New York (AFP) – Country music has long been closely linked to America’s pro-gun lobby, but several stars have distanced themselves from the National Rifle Association following the mass shooting at a Texas school.

At least five country musicians, including “God Bless the USA” performer Lee Greenwood, pulled out of the NRA’s annual convention that opened Friday in Texas. “American Pie” singer-songwriter Don McLean also withdrew.

Their initial billing highlights the close links between country music and the gun-supporting right in the United States, but experts say their withdrawal is indicative of shifting attitudes.

McLean, 76, said it would be “disrespectful and hurtful” to perform at the convention’s “Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert scheduled for Saturday after 19 students and two teachers were killed at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde.

Greenwood, whose patriotic signature song regularly rings out at Donald Trump rallies, said he canceled “out of respect” for those mourning, while Larry Gatlin said he couldn’t perform “in good conscience.”

T. Graham Brown and Larry Stewart, lead singer of country band Restless Heart, also withdrew, according to statements carried by USA Today.

‘Not monolithic’

Conjuring up images of stetson hats, cowboy boots and the Stars and Stripes flag, country has traditionally been the favorite music of conservative white Americans.

Its fan base is predominantly white, with roots in the largely Republican southern US states.

“Country music is not monolithic by any means,” Professor Mark Brewer, who teaches a class on music and American politics at the University of Maine, told AFP.

“But I think it’s safe to say that the predominant themes over the years have been more conservative, maybe with a hint of libertarian populism mixed in.”

Brewer says there have been “longstanding connections” between country music, conservative politics, and gun culture. One of the reasons is geography.

“There’s a big regional overlap. Country music has its origins in the American south and southern American politics have always been conservative.

“The United States as a whole has a pretty prevalent gun culture, but it’s even more pronounced in the south,” he added.

Professor Joel Schwindt, who teaches country music history at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, said the genre was “very specifically marketed” to white America from the start.

Adding to its appeal amongst white working class groups was a “firm support for the military.”

-2017 Las Vegas shooting –

Unlike Hollywood and the US pop music industry, which lean left, country music has plenty of conservative artists.

The musicians who withdrew from the NRA convention were careful not to criticize the gun body in their statements.

Stewart praised it as a “great organization” as he defended the US constitution’s famous Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Numerous country musicians have called for more gun regulations though, including Eric Church, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves.

Several spoke out after a man opened fire from his hotel on a Las Vegas country music festival in 2017, killing 60 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and daughter of late country musician Johnny Cash, wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times later that year calling on country musicians to stand up to the NRA.

“I think we’ve had more genuinely progressive stands in the last decade than we’ve probably ever had before,” including on LGBTQ issues, said Brewer.

Although there are no conclusive studies, he thinks this might be because younger performers tend to be more progressive, as are the fans they are trying to attract.

Schwindt notes that while country music’s fan base is primarily white, “regular listenership among non-white listeners, Black listeners and Hispanic listeners in particular, has grown pretty significantly over the past 10 to 20 years.”

Could that lead to more country stars taking progressive stances in the future?

“It’s something we’re seeing more of,” said Brewer. “I don’t know if I’d say that’s the dominant position still by any means. But it’s becoming more and more visible,” he added.

Kramatorsk (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russia pressed its onslaught on eastern Ukraine Saturday, saying it had captured the strategic town of Lyman and had successfully tested hypersonic missiles in the Arctic.

Ukrainian forces battled to repel Russian forces from the outskirts of the key city of Severodonetsk, a Ukrainian official said, however denying claims it had been surrounded.

Russia is waging all-out war for the eastern Donbas region — Ukraine’s industrial heartland where President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of carrying out a “genocide”.

“The town of Krasny Liman has been entirely liberated from Ukrainian nationalists,” the Russian defence ministry said, using the Russian name for Lyman and confirming an announcement made a day earlier by pro-Moscow separatists.

Lyman lies on the road to the urban centres of Severodonetsk and Kramatorsk.

Russian forces have been closing in on Severodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk in Lugansk province, with conflicting reports about the extent of their advance.

Regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said Russian shelling continued on Severodonetsk as Ukrainian soldiers fought to oust the invading forces from a hotel on its edges, but rejected claims the city had been  encircled.

“Severodonetsk has not been cut off… there is still the possibility to deliver humanitarian aid,” he told Ukrainian television.

A Lugansk police official, cited by Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, late Friday said Severodonetsk was “now surrounded” and Ukrainian troops could no longer leave the city.

France, Germany urge talks

Three months after Russia launched its invasion on February 24, leaving thousands dead on both sides and forcing 6.6 million people out of the country, Moscow has gained control over swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, including port cities Kherson and Mariupol.

Other Ukrainian ports have been cut off from the world by Russian warships, preventing key grain supplies from being transported out.

Russia and Ukraine supply about 30 percent of the wheat traded on global markets.

Russia has tightened its own exports and Ukraine has vast amounts stuck in storage, driving up prices and cutting availability for importers across the globe.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected any responsibility, instead blaming Western sanctions.

But on Saturday he told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call Russia was “ready” to look for ways to allow more wheat onto the global market.

“Russia is ready to help find options for the unhindered export of grain, including the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports,” the Kremlin reported him as saying.

He called for the lifting of sanctions to allow “an increase in the supply of Russian fertilisers and agricultural products” onto the global market.

Macron and Scholz urged Putin to hold “direct serious negotiations” with Zelensky, the German chancellor’s office said.

And they demanded Russia free 2,500 Ukrainian fighters taken as prisoners of war after surrendering earlier this month at a sprawling steelworks in the ravaged port city of Mariupol.

More weapons ‘dangerous’

Zelensky late Friday said his country was doing everything to defend the Donbas from intense artillery and missile strikes.

“We are protecting our land in the way that our current defence resources allow. We are doing everything to increase them,” he added. 

To further help the Ukrainians, Washington was preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems, US media reports said.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not confirm the plans to deliver the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, highly mobile equipment capable of firing up to 300 kilometres (186 miles) that Kyiv has said it badly needs.

But he said Washington was “still committed to helping them succeed on the battlefield”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged his country’s continued support “including helping provide the equipment they need” in a call Saturday with Zelensky, his office said.

But Putin warned Macron and Scholz that ramping up arms supplies to Ukraine would be “dangerous” and risk “further destabilisation”.

He spoke after his army said it had successfully fired one of its Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles some 1,000 kilometres (625 miles) across the Arctic.

Ship docks in Mariupol

As he seeks to ramp up international pressure on Moscow, Zelensky will speak to EU leaders at an emergency summit Monday as they try to agree on an embargo on Russian oil, which is being held up by Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has close relations with Putin.

“We need to act until they stop their policy of aggression,” Zelensky told a think tank in Indonesia.

But Moscow said Russia expects to receive one trillion rubles ($15 billion) in additional oil and gas revenues this year, a windfall from the sharp rise in oil prices caused in part by its invasion of Ukraine.

In Ukraine, a spokesman for the Russian-controlled Mariupol port said a first ship had docked there on Saturday.

“It will be loaded up with 2.7 tonnes of steel,” he told Russian state news agency TASS.

There was however no official announcement from either the Russian or separatist authorities.

burs-ah/ach 

Ellen DeGeneres is Portia de Rossi’s “idol”.

The ‘Arrested Development’ star heaped praise on her wife as she hosted her last-ever episode of her long-running chat show.

Portia, 49, shared a slideshow of photos on Instagram and captioned the images: “To my utterly beautiful, supremely talented, insanely accomplished wife on the day of your final show. I married an icon. I married my idol.”

Ellen opened her final show with a clip from the first-ever episode in 2003. She later closed the landmark show with a monologue celebrating the changes in LGBTQ representation in showbiz.

Ellen explained that she “was not allowed to say gay” at the start of her TV career.

She said: “I was not allowed to say ‘gay.’ I said it at home a lot. Like, you know, ‘What are we having for our gay breakfast’ or ‘Pass the gay salt? Has anyone seen the gay remote?’ Things like that, but we couldn’t say ‘gay’. I couldn’t say ‘we’ because that implied that I was with someone, sure; couldn’t say ‘wife’ and that’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married – and now I say ‘wife’ all the time.

“Twenty-five years ago, they cancelled my sitcom because they didn’t want a lesbian to be in primetime once a week, and I said, ‘OK, then I’ll be on daytime every day. How about that?'”

Ellen also thanked her viewers for the support they’ve shown her over years.

She added: “I hope I’ve been able to inspire you to make other people happy and to do good in the world, to feel like you have a purpose. And I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: If I’ve done anything in the past 19 years, I hope I’ve inspired you to be yourself – your true, authentic self.

“And if someone is brave enough to tell you who they are, be brave enough to support them, even if you don’t understand. They’re showing you who they are, and that is the biggest gift anybody can ever give you. And by opening your heart and your mind, you’re going to be that much more compassionate – and compassion is what makes the world a better place.

“Thank you so much for being on this journey with me. I feel the love, and I send it back to you.”

Justin Timberlake has sold his song catalogue in a deal reportedly worth $100 million.

The ‘SexyBack’ hitmaker is “excited to be partnering with” Hipgnosis Song Management – who offer investors the chance to earn royalties from the work of a diverse range artists such as Barry Manilow and Beyonce – and a $1 billion fund supported by the private equity firm Blackstone in a deal believed to be valued at $100 million, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The 41-year-old entertainer – who has sons Phineas, two, and Silas, seven, with his wife Jessica Biel, 40 said: “I am excited to be partnering with Merck and Hipgnosis – he values artists and their creative work and has always been a strong supporter of songwriters and storytelling.”

The deal between the former NSYNC star and the management company gives them 100 per cent control and ownership over his stake in more than 200 songs he has been involved in writing.

The founder and CEO of Hipgnosis, Merck Mercuriadis said: “Justin Timberlake is not only one of the most influential artists of the last 20 years but he’s also one of the greatest songwriters of all time. His hit songs including ‘Cry Me a River’, ‘Rock Your Body’, ‘SexyBack’, ‘My Love’, ‘What Goes Around… Comes Around’, ‘Suit Tie’, ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ are amongst the most iconic of the period.”

This arrangement with Justin is the third one finalised by and Hipgnosis Song Capital in 2022 as this year this snapped up the late singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s share of catalogue and 80 per cent of the royalties of country star Kenny Chesney.

London (AFP) – Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is facing sexual assault charges in the UK, police and prosecutors said on Thursday, after a review of allegations against him.

The two-time Oscar winner for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” was artistic director of The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015.

Allegations against him first emerged in the wake of the #MeToo movement that saw numerous claims of sexual assault and harassment in the movie industry.

That prompted an investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police, and a review by The Old Vic of the 62-year-old Spacey’s time in charge there.

The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement that it had “authorised criminal charges” against the actor “for four counts of sexual assault against three men”.

“He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent,” said Rosemary Ainslie, from the service.

“The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” added Ainslie, who heads the special crime division.

The Met said separately that the first two counts of sexual assault date from March 2005 in London, and concern the same man, who is now in his 40s.

The third is alleged to have happened in London in August 2008 against a man who is now in his 30s. The same man is alleged to be the victim of the separate charge.

The fourth sexual assault charge is alleged to have occurred in Gloucestershire, western England, in April 2013 against a third man, who is now in his 30s.

None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law.

The CPS, which brings prosecutions in England and Wales, and the police both referred to Spacey by his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler.

British legal restrictions are in place limiting what the media can report until the case comes before a jury to avoid prejudicing any trial.

The CPS said that when considering whether to approve charges, it makes “fair, independent and objective” assessments about whether a case should go to court.

Claims against Spacey in 2017 led to the end of his involvement in the filming of the final season of the political drama “House of Cards”.

He was also dropped from a Gore Vidal biopic on Netflix and as the industrialist John Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World”.

Christopher Plummer was brought in as a last-minute replacement.

Spacey, considered one of the finest actors of his generation, has previously denied similar charges in the United States.

A criminal case against him for sexual assault there was dropped in 2019.

The actor is currently in New York and facing a civil case arising from the abandoned criminal action, US court documents show.

British media said it was understood he had not been formally charged in the UK because he was not in the country, and there was no immediate word if he would have to be extradited.

By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump must testify under oath in the New York Attorney General’s civil investigation into his business practices, an intermediate state appeals court ruled on Thursday.

A four-judge panel unanimously upheld a trial court decision from February enforcing subpoenas for Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to provide deposition testimony in Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation.

“Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump must comply with our lawful investigation into his financial dealings,” James said in a statement. “We will continue to follow the facts of this case and ensure that no one can evade the law.”

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In January, James said her nearly three-year investigation into the Trump Organization had uncovered significant evidence of possible fraud https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ny-attorney-general-details-possible-fraud-donald-trumps-family-business-2022-01-19.

She described what she called misleading statements about the values of the Trump brand and six properties, saying the company may have inflated real estate values to obtain bank loans and reduced them to lower tax bills.

Trump issued a statement earlier this year calling the accusations false and accusing James of a political agenda in targeting him and his family.

Trump and his children have said testifying would violate their constitutional rights because their words could be used in a related criminal probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which James joined last May.

Trump, a Republican, has also accused James of selectively prosecuting him because he is a political enemy. James and Bragg are Democrats.

The appeals court rejected those arguments, saying James reviewed “significant volumes of evidence” before issuing the subpoenas.

“Appellants have not identified any similarly implicated corporation that was not investigated or any executives of such a corporation who were not deposed,” the court said of the Trumps. “Therefore, appellants have failed to demonstrate that they were treated differently from any similarly situated persons.”

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Diane Craft and Bill Berkrot)

Depeche Mode’s Andy Fletcher has died aged 60.

The keyboardist and founding member – who was born in Nottingham and moved to Basildon in the 70s – of the 80s band has passed away

In a joint statement posted to Twitter, his bandmates Dave Gahan and Martin Gore said: “We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher.

The ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ hitmakers said Andy – who was known as Fletch -“had a true heart of gold” and was “always” a great friend.

The statement continued: “Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh, or a cold pint.

The ‘Enjoy the Silence’ musicians offered their “hearts” to the touring DJ’s family – which includes his wife Grainne Mullan and their two children, Meghan and Joe – and asked fans to “keep them in their thoughts” while giving them space to grieve.

They said: “Our hearts are with his family, and we ask that you keep them in your thoughts and respect their privacy in this difficult time.”

In a 2017 interview with The Skinny, Fletch mused it was the “electricity” between him and the rest of the band that made their work great.

He said: “Martin and Dave live in the US and I live here, but it doesn’t really affect our relationships. Me and Martin are very close. Dave is more like a brother to me – if that makes sense. But what makes bands better than solo artists is the electricity that’s generated. Sometimes a band can’t stand each other but that electricity makes for great music. It’s the same with Depeche Mode; we have moments where we don’t like each other, and moments when we love each other. It’s the electricity that’s generated between us all that produces the good music.”

Washington (AFP) – Firearms have surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among American youngsters, with official data showing a strong rise in gun-related homicides such as the killing of 19 children in a Texas school rampage.

Overall, 4,368 children and adolescents up to the age of 19 died from firearms in 2020, a rate of 5.4 per 100,000 a dashboard by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed.

Homicides made up nearly two-thirds of the gun deaths.

By comparison, there were 4,036 deaths linked to motor vehicles, the previous leading cause of death among this age group. 

The gap has been narrowing as road safety measures have improved over the decades, while gun related deaths have risen. 

The trend lines crossed in 2020, the latest year for which data is available — a finding identified in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last week.

The letter’s authors noted the new data was consistent with other evidence that gun violence rose during the Covid-19 pandemic, for reasons that aren’t fully clear, but “it cannot be assumed that (it) will later revert to pre-pandemic levels.”

The newly updated CDC dashboard shows that nearly 30 percent of the deaths were suicides, just over three percent were unintentional, and two percent were of undetermined intent.

‘Deadly consequences’

A small number were categorized as “legal intervention” referring to killings by law enforcement.

The deaths disproportionately impacted Black children and adolescents, who were more than four times as likely to die as white children — for whom motor vehicles still posed a greater threat.

The second most impacted group by guns were American Indians, followed by white Hispanics.

Males meanwhile were six times likelier to die by a gun than females.

By region, the gun-related death rate was highest in the capital Washington, followed by the state of Louisiana, then Alaska.

The figures served to underscore that while mass shootings such as the one in Uvalde provoke horror, they make up only a small fraction of overall childhood gun deaths.

“Since the 1960s, continuous efforts have been directed toward preventing deaths from motor vehicle crashes,” wrote the authors of another recent letter to the NEJM, contrasting the situation with that of firearms, where regulations have been loosened.

While vehicle safety has been spearheaded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there is no equivalent agency to regulate gun safety, and historically very little government research funding was assigned to the area because of Republican opposition.

Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of leading journal Science published an editorial Thursday calling for more research into the public health impacts of gun ownership to advance policy change.

“Scientists should not sit on the sidelines and watch others fight this out,” he wrote.

“More research into the public health impacts of gun ownership will provide further evidence of its deadly consequences,” he continued, arguing that severe mental illness, often blamed for mass shootings, was prevalent at similar levels in other countries that do not have regular mass shootings.

Seven thousand pairs of shoes, representing the children killed by gun violence between the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 and 2017, are spread out on the lawn on the east side of the US Capitol in Washington in March 2018

Washington (AFP) – Only five months into 2022, more than 17,000 people, including 650 children, have been shot and killed in the United States.

The toll of gun violence in America is staggering, according to figures compiled by organizations pushing for stricter regulation of firearms sales.

Nearly 41,000 people are killed by gun violence every year in the United States on average, according to the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, translating to 111 victims every day. 

In Texas, where the sale of personal firearms is only marginally regulated, an average of more than 3,600 people are killed by guns every year, according to Everytown. 

Since the beginning of 2022, at least 17,199 people have been killed by guns, according to a count by the Gun Violence Archive. 

About 7,600 of them were victims of homicide, either purposeful or accidental, and more than 9,500 died by suicide. 

In 2021, more than 45,000 gun deaths were recorded, including 20,920 murders — the highest since 2017, when around 58,000 people were killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

Shootings also leave other casualties: In the last six months, some 14,000 people have been wounded by a gun. 

Children are not spared when it comes to the cost of US gun violence. 

Even when they are not the direct targets of violence, such as in Tuesday’s massacre at a school in Uvalde, Texas, they can become the collateral victims of stray bullets or accidental discharges.

So far in 2022, some 640 minors have been shot and killed, and more than double that number — 1,594 — have been injured. 

Of that number, 140 of the children killed — and nearly 300 of those injured — have been age 11 or younger. 

Last year, 1,560 kids were killed and more than 4,000 wounded.

More than one mass shooting per day

There have been 213 known mass shootings in the United States in the first 145 days of 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which categorizes such incidents as ones in which there are four or more people killed or wounded, not including the shooter.

“There have been more mass shootings than days in the year,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said in Congress Tuesday. He represents the district where Sandy Hook elementary school, where 26 kids and teachers were killed in 2012, is located. It was the nation’s worst ever school shooting.

There were 692 mass shootings in 2021, the most since 2014, when the Gun Violence Archive began keeping records. 

Record homicides

In a country where firearms are easily bought and sold and laws vary by state, 2020 saw 19,350 shooting murders, a historic high — 35 percent more than in 2019 — and 24,245 suicides — 1.5 percent more than 2019 — according to statistics compiled by US health authorities. 

The homicide rate reached 6.1 per 100,000 residents in 2020, a 25-year record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a report published this month, though the toll was still not as high as the peak of the 1980s. 

Officials speculated that the struggles of poverty and the Covid-19 pandemic could have contributed to the spike. 

390 million guns

The right to bear arms is guaranteed in the second amendment of the US Constitution, and the number of pistols, revolvers and other gun types has increased in recent years. 

More than 23 million guns were sold in 2020, a record, and almost 20 million in 2021, according to numbers published by the site Small Arms Analytics. 

According to another project called the Small Arms Survey, 393.3 million firearms were in circulation throughout the United States in 2020 — or about 120 guns for every 100 people. 

And an unknown number of “ghost guns” — sold piece by piece and without serial numbers — must be added to that count. 

In June 2021, 30 percent of American adults said they owned at least one firearm, according to a survey by Pew Research Center. 

Apple has unveiled new Pride bands and a watch face for the Apple Watch to mark Pride Month.

The tech giant is releasing a Pride Edition Sport Loop and the Pride Edition Nike Sport Loop for June’s Pride Month.

The former has the word “pride” woven into it and has all the colours of the pride flags; light blue, pink, and white in honour of transgender and non-binary people, and brown and black to represent the Black and Latinx communities.

The latter symbolises “the full spectrum of the rainbow” along with a Nike Bounce face.

The bands are priced at $49/£49 and go on sale at Apple Stores on May 26, and The Pride Edition Nike Sport Loop will also be available via Nike.com shortly.

Lastly, the Pride watch face is available now for Apple Watch Series 4 models or later.

As per Apple, it “combines colours to represent the strength and mutual support of the LGBTQ+ movement.”

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has warned against the stigmatization of gay men in relation to an ongoing outbreak of monkeypox.

It must be prevented “that people who are homosexual and have sex with men are stigmatized,” Lauterbach told public broadcaster ZDF. “It is important to say that it can affect anyone.”

According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for disease control, monkeypox is transmitted through close physical contact. There has been a notable amount of infections among men who had sexual contact with other men.

The comments come after Holger Wicht, a spokesman for the German AIDS charity, said on a podcast that the term “risk group” was often understood to mean that gay men pose a particular risk, while it is actually meant to indicate a risk of becoming infected.

However, Wicht also told the news portal T-Online: “Mr Lauterbach is making a recognisable effort not to stigmatise.”

Sven Lehmann, the German government’s first-ever commissioner for queer affairs, told the newspapers of the Funke media group that it was a fallacy “that gay or bisexual men are intrinsically more at risk – the virus knows no sexual orientation.”

“Scaremongering and stigmatization” must be avoided at all costs, he said.

Lauterbach also pointed this out on Tuesday: “The main risk group at the moment are men who have had sex with other men. And that must be able to be addressed in order to protect this group.”

By Ruhi Soni

(Reuters) -The Biden administration made a revised proposal on Wednesday to ban the disposal of mining waste in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, dealing a potential death blow to the contentious Pebble Mine project that has been pursued for over a decade.

The project, one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits, has been through a roller coaster of regulations for the past 15 years as Bristol Bay’s salmon has supported important wildlife and a multibillion-dollar industry.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a statement it is seeking public comments on the revised proposal at hearings in June as well as by written submissions through July 5. (https://bit.ly/3lG2tQs)

Pebble Limited Partnership top boss John Shively called the move a giant step backwards for the Biden Administration’s climate change goals.

“The Pebble Project remains an important domestic source for the minerals necessary for the Biden Administration to reach its energy goals,” said Shively, chief executive of Pebble, which is owned by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

“If it blocks Pebble it will have to seek minerals to meet its goals from foreign sources which simply do not have the same environmental standards that we do.”

Under former U.S. President Barack Obama, the EPA in 2014 proposed limits on large-scale mining in the watershed, citing environmental concerns. But under former President Donald Trump, the EPA had dismantled scores of environmental rules, including the initial proposal from the Obama administration.

The project, however, has faced other regulatory hurdles, after the Army Corps of Engineers, under the Trump administration, denied a key permit for the mine in November 2020 following opposition by Alaska’s Republican senators seeking to protect the $2.2 billion salmon industry that employs 15,000 people.

In September last year, the Biden administration had re-launched the process to permanently protect the watershed.

(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

Los Angeles (AFP) – For nearly two decades, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and its openly lesbian host have beamed into homes across America, busting stereotypes and charming daytime TV audiences with a feel-good blend of quirky comedy and celebrity cameos.

But after more than 3,000 episodes, a talk show that came to rival even Oprah Winfrey’s in terms of its cultural impact departs Thursday under a cloud, after allegations of a toxic workplace at stark odds with its “be kind” mantra.

“When we started this show in 2003, the iPhone didn’t exist. Social media didn’t exist. Gay marriage wasn’t legal,” DeGeneres said last month, after pre-taping the show’s final episode.

“We watched the world change — sometimes for the better, sometimes not.”

There is no doubt the cultural landscape has been upended since rising comedian DeGeneres came out in 1997 — simultaneously as her character on sitcom “Ellen,” and in real life with an interview on the cover of Time magazine.

DeGeneres was hailed as a gay icon, but her sitcom was cancelled a year later amid a backlash, and she spent five years in the wilderness before reinventing herself as a talk show host.

“It was a sensation, it was a landmark — and it became a political football,” said Mary Murphy, associate professor of journalism at University of Southern California.

“She led the way. She was probably — and may still be — the most famous LGBTQ person in America.” 

No ‘gotchas’

While DeGeneres has never shied away from her sexuality, her Rolodex of A-list guests and light touch have been key to the talk show’s success, especially in more conservative parts of America.

For 19 seasons, Hollywood A-listers and pop stars have jostled for seats on DeGeneres’ couch, where they are invited to promote their latest projects, and never put through more than a gentle ribbing.

Some have appeared more than a dozen times — Jennifer Aniston, the show’s first-ever guest, will return for Thursday’s finale.

“She is one with the celebrities, she’s their friend. They know that. And she made it jovial,” said Murphy.

“Maybe it was because, having been so burned, as she was, she didn’t want to burn other people. There were no gotchas.”

Audience members and the latest viral YouTube stars are also regularly invited on stage to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame, in human interest segments and wacky games.

“Ellen is this funny, silly, quirky character that really didn’t take herself too seriously,” said Jeetendr Sehdev, author of “The Kim Kardashian Principle.”

“We hadn’t quite seen a daytime talk show host before that looked like her and that behaved like her… She was the cropped haired woman wearing a suit and tie while everyone else was getting blowouts.”

‘Full of contradictions’

But rumors that life was less rosy backstage came to a head with a 2020 Buzzfeed expose alleging a “toxic work culture” including sexual harassment, bullying and racism.

Three senior producers were fired, while DeGeneres was accused of failing to mind her shop — and of being less affable with employees in private than her cheery public persona would imply.

Last May, DeGeneres announced the show would end after its 19th season, but denied it was due to the workplace claims.

“I need something new to challenge me,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

But DeGeneres has courted increasing controversy, including her defense of comedian Kevin Hart after he withdrew as Oscars host in 2018 over a series of homophobic tweets.

“Suddenly, she kind of fell from grace,” said Murphy.

“She seemed to be… in touch with celebrities, in touch with audiences, out of touch with the people working for her.”

According to Sehdev, Ellen has always “been full of contradictions.”

“That has been both partly the reason why she has also appealed to people, and has been capable of generating that mass appeal,” he said. 

“And at the same time, (it) has also been the reason why her integrity and her credibility and authenticity have been questioned.”