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North Face Becomes Biggest Brand To Pull Ads From Facebook In #StopHateforProfit Movement
Outdoor clothing company The North Face became the highest-profile brand to join the #StopHateforProfit movement, which encourages large advertisers to pull ads from Facebook in July.Â
The North Face announced its intention on Twitter Friday by retweeting the NAACP, which accuses Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, of being “no longer simply negligent, but in fact, complacent to the spread of misinformation.â€Â
In follow-up tweets, the company responded affirmatively to queries asking if it was also pulling ads from Instagram, saying that its decision extends to “all Facebook owned properties.â€
After The North Face’s announcement, outdoor clothing company REI announced that it will follow suit.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Facebook said that the company “deeply respect[s] any brand’s decision and remain[s] focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information.â€
The #StopHateforProfit campaign accused Facebook of actively choosing not to moderate hate speech and said that it has “turned a blind eye to blatant voter suppression on their platform.â€
The campaign launched on Wednesday and is sponsored by civil rights groups that include the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP. The movement calls on brands to pull Facebook ads for the month of July.Â
“[Facebook] allowed incitement to violence against protesters fighting for racial justice in America,†the campaign’s website said, referring to an incident in late May and early June in which Facebook drew criticism for refusing to remove or add a disclaimer to a post made by President Donald Trump that referred to racial injustice protesters as “THUGS†and threatened, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.â€
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New York-bred Tiz the Law wins 152st Belmont Stakes in Triple Crown opener – Sportsnet.ca
NEW YORK — Tiz the Law won an unprecedented Belmont Stakes, claiming victory Saturday at the first race of a rejiggered Triple Crown schedule in front of eerily empty grandstands.
The 3-year-old colt from upstate New York charged to the lead turning for home and now can set his sights on the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby and Oct. 3 Preakness. All three legs of this year’s Triple Crown schedule were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Belmont, usually the series capper, was initially scheduled for June 6.
Tiz the Law gave New York a hometown champion in its first major sporting event since the coronavirus pandemic seized the area. He’s the first New York-bred horse to win the Belmont since Forester in 1882.
“It’s a lot smaller crowd, that’s for sure,†said owner Jack Knowlton, who watched from a restaurant patio in the familiar surroundings of Saratoga Springs.
The 4-5 favourite won by four lengths, covering the 1 1/8 miles in 1:46.53. Dr Post finished second and Max Player was third.
The race was shortened from the usual 1 1/2-mile standard to account for competitors’ unusual training schedules. Horses kicked off from a starting gate placed atop the backstretch, rather than in front of the grandstands.
In most every way, this Belmont States was unlike any of the 151 that preceded it. The Long Island track can pack in nearly 100,000, but this race had about 100 on hand, including jockeys, media and park staff.
Masks were mandated for all but the horses — even the jockeys wore face coverings.
Closed to the public since March, Belmont Park hardly resembled the summer soiree New Yorkers are used to. Betting windows and gift shops were closed, not a single boozy Belmont Breeze to sip.
Foot traffic was so slow that a few weeds over a foot tall sprouted up between bricks paving the track-side pavilion.
Silence at the 115-year-old venue was broken when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued the traditional “riders, up!†call remotely via video. Bugler Sam Grossman pulled down his facemask to tap out “Call to the Post,†and horses strolled onto the track to a recording of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.†A PA announcer introduced them to empty grandstands.
Signs outside the locked down venue instructed gamblers that if they wanted to wager on this Belmont Stakes, their best bet was to download an app and do it on their phones.
Perhaps welcome harbinger for Tap It to Win, who led out of the gates and seemed poised to give trainer Mark Casse a third straight Triple Crown race victory.
Instead, Tiz the Law powered past him on the outside and cruised to a four-length victory.
Knowlton, from New York’s Sackatoga Stable, noted this race was a little different than 17 years ago, when the Sackatoga crew took a school bus to watch their colt Funny Cide try to wrap a Triple Crown sweep at Belmont Park. Funny Cide finished third.
It was also a breakthrough win for 82-year-old trainer Barclay Tagg, who completed a career Triple Crown after also training Funny Cide.
“It’s tremendous,†Knowlton said. “We just buy New York-breds, that’s our game. We don’t spend a lot of money. We’ve been with Barclay Tagg for 25 years. I keep telling everybody Barclay doesn’t get a lot of big horses and big opportunities, but when he gets them he knows what to do.â€
Tagg said he wasn’t sure if Tiz the Law would pull it off until the final 100 yards. Tiz the Law paid $3.50, $2.90 and $2.60.
“I’m just glad I lived long enough that I got another horse like this,†Tagg said.
Manny Franco, a 25-year-old jockey from Puerto Rico, entered the winner’s circle in his first career Belmont Stakes. He called Tiz the Law a “versatile†horse in the run-up to the race, and what he showed Saturday was typical — stalk the pacemakers early, then pounce on the home stretch.
Dr Post, owned by famed trainer Todd Pletcher, paid $5.80 and $4.20. Max Player paid $5.20, among the highest finishes by a female-trained horse _ Linda Rice was trying to become the first woman to ever send a horse to victory at a Triple Crown race.
Plenty remained on the line. Tiz the Law earned Knowlton the top share of a $1 million purse, and the top four horses earned Kentucky Derby qualifying points.
Tiz the Law took advantage of a 10-horse field weakened by injuries. Among the casualties were two potential entrants from famed trainer Bob Baffert, who ended up without a horse in this race — one of then, Charlatan, is expected to run the Preakness.
Earlier Saturday, Gamine led all the way in winning the $300,000 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies by 18 3/4 lengths.
Trained by Baffert, Gamine ran one mile in 1:32.55, fastest in the 90-year history of the race. Her time was just off the track record of 1:32.24 set by Najran in 2003. Gamine earned 50 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs.
Gamine is one of two horses trained by Baffert that tested positive for a banned substance at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. She won a race there on May 2. Published reports said Gamine, along with Charlatan, tested positive for lidocaine, a regulated anesthetic widely used in equine medicine.
Statue of Francis Scott Key toppled in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park
Protesters toppled the statue of Francis Scott Key in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on Friday, June 19. Historical figures tainted by racism continues.
International online conference with Maryam Rajavi at 2,000 world locations – #NCRI
Thousands of Iranians called for the overthrow of the clerical regime as an imperative to establishing democracy and social justice in Iran at a virtual conference from some 2,000 locations in Europe, the U.S. and in the Middle East to mark the beginning of the 40th year of the Iranian people’s resistance against the religious fascism ruling Iran – writes Shahin Gobadi. Â
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi (pictured) the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran – NCRI , and a group of cross-party parliamentarians and dignitaries from various European, North American and Middle Eastern countries Attended and addressed the conference. The Participants emphasized their support for the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people’s struggle for regime change in Iran and the establishment of democracy and a republic based on universal suffrage.
Thousands of members of the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khlaq (PMOI/MEK) took part in the conference from Ashraf-3, Albania, their home since 2017, near Tirana, the Albanian capital.
While honoring 40 years of perseverance on the ideals of freedom for the Iranian people, Mrs. Rajavi said: The overthrow of the clerical regime is the firm demand of the Iranian people, and the uprisings in November 2019 and January 2020 represented the people’s burning commitment to implement it. With their protests and strikes, and the activities and operations of Resistance Units, every day, the Iranian people move closer to overthrowing the regime. It is for the realization of this goal that political prisoners continue to persevere in prisons across Iran and stand up to Khamenei’s henchmen.
She added, It is up to the international community to hear this message: We have always said and reiterated that this regime should not be allowed to obtain even a single bullet; it should not pocket even a single dollar in oil revenues, and it should not spend even a single dollar out of revenues that belong to the Iranian people. The Iranian Resistance has also emphasized since a long time ago that it seeks the restoration of the six UN Security Council resolutions against the regime. We emphasize the extension of international sanctions against any form of weapons trade with the regime.
Emphasizing on the need to hold the officials of the religious dictatorship accountable for the mass murder of 120,000 of the valiant children of Iran, including the (1988) massacre of 30,000 political prisoners and the murder of over 1,500 protesters during the November 2019 uprising, she reiterated: The global community must recognize the right to resist against the religious tyranny by the rebellious youth, Resistance Units and the Iranian people.
Mrs. Rajavi, pointed to the fact that exposing and confronting the Iranian regime’s policy of exporting terrorism and fundamentalism in the past four decades in which the NCRI and the (PMOI/MEK) have been fully engaged is part and parcel of the major campaign to overthrow the ruling religious fascism, adding: Allow me to inform the Iranian people that the ruling theocracy’s extensive two-year conspiracies and efforts to help its arrested diplomat in Belgium have so far proven futile, owing to a series of legal initiatives and a plethora of evidence, documents and testimonies. After a two-year investigation, the first public trial will soon be convened. Precisely two years ago, on June 30, 2018, the clerical regime planned a major massacre, perhaps the greatest massacre during the Resistance’s gathering in Villepinte, Paris, which was thwarted at the last minute and the terrorists were apprehended.
Obviously, in the past two years, the Iranian regime spared no effort and pressure to secure the release of the terrorists and the closure of the file. But it failed to prevent the continuation of the investigation and the start of the trial. So far, this is a victory for all those combating terrorism, Mrs. Rajavi noted. She emphasized that this was only the beginning, and the regime’s leaders must face justice as the greatest perpetrators of terrorism in the world today as should their agents and mercenaries inside and outside Iran.
Mrs. Rajavi also underlined: The resolution by the majority of members in the U.S. House of Representatives, which has recognized the Iranian people’s right to the establishment of a democratic, non-nuclear republic based on the separation of religion and state provides a credible model for all other governments and the international community regarding Iran and the Iranian people. The resolution censures the clerical regime’s state-sponsored terrorism, and specifically, the terrorist plot against the Iranian Resistance’s 2018 annual gathering. It states that the Iranian people have rejected the monarchical dictatorship and, as well, do not accept religious tyranny and oppose it.
Speakers at this conference included, Senator Robert Torricelli, Baroness Verma, former Minister and member of the UK House of Lords, Michèle de Vaucouleurs member of the French Parliament, Rama Yade, France’s former Human Rights Minister in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government, Ingrid Betancourt former Colombian Presidential Candidate, Rita Süssmuth, former President of the German Bundestag and former Minister, Steve McCabe, member of the UK Parliament, Antonio Tasso, member of the Italian Parliament, Hermann Tertsch, Member of the European Parliament from Spain, Vice-chair of ECR Group and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Otto Bernhardt former President of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and former member of the German Parliament, Thomas Nord, member of the German Bundestag, Faisal Al-Rfouh, former Jordanian Minister, and Bassam al-Amoush, member of the Jordanian Parliament
This analysis represents the views of the author. It is part of a wide range of varying opinions published by, but not endorsed by EU Reporter.
Alicia Keys and John Legend’s Juneteenth piano battle was packed with inspirational musical moments
On Juneteenth, John Legend and Alicia Keys performed in the latest installment of Verzuz, an Instagram series for hip hop and R&B stars to square off. Both piano players since childhood (Keys since she was 7, Legend since he was 5), their two-and-a-half hour Friday event showcased skill, heart, and major talent.
Keys and Legend played sitting back-to-back; she at a hot pink piano and he at a black one. They began with a performance of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,†then harmonized on the chorus of Legend’s new song “Never Break.â€
Throughout the set, they alternated between playing live tracks and dancing and singing alongside their recordings. Of course they played their hits, like Legend’s “All of Me†and Keys’s “No One,†but the real highlights were the personal information they shared. Legend recalled “Ordinary People†as the song that put him on the map. “The day I knew I was famous, 2005, this song had been out for a little while and I got a call from two people I had been looking up to for a long time: Oprah Winfrey and Magic Johnson on the same day,†he said. “I was like ‘ok I’m famous now.’ It was all because of this song.â€
When Keys sang “Girl on Fire†she said, “Every little girl that said they love singing this song made my whole life.â€
Verzuz was created by Keys’s husband Swizz Beatz along with Timbaland, and has become a quarantine staple. It’s less a traditional battle and more a show of respect between artists and a walk down musical memory lane. Others who have faced off include Ludacris and Nelly, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu and, of course, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland.
With special attention to the episode’s commemoration of Juneteenth, Legend introduced his Oscar-winning song “Glory†with a history lesson about the holiday.
“There were several moments that you could call emancipation days for Black people in America: Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation in 1862 and it was officially on the first day of January 1863 but the word didn’t get to part of Texas until 1865 and that’s the day that Juneteenth commemorates. They finally found out that they were supposed to be free. They were always meant to be free, God meant them to be free but in this nation they weren’t,†Legend said.
“That’s why we celebrate this holiday to honor our ancestors but also to encourage this country, to admonish this country, that we need to get even more free, more justice, more equality and we have to keep fighting for it,†he added. “I’ve been so inspired watching people march in the streets playing this song that Common and I wrote for Selma, Common and I wrote honoring the folks who were marching in Ferguson at that time. It means so much to me to see this song be an inspiration to folks who are out there trying to get more free, more justice, more equality. â€
The full episode can be watched on Instagram.
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International flights allowed to resume
RAWALPINDI Â Â Â Â – Â Â Â The government has allowed international flight operations to and from all international airports except Gwadar and Turbat, Aviation Division spokesperson informed on Friday. He said that the flight operations would resume from June 20 at 1am.He said the permission for international flight operations should be subject to applicable restrictions and limitations as decided by the competent authority from time to time in light of the current COVID-19 scenario and implementation of health protocols. Additionally, cargo, special and diplomatic flights should continue to be authorised as per procedure, he said. He said that adherence to the relevant applicable SOPs should be mandatory for all airline operators
Where nostalgic games like Neopets and MapleStory are now
Here’s a look at where several well-known video game brands and franchises have landed decades after they first captured fans’ hearts.
The beloved browser game Neopets first launched in 1999. At its core, the game is about caring for virtual pets, which never die (unlike Tamagotchi). Along the way, Neopets entertained and empowered a generation of young women to learn coding and discover how the stock market works.
Neopets has bounced around a lot since its mid-2000s heyday. It was sold to Viacom in 2005, then to JumpStart in 2014. JumpStart was acquired by Chinese gaming company NetDragon in 2017.
Neopets, which has a little more than 50% of its fan base in the United States, is working on several projects to bring the game to China, JumpStart CEO Jim Czulewicz told CNN Business Friday.
Neopets was built on JavaScript and Flash. But with the imminent demise of Flash — Adobe announced three years ago it would retire the software by 2020 — the virtual pet site is shifting to HTML and finally offering support for a mobile site, which is still in a testing phase.
“Was it later than I would have wanted to do it? Yeah,” said Czulewicz, adding that the company expects it can retain players who might been put off by the website’s tech problems. He estimates Neopets still has around 100,000 daily active users and 1.5 million monthly active players.
Besides its mobile site, Neopets is getting a family friendly animated TV series based on the game’s extensive lore, slated for fall 2021. Czulewicz said the company has talked to video on demand services and traditional broadcasters who are interested in picking up the show. He has even received around eight requests on LinkedIn from Neopets fans, offering to work on the TV show for free.
The franchise is launching another free mobile game, the third in its repertoire, called Island Builders, that will feature adventures and quests. It will be similar in gameplay to a 2011 dragon building simulator “DragonVale” where users can design a park and put dragons on display. It will have in-app purchases and potentially offer season passes.
Although Neopets’ first two mobile games, a “Candy Crush”-like matching game called “Ghoul Catchers” and a word game, “Legends and Letters,” did not gain much momentum, Czulewicz said the brand’s next game will center around the features Neopians love, like a story and well-written characters. The game is due in 2020.
MapleStory
MapleStory, which debuted in South Korea in 2003 before reaching North America in 2005, is still a free-to-play, money-grabbing success story. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has taken root primarily in the Asian diaspora. Like its contemporary, World of Warcraft, MapleStory has been a matchmaker for real-life friendships and even marriages.
South Korean gaming company Nexon reported earnings earlier in May, and revenue was led by several games including MapleStory.
Players are encouraged to spend real money to customize their characters in virtual clothing and powerful weapons. They then team up for epic boss battles. The ability to use real money to essentially “win” the game was controversial among players, as those who couldn’t afford to spend were at a disadvantage.
Nexon has tried to distance itself from that controversy.
“We’ve made every mistake you could possibly make,” said Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney told CNN Business in May. “A game like MapleStory is around for a long time because we continue to provide value over a long period of time. And if you focus on over-monetizing, you’re going to alienate your user base.”
MapleStory released a sequel, MapleStory 2, which arrived in North America in 2018, but the success did not translate. MapleStory 2 shut down by the end of March.
Nexon said that MapleStory 2 did not win over fans because it wasn’t true to the franchise. Unlike the original game, MapleStory 2 was three dimensional.
“3D itself is not a key aspect of MapleStory,” said Mahoney. “The first MapleStory is an incredibly deep and rich MMORPG, even though the surface layer is 2D and very simple and pixelated.”
Nexon is still working on how to build on the first game’s success, Mahoney said.
Atari
The Atari brand rose to prominence in the 1970s after the video arcade and console company created an electronic tennis game called “Pong,” which was the first commercially successful video game. Its Atari 2600 gaming console was the first video game console that people bought for their homes.
But in 2013, the US arm of Atari filed for bankruptcy. Its French counterpart lives on, and today it still manages classic video games like “Asteroids” and “Centipede.
Now the brand is venturing into the real world, opening a chain of branded hotels. The first one, in Phoenix, Arizona, starts construction in the fall, and should be finished in about two years.
The hotels will feature spaces for virtual reality and augmented reality, studios for streaming games and venues for throwing esports events, according to a press release.
Some of the rooms will have a retro style while others could be inspired by “Ready Player One,” Shelly Murphy, CEO of GSD Group, told CNN Business in January.
Murphy said GSD partner Napoleon Smith III suggested one day, “I wonder what Atari is doing … how cool would it be to stay in an Atari hotel?”
Murphy described spaces set up with 10 gaming consoles where parents can host parties for kids. She said that the hotels would be affordably priced, with some premium options for people who might want to host a video game slumber party, for instance.
Atari hotels are planned for Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose, ranging from million to multimillion-dollar projects depending on the location.
Minecraft
“Minecraft” is one of the best-selling games of all time, with a dedicated fan base in the hundreds of millions. In late May, the franchise received a new title called “Minecraft Dungeons,” which takes the classic block-building, zombie-slaying game into an entertaining adventure format.
Fans of “Minecraft” may enjoy “Minecraft Dungeons,” but it doesn’t have the building and crafting element of the original title, so hardcore builders will likely skip the new game. The general public could appreciate the fantasy, dungeon-exploring elements.
Unlike “Minecraft,” where you can build, mine and customize your surroundings, “Minecraft Dungeons” is focused on exploring dungeons and seeking adventure. Players embark on short missions that can be completed in multiple sittings, and which can be played alone or by up to four people. Team members get several lives and more chances to complete the mission, even if they are killed by dungeon bosses.
“Minecraft,” released in 2011, is a huge moneymaker for its publisher, Xbox Game Studios, and its Swedish developer, Mojang Studios. More than 200 million copies of “Minecraft” have been sold to date, according to Helen Chiang, Mojang’s studio head, making it one of the best-selling games of all time, alongside “Tetris” and “Grand Theft Auto V.
In 2014, Microsoft bought “Minecraft” and Mojang for $2.5 billion.
Black man’s fatal shooting by white security guard at Tulsa motel leads to charges
A white security guard is facing manslaughter charges in the fatal shooting of a Black man in a Tulsa motel parking lot earlier this month.
The guard, Christopher Straight, was taken into custody on June 6 and charged with first-degree manslaughter for the death of Carlos Carson that day, according to a Tulsa police statement and police homicide unit Lt. Brandon Watkins.
Police were called to the Knights Inn around noon for a report of a shooting. Authorities said in a Facebook statement that Straight had been involved in an altercation with Carson.
“Based on our investigation, we discovered that the victim was walking past the suspect’s vehicle when the suspect emerged and sprayed the victim with pepper spray, seemingly without warning,” the statement said.
Straight and Carson got into a fight and Straight pulled out a pistol and shot Carson, who died at the scene, according to the police statement.
Carson, 36, was a guest at the motel and was planning to book a room for another night when he went to speak with the manager about his car being vandalized, his brother, Ananias Carson, told NBC News on Saturday.
Carlos Carson wanted the manager to look at the security footage, but the manager said he needed to contact the police, the brother said. Ananias said his brother got upset and the two men exchanged words.
Ananias Carson, who is a Tulsa police officer, said he believes his brother was walking back toward his motel room when he was confronted by Straight.
The shooting was captured on surveillance video. Lt. Watkins told NBC News in a phone interview Saturday that Straight was sitting in his truck talking with the owner of the motel when Carson walked by.
Watkins said that Carson was “minding his own business” and “wasn’t making any kind of threatening gestures or anything like that.”
“The security guard just stepped out and sprayed him,” Watkins said. Carson threw a cup of coffee at Straight, and the two got into a physical altercation before Carson was shot.
Straight claimed he shot Carson in self-defense because he was being attacked, the police lieutenant said.
“You don’t get to pick a fight and claim self-defense,” Watkins added.
Straight was booked into the Tulsa County jail and was released after posting a $50,000 bond, according to Tulsa World. Online court documents show that he has a court appearance scheduled for June 26. An attorney was not listed for him.
The manager of the Knights Inn did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Saturday.
Ananias Carson said the family is handling the death of his brother, a father of three, as best they can. A funeral for Carlos, whom Ananias said was a family man who enjoyed fishing, was held on Friday.
“It was an unprovoked situation,” Ananias said. “That’s what makes it so hard to really deal with.”
He said he wouldn’t speculate on whether race was a factor in the shooting.
But, the brother said, “he didn’t deserve to be killed in that manner, and it speaks to the climate and speaks to what’s been going on in the country and why the country is in the state it’s in.”
Protests have been held across the country in response to the killings of African Americans, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks.
A few weeks prior to the shooting, Straight was given a citation for pepper-spraying a woman, Watkins said. The woman later declined to press charges.
According to the Tulsa World, Straight was previously a sergeant with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office and worked at the jail. He resigned in 2018 amid an internal investigation, the newspaper said.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a phone call requesting comment Saturday.
Three lawsuits were filed by inmates against Straight for his behavior while on duty, Tulsa World reported. All three suits were dismissed by the courts, according to the The Washington Post.