Twitter's head of brand safety and ad quality to leave -source
Story by By Sheila Dang • Yesterday


(Reuters) - Twitter's head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, has decided to leave the company, according to a source familiar with the matter on Friday, the second safety leader to depart in a matter of days.

The latest departure adds to a growing challenge for new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, even before she steps into the role.

On Thursday, Ella Irwin told Reuters that she resigned from her role as vice president of product for trust and safety at the social media company, where she oversaw content moderation efforts and often responded to users with questions about suspended accounts.

Twitter Executive Resigns After Conservative Documentary Debacle (Newsweek)
Duration 0:59  View on Watch

Brown worked on efforts to prevent ads from appearing next to unsuitable content.

Platformer and the Wall Street Journal earlier reported Brown's departure.

Since Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October, the platform has struggled to retain advertisers, who were wary about the placement of their ads after the company laid off thousands of employees.

Musk's hiring of Yaccarino, former ad chief at Comcast's NBCUniversal, signaled that ad sales remained a priority for Twitter even as it works to grow subscription revenue.

Twitter and Brown did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Maju Samuel and Marguerita Choy)

Buzzworthy: Honeybee health blooming at federal facilities across the country




CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — While judges, lawyers and support staff at the federal courthouse in Concord, New Hampshire, keep the American justice system buzzing, thousands of humble honeybees on the building’s roof are playing their part in a more important task — feeding the world.

The Warren B. Rudman courthouse is one of several federal facilities around the country participating in the General Services Administration’s Pollinator Initiative, a government program aimed at assessing and promoting the health of bees and other pollinators, which are critical to life on Earth.

“Anybody who eats food, needs bees," said Noah Wilson-Rich, co-founder, CEO and chief scientific officer of the Boston-based Best Bees company, which contracts with the government to take care of the honeybee hives at the New Hampshire courthouse and at some other federal buildings.

Bees help pollinate the fruits and vegetables that sustain humans, he said. They pollinate hay and alfalfa, which feed cattle that provide the meat we eat. And they promote the health of plants that, through photosynthesis, give us clean air to breathe.

Yet the busy insects that contribute an estimated $25 billion to the U.S. economy annually are under threat from diseases, agricultural chemicals and habitat loss that kill about half of all honeybee hives annually. Without human intervention, including beekeepers creating new hives, the world could experience a bee extinction that would lead to global hunger and economic collapse, Wilson-Rich said.

The pollinator program is part of the federal government’s commitment to promoting sustainability, which includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting climate resilient infrastructure, said David Johnson, the General Services Administration’s sustainability program manager for New England.

The GSA's program started last year with hives at 11 sites.

Some of those sites are no longer in the program. Hives placed at the National Archives building in Waltham, Massachusetts, last year did not survive the winter.

Related video: U.S. promotes honeybees with hives at buildings

Duration 1:52   View on Watch

Since then, other sites were added. Two hives, each home to thousands of bees, were placed on the roof of the Rudman building in March.

The program is collecting data to find out whether the honeybees, which can fly 3 to 5 miles from the roof in their quest for pollen, can help the health of not just the plants on the roof, but also of the flora in the entire area, Johnson said.

“Honeybees are actually very opportunistic,” he said. “They will feed on a lot of different types of plants.”

The program can help identify the plants and landscapes beneficial to pollinators and help the government make more informed decisions about what trees and flowers to plant on building grounds.

Best Bees tests the plant DNA in the honey to get an idea of the plant diversity and health in the area, Wilson-Rich said, and they have found that bees that forage on a more diverse diet seem to have better survival and productivity outcomes.

Other federal facilities with hives include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services headquarters in Baltimore; the federal courthouse in Hammond, Indiana; the Federal Archives Records Center in Chicago; and the Denver Federal Center.

The federal government isn't alone in its efforts to save the bees. The hives placed at federal sites are part of a wider network of about 1,000 hives at home gardens, businesses and institutions nationwide that combined can help determine what's helping the bees, what's hurting them and why.

The GSA’s Pollinator Initiative is also looking to identify ways to keep the bee population healthy and vibrant and model those lessons at other properties — both government and private sector — said Amber Levofsky, the senior program advisor for the GSA's Center for Urban Development.

“The goal of this initiative was really aimed at gathering location-based data at facilities to help update directives and policies to help facilities managers to really target pollinator protection and habitat management regionally,” she said.

And there is one other benefit to the government honeybee program that's already come to fruition: the excess honey that's produced is donated to area food banks.

Mark Pratt, The Associated Press

ICYMI

Canada commits to backing C$3 billion in new Trans Mountain oil pipeline loans

Story by By Ismail Shakil and Nia Williams • Yesterday 

A pipe yard servicing government-owned oil pipeline operator Trans Mountain is seen in Kamloops

© Thomson Reuters

OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Canadian government is backing up to C$3 billion ($2.24 billion) in loans for Trans Mountain Corp (TMC), the crown corporation building an over-budget and long-delayed oil pipeline expansion to Canada's Pacific Coast.

The information was disclosed on Export Development Canada's (EDC) website this week, and shows two new loan guarantees signed in late March and early May.

Last year Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, which bought the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2018 to ensure the expansion project got built, provided a C$10 billion loan guarantee to TMC.

The Trans Mountain Expansion will nearly triple the flow of crude from Alberta's oil sands to Burnaby, British Columbia, to 890,000 barrels per day and is intended to boost access to Asian refining markets.

But the project has been beset by regulatory hurdles, environmental opposition and construction delays and is now expected to cost C$30.9 billion, quadrupling from the C$7.4 billion budgeted in 2017.

Finance Ministry spokeswoman Marie-France Faucher said the loan guarantee was "common practice" and did not reflect any new public spending. TMC is paying a fee to the government for the loan guarantee, she said.

"The federal government does not intend to be the long-term owner of the project and will launch a divestment process in due course," Faucher said in a statement, adding the project remains commercially viable.

Many analysts say TMC will not be able to recoup the full cost of construction when it sells the pipeline. Morningstar analyst Stephen Ellis estimated the pipeline will be worth around C$15 billion once it is completed.

"With the project so over-budget, the feds are going to have to sell it at a loss and taxpayers will be on the hook to repay the loans," said Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada.

The expanded pipeline is expected to start shipping oil in the first quarter of 2024.

($1 = 1.3372 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Nia Williams; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Richard Chang)

WAITING FOR 70 YEARS WHATS 5 MORE

A Sam Altman-backed startup is betting it can crack the code on fusion energy. Here's how it's trying to bring that to the masses by 2028.

Story by bnguyen@insider.com (Britney Nguyen) • June 3.2023

Helion’s co-founders: Chris Pihl, chief technology officer (left), David Kirtley, chief executive officer (middle), and George Votroubek, director of research (right). © Helion Energy

Helion Energy wants to produce large amounts of electricity through fusion by 2028.

 
Microsoft has agreed to buy 50 megawatts of electricity from Helion, which can power 40,000 homes.
Helion's chief business officer talked to Insider about how the company plans to make fusion energy.

The race is on for clean energy company Helion Energy to build a fusion power plant capable of producing enough electricity for tech behemoth Microsoft in five years.

Microsoft in May agreed to buy 50 megawatts of electricity from Helion by 2028, which is enough to power around 40,000 homes.

Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is enthusiastic for the potential of fusion energy and Helion, previously saying he's "super excited about what's going to happen there." Altman invested $375 million into the company in November 2021, leading its Series E round.

Fusion energy could be used to power data centers, which are large consumers of electricity, Scott Krisiloff, Helion Energy's chief business officer, told Insider.

But despite the enthusiasm and promises of fusion energy, it's incredibly hard to produce. In particular, it's difficult to get up to the temperature needed to produce electricity from fusion. Helion claims its the first private fusion company to have built technology capable of reaching that temperature.

"As our population has grown and required more information, and more connectedness to the internet, the energy needs of our population grow as well," Krisiloff said.



Electromagnetic coils that will be used in Helion's seventh fusion energy prototype, Polaris. 

Krisiloff said Helion is currently working on its seventh prototype, Polaris, that is expected to be completed in 2024, and would be the first to produce electricity from fusion.

"Fusion is something that we utilize every day; all of our energy traces back to fusion in some way," Krisiloff said. "But we've never been able to harness it on Earth in a way that we can produce electricity from it."

Fusion energy is created in a 40-foot long tube

Fusion happens when two atoms come together, forming a single atom, and is is how the sun and stars make energy.

Helium-3 is produced by fusing deuterium in Helion's plasma accelerator.

For its reaction, Helion takes two materials, deuterium, a form of hydrogen found in water, and helium-3 and puts them in a 40-foot-long tube. Inside, the materials are compressed until they reach 100 million degrees Celsius.

That's when the conditions are right to produce electricity, Krisiloff said. Helion's sixth and latest prototype called Trenta, has been able to exceed 100 million degree celsius temperatures, according to Krisiloff.



A graphic explaining how Helion's fusion energy technology works. 

"That is one cycle of the machine, and then you pulse it over and over in order to get more energy out," Krisiloff said.


A gif depicting two plasmas merging inside Trenta, Helion’s sixth fusion prototype. 

Fusion could be a better source of clean energy than wind and solar

Krisiloff said what makes fusion energy promising is that there are abundant fuel sources for it.

"The fuel comes from water in the form of deuterium, which is found abundantly on Earth," Krisiloff said.

Another benefit of fusion is that it's safer, Krisiloff said, compared to other forms of energy such as nuclear energy, or fission, which is a chain reaction. That means if something happens to the machine producing fusion energy, it will shut down immediately.



An electrical engineer preparing for Helion’s next pulsed power test. 

Krisiloff said fusion also produces limited amounts of waste during the process compared to traditional fission, which is when atoms are split apart, creating unstable nuclei, some of which can be radioactive for millions of years, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Fusion can produce energy without emitting carbon, Krisiloff said. It also requires the lowest amount of demand on a power grid over time.



Polaris, a prototype fusion reactor from Helion, which recently announced a deal with Microsoft to provide the tech giant with electricity produced from fusion. 

Compared to other sources of clean energy, Krisiloff said fusion is the most energy dense, meaning it can happen in a confined space, and doesn't need large amounts of land and space required by solar and wind power. It's also more reliable than wind and solar power, because it wouldn't be as impacted by extreme weather events, Krisiloff said.

As wildfires burn in Alberta forests, what happens to the animals?

Story by Naama Weingarten • CBC

June 3,2023

A raven lands on the roof of a barn as thick smoke from wildfires obscures the sun near Cremona, Alta., on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.© The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

As wildfires keep burning in Alberta, it's not just humans who have to bear the effects.

From birds to mammals to insects, some animals perish, some escape, some grow accustomed to a new habitat — and plenty thrive.

Here's what some wild animals have been through since this spring's extreme wildfire season took off.

Experts say whether wildlife can withstand a fire largely depends on the animal.

University of Alberta biological sciences professor Erin Bayne said larger mammals like wolves, elk, moose and deer can easily run out of a fire's path and find a source of water. Smaller mammals might not be fast enough to get away, but some, like deer mice, will go underground.

"We've never seen catastrophic mortality in the boreal forest of most mammals, simply because they are adapted to deal with it to some degree," Bayne said.

He added that some birds were actually lucky when it comes to the timing of Alberta's recent wildfires, since few had started nesting in early May. But some birds with historical nesting sites who depend on older forests will need to find new homes.

"If this had been [later in May], then we would have had massive destruction of nests and the birds would have had to either bail and not nest that year or probably nest somewhere else and try again," Bayne said.

Wildfire danger also doesn't come just from flames, but from where animals flee. Many find themselves in urban areas where interactions with humans can put them in danger.

Dale Gienow, the executive director of WildNorth, a non-profit that provides care to injured or orphaned wildlife, said there's been a small uptick in the number of animals turned in during the wildfires.

He said he's mostly seen birds and small mammals who have been run over by cars or ended up in people's backyards.

"We don't get a lot of burned animals. Most of those animals unfortunately perish," he told CBC's Edmonton AM.

Post-wildfire recovery won't look the same everywhere.

University of Alberta ecology professor Mark Boyce has co-ordinated research on the aftermath of wildfires in North America. He said it typically takes a year or two until vegetation grows back enough for most wildlife to return. It can take anywhere from four to 12 years for it to reach peak levels ideal for mammals like deer, elk and moose.

Many birds also thrive after wildfires: insects like beetles arrive around the one-year mark to feed on burned trees, becoming a good food source.

Despite its visible destruction, fire is an integral part of Alberta's boreal and Rocky Mountain forests.

"That doesn't make it any less devastating for people who have properties in those kinds of areas," Boyce said. "But fire is a natural part of these ecosystems."

Even if animals aren't specifically adapted to wildfires, many tend to do better in the aftermath.

As trees burn away, they create open access for sunlight to hit the ground, helping different types of vegetation grow and giving animals more food sources.

"There are benefits from a fire going through," Bayne said. "What we're seeing right now, however, is unprecedented."

More than 1.1 million hectares have burned across Alberta so far this wildfire season, making it the second-worst on record with months still left to go. The previous record was set in 1981 when 1.3 million hectares burned.

The 2019 wildfire season also came close to a new record, burning more than 880,000 hectares.

"After years of repeated fires, that makes it very difficult for forested ecosystems to regrow," Bayne said.

He said that if these conditions keep escalating, some vegetation could disappear from Alberta's forests over the next century, and the habitat might become a mixture of grassland and smaller patches of trees.

"It might be premature to say we've crossed that line," he said. "I think this season, if nothing else, is a warning bell."

At a news conference this week, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the amount of forest burned by wildfires is projected to double by 2050 due to climate change.

Boyce added it's hard to say what a future with more wildfires will mean for the natural environment.

"Fires are an integral part of the ecosystems," he said.

"But their role will change as a consequence of climate change, and exactly how that's going to roll out, I don't think we fully understand yet."

50% LIBERTARIAN POSITION 

Poilievre links Pride with freedom but stays mum on parades, condemns Uganda bill
Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 


OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is wishing LGBTQ people a happy Pride month, linking it with his platform's focus on freedom, but he is not saying whether he'll be attending any Pride events.

The Opposition leader also joined a weeklong chorus of condemnation of Uganda's plan to jail gender and sexual minorities.

"I wish everyone a happy Pride month, because our freedom is something in which all of us can take pride," Poilievre told reporters in Winnipeg on Friday morning.

LGBTQ groups across North America celebrate June as Pride month, although festivals and parades happen throughout the summer in different Canadian cities.

When asked whether he'd march in any Pride parades, Poilievre instead talked about the values of choice and openness.

He said that for LGBTQ people, this includes "the freedom to marry, start a family, raise kids; freedom from bigotry and bashing; freedom to be judged by personal character, not by group identity; freedom to start a life and be judged on your merit."

He also said Canada should continue to resettle LGBTQ refugees from abroad.

His comments come as conservative groups in the U.S. take aim at LGBTQ people, such as by blocking access to gender-affirming care for transgender people or protesting drag queen performances.

Related video: Poilievre responds to anti-LGBTQ2 laws in Uganda, does not comment on participating in pride march (Global News) View on Watch

When asked about a Uganda law that allows judges to jail people for up to 10 years for same-sex relations, Poilievre called the legislation "outrageous and appalling." He noted that former prime minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government had been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ people. THAT'S WHY HIS PAL AND CABINET MINISTER JOHN BAIRD NEVER LEFT THE CLOSET

Poilievre's comments on the Uganda bill come four days after condemnation from members of his caucus, as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and numerous MPs from various parties.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly spoke against the bill on Monday, noting that it includes the death penalty for certain offences.

“The reversal of human rights that this law represents is deeply concerning, and we are disturbed by the heinous forms of violence it legalizes against a segment of Uganda’s population, only because of who they are and who they love," she wrote in a statement.

"This act is a blatant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTQ+ Ugandans. It exposes them to systematic persecution, oppression, violence, including the possibility of life terms in prison and the death penalty."

Joly said the Liberals will work with groups in the region to respond to the bill.

The Equal Rights Coalition, a group of 42 countries including Canada, said the bill includes draconian punishments and will harm programs aimed at shoring up health, echoing concerns from HIV-prevention groups.

The Dignity Network, a coalition of 61 non-governmental Canadian groups that advocate for LGBTQ rights abroad, says it's working with contacts in Uganda to scope out how Ottawa and grassroots organizations can respond.

The group says that Canada should have a special envoy, similar to the U.S., who can monitor LGBTQ rights around the world and speak out when people are under threat.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

DECOLONIZING POSTMODERN MYTHOLOGY 

Opinion: Why I created the superhero I wish I had as a kid

Something magic happens when a kid connects with superhero comics.

This pop mythology made of masks, capes and sequential panels is unlike any other medium: a unique sensory overload. It is a collective patchwork of modern legends who transcend and outlive their creators. A superhero comic hits like magic lightning and can open a channel of infinite imagination.


Luciano Vecchio - Courtesy of Luciano Vecchio

In my case, that lightning hit me as a young kid in Zárate, my own Smallville in Argentina, a corner of the Global South very, very far from where the heroes I was reading about were born. The gaps of geopolitical contrast and cultural difference between North and South America were closed with a powerful single bound.

To me, Superman and his kind really existed. Even as a child I could recognize my own superpower. To draw! To imagine heroes and give them life. With the commitment of a young Bruce Wayne’s oath to fight for justice, I swore on a pile of Spanish translation editions that drawing the comics I loved would be my job when I grew up. And either through stubbornness or precognition, it came to happen.

There are a few points of resonance between queer identity and superhero narratives. The dual identity of the closeted life, the customization of our image and presentation, the sense of otherness and finding a chosen family among peers and even the intentionally coded narrative of mutants as a metaphor for marginalized groups. But coding through metaphor, while sometimes producing smart and less obvious reads, can also be optional and invisible to those who prefer to stay unaware of what they reject.

I grew up as a closeted queer kid in self-denial, in a cultural context with scarce representation and acceptance. Even when I wasn’t an outsider in my social surroundings, I was always an outsider to myself. I was separated from my truth and the organic emotional growth that cisgender, heterosexual people too often take for granted.

As for many, the ongoing metaverse of monthly superhero comics remained, as I grew up, a place of refuge and expansion where anything could happen, in contrast with the then-dull world outside my window. And like many young gay geeks, I orbited toward Wonder Woman, with her fierce compassion, as my icon of anti-patriarchy.

Still, it would take me 21 years of life to build up the strength and courage to face my fears and start living my truth. And I am one of the lucky ones. In that, there is no justice.

A few decades later, I found myself working as a freelance professional artist juggling assignments for DC (which shares a parent company with CNN) and Marvel, living my childhood fantasy. That’s when the opportunity arose to manifest Sereno, my own creator-owned superhero for the local Argentinian scene.

In this genre, creating a new superhero always happens in dialogue with the source archetypes who ignited it all. If Superman and Batman were expressions of the collective unconscious of their era, I asked myself, what kind of fictional hero would I invoke, and what would make him unique?

It’s all about perspective, and mine was that of a gay adult, an enthusiast of practicing art-as-magic, living in Buenos Aires – a place in constant crisis and effervescence, at a crossroads of cultural expressions and colonization from the various nodes of the Global North – a few years after the legalization of equal marriage in Argentina changed my civilian and political existence.

Braiding together influences from American superheroes and their Japanese counterparts like Sailor Moon and the Knights of the Zodiac through the prism of my Latinoamerican sensibility, my hero Sereno, which in Spanish means both “Serene” and “Nightwatchman,”emerged as a Magical Boy, a male version of the Japanese “Magical Girl” archetype. A spiritual warrior of light defending his utopian city, a queer lead character, a counteroffer of sensitive masculinity reclaiming what patriarchy denied us.

Luciano Vecchio's comic "Sereno." - Courtesy of Luciano Vecchio

Sereno is my love letter, my humble gift in return to the genre that nurtured me. He is the hero I wish I had as a kid, who would in turn save my past, present and future.

The stories we tell can shape ideas and transform the real world we inhabit. With that realization there was no turning back. I had to pick my role in the imagination battlefields to participate in the change I want to see in everyday life for me and my community.

A very intimate, creatively transforming project, Sereno not only expanded what I was capable of artistically, but he also amplified my visibility and role as an out and vocal gay creator. LGBTQ representation in the world of superheroes became a passionate focus that I poured back into my more mainstream work.

I joined a vigorous group of other artists taking up this cause. The moment I had the chance, I wrote and drew the first canon gathering of every LGBTQ Marvel hero going together to the Pride march as a political statement, in a short story aptly titled “Assemble.” Soon after, both Marvel and DC presented their first-ever Pride anthologies, showcasing their LGBTQ characters and creators. I had the honor to participate in both. Now my childhood dream was updated with Purpose.

In a world that never stops ending, translating Sereno into English closes a magic circle that in turn opens new paths. I found myself writing and drawing gay mutant icon Iceman for Marvel, while at DC Superman himself, now the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane and inheritor of the mantle, comes out as queer and winks at me from across the universes in some sort of transtemporal cosmic resonance. Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.

Sereno will soon be available for the first time in a book collection, and I find myself taking a step back from writing to focus on my drawing roots while preparing for my creation to take on a life of his own, to connect with other young people about to be struck by lightning like I was.

If you meet Sereno, I hope you get to know him so together we can imagine, across time and space, the best possible future.

CNN.com

Right-wing media figures are waging an anti-LGBTQ war on businesses over Pride Month

Story by Oliver Darcy • Yesterday .

Prepare yourself for a Pride Month imbued with callous intolerance.

Fueled by right-wing media personalities and institutions like Fox News, conservatives are waging a ferocious war on companies that express support for the LGBTQ community, with hostilities against the celebration of gay rights swelling to levels not seen in many years. In effect, the supposedly anti-cancel culture crowd is leading the summer’s biggest cancel culture campaign.

In recent weeks, right-wing media has smeared and incited boycotts against Bud Light and Target, two jumbo American brands that have been thrust into the center of the toxic culture wars. Both companies have been relentlessly attacked over their show of public support for the LGBTQ community. In recent days, The North Face, Kohl’s, and Chick-fil-A have also come under assault in the expanding war. And Disney, of course, has been an endless punching bag since it spoke out against the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida last year.

CNN  How Florida's new law is affecting Pride Month  Duration 2:26   View on Watch

In the right-wing media universe, in which millions of Americans firmly reside, these companies have been portrayed as “woke” and evil corporations seeking to groom children with radical — even Satantic — gender ideology that will corrupt their brains and ultimately lead to the destruction of society.

The attacks have put companies in the uncomfortable position of standing up for the values of their own employees and the public writ large against a relentless volley of threats of mass boycotts, lost revenue, and ultimately, long-term brand harm. With each offensive — and claimed victories — the activists wielding the pitchforks have become more emboldened and the business atmosphere more chilled.

Written in black and white, the attacks look deranged. But it is precisely what some of the loudest and most influential right-wing media figures are promoting to their large followings, with new self-generated outrage cycles generated daily. It isn’t quite QAnon, but it’s close — and it is being fed to the GOP base in broad daylight. You don’t have to go to the dark corners of the internet to find this style of crazed commentary; it’s available each day via mainstream right-wing outlets.

In many cases, prominent personalities are not even trying to be secretive about their end goal as they perhaps would have been done in years past. In fact, they are saying the quiet part aloud. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, one of the leading purveyors of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the US, has explicitly stated that the aim is to make the open embrace of the LGBTQ community harmful to brands.

“The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic for brands,” Walsh tweeted. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep it going.”

It is important to remember that a not-so-insignificant portion of the American populace takes this rhetoric to heart. For the conservative news organizations and businesses that promote it, the rhetoric is profitable because it resonates with and excites their audiences. The articles generate clicks, videos attract eyeballs, and the content in general prompts significant engagement — the lifeblood of the internet.

Which is to say that this burgeoning facet of the culture wars, which is now unquestionably the most dominant strain, is not going away any time soon. In fact, with Pride Month about to get underway, and more brands showing their support for the LGBTQ community, expect more fronts to open up. As the right-wing media personalities leading this campaign have said: Bud Light and Target were just the beginning.

The Human Rights Campaign released a statement Wednesday, signed by more than 100 advocacy organizations and allies, condemning the right’s use of the “extremist playbook of attacks.”

“Their goal is clear: to prevent LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation, silence our allies and make our community invisible,” the coalition said. “These attacks fuel hate against LGBTQ+ people, just as we’ve seen this year with more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that restrict basic freedoms and aim to erase LGBTQ+ people.”

NO MORE RAINBOWS, 

RETURN OF THE PINK TRIANGLE

Conservative boycotts against Target and Bud Light are working thanks to a 'perfect storm' of social media and culture wars, experts say

Story by ahartmans@insider.com (Avery Hartmans,Natalie Musumeci) • 5h ago

A Pride month display at a Target in Wisconsin. 

Dominick Reuter/Insider© Provided by Business Insider

Target is the latest company swept up in a growing wave of boycotts led by right-wing critics.

 
The boycotts are aimed at companies that have allied themselves with trans people.

 
Experts say the boycotts work thanks to the culture wars and panic-stoking online and in the media.

In early May, Target began rolling out its Pride merchandise, just like last year and the years before, going back a decade.

But this year, something was different: Target workers began getting violent threats from customers.

The confrontations — which stemmed from an online backlash led by right-wing commentators who made false claims about certain Target Pride merchandise — prompted Target to start pulling some of the products from its shelves and disassembling prominent Pride displays at some stores.

But the fallout goes beyond Target. Bud Light was the target of social-media outcry in April after it partnered with the trans influencer and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. And Disney has found itself the target of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as right-wing protesters and conspiracy theorists, after it took a stance against the state's controversial education bill dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics.

If it feels like these types of boycotts and online firestorms are gaining steam, that's because they are.

Experts say it's due to a combination of the culture wars and panic-stoking media coverage that forces brands to either back down or face a firestorm.

Protests spark fears for worker safety


 Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Brand boycotts are nothing new.

In fact, they are "as American as apple pie," Lawrence Glickman, a professor of American Studies at Cornell University and the author of "Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America," said.

What is new is how polarized our society has become and how that polarization gets amplified on social media.

"These boycotts sort of came along at that moment when the right is making such a big deal about trans issues," he said. "If you watch a lot of conservative media, you might be very panicked about this. And so this is a way you can sort of assert your concern for that cause."

Glickman described the current situation as "kind of a perfect storm." The rhetoric around the boycott of Bud Light and protests against Target have been hostile to the point of threatening, with both companies citing fears for employee safety as a serious concern.

Bud Light owner Anheuser-Busch said that several of its facilities had received threats following the weeks of backlash against its brands.

Target CEO Brian Cornell wrote in a letter to employees last week that call-center workers were getting "high volumes of angry, abusive and threatening calls" and that store employees had been confronted in the aisles. The decision to pull the merchandise, he wrote, was in an effort to alleviate the threats to employees' physical and psychological safety.

And this comes at a time when retail workers were already facing unprecedented levels of violence. Restaurant and store workers were on the front lines of the battle over pandemic mask mandates, forced to act as enforcers and bouncers in the face of angry and sometimes violent customers.

More recently, a surge in organized retail crime — where professional shoplifters steal large quantities of inventory to resell for cash — has put store workers at risk of physical violence and even death on the job.

In fact, according to the National Customer Rage Survey, an annual survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, found that customer aggressiveness is increasing: 43% said they had raised their voice at an employee, up from 35% in 2015.

The threats of violence, combined with low pay and shrinking hours, have made retail jobs less desirable than ever and have retailers scrambling to keep enough workers — which means that for CEOs like Cornell, protecting Target's labor force is not just an ethical issue, but a business decision.

How some brands ride out the storm


Scott Olson/Getty Images© Provided by Business Insider

Of course, not every company that finds itself in the center of this type of backlash receives threats — or caves to them. Like Bud Light, Nike also partnered with Mulvaney, but that outrage cycle seemed to blow over quickly.

Vanitha Swaminathan, the director of the Katz Center for Branding at the University of Pittsburgh's business school, said it comes back to authenticity. Swaminathan pointed to Nike, as well as eco-focused brands like Patagonia, as being able to weather these storms more successfully because their brand messaging remains the same, regardless of online backlash.

"Problems arise when brands do things inconsistently. When they seem to take a stance and then back away from that, it seems to be that consumers think that that's very gimmicky and they don't forgive a brand for doing that," she said. "We call this corporate hypocrisy."

In the long term, that can mean reputational damage and the potential trade-off between retaining older customers and attracting new ones, she said.

On top of that, as each successive company has backpedaled on its stances around LGBTQ issues, the movement has gained steam.

During an episode of his "Verdict" podcast late last month, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz described the "cumulative effect" of Disney, Bud Light, and Target being thrust under the microscope as a "deterrent" to the next company thinking about publicly allying itself with trans people and LGBTQ rights.

Within Target, "they're saying, we don't want to be Bud Light. We don't want to be Bud Light," Cruz said. "Well, you know what, the next company is gonna say, 'We don't want to be Bud Light or Target. We don't want to be Bud Light or Target.' That starts to get really powerful."

Cruz is just one prominent voice of many leading the charge against these corporations. Right-wing media are "not hiding the ball here," said Ari Drennen, the LGBTQ program director for Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group.

"They want to make it impossible effectively for major companies to really do any kind of nod to not just LGBTQ people, but just the entire concept of inclusivity," Drennen told Insider. "I think you see them turning to the marketplace as a kind of a last resort, a way to feel like they're doing something in the face of cultural forces that they feel otherwise pretty powerless to stop."

Mexico to fight US dispute over GM corn after formal consultations fail

A worker holds GMO yellow corn imported from the U.S., in Tepexpan

Story by By Cassandra Garrison • Yesterday 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico said on Friday it would counter U.S. arguments over agriculture biotech measures, including plans to limit its use of genetically modified (GM) corn, in trade dispute settlement consultations requested by Washington earlier in the day.

The consultation request comes as the North American neighbors inch toward a full-blown trade dispute under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) over Mexico's policies to limit the use of GM corn, which it imports from the U.S.

If the consultations fail to resolve disagreements within 75 days, Washington can request a dispute settlement panel to decide the case.

Mexico said it was committed to "constructive dialogue" regarding U.S. concerns and to "reach a mutually satisfactory agreement."

Asked if Canada would take similar action to the U.S., a spokesperson for the Trade Ministry said Canada is "considering its next steps" and would be "guided by what is in the best interest of our farmers and the Canadian agriculture sector."

The United States requested formal trade consultations in March over objections to Mexico's plans to limit imports of GM corn and other agricultural biotechnology products. Those consultations took place, but failed to resolve the matter, senior officials of the U.S. Trade Representative's office said.

Mexico's agriculture ministry declined to comment, but the minister this week expressed confidence that the dispute with the U.S. would not escalate to a dispute settlement panel.

The conflict comes amid other disagreements between the U.S. and Mexico, most notably over energy in which the U.S. has argued that Mexico's nationalist policy prejudices foreign companies.

Despite February changes to Mexico's decree on GM corn, the U.S. said the Latin American country's policies are not based on science and appear inconsistent with its commitment under the USMCA.

The new decree eliminated a deadline to ban GM corn for animal feed and industrial use, by far the bulk of its $5 billion worth of U.S. corn imports, but maintained a ban on GM corn used in dough or tortillas.

Mexico argued on Friday the ban will not affect trade with the U.S., as Mexico produces more than enough white corn used for tortillas.

A senior Mexican executive, speaking before consultations were requested, said that because Mexico is not formally preventing sale of U.S. GM corn, any dispute panel would likely find little material damage had been done to U.S. business.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has also said GM seeds can contaminate Mexico's age-old native varieties and has questioned their impact on human health.

February's revised "decree does call for a gradual substitution and eventual banning of biotech corn, and this part of the measure itself is not science-based," said a senior USTR official.

The consultations will also address Mexico's rejection of new biotech seeds for products like soybeans, cotton and canola, U.S. officials said.

Mexico argued on Friday that the decree "encourages Mexico to preserve planting with native seeds, which is done in compliance with the USMCA's environmental regulations."

Some sector experts have expressed concern that the move could set a precedent among other countries, which would disrupt the global corn trade.

The National Corn Growers Association, which represents U.S. farmers, praised the U.S.' move.

"Mexico's actions, which are not based on sound science, have threatened the financial wellbeing of corn growers and our nation's rural communities," association President Tom Haag said in a statement.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Additonal reporting by Adriana Barrera, Kylie Madry and Dave Graham in Mexico City and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Leslie Adler and William Mallard)

QUEBEC LANGUAGE LAW

Kahnawake says no to proposed language law

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

A no man’s land stood between two rooms of the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Montreal last Friday: on one side, Quebec held a public dialogue session surrounding the province’s French language laws in the context of Indigenous rights, and on the other, the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) held an open session in direct opposition.

“Today, the message that we have is that we’re not in support of this moving forward,” said Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) grand chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer in the Quebec room.

Sky-Deer only briefly entered that room to deliver Kahnawake’s message that they would be actively opposing Quebec’s intent to propose a bill that protects Indigenous languages, because of the fact that the government has failed to collect feedback from Indigenous communities in what MCK called an “ingenuine consultation process.” She highlighted Kahnawake’s refusal to participate in consultations for legislation that she said Quebec ultimately has no right in imposing.

Sky-Deer argued that it’s not the government’s role to pass legislation in regards to Indigenous languages and that the only viable resolution to conflicts surrounding Quebec’s language laws is a total exemption from all French-language requirements for First Nations and Inuit.

“You all know it,” Sky-Deer said, as she sat on the panel alongside Ian Lafrenière, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) minister responsible for relations with the First Nations and the Inuit. “This started in 1977 with the French Charter, and saying that French was the primary and predominant language in the province that needed to be protected. But you forgot about the 11 Nations and the Inuit who were here first, and our languages and cultures matter. That’s all I have.”

Upon concluding her remarks, Sky-Deer immediately left the room and returned to session with the AFNQL.

“I didn’t want it to be misconstrued that we’re participating in that forum,” Sky-Deer later told The Eastern Door.

Lafrenière did not directly respond to Sky-Deer’s statement at the time.

“We want to listen to you,” Lafrenière had said before Sky-Deer’s statements. “We want to see what we can do as a government to work together. This is not my job to protect your language and your culture, this is your job and your mandate, but as partners and as a government we want to work together on this.”

Lafrenière also took the opportunity to address comments made by fellow CAQ politician Pierre Dufour, who last month in Val d’Or claimed a 2015 Radio-Canada investigation into assault by police on Indigenous women was “full of lies.” He claimed he contacted Indigenous partners in Val d’Or directly after the comments were made.

“I’m completely against what he said. This is not my vision,” said Lafrenière, as he asked Indigenous communities to still view the government and his party as “partners,” despite his colleague’s comments.

Related video: Kahnawà:ke is one step closer to a new cultural and arts centre (cbc.ca)   The Gunye and Gahaga, or Mohawk community of Gunnawake  

Duration 4:23 View on Watch

Sky-Deer remained unimpressed with Lafrenière’s comments, telling The Eastern Door that the government’s insistence that they want to “listen” is inconsistent with their actions.

“The chiefs of the AFNQL have been, I think, pretty consistent in our message that we don’t see the need for the province to move in this direction,” Sky-Deer said. “If they really want to show us that they mean business and they want to help, don’t make French a requirement when we’re already speaking English and not our own languages.”

Quebec’s language laws limit the number of students English-speaking CEGEPs can accept and impose mandatory French-learning requirements. For students in Kahnawake, many of whom are trying to simultaneously learn Kanien'kéha, this imposition can limit educational opportunities, and, as Sky-Deer noted, could result in “learning a foreign language at the expense of your Indigenous language.”

AFNQL chief Ghislain Picard reiterated the organization’s lack of belief in the CAQ’s legislative proposal and said the AFNQL won’t stand down on the matter.

“I think Quebec has to understand that with opposition comes even more determination on our part. To me, that’s what I see happening not only in our level of leadership, but with men, women, young, old, everyone is in this frame of mind,” Picard said.

He also noted that though the session was called primarily to oppose the activities happening across the hallway, the AFNQL also wanted to meet to continue to discuss their own opinions on language legislation, without the input of CAQ members.

“We know when we are right. And on this issue, we are right,” he said. He noted the room was a safe space for chiefs and participants to discuss without CAQ members. “We’re on the right course of what needs to happen. And it’s a responsibility that we have to set the right conditions for this type of conversation to happen.”

Sky-Deer also reiterated that Kahnawake will not back down in resisting Quebec’s legislation. She mentioned that Quebec’s recent promise of $11 million to the new multi-purpose building project does not mean she trusts the province.

“That’s politics,” she said. “We can agree on one thing, but that absolutely doesn’t mean I have to agree with you on another.”

Sky-Deer said that ultimately, the government must listen to the opinions of First Nations and Inuit, rather than talking over them with their own legislation.

“The voices of the chiefs are what represent the real rights holders of our nations and of our communities,” she said. “That’s the voice and the direction that should be leading where this goes.”

evedcable@gmail.com

Eve Cable, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door