannot be sold or used commercially for profit, according to the Parks Department.

Public lands administered by the federal government fall under the Mining Law of 1872, which allows U.S. citizens to explore, discover and purchase certain mineral deposits, per the Bureau of Land Management.

There are more than 5,000 mining claims — for gold, silver, gemstones and other minerals — on California public lands today. Mining claims can still be “staked” for locatable minerals, such as gold, on public domain lands.

Before staking a claim, however, prospectors must check both federal records and markings on the ground for prior claims, according to the Bureau. Most states require that markings be “conspicuous and substantial monuments,” such as stone mounds or wood or metal posts.

The Gold Country Treasure Seekers — a club in which Dayton is a member — stressed in a recent Facebook post that prospectors must abide by a “detecting mining code of ethics.”

That code of ethics advises gold seekers to “respect the country code,” as well as avoid trespassing, refrain from contaminating water supplies, fill holes, stay away from archeological monuments and report all finds to landowners.

 

Party like it’s 1849

At the Placerville Hardware Store, Fausel said that he is trying to teach his customers some of the rules, so that “we can all keep doing what we’d like to do” in California’s strict regulatory environment.

As treasure hunting season gets underway, Dayton said that he expects to see tourists flocking to the region “to get out and do something fun,” particularly since the price of gold is so high.

He predicted that panning and sluicing will work best for early explorers in June — once the water levels drop enough to “not have to worry about drowning.”

“But later when the water really starts to recede and it starts to dry out around August September, metal detectors will rule the world,” Dayton said. 

“They will be the ones getting in and finding all the easy stuff — big and easy stuff,” he added.

For his part, Fausel said that he is excited to welcome families to the region and to teach new enthusiasts how to pan for gold.

“When they find that first piece of gold it really lights them up,” he added. “It’s exciting for them. It’s exciting for me because I’ve taught somebody kind of a new hobby.”

 

 

ASEAN

Indonesia's Widodo says no real progress on Myanmar peace plan

Martin Abbugao and Allison Jackson
Wed, May 10, 2023 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C) said ASEAN member nations have made no real progress in bringing an end to the bloodshed in Myanmar

Southeast Asian nations have made "no significant progress" on implementing a peace plan aimed at ending bloodshed in Myanmar, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Thursday, on the final day of a summit.

Escalating violence in junta-ruled Myanmar has dominated the three-day meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Indonesian island of Flores.

The regional bloc has spearheaded diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, though it has yet to enact a five-point plan agreed upon with Myanmar two years ago.

Since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government it has overseen a bloody crackdown on dissent, killing thousands of people and battling armed resistance to its rule.

As ASEAN leaders began their final day of talks in the fishing town of Labuan Bajo, Indonesian President Joko Widodo admitted they had made "no significant progress" on implementing the peace plan.

"We need the unity of ASEAN to chart our way forward," Widodo said through a translator.

Divisions among ASEAN members at the summit appear to have hampered those efforts.

An internal report on the foreign ministers' discussions said some countries wanted to invite the junta back to ASEAN meetings because "the time for isolation has served its purpose".

"There was also an observation that ASEAN might be experiencing a 'Myanmar fatigue', which might distract ASEAN from larger goals of ASEAN Community-building," said the document seen by AFP.

"Patience, flexibility and creativity are therefore required since there will be no quick fix to the crisis."

- Hamstrung -

Myanmar still belongs to the 10-member ASEAN bloc but has been barred from its summits due to the junta's failure to implement the peace plan.

The junta has spurned international criticism and refused to engage with its opponents, which include ousted lawmakers, anti-coup "People's Defence Forces" and armed ethnic minority groups.

An air strike on a village in a rebel stronghold last month that reportedly killed about 170 people sparked global condemnation and worsened the junta's isolation.

Jakarta's chairing of the bloc this year had raised hopes ASEAN could push for a peaceful solution, using its economic weight as well as its diplomatic experience.

Sunday's armed attack on a convoy carrying diplomats and officials coordinating ASEAN humanitarian relief in Myanmar had increased pressure for tougher action.

ASEAN has long been decried by critics as a toothless talking shop, but its charter principles of consensus and non-interference have hamstrung its ability to stop the violence in Myanmar.

The latest draft of the end-of-summit statement seen by AFP has left the paragraph on Myanmar open, reflecting diplomatic difficulties over the issue.

A review of the charter was "long overdue", said Lina Alexandra of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

"When you see your next-door neighbour's house is burning, what will you do? Can you just stay silent, it's not my problem?" she said.

mba-amj/lb

Streaming giants battle for anime supremacy


Tomohiro OSAKI
Wed, May 10, 2023 

Producer Haruyasu Makino's Netflix series "Ultraman S3" is part of a rapidly expanding landscape of anime shows populating global streaming giants

From R-rated sci-fi to teen biker gang adventures, streaming platforms are locked in an intensifying battle for dominance in one of the entertainment sector's hottest and most lucrative mediums: anime.

Fuelled in part by the pandemic, the popularity of the cartoons pioneered in Japan has created a goldmine for streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

The global anime market was valued at $28.6 billion in 2022, according to Grand View Research, and is forecast to double in value by 2030.

"The peak may still be ahead of us," Aya Umezu, CEO of Tokyo-based entertainment consulting firm GEM Partners, told AFP.

"We doubt the competition in anime will slow down soon."

Globally, demand for anime increased by 35 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to industry specialist service Parrot Analytics.

It is little wonder, then, that international streamers are scrambling for ways to capitalise on the surging interest.

Recent years have seen Disney+, a relative latecomer to anime, start offering fan favourites also found elsewhere like "Demon Slayer", "Spy x Family" and "Jujutsu Kaisen".

"Having them can prevent subscription cancellations -- that's how strong these IPs (intellectual properties) are," Umezu said.

Offering these titles is seen as a baseline, and far from sufficient to win the loyalty of anime fans with increasingly diverse options available.

That has meant platforms are looking to either secure exclusive rights to content or co-produce their own original anime in a bid to stand out.

- Breaking open the market -

Last year, Disney+ announced exclusive streaming rights to season two of smash-hit teen biker gang saga "Tokyo Revengers", part of a lucrative deal with publishing giant Kodansha.

Amazon Prime has also sought to "monopolise" blockbusters, said anime expert Tadashi Sudo, including "One Piece Film: Red" -- Japan's highest-grossing movie last year.

Netflix has proven something of an outlier in this market, going beyond snatching up existing hits to work directly with animation studios, granting them an unusual amount of creative leeway to make new stories.

Traditionally, Japanese anime emerges from "production committees" made up of publishers, TV broadcasters, toy-makers and other industry players.

These have long had a key role in broadening revenue possibilities for a series, from character merchandising to gaming.

Netflix ruffled industry feathers when it teamed up directly with Tokyo animation studio Production I.G in 2018, bypassing the system.

"Some (in the anime industry) were upset because they thought we would destroy what they had built over all these years," Production I.G president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa said.

He went as far as likening Netflix to the "Black Ships" -- the 19th-century US vessels that forced the opening of Japan after hundreds of years of trade isolation.

"The domestic way of making anime was suddenly forced open," he said.

Netflix has reaped the rewards, with its original content making it "the platform that drove the largest increase in global demand for anime in 2021", said Christofer Hamilton of US-based Parrot Analytics.

- 'Experimental' push -

But even streaming goliaths with worldwide influence have comparatively small audience numbers in Japan.

That raises red flags for some industry players, especially publishers who want maximum exposure for anime adaptations of their manga titles and worry exclusive streaming deals would limit their reach in Japan.

There is "a clash of two opposing interests -- between platforms who want more exclusives and production committee players who want as little of a monopoly (for streaming services) as possible", said anime specialist Sudo.

Experts say this conflict often leads to Netflix original deals being based on works that are less likely to become national sensations like "Demon Slayer".

None of Netflix's original anime made their top-20 most-watched list for Japan users in 2022, according to GEM Partners senior data analyst Shota Ito.

The streamer is, however, an attractive prospect for studios with more commercially challenging projects that the traditional market could find too niche.

Early original content on Netflix reflected this, and was heavy on shows critics say evoked the hardcore sci-fi anime of a few decades ago.

Among these was "Devilman Crybaby", the tale of a "demon-boy" that featured violence and nudity galore.

"My sense is that creators wanted to do something with us that they had little chance to do under the existing system," Netflix chief anime producer Taiki Sakurai told AFP.

That initial "experimental" push has since given way to a broader roster, including comedy, traditional "shonen" targeting young boys and even a stop-motion project starring a teddy bear.

Long-standing fans also have other dedicated services to turn to, including the huge online anime library Crunchyroll.

Netflix content director Yuji Yamano is convinced the market is far from saturated, though, and believes competition will only make "the industry even more exciting".

"Globally, I only see more room for growth in anime."

tmo/sah/kaf/aha/cwl