A young zebra walked, trotted and galloped for hours through the busy streets of Seoul before emergency workers tranquillised the animal and brought it back to a zoo.

The zebra – a male named Sero who was born in the zoo in 2021 – was in a stable condition and being examined by veterinarians on Thursday evening, said Choi Ye-ra, an official at the Children’s Grand Park in South Korea’s capital.

She said the zoo was investigating how the zebra managed to escape. She did not immediately confirm media reports that the animal partly destroyed the wooden fencing surrounding its pen before getting out at about 2.50pm.

Social media was awash with smartphone videos of the zebra trotting alongside queues of cars that were waiting at traffic lights at junctions, and galloping through a street surrounded by commercial buildings as pedestrians stopped and gasped. ..............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/23/zebra-captured-after-three-hours-on-the-run-in-seoul

"The customer's always right": New Fox News lawsuit explains why the GOP is captured by conspiracies
Republican voters, party leaders, and propagandists share a fundamental belief: That the truth doesn't matter

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MARCH 22, 2023 5:53AM (EDT)


(Salon) "You know, the customer's always right."

Rep. James Comer gave this juicy quote to Jonathan Swan and Luke Broadwater for their New York Times profile of the Kentucky Republican. He was explaining his affection for right-wing conspiracy theories. The "customer[s]" in this case, as Swan and Broadwater write, are the "vengeful, hard-right voters" who "propelled Comer to stardom" in the GOP.

It's quite an admission from the newly crowned chair of the House Oversight Committee. When asked why he is so intent on using his powers, as Swan and Broadwater write, "to investigate unhinged claims about President Biden and Democrats," Comer could have played political word games, pretending either to take these conspiracy theories more seriously than he actually does. He could have feigned outrage at the suggestion that his motives are anything less than honorable. Instead, Comer seems unconcerned to be seen, to the readers of the New York Times anyway, as a huckster for disinformation scraped out of the darkest corners of the internet.

"They don't know that it's QAnon," he even told Swan and Broadwater, "but it's QAnon stuff."

Comer's audacity is especially surprising in light of the ongoing Fox News scandal, stemming from court documents filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing the network for defamation. The filings included a staggering number of text messages and emails from Fox hosts and executives, revealing that they knowingly spread Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election, repeatedly amplifying and validating false claims that President Joe Biden stole his victory.

But what is perhaps most interesting about the texts is how the Fox leadership echoes the "customer is always right" rationale that Comer uses to justify his devotion to elevating evidence-free accusations against Democrats. Throughout the texts, Fox News leaders express fear that the "network is being rejected" for not playing along with the Big Lie. Amplifying election conspiracy theories, they told themselves, is "letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them." ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/03/22/the-customers-always-right-new-fox-news-explains-why-the-is-captured-by-conspiracies/

(Guardian UK) Emmanuel Macron felt the full force of French anger on Thursday as protesters gathered across the country to demonstrate their opposition to the pension age being raised from 62 to 64.

Unions claimed 3.5 million people turned out across the country, while the authorities suggested the figure was much lower, at just under 1.1 million.

In Paris, union leaders claimed that a record 800,000 people took part in a mostly peaceful march through the city – the police gave the figure as 119,000 – to demand that the government drop the fiercely contested change.

However, the national day of action was marred by outbreaks of violence and vandalism. In the south-western city of Bordeaux, the front door of the city hall was set on fire, while in Paris police and groups of protesters clashed late into the night. ..............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/23/workers-block-paris-airport-terminal-pension-protests-continue-france

(The Conversation) The National Rifle Association’s financial firepower, which arose in part due to its large and loyal membership base, has long been one of the gun group’s main sources of strength.

But the NRA has in recent years faced a financial tsunami, one that came to light after the 2016 election. A swirl of disagreements with longtime business partners, accusations of waste and misspending, ballooning debt and lawsuits from the New York and Washington, D.C. attorneys general have triggered one embarrassment after another. The NRA tried to declare bankruptcy to cushion some of these blows, with no luck.

At this point, the threat of being forced by the authorities to shut down due to alleged improprieties is minimal. But has the NRA managed to weather its financial storm?

As an accounting researcher who focuses on the financial performance of nonprofits, I have been closely studying NRA finances throughout its crisis. I can say the NRA financial picture is, as of early 2023, a mixed bag. The gun group has shored up its financial position over the last few years. However, the way in which that financial recovery came about risks hemorrhaging the NRA’s core supporters. ...............(more)

https://theconversation.com/nras-path-to-recovery-from-financial-woes-leaves-the-gun-group-vulnerable-to-new-problems-201144

(Guardian UK) Trump administration appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) meddled in agency science to weaken the toxicity assessment of a dangerous chemical, a new report by the US body’s internal watchdog has found.

In response to what it labeled “political interference”, the Biden administration in February 2021 pulled the assessment, republished it months later using what it said is sound science, and declared it had resolved the issue.

But EPA scientists who spoke to the Guardian say several employees willingly worked with the Trump appointees to weaken the assessment, and they were never reprimanded or fired.

The scientists say the controversy is part of a deeper problem afflicting the EPA: industry influence on career staff, and an unwillingness from the EPA to address it. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/23/trump-appointees-epa-toxic-chemical-pfas-pfbs-toxic

(Slate) There are so many problems with the federal case in Texas challenging the approval of mifepristone, the first of two drugs given as part of a medication abortion. On the procedural side of things, just to name a few, the statute of limitations has long run out, the plaintiffs have not exhausted their administrative remedies, they haven’t identified a provision of law that has been violated, and their claimed injury makes no sense. On substance, again just to name a few, mifepristone is one of the safest drugs on the market, pregnancy is a medical condition for which the FDA can approve drugs, and the act on which the case relies has been basically a dead letter for a century. This case really is frivolous and should garner no real attention.

But, of course, we’re talking about this case repeatedly because of the real fear that the plaintiffs successfully hand-picked one of the few federal judges in the country who will ignore all this and rule in their favor. So, there is no such thing as giving this case too much scrutiny. And in that vein, it’s worth explaining how the release of the transcript from last Wednesday’s argument reveals yet another flaw with the case—lack of redressability—that should end the case immediately.

To understand this problem, we have to first understand the harm that plaintiffs are alleging that they suffer. Every litigant who comes into federal court needs to establish that they are injured in some way. Here, plaintiffs are doctors who claim that mifepristone leads to them having to treat patients with complications. Put aside for our purposes here just how insane that argument is—doctors treat people with complications related to medicine all the time, it’s their job. For now though, just appreciate that this is their claimed harm.

As their lawyer explained at argument, the doctors “allege that they treated women who were presenting emergency medical situations” after using mifepristone. And that doing so, their lawyer said, “severely impacts the ability of doctors to practice medicine according to their medical oaths” because treating these patients is “more time-consuming” and “consumes an enormous amount of resources.” The lawyer later described two situations where two of the plaintiffs say that they had to save the life of a patient after they had taken mifepristone. ..............(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/abortion-pill-mifepristone-misoprostol-ban-fail.html

"The customer's always right": New Fox News lawsuit explains why the GOP is captured by conspiracies
Republican voters, party leaders, and propagandists share a fundamental belief: That the truth doesn't matter

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MARCH 22, 2023 5:53AM (EDT)


(Salon) "You know, the customer's always right."

Rep. James Comer gave this juicy quote to Jonathan Swan and Luke Broadwater for their New York Times profile of the Kentucky Republican. He was explaining his affection for right-wing conspiracy theories. The "customer[s]" in this case, as Swan and Broadwater write, are the "vengeful, hard-right voters" who "propelled Comer to stardom" in the GOP.

It's quite an admission from the newly crowned chair of the House Oversight Committee. When asked why he is so intent on using his powers, as Swan and Broadwater write, "to investigate unhinged claims about President Biden and Democrats," Comer could have played political word games, pretending either to take these conspiracy theories more seriously than he actually does. He could have feigned outrage at the suggestion that his motives are anything less than honorable. Instead, Comer seems unconcerned to be seen, to the readers of the New York Times anyway, as a huckster for disinformation scraped out of the darkest corners of the internet.

"They don't know that it's QAnon," he even told Swan and Broadwater, "but it's QAnon stuff."

Comer's audacity is especially surprising in light of the ongoing Fox News scandal, stemming from court documents filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing the network for defamation. The filings included a staggering number of text messages and emails from Fox hosts and executives, revealing that they knowingly spread Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election, repeatedly amplifying and validating false claims that President Joe Biden stole his victory.

But what is perhaps most interesting about the texts is how the Fox leadership echoes the "customer is always right" rationale that Comer uses to justify his devotion to elevating evidence-free accusations against Democrats. Throughout the texts, Fox News leaders express fear that the "network is being rejected" for not playing along with the Big Lie. Amplifying election conspiracy theories, they told themselves, is "letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them." ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/03/22/the-customers-always-right-new-fox-news-explains-why-the-is-captured-by-conspiracies/

Donald Trump knows a perp walk is good TV
Of course Trump is stoked about his perp walk — he knows MAGA loves his villainy

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MARCH 23, 2023 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) While the world waits with bated breath for a Donald Trump indictment, reporters on the Mar-a-Lago palace intrigue beat say that no one claims more anticipation than Trump himself.

"[T]he former president has told friends and associates that he welcomes the idea of being paraded by the authorities before a throng of reporters and news cameras," New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael Bender write. "He has even mused openly about whether he should smile for the assembled media, and he has pondered how the public would react and is said to have described the potential spectacle as a fun experience."

On one level, this is definitely what the internet slangsters call "cope" or cable news pundits dismiss as "bravado," i.e. delusional nonsense people spew in order to avoid dealing with troubling realities. Certainly, self-soothing fairy tales are rife in the MAGA world these days, as Trump and his fans try to tell themselves that a man most Americans hate will get more popular if he's put on trial for various crimes.

Still, Trump's impulse here makes a certain amount of sense.

For one thing, one of Trump's few talents is knowing what makes for good TV. His perp walk would absolutely qualify. For a terminal narcissist, being at the center of one of the biggest TV events of the year is intoxicating, even if it is his own arraignment. But this impulse of Trump's also fits every other indicator that his campaign strategy for 2024, however ill-advised, is to focus on pleasing the MAGA base, even at the expense of winning over any other voters. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/03/23/donald-knows-a-perp-walk-is-good-tv/

MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A 39-year-old man faces domestic violence charges after deputies said he struck a woman in the face with a slice of pizza.

Deputies said they responded to a residence in Marion County on Friday, March 17, to a 911 hang-up call and possible domestic disturbance.

According to a probable cause affidavit, responding deputies made contact with Ortelio Lazaro Alfonso who said he had a verbal altercation with the victim.

Deputies said when they spoke to the victim, she told them she had been struck in the face with a slice of pizza after an altercation over disciplining. .............(more)

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/03/22/florida-man-arrested-after-slapping-woman-with-slice-of-pizza-deputies-say/

Fox News says executives can’t be held liable for election lies in pre-trial hearing
Judge appears skeptical of network’s arguments as both sides seek summary judgment in defamation case


(Guardian UK) A lawyer for Fox argued its top executives were not directly involved enough in its coverage of false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election to justify holding them liable for defamation.

Erin Murphy, Fox’s attorney, defended Fox during the second and final day of a pre-trial hearing in Delaware on Wednesday in the closely watched $1.6bn defamation case. It was part of her multi-pronged defense to rebut evidence presented by attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems that top executives, including Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, knowingly aired false claims about the company.

Dominion is suing the rightwing network over its decision to repeatedly air false claims about its voting equipment as Donald Trump and allies tried to overturn the last presidential election.

“You have to bring it home to someone who’s directly involved in the publication,” Murphy said. “Even if they have evidence that an executive knew Fox News was generally running coverage about election fraud … it’s not specific to oh yes we have knowledge about these four particular allegations.” .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/mar/22/fox-news-lawsuit-dominion-defamation-case