Bryan Adams apologizes over 'racist' COVID-19 post

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams apologized Tuesday after a backlash and accusations of anti-Chinese racism over his online rant about the pandemic forcing the cancellation of his London shows this week.

The "Cuts Like a Knife" singer issued a statement offering "apologies to any and all that took offence to my posting yesterday," adding: "I have love for all people."

Adams had said in earlier expletive-laced Twitter and Instagram posts that his gigs at the Royal Albert Hall were nixed thanks to "bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards."

While animal rights groups praised his call to stop eating meat, others interpreted the expletive-laced comments as anti-Chinese.

He went on to say that "the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus," admonishing the Chinese to "go vegan."

"This is so irresponsible and so racist," Amy Go of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice told AFP. 

"He's a Canadian idol and he's fanning the flames of anti-Chinese racism, and contributing to an increase in hateful taunts and blatant (physical) attacks on Chinese and Asian people in Canada and around the world," she said.

Others called his remarks "racist garbage."

Wet markets sell fresh food and produce, including farmed animals and wildlife. 

One such market in Wuhan, China was identified last week by the World Health Organization as a possible source or "amplifying setting" of the outbreak.

In his apology, Adams explained: "No excuse, I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism."

There has been anecdotal evidence of a rise of anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence linked to the pandemic.

Go cited, for example, the recent experience of a 92-year-old man thrown out of a Vancouver convenience store and onto the sidewalk by the shopkeeper because he was of Chinese descent.

A Chinese-Canadian woman was also punched in the face in an unprovoked attack last week while waiting at a downtown bus stop in the Pacific coast metropolis.

Adams has since deleted the offending tweet but the message remained on Instagram.

In it he also said he missed his band or "other family" while in self-isolation with his wife and children.

Agence France-Presse

Trump says minority congresswomen should 'apologize to America'

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump renewed his attacks Sunday on four Democratic congresswomen he launched xenophobic tweets against last week, demanding they apologize "for the horrible (hateful) things they have said."

"I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country," Trump tweeted of ethnic-minority first-term Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.

"They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!" the president tweeted.

The comments come a week after Trump sparked a firestorm of outrage when he attacked the left-leaning lawmakers in a series of tweets, saying they should "go back" to their countries of origin.

The group -- all American citizens, three of whom were born in the United States -- are of Hispanic, Arab, Somali and African-American descent.

In a rare move, Trump was rebuked by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday for "racist comments" against the women, who are known as the "Squad."

The following day chants of "Send her back!" broke out at the president's "Make America Great Again" rally in Greenville, North Carolina, when he again attacked the women.

Trump claimed falsely that Omar had said the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda made her "proud" and he described the congresswomen as "left-wing ideologues (who) see our nation as a force of evil."

SPEECH PAUSED FOR CHANTS

Trump later said there was "great energy" at the rally but claimed he was not pleased by the taunts.

"I was not happy when I heard that chant," he said. "I didn't like that they did it, and I started speaking quickly" to move on with his speech.

Television footage showed, however, that Trump let the chants continue for more than 13 seconds, only resuming speaking as they died down.

Analysts say the president's performance in Greenville demonstrated that without a Democratic presidential candidate to focus on yet, he plans to make inflammatory attacks on the Squad a centerpiece of his 2020 reelection strategy.

Two days after the rally he falsely accused the congresswomen of using the phrase "evil Jews," and Ocasio-Cortez in particular of calling Americans "garbage."

Several of the Democratic presidential hopefuls who plan to run against him and a few Republicans have urged Trump to tone down the rhetoric.

Ron Johnson, a Republican senator from Wisconsin and the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said Sunday he didn't agree that the congresswomen were incapable of loving their country.

"I find it unfortunate so many parts of our public debate are getting stuck inside a racial framework when what I would like to see is us moving toward that color-blind society," he told CNN's "State of the Union."

'DIVIDE OUR COUNTRY'

But the president has made it clear -- despite the risk of inflaming racial tensions and widening the partisan divide -- that he believes he has latched onto a winning strategy.

Trump tapped into grievances among white blue-collar and rural Americans to eke out a narrow victory in 2016, winning 57 percent of white voters while his rival Hillary Clinton won 37 percent.

Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings, the African-American chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that the "send her back" chants reminded him of painful experiences fighting segregation in the 1960s.

"It's extremely divisive and I don't think this is becoming of the president of the United States of America, the leader of the entire world. We can do better than that."

He added that the congresswomen targeted by Trump "love their country" and work hard to move closer to the "perfect union that our founding fathers talked about."

He said he had "no doubt" Trump was a racist, a charge rejected by White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller.

"I fundamentally disagree with the view that if you criticize somebody, and they happen to be a different color skin, that that makes it racial criticism," Miller told "Fox News Sunday."

Senator Corey Booker, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, meanwhile told CBS's "Face the Nation" that he was accusing Trump of being "worse than" a racist.

"He is somebody that is using race like a weapon to divide our country against itself," Booker said.

ft/bbk/wd/mdl

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Red carpet event for Liam Neeson movie scrapped after revenge remarks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The New York celebrity red carpet event on Tuesday for actor Liam Neeson’s new film “Cold Pursuit” has been canceled in the wake of an interview in which Neeson said he wanted to kill a black man in response to the rape of a friend who said her attacker was black.

Movie studio Lionsgate declined to comment but a source familiar with the matter said that a red carpet, where movie stars pose for photos and speak with reporters, would be inappropriate.

The U.S. premiere for the movie, in which Neeson plays a man seeking revenge for his son’s killers, will still go ahead on Tuesday.

Responding to the backlash his comments had drawn, the 66-year-old Irish star told the U.S. television network ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday that “I’m not a racist.”

Neeson said he had learned that society needed to have a larger discussion to end racism and bigotry.

On Monday, Neeson told the British newspaper The Independent that he related to characters in his movies such as “Taken” who seek revenge when someone close to them is hurt. He said a female friend told him decades ago that she had been raped by a man who was black.

Neeson told the newspaper he had spent “maybe a week” walking near pubs with a heavy stick and “hoping some ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could ... kill him.”

The Independent said Neeson put air quotes around the term “black bastard.” The newspaper posted audio from the interview on its website.

On Tuesday, Neeson told “GMA” that he had felt a “primal urge to lash out” at the time.

“I went out deliberately into black areas in the city, looking to be set upon,” he said. “It shocked me and it hurt me ... I did seek help, I went to a priest.”

Neeson said no violence occurred. He said he would have been looking for a white man if his friend had identified her attacker as white.

“It was horrible, horrible when I think back, that I did that,” Neeson said on “GMA. “It’s awful, but I did learn a lesson from it.”

Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Howard Goller and Grant McCool

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US networks, Facebook pull racist Trump ad

Fox News, NBC and Facebook have pulled a Trump campaign ad branded racist, which equates a convicted Mexican murderer with Central American migrants en route to the US border.

NBC pulled the ad after coming under fire for showing the commercial during the widely watched "Sunday Night Football" program ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, which are seen as a referendum on Trump, who vows to curtail immigration.

"After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible," NBC Universal said in a statement.

Fox News, the US president's favorite television network and often considered favorable to his administration, confirmed to AFP that it had removed the ad and that it would no longer appear on either its news or Fox Business channels.

Facebook said the ad "violates" the social network's advertising policy against sensational content. "We have rejected it. While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution," it said.

The Trump campaign released the ad last week. Questioned about it on Monday, the US president pleaded ignorance. "I don't know about it," he said. "A lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive."

The ad opens with footage of a grinning Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican criminal sentenced to death for killing two police officers in California in 2014, vowing to kill "more cops" in the future.

The straplines "Democrats let him into our country" and "Democrats let him stay" appear on screen, followed by images of migrants currently traveling through Mexico en route to the US border.

"Who else would Democrats let in?" asks the ad.

The Sacramento Bee newspaper in California reported, however, that records show that Bracamontes was deported before sneaking back into the country -- under Republican president George W. Bush.

CNN refused to broadcast the ad from the beginning. "I guess they only run fake news and won't talk about real threats that don't suit their agenda," tweeted the president's eldest son, urging his followers to vote Republican.

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Australian cartoonist under fire for Serena sketch

My toon in today’s @theheraldsun on #SerenaWilliams @usopen pic.twitter.com/didwtQg1R5

 — Mark Knight (@Knightcartoons) September 10, 2018

SYDNEY - An Australian cartoonist has come under withering criticism for portraying tennis superstar Serena Williams using -- what Harry Potter author JK Rowling described as -- "racist and sexist tropes".

Mark Knight's caricature, published in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper on Monday, shows a butch and fat-lipped Williams jumping up and down on her broken racquet at the US Open.

Williams' heated exchanges with an umpire at the tournament final this week have stirred the tennis world.

She was found guilty of code violations and fined US$17,000 -- raising allegations that there are double standards for male and female players.

Williams was thwarted in her bid for a record-tying 24th Slam singles crown in losing to Japan's Naomi Osaka.

In the cartoon the umpire is seen saying to Osaka "can't you just let her win?".

Knight, who has a reputation for controversial cartoons, was pilloried from far and wide, including by a member of the US Congress and a large portion of the 22,000 people who commented on his Twitter post showing the drawing.

The detractors included author JK Rowling, who said: "Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop."

Knight responded to the criticism by pointing out that he had drawn an unflattering portrayal of Australian male tennis star Nick Kyrgios "behaving badly".

"Don't bring gender into it when it's all about behavior," he said.

arb/grk/rma

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Video of Pinay's encounter with 'racist' driver goes viral

A video posted by a Pinay bicyclist on the internet has gone viral after it showcased an argument between herself and another motorist involving racial slurs.

Last Thursday afternoon, Paula Nuguid was biking with her 9-year-old daughter in Sunnyvale, California.

According to Nuguid, she was trying to make a legal left turn when a man began honking at her.

The argument then escalated into a racially charged exchange.

While the video has gone viral through multiple platforms, Nuguid’s original posting has been shared on Facebook almost 4,000 times, and has more than half a million views.

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Spurs coach Popovich pops off at 'racist' Trump

CLEVELAND -- San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich took aim at Donald Trump Saturday, devoting nearly half of his pre-game news conference to describing his contempt for the newly sworn-in American President.

Popovich called Trump a bully who spends more time attacking his critics than trying to bring the country together by ending the racial and political polarization in the United States.

"It does boggle the mind how somebody can be so thin-skinned," Popovich said. "It's all obvious -- it's about him .... It doesn't matter what it is, there's a pattern there. And that's dangerous.

"I'd like to have someone with gravitas, but he got there through the Electoral College, which is part of our system, and I hope he does some good things."

Popovich was speaking on a day that more than one million people protested Trump's presidency by marching in North America and across the world at a series of women's rallies.

"The march today was great," Popovich said. "That message is important and it could have been a whole lot of groups marching. And somebody said on TV, 'What's their message?' Well, their message is obvious.

"That is our president comes in with the lowest rating of anybody who ever came into the office.

"And there's a majority of people out there, since Hillary (Clinton) won the popular vote, that don't buy his act.

"And I just wish that he was more mature enough to do something that really is inclusive rather than just talking and saying, 'I'm going to include everybody.'

"He could talk to the groups that he disrespected and maligned during the primary and really make somebody believe it. But so far, we've got to a point where you really can't believe anything that comes out of his mouth."

Popovich said he worries about the effect a Trump presidency will have on young Americans.

"I hope he does a great job, but there's a difference between respecting the office of the presidency and who occupies it.

"And that respect has to be earned. But it's hard to be respectful of someone when we all have kids and we're watching him be misogynistic and xenophobic and racist and make fun of handicapped people."

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Chelsea condemn fans filmed in racist incident in Paris

LONDON - Chelsea Football Club have condemned an incident, captured in amateur video footage in the Paris metro, that shows fans pushing a black man off a train and chanting "we're racist".

The video was filmed before Chelsea's Champions League match against Paris St Germain at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on Tuesday evening, according to reports in British media.

"Such behaviour is abhorrent and has no place in football or society," the club said in a statement in response to the reports.

"We will support any criminal action against those involved, and should evidence point to involvement of Chelsea season-ticket holders or members the club will take the strongest possible action against them, including banning orders."

The amateur footage, posted on the website of the Guardian newspaper, shows a black man trying to squeeze onto a busy train at the Richelieu-Drouot metro stop only to be pushed back repeatedly by a group of men.

The men can be heard chanting "we're racist, we're racist, and that's the way we like it".

The BBC reported that French police were investigating the incident.

Paul Nolan, a British resident of Paris who filmed the video, told BBC Radio Four the Chelsea fans in the metro carriage had seemed "very aggressive" and it was an "ugly scene". (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

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