Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: 02/17/23

Lemon's apology leaves sour taste for some at CNN

Feb 17, 2023

Presented by TikTok

CNN's Don Lemon apologized to his colleagues for a remark he made on-air about women being in their "prime." | Evan Agostini/Invision via AP

DON LEMON spoke up on a CNN call this morning with members of the newsroom and apologized for his sexist remarks yesterday that stirred controversy within the newsroom and sparked a backlash in the media and political world.

“I am sorry that I offended — not if I offended, that I offended — a whole lot of people in this company,” Lemon said on the call, according to audio obtained by Playbook. (The NY Post also reported some details of the apology this morning.)

On yesterday’s “CNN This Morning,” Lemon suggested to co-hosts POPPY HARLOW and KAITLAN COLLINS that GOP presidential contender NIKKI HALEY wasn’t “in her prime” at age 51. “A woman is considered to be in their prime in [their] 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” he said.

This morning, Lemon said his comment “came out wrong” and sought to clarify that the point he was trying to make was that “no one’s age — not a man, not a woman’s — should define their ambition or their potential for success at anything.” He said he “realized afterward that it didn’t make sense and didn’t land correctly.”

“In the history of this organization I’m not sure anyone has done this, and I’m doing it because I want you to know about me, for those of you who don’t know: I believe that women of any age — people of any age, but mostly women of any age — can do whatever they set their minds to.”

“The people I am closest to in this organization are women. The people I seek counsel from first in this organization are women. The person I am closest to in the world is my mother, a woman,” Lemon said.

He went on to name-check some of his CNN colleagues with whom he speaks to regularly, including DANA BASH, ERIN BURNETT, MARIA SPINELLA and “the Poppy and Kaitlans of the world, who run circles around men, and me, on a daily basis.”

Toward the end of his comments on the call this morning, Lemon said he would “continue to be who I am, to talk about issues that I think affect us — women, people of color, members of the LGBT community, the underserved community — that is part of my mission.” But, he said “when I make a mistake, I own it. And I own this one as well.”

CNN CEO CHRIS LICHT then thanked Don for getting on the call before moving on to other business of the day. “I look forward to the continued conversation on this with you and the staff,” Licht said.

But Lemon’s mea culpa on the call didn’t satisfy everyone who heard it.

People who were on the call said that while Lemon apologized, he seemed at times to be justifying his original comment and taking credit for apologizing.

One person described Lemon’s apology as “tone deaf” and said some staff remain “furious” over the episode and want management to issue a statement responding to the situation.

FETTERMAN UPDATE — NBC’s Dasha Burns: “A senior aide to Senator [JOHN] FETTERMAN tells me he will likely be in inpatient care for clinical depression for ‘a few weeks.’ … A senior aide says it’s been difficult to distinguish the stroke from the depression – saying it’s hard to tell at times if Fetterman is ‘not hearing you, or is he sort of crippled by his depression and social anxiety.’” Click through for a full thread

— CNN’s Manu Raju: “Fetterman will not resign his office because of this illness, per source. There have been numerous examples of senators who have been sidelined over the years for a much longer time period, and this is no different, the source added.”

Related read: “What John Fetterman Should Know About Thomas Eagleton,” by Jeff Greenfield for POLITICO Magazine

SCOTT FINDS AN EDITOR — NBC’s Sahil Kapur: “After facing attacks, Sen. RICK SCOTT edits his policy plan on sunsetting laws after five years. It now exempts Social Security and Medicare.” Click through for the side-by-side comparison

Good Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Programming note: This newsletter will be off on Monday in observance of Presidents Day. But Playbook will still publish in the morning. Drop me a line: gross@politico.com.

A message from TikTok:

We work hard to create a positive experience for teens. That's why accounts for anyone aged 13-15 are set to private by default without access to direct messaging. It’s also why we developed Family Pairing tools that let parents link their account to their teens’ and decide together what settings work best. Set screen time limits, decide who can comment on their content and more, so everyone can use TikTok safely and responsibly. Learn more.

FUN AFTERNOON READ — “My Valentine’s Day Date With Bernie Sanders,” by N.Y. Mag’s Bridget Read: “The senator had no idea it was Valentine’s Day. ‘When is that? This weekend?’ BERNIE SANDERS asked when I greeted him for dinner on February 14 at Young Chow, a Chinese restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue that he likes. No, I told him, it is Valentine’s Day currently, right now, as this very meal is taking place. He was grumpy. ‘Why is Valentine’s Day in the middle of the week?’”

CONGRESS

WILL ROMNEY RUN? — Sen. MITT ROMNEY still hasn’t made a decision about running for reelection, for those tracking the Utah Republican’s thinking. “I’m sort of keeping my mind open,” Romney told AP’s Michelle Price and Mary Clare Jalonick. “There’s no particular hurry. I’m doing what I would do if I’m running with staffing and resources, so it’s not like I have to make a formal announcement.”

Related read: “Key senators torn over retirement decisions as party leaders try to fortify 2024 standing,” by CNN’s Manu Raju and Edward-Isaac Dovere

ALL POLITICS

THE EARLY WHAT-IF WORRY — “Biden’s Trump-focused campaign could be risky if GOP shifts,” by AP’s Will Weissert: “President JOE BIDEN built his 2020 White House run around promises to beat DONALD TRUMP ‘like a drum.’ As Biden gears up for an expected reelection campaign, he insists he can do it again. But what if Trump isn’t next year’s Republican nominee? Though the GOP primary race is only just beginning, a general election pitting Biden against any other Republican could look very different from one against Trump, with Democrats perhaps seeing enthusiasm to stop Trump at all cost evaporate.”

2024 JOSTLING — “Nikki Haley says the DeSantis ‘parental rights in education’ law in Florida doesn’t go ‘far enough,’” by Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser in Exeter, N.H.

POLICY CORNER

FOR YOUR RADAR — “FBI says it has ‘contained’ cyber incident on bureau’s computer network,” by CNN’s Evan Perez and Sean Lyngaas: “FBI officials have worked to isolate the malicious cyber activity, which two of the sources said involved the FBI New York Field Office – one of the bureau’s biggest and highest profile offices. The origin of the hacking incident is still being investigated, according to one source.”

INSIDE GARLAND’S DOJ — “Merrick Garland Raises the Bar for Death Penalty,” by WSJ’s Sadie Gurman, Aruna Viswanatha and Corinne Ramey: “More than a year after halting federal executions, Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND is authorizing prosecutors to seek the death penalty in some brutal cases while withdrawing it in many others, drilling down on the circumstances surrounding even the most heinous crimes before making the final call.”

We’re spilling the tea (and drinking tons of it in our newsroom) in U.K. politics with our latest newsletter, London Playbook PM. Get to know all the movers and shakers in Westminster and never miss a beat of British politics with a free subscription. Don’t miss out, we’ve got some exciting moves coming. Sign up today.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

THE LATEST IN MEMPHIS — “5 Memphis officers plead not guilty in death of Tyre Nichols,” by AP’s Adrian Sainz

ON THE BORDER — “Texas Begins Arresting Migrant Women After Courts Toss Cases Against Men,” by WSJ’s Elizabeth Findell: “Though migrants arrested under the program, mostly on misdemeanor trespassing charges, were frequently traveling in mixed-gender groups, the Texas Department of Public Safety has had a policy of arresting only men on the trespass charges and referring women and children to Border Patrol, according to court records. But since last fall, 24 women in three counties have also been arrested and charged, according to the Lubbock Private Defenders Office, an indigent-defense group responsible for appointing attorneys to migrants.”

GRIM READ — “In a Violent America Safety Becomes a Sales Pitch,” by NYT’s Michael Corkery and Zackary Canepari: “Rising gun violence, punctuated by massacres like the attack at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last year and the shooting on Michigan State University’s campus this week, is fueling not only the debate over gun control but also a more than $3 billion industry of companies working to protect children or employees against mass murder.”

COMMON CENSUS — “Cities appealing 2020 census count garner only small wins,” by AP’s Mike Schneider

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

MORE BALLOON BUSINESS — “Trump-Era Officials Were Aware of Suspected Balloons in U.S. Airspace,” by WSJ’s Vivian Salama: “A small circle of intelligence officials at the Pentagon during the Trump administration monitored a series of mysterious objects — now suspected to be balloons — but the incidents were never reported to the White House because it wasn’t clear what they were, former U.S. officials said.”

YELLEN ABROAD — “Janet Yellen to visit India for G-20 finance meetings,” by AP’s Fatima Hussein: Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN’s “schedule of events will begin on Feb. 23, where she plans to give a speech about the state of the economy as the U.S. and its allies assist Ukraine in defending itself against the invasion, according to the Treasury Department.”

HMM — “Facebook ran ads in Moldova for oligarch sanctioned by U.S.,” by AP’s David Klepper and Stephen McGrath: “The ads featuring politician and convicted fraudster ILAN SHOR were ultimately removed by Facebook but not before they were seen millions of times in Moldova, a small nation of about 2.6 million sandwiched between Romania and war-torn Ukraine.”

DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.

WAR IN UKRAINE

HEADS UP — “U.S. Watchdogs Want to Deploy Staff to Ukraine War Zone to Track Arms, Aid Up Close,” by WSJ’s Warren P. Strobel and Gordon Lubold: “Inspectors general from the Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development said in a joint interview with The Wall Street Journal that, thus far, they have been able to conduct critical oversight tasks remotely using personnel based in Washington, Poland and Germany. But following a trip by the trio to Kyiv in late January, they said they would press to put some of the 177 auditors and investigators scrutinizing Ukraine aid on the ground in Ukraine.”

ASKING FOR AID — “Zelenskyy pushes for speedy support to avoid more Ukraine deaths,” by AP’s Karl Ritter in Munich: “In his plea for more Western weapons, [Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR] ZELENSKYY compared Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian invasion to the biblical fight between DAVID and GOLIATH, saying his country had David’s courage but needed help in getting the sling.”

SPY VS. SPY — “In wake of Ukraine war, U.S. and allies are hunting down Russian spies,” by WaPo’s Greg Miller, Souad Mekhennet, Emily Rauhala and Shane Harris

THE STORY OF DAVID … “How a Tiny NATO Nation Tackled a Big Problem: Arming Ukraine,” by NYT’s Lara Jakes in Luxembourg

… AND GOLIATH: “South Africa and Russia Are Old Friends. A War Isn’t Going to Change That,” by NYT’s John Eligon in Johannesburg

PLAYBOOKERS

OUT AND ABOUT — Robert Raben and Anthony Coley hosted a farewell party for Alondra Nelson, who is leaving the White House OSTP to return to the Institute for Advanced Study, at their Capitol Hill home last night, where D.C. chef Sidra Forman provided food. SPOTTED: HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, outgoing CEA Chair Cecilia Rouse, Ashish Jha, Damon Hewitt, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, Chiraag Bains, Vinay Reddy, Kevin Young, Salman Ahmed, Narda Jones and Gabe Amo.

Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.

Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine.

A message from TikTok:

Follow us on Twitter

Rachael Bade @rachaelmbade

Eugene Daniels @EugeneDaniels2

Ryan Lizza @RyanLizza

Eli Okun @eliokun

Garrett Ross @garrett_ross

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family

View all our politics and policy newsletters

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings

This email was sent to ateebhassan000.ravian@blogger.com by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

Please click here and follow the steps to unsubscribe.

California Today: A project to reduce gun violence

View in browser|nytimes.com

Continue reading the main story

February 17, 2023

By Erik Vance

It's Friday. A Q. and A. with a White House adviser on gun violence. Plus, California lawmakers advance legislation to ban forced prison labor.

Devone Boggan, chief executive of Advance Peace.DeVonne Boggan

Gun violence continues in America on a daily basis. There have been 72 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and we're only on Day 48.

This week, three students were killed by a gunman at Michigan State University. Last month, shootings roiled California — in Goshen, in Monterey Park, in Half Moon Bay.

However, much of America's gun violence goes unnoticed because it happens in poor communities with chronic crime issues. Hours after the shooting that left seven farm workers dead in Half Moon Bay, an 18-year-old died and several people were injured in a shooting in Oakland that received relatively little attention.

But according to DeVone Boggan, founder of an organization called Advance Peace, in most cities a shockingly small number of young people are driving shootings. For example, when Boggan began his violence prevention work in Richmond in 2009, law enforcement experts told him that 70 percent of the violence was tied to just 17 people, mostly under the age of 20.

So Boggan, who was working for the city at the time, decided to try something new. After surveying law enforcement, local communities and gang members, he selected 21 people who were considered the most likely to commit gun violence in the near future. He then enrolled them in a mentorship program devised to teach them crucial life skills, healing from trauma and empathy for enemies, and to help them find a career path away from violence.

Members of this "Peacemaker Fellowship" were paid up to $1,500 a month, depending on their engagement level.

Continue reading the main story

The project has been enormously successful, and Advance Peace is now active in California and three other states. The White House recently named Boggan as an adviser to its Community Violence Intervention Collaborative. Nearly 480 people have gone through the program, which includes intensive one-on-one mentorship and even travel to countries including South Africa, Jamaica, France, Britain and Mexico.

Here is a conversation with Boggan, lightly edited for clarity and space.

What is the basic idea behind Advance Peace?

It's simple. If you can engage those at the center of gunfire, you can reduce gunfire.

That means working with them every day to help them to first understand that they have other options available to them to resolve the daily conflicts that they are navigating. They have folks in their ear telling them, "Go, go, go." They rarely, if ever, have anyone in their ear saying, "Wait, pause. Think about this."

How effective has this been at reducing violence?

We started in Richmond in the mid-2000s. And when we got there, there were nearly 50 firearm-related homicides a year and nearly 300 firearm-related incidents where there was an injury. In 2022, Richmond had 50 shootings with an injury. And just 14 firearm homicides.

Continue reading the main story

That's how you know it's working, because that's the trajectory in every one of the cities — the number of shootings plummets. Once you start working with those individuals who are at the center of all of that stuff.

How many California cities are you working in now?

Our first two cities outside of Richmond were Sacramento and Stockton. Then we moved on to Fresno, Woodland, Vallejo, Antioch and Pomona. Vallejo, Antioch and Pomona are just getting their legs, so we're just really getting them up and running. We have also worked in Salinas and San Francisco.

And then outside of California, there is Fort Worth, Texas; Rochester, N.Y.; Lansing, Mich.; and Orlando, Fla. We're looking at Portland and Milwaukee in 2023.

Continue reading the main story

So you tend to work in midsize cities with outsize gun problems. How many people are actually driving that violence?

I'm going to tell you, man, I've found myself blown away by four things. One, it's a small group of people generally responsible for most of the gun violence in the city. It's not 200 people, it's a handful of guys. Two, that small group of people are rarely going to be indicted or prosecuted for their gun crimes.

Three, most of these guys aren't being served, supported, engaged or given attention by any public system or community-based system of care. They're invisible. Then finally, most community and public systems of care don't have the capacity to do anything with this population.

I found myself thinking it'd be easier to change these individuals than try to change this whole system.

Is it hard politically for a city to tell their citizens they're going to start paying people not to commit gun violence?

Yes. Especially if you frame it that way. You should let folks see the results. If we're paying $1,500 over nine months, that's not a lot of money. If it's working. And I'd say, hell, if we can stop gun violence at $15,000 a head — if that's working versus spending a million plus every time a person is shot in one of these shootings — I'll take that any day. And I think most people would.

I was being a little bit pithy there. Because what you're actually paying them for is to engage in life-changing experiences. One of which is travel, correct?

Absolutely. Many, if not most, of these individuals have never left their city. And many of them haven't even left their neighborhoods unless they're going to another neighborhood to do damage.

There's a whole lot of world and a whole lot of life out there. So we want to expose them. I think most people understand that exposure can enhance one's life, can enhance one's knowledge about what's possible. It's very difficult to dream about stuff that you don't even know exists. And so a major part of this transformative travel element is simply to get these guys out of what they know and into a bigger world.

For more:

Read a profile on Boggan from 2017.

Subscribe Today

We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times with this special offer.

Lawmakers in Nevada and California are advancing legislation to remove involuntary servitude from their state constitutions, a move that follows four states that purged forced labor from the books in ballot measures last fall.AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File

The rest of the news

Ban on forced prison labor: In an effort to end forced labor as criminal punishment, lawmakers in California and Nevada are advancing legislation to remove "involuntary servitude" from their states' constitutions, The Associated Press reports.
Senate seat: Representative Barbara Lee filed federal paperwork Wednesday to enter the race for the California seat in the U.S. Senate currently held by Dianne Feinstein, who is retiring after her term ends next year, The Associated Press reports.
Health inequity: In a recent report, more than half of Black Californians surveyed said they believed that at least once in the last few years, their race affected the quality of health care they received, The Los Angeles Times reports.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Constitutional policing: The Los Angeles County sheriff has created an Office of Constitutional Policing to deal with allegations that deputies within the Sheriff's Department are associated with local gangs, The Associated Press reports.
Renters winning elections: Candidates who rent in Los Angeles won a number of significant local elections in November, LAist reports.
Destroyed embryos: A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit against a company that makes oil used in fertility clinics, saying it was toxic and destroyed their embryos, The Los Angeles Times reports.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Officer's funeral service: Gonzalo Carrasco Jr., who was killed in the line of duty at the end of January, was memorialized and laid to rest on Thursday. Officers from across the state attended his funeral, at Selland Arena, The Fresno Bee reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Homeless outreach program: A homeless outreach program in the Castro district has helped almost half of the neighborhood's "hard-core unhoused people" into shelters, SFist reports.
YouTube C.E.O.: Susan Wojcicki, the chief executive of YouTube, will step down from her role.
Juror pay: San Francisco has a pilot program increasing some jurors' pay to $100 a day, and the lawmaker who sponsored the program is now proposing to expand it statewide, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

What we're eating

Pasta with fried lemons and chile flakes.

A view of Mendocino.Max Whittaker for The New York Times

Where we're traveling

Today's tip comes from Christian Williams, who lives in San Francisco. Christian loves visiting Mendocino:

"Mendocino is such a beautiful California seaside town, famous for so much and so over-the-top picturesque it almost seems completely contrived, but if you peek around the refurbished bed-and-breakfasts and expensive shops and cafes, you can still see the heart of the town — a charming and somewhat funky seaside paradise of close-knit community built around hardy coastal living, a once-thriving fishing and timber industry nearby in Fort Bragg, a love of gardens and all growing things and a passion for fantastic California-focused food and drink. There's a deep peace there by the sea, and that's why I keep returning to it as often as possible, though time and tragedy and change have reshaped it somewhat. Even now, living much closer to this part of the world than I used to, the views I have of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge from my home in San Francisco emotionally pale in comparison to my heart-memory of Mendocino and its crashing waves, its beautiful blue skies, its chilly foggy days and its friendly, gentle people."

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Jaida Grey Eagle for The New York Times

And before you go, some good news

Last fall, The New York Times sent photographers to cities, suburbs and rural areas in California and six other states to document how different libraries respond to the needs of their communities and the many ways in which patrons find a haven in each one.

The modern library isn't just about books. It keeps its citizens warm, safe, healthy, entertained, educated, hydrated and, above all, connected.

You can pop in when your Wi-Fi is on the fritz or when you need a break from your roommates. You might go there to dry off or to cool down. To study for algebra or to read a romance novel. To meet a friend or to be alone. For a bit of excitement or for a moment of calm.

These photos capture all of that.

Thanks for reading. We'll be back on Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend.

P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword.

Soumya Karlamangla and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Continue reading the main story