'Obama better get off the golf course!' CNN tees off with supercut as Trump works on swing

Daniel Hampton
April 4, 2025 

RAW ST0RY


CNN unloaded a devastating supercut of clips of Donald Trump declaring on the campaign trail he'd never golf because he'd be so busy — as the president once again leaves Washington, D.C., to hit the links.


s markets continued nosediving due to his steep tariffs, Trump departed the nation's capital and arrived at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday morning. The president planned to attend a $1 million-a-plate fundraising dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate Friday evening and host a LIV Golf tournament at his Doral property over the weekend.

According to TrumpGolfTrack.com, Trump spent 19 days golfing over his first 74 days in office, accounting for 25% of his second term.
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But CNN noted that during his candidacy for the 2016 election, the president repeatedly attacked former President Barrack Obama for hitting the greens.

Abby Phillip, anchor of CNN's "NewsNight," led off her show by repeating a quote from a White House official that "Donald Trump doesn't give a f---" about the spiraling markets.

"And it appears to be true," she continued. "As 401(k)s and companies suffered today, Trump and his allies, including many of whom cheered him on in the Rose Garden event, were MIA. The House is in recess, and as for Trump himself, he spent the day working on his golf swing."

Philip called the juxtaposition "interesting considering what he's said about Democratic presidents."

The network then played a supercut of Trump repeatedly bashing Obama for golfing while in the White House.


"Obama, it was reported today, played 250 rounds of golf," Trump rails at a December 2015 speech.

"Everything's executive order," Trump said in an October 2016 clip. "Because he doesn't have enough time because he's playing so much golf."

"Obama better get off the golf course and get down there," Trump demands in an August 2016 clip of a Trump rally.

In another clip that month, Trump declared, "I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf."

After several similar clips, CNN played a February 2016 clip of Trump saying, "If I were in the White House, I don't think I'd ever see Turnberry again. I don't think I'd ever see Doral again."

That same month, he insisted he would "not be playing much golf" if he won the election. The Washington Post reported, however, that Trump likely played 261 rounds of golf during his first term as president.


"This is just an estimate because, unlike Obama, his team often wouldn’t report whether he was playing golf at his properties. If accurate, though, that’s a round every 5.6 days. By contrast, Obama played 333 rounds of golf — over twice as many years. That’s about once every 8.8 days," the Post analysis found.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

New coal capacity hit 20-year low in 2024: report


By AFP
April 2, 2025


China's transition from coal will be key to meeting global climate goals

 - Copyright AFP/File Sergei GAPON

Sara HUSSEIN

The world added the smallest amount of new coal capacity in two decades last year, a report said Thursday, but use of the fossil fuel is still surging in China and India.

Coal accounts for just over a third of global electricity production and phasing it out is fundamental to meeting climate change goals.

Just 44 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity was produced globally last year, the lowest figure since 2004, according to the report by a group of energy- and environment-focussed research organisations and NGOs.

“Last year was a harbinger of things to come for coal as the clean energy transition moves full speed ahead,” said Christine Shearer of the Global Energy Monitor, which co-authored the report.

But new capacity still outstripped coal closures, meaning a net increase in the global coal fleet, the report noted.

China began construction on a record number of coal plants last year.

Last year also saw a record number of new coal proposals in India, the report warned.

“Work is still needed to ensure coal power is phased out in line with the Paris climate agreement, particularly in the world’s wealthiest nations,” Shearer said.







– ‘Dubious’ coal technologies –



The International Energy Agency (IEA) says global coal demand will plateau from 2024-2027, with declining use in developed countries largely off-set by growth in emerging economies.

China’s electricity sector accounts for a third of all coal consumed worldwide, according to the IEA, making its transition from the fuel key to global trends.

While coal construction hit record highs in China last year, new permits in the country fell back from the breakneck levels seen the two years prior, the report said.

And in Southeast Asia, where coal has powered emerging economies like Indonesia, new proposals for the fossil fuel have declined.

That is the result of various deals and pledges in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam to phase out the use of coal, the report said.

But among wealthy economies, Japan and South Korea were singled out for their promotion of “dubious ‘decarbonisation’ coal technologies domestically and abroad.”

The report warned these technologies are “expensive and unlikely to deliver the deep emission cuts needed for climate stability.”

Chief among them is co-firing with ammonia at coal-powered plants. Substituting ammonia for some of the coal used in a plant can reduce emissions, but ammonia’s emissions profile depends on how it is produced.

And even co-firing with low-emissions ammonia still produces more carbon dioxide than many other power generation technologies, the report warned.

The groups also flagged uncertainty over coal commitments in the United States after Donald Trump returned to the presidency.

But they pointed out that more coal plants were shut during Trump’s first term than under his predecessor Barack Obama, or successor Joe Biden.

“Trump’s first term shows the difficulty of counteracting the declining economic feasibility of coal power in the US, coupled with the advanced age of the country’s coal plants,” the report said.

Deutsche Bank asset manager DWS fined 25 mn euros for ‘greenwashing’

AFP
April 2, 2025


Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Frankfurt. Its asset manager DWS was fined for greenwashing - Copyright AFP Robin LEGRAND

Sam Reeves

Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm DWS was hit Wednesday with a 25-million-euro ($27-million) fine over misleading advertising for supposedly sustainable products, with activists hailing one of the world’s biggest ever “greenwashing” penalties.

The case has dogged the German financial firm for several years since a top executive came forward with “greenwashing” allegations, with investigators repeatedly raiding the asset manager’s offices and DWS’s boss forced to quit in 2022.

It has also highlighted growing worries about how to police a surge in “environmental, social and governance” (ESG) investing as companies and institutions seek to bring portfolios in line with climate targets.

Unveiling the penalty, prosecutors in the German financial capital Frankfurt said DWS had “extensively” advertised financial products which claimed to have ESG characteristics from 2020 to 2023.

But investigations, carried out by prosecutors and police, found that “statements in external communications, such as claiming to be a ‘leader’ in the ESG area or stating ‘ESG is an integral part of our DNA’ did not correspond to reality,” they said.

While a “transformation process” was underway at the firm, it had not yet been completed, they said, adding: “Statements in external relations must not go beyond what can actually be implemented.”

The asset manager said it accepted the fine, admitting that “in the past our marketing was sometimes exuberant” but insisting that improvements had already been made.

DWS had already been hit in 2023 with $19-million penalty by financial regulators in the United States over misleading green statements.



– ‘Historically high’ fine –



Greenpeace said it was the highest ever penalty imposed in Europe’s biggest economy for a such an offence.

“This historically high penalty payment for greenwashing is a clear wake-up call for the entire industry: consumer deception is not a trivial offence but fraud,” said Mauricio Vargas, a financial expert with the environmental advocacy group.

He accused DWS of scaling back its sustainable finance efforts in response to the allegations, which he described as a “slap in the face to its customers”, and also of continuing to invest heavily in fossil fuels.

The “greenwashing” scandal first emerged at DWS after its former chief sustainability officer, Desiree Fixler, came forward with “greenwashing” allegations in 2021.

Several raids followed at the asset manager and Deutsche Bank’s offices in Frankfurt, and DWS chief executive Asoka Woehrmann stepped down in June 2022, saying the allegations had become a “burden”.

While ESG products have in recent years become a major asset class, critics worry about what they say is a lack of standardised data and criteria to prove such investments are truly sustainable.

The European Union’s markets authority last year issued new rules to combat “greenwashing” in finance, laying out what criteria needed to be met for a fund to have “ESG” or “sustainable” in its name.

Troubles at its asset management arm are also another blow to Deutsche Bank, which has undergone a major restructuring in recent years after an aggressive shift in the early 2000s into investment banking drew it into multiple scandals.

Vanishing: The UK’s green spaces are in decline


By Dr. Tim Sandle
April 2,2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL


A children's activity area. — Image by © Tim Sandle.

To maintain the UK’s current average green space of 30 square metres per person) the UK would have to create 4,000 new parks in the next eight years. This becomes especially worrying when you consider that 6.3 million people do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of their home.

An area is considered ‘green’ if a passable amount of inhabitants within a town, ward or village are within a 10-minute walk from a local park or green space provision. If an area meets the minimum provision, it receives a passing Green Space Index score (GSI).

This discovery is made worse by the news that 793 play parks have been closed down in the last 10 years – making accessible children’s playgrounds an increasingly rare asset to families. Recent data has found that parks near new housing developments have decreased in size by 40 percent in the last 20 years – having a negative impact on children’s mental and physical development.

The educational play firm Playdale Playgrounds, a Cumbria-based playground equipment manufacturer, was suffiicently concerned by this discovery. They have assembled a conclusive list of the North West’s most green areas, towns and cities. Using official statistics from the Green Space Index, Playdale Playgrounds has identified the areas that need the most support in constructing new, safe playgrounds and green spaces.

North West England is the UK’s fourth worst region for playground accessibility, with 37 percent of children living more than 10 minutes from a playground. Only eight out of 42 areas, and three cities/towns out of 20, in the North West meet Fields In Trust’s green space provision score.

Deep-diving these data reveals that Chorley is the greenest area in the North West, with 58.28 square metres of greenery per person. In addition, Carlisle is the greenest city in the North West, with 39.86 square metres of greenery per person. Burnley, Warrington and Wigan follow, with 38.13, 35.74 and 31.99 metres squared pp respectively.

In contrast, Blackpool is the worst city for access to green space per person, with only 15 square metres.

The distance of an average 10-minute walk is calculated using updated models of the UK’s road network, determining the walking distance between postcodes and entrance points to green spaces.

This method is used in conjunction with a more traditional method, as used by Natural England, where distance is calculated using buffer zones around green spaces. This calculation looks at how long it would take someone to reach this zone in their community, as the crow flies.

Some areas may have a higher green space index provision score, despite having more of the population not within a 10-minute walk of a green space. This is because the number of total green spaces may be less evenly distributed and further away from zones with more housing. However, the green spaces may be much larger, meaning that there is more green space by square metre for every person within that area.

Some areas are not classified as green spaces, despite containing natural greenery within them. These are areas which have primary functions at odds with the general public accessing nature for enjoyment or relaxation, including golf courses, cemeteries or common land.

As huge, expansive areas outside of stereotypical housing communities, national parks are also not included in this data set.

The North West is the third biggest region by population in the UK, coming in just behind London, with a staggering 7.6 million total inhabitants. Despite its huge size, the North West is the UK’s fourth-least green region out of 11, with 37 percent of children living more than 10 minutes from a green space.
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Left-wing party pulls ahead in Greenland municipal elections


By AFP
April 2, 2025


Voters at a polling station in Greenland, where left-wing party Siumut have pulled ahead in municipal elections - Copyright AFP/File LOUAI BESHARA

Greenland’s social-democratic party, Siumut, won three of the territory’s five municipalities in local elections held in the shadow of US President Donald Trump’s vows to annex the island, according to results published on Wednesday.

“My dear Siumut, you have gathered many people across the country, you have created great hope,” party leader Vivian Motzfeldt said in a Facebook post.

The party favours a gradual move towards independence for the Danish autonomous territory, like the three other parties in the coalition government.

Held only three weeks after legislative elections, where Siumut — a major player in the Greenlandic political landscape since the 1970s — finished fourth, the municipal elections did not generate as much enthusiasm among the around 41,000 voters in the island.

Only 52.6 percent of those eligible turned out to vote, compared to the more than 70 percent who voted in the general election.

The vote took place amid Trump’s repeated vows to take over Greenland.

Trump argues the United States needs the vast Arctic island for its security and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it.

According to the Washington Post, the White House is currently estimating the cost for the US federal government to control Greenland.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrived in Greenland Wednesday for a three-day visit.

“It is clear that with the pressure put on Greenland by the Americans, in terms of sovereignty, borders and the future, we need to stay united,” she said, after meeting the island’s new prime minister.

The general election was won by the centre-right Democrats, who have formed a coalition government that could set out a path to independence.

‘Shenmue’ voted most influential video game ever in UK poll


By AFP
April 2, 2025


'Shenmue' designed by Japanese creator Yu Suzuki has been voted the most influential video game of all time in a Bafta survey - Copyright AFP/File Sergei GAPON

The 1999 action game “Shenmue” was on Thursday named the most influential video game of all time following a survey organised by BAFTA, the British association that honours films, television, and video games.

The series, created by Japanese designer Yu Suzuki, stars a young Ryo Hazuki as he seeks to avenge the death of his father, killed by a mysterious martial arts specialist.

The game is split into three instalments (Shenmue I, II, and III) and was, at the time of the first instalment’s release, the most expensive game in history to produce.

While the third instalment was available on PlayStation 4 and PC, the first two defined the brief history of the Dreamcast console, the first so-called sixth-generation console, released by Japanese manufacturer Sega in 1998.

Having become a cult classic among many gamers, “Shenmue” is known as a pioneer in open-world gaming and for popularising the “quick time event,” a moment in which the player is asked to perform a specific action within a given time limit.

“Games are an immensely innovative force and it’s brilliant to recognise those titles which have truly shaped the course of our medium,” said Luke Hebblethwaite, head of the BAFTA video games division.

Yu Suzuki said he was “deeply honoured and grateful” to see “Shenmue” come out on the top in the poll and thanked the “fans around the world who have continued to love and support” the game.

“Doom”, the series that helped popularise first-person shooters and enjoyed immense commercial success, came second in the survey of thousands of players.

Developed by id Software for PC and released in 1993, the game puts players in the role of a soldier facing demons in a universe blending science fiction and horror.

In third place was “Super Mario Bros”, the famous platform game developed by Nintendo in 1985, in which the red-suited plumber Mario navigates various levels to save Princess Peach.

Unanimously acclaimed upon its release, it remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 40 million copies sold worldwide.

Also included in the top 10 are “Half-Life” (1998), “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” (1998), “Minecraft” (2011), “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” (2025), and “Super Mario 64” (1996).

The annual Bafta Game Awards will take place at a ceremony in London on April 8.

Search for long-missing flight MH370 suspended: Malaysia minister


ByAFP
April 3, 2025


An event was held to mark the 10th year since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens - Copyright AFP Arif Kartono

Raevathi SUPRAMANIAM

The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended, Kuala Lumpur’s transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.

“They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.

Loke’s comments come just one month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.

An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles) in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.

“Right now, it’s not the season,” Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.

“Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate,” Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.



– Aviation mystery –



The search was put on hold “due to seasonal weather changes and unavoidable prior commercial commitments”, a separate statement posted on the “MH370 Families” Facebook group said.

Loke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.

The most recent mission was conducted on the same “no find, no fee” principle as Ocean Infinity’s previous search, with the government only paying out if the firm finds the aircraft.

The plane’s disappearance has long been the subject of theories — ranging from the credible to outlandish — including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and elsewhere.

Relatives of passengers lost on the flight have continued to demand answers from Malaysian authorities.

Family members of Chinese passengers gathered in Beijing outside government offices and the Malaysian embassy last month on the 11th anniversary of the flight’s disappearance.

Attendees of the gathering shouted, “Give us back our loved ones!”

Some held placards asking, “When will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?”

MY THEORY

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUTS

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT

Judge orders return to US of Salvadoran man deported in error


By AFP
April 4, 2025


Hundreds of Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals were sent from the United States to the notorious maximum security CECOT facility in El Salvador - Copyright POOL/AFP Alex Brandon

A federal judge on Friday ordered the return to the United States of a Salvadoran migrant who was mistakenly deported last month to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, who was living in the eastern state of Maryland, was among a group of undocumented migrants who were flown to El Salvador by the Trump administration on March 15.

Justice Department lawyers admitted in court filings that Abrego Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, had been deported due to an “administrative error.”

District Judge Paula Xinis, at an emergency court hearing on Friday, said Abrego Garcia was taken into custody “without legal basis” on March 12 and deported three days later “without further process or legal justification.”

Xinis ordered his return to the United States no later than 11:59 pm on April 7.

“His continued presence in El Salvador, for obvious reasons, constitutes irreparable harm,” the judge said in her order to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.

Three planeloads of undocumented migrants were flown to El Salvador on March 15 as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The Trump administration alleged that most of the deportees were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and it invoked the little-known 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify their summary removal.

Attorneys for several of the deported migrants have said that their clients were not Tren de Aragua members, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.

Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in El Salvador.

The White House, citing unreleased evidence, insisted earlier this week that Abrego Garcia was a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.

“The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Another district judge, James Boasberg, has barred the Trump administration from carrying out further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used previously during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

The Trump administration has used images of the alleged gang members being shackled and having their heads shaved in the El Salvador prison as proof it is serious about cracking down on illegal immigration.

Pentagon watchdog to probe defense chief over Signal chat row

GOOD NEWS

By AFP
April 3, 2025


The editor of the Atlantic magazine was inadvertently added to a Signal chat in which senior security officials in the Trump administration, including Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strikes on Yemen - Copyright AFP/File Annabelle GORDON

W.G. DUNLOP

The Pentagon inspector general’s office will investigate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss air strikes on Yemen, the watchdog said Thursday.

President Donald Trump’s administration is facing a scandal over the accidental leak of a group chat by senior security officials on the strikes, which targeted Yemen’s Huthi rebels.

The probe will evaluate the extent to which Hegseth and other defense personnel complied with “policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” said a memo from acting inspector general Steven Stebbins.

They will also review “compliance with classification and records retention requirements,” it said.

The investigation came in response to a request from the top two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a Republican and a Democrat, the memo said.

The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in the Signal chat in which officials including Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz discussed the strikes.

The magazine initially withheld the details the officials discussed, but later published them after the White House insisted that no classified information was shared and attacked Goldberg as a liar.



– Strike timing, intelligence info –



The chat included messages in which Hegseth revealed the timing of strikes hours before they happened and information on aircraft and missiles involved, while Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of the military action.

The White House and a string of officials involved in the chat — including Hegseth — have tried to downplay the story, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists this week that “the case is closed.”

A US judge ordered the Trump administration last week to preserve all Signal communication between March 11 and March 15.

The dates cover the period between when Waltz set up the chat — and mistakenly added Goldberg — and the day of deadly US air strikes on the Iran-backed Huthis.

The Atlantic said that Waltz had set some of the Signal messages to disappear after one week, and others after four, saying it raised questions about whether federal records law was violated.

Trump has largely pinned the blame on Waltz, but has also dismissed calls by Democrats for top officials to resign and insisted instead on what he called the success of the raids on the Yemeni rebels.

The Huthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the Gaza war began in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.

Huthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies into a costly detour around southern Africa.

The United States first began conducting strikes in response under the Biden administration, and US forces have continued to hammer the Huthis with near-daily air assaults since March 15.

Certain foreign firms must ‘self-certify’ with Trump diversity rules: US embassies

MERITOCRACY 4 STR8 WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

By AFP
April 2, 2025


Republican enmity to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is premised on the suspicion that the people it rewards do not merit their success, while also depriving more deserving candidates from opportunities because they are not in a minority - Copyright AFP/File CHANDAN KHANNA

Delphine Touitou and Daphne Benoit

The United States is not planning to verify foreign firms over their diversity programmes but needs certain companies to self-certify compliance with new US rules, two of its main European embassies said Wednesday, after a furore over an apparent warning sent to European companies.

“There is no ‘verification’ required beyond asking contractors and grantees to self-certify their compliance — in other words, we are just asking them to complete one additional piece of paperwork,” the US embassies in Paris and Berlin said in identical statements to AFP.

The spokespersons for both missions emphasised that the rule applied only to firms having contracts with or grants from US missions.

But their statements confirmed that US missions were reviewing all contracts and grants to “ensure they are consistent” with recent executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, in particular his order on “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” that targets diversity programmes.

The controversy comes at a tense time for trade relations between Europe and the United States with Trump poised to unveil sweeping new “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday.

The European Union will respond to the new US tariffs “before the end of April”, according to the French government spokeswoman.

– ‘Not go back a millimetre’ –

France’s economy ministry said last week “a few dozen” French companies doing or looking to do business with the United States had received letters that included a questionnaire asking firms to certify they “do not practice programmes to promote diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).

Trump has issued an executive order on the issue 

– Copyright POOL/AFP/File Steve Parsons, Ben Gabbe

Designed to provide opportunities for people of colour, women and other historically excluded groups, DEI programmes have drawn the wrath of Trump and his followers, who say they are discriminatory and incompatible with meritocracy.

France’s foreign trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said on Monday that he was “deeply shocked” and French Economy Minister Eric Lombard’s office has said Trump’s views of DEI “are not ours”.

Denmark’s Industry Minister Morten Bodskov also told AFP that “a response must naturally be discussed with our European colleagues”.

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the country “will not go back a millimetre” on diversity efforts in response to the US letter, which Belgian firms had also received.

But the embassy statements said Washington was only asking “contractors and grantees around the world to certify their compliance with applicable US federal anti-discrimination laws”.