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Tuesday’s Primaries: Murphy Sails Through in Connecticut, Sanders Wins in Vermont

WASHINGTON — The Latest on primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin (all times local):

11:20 p.m.

Former state Rep. Joe Radinovich has won a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan in a northeastern Minnesota swing district.

Radinovich defeated Rep. Jason Metsa, longtime former news anchor Michelle Lee and others on Tuesday. Radinovich served one term in the state House and managed Nolan’s 2016 re-election campaign.

It sets up another hard-fought general election in what has become one of the most expensive and competitive congressional districts in the country. Radinovich will face Pete Stauber, a St. Louis County commissioner and retired Duluth police officer.

Nolan announced his retirement earlier this year after narrowly winning three terms. The 8th District was a Democratic stronghold for decades before becoming more competitive in recent cycles. President Donald Trump carried the district by 15 percentage points.

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11:10 p.m.

Democratic Rep. Tim Walz has won a three-way primary for Minnesota governor.

Walz leveraged his rural Minnesota connections and a geographically balanced ticket to defeat state Rep. Erin Murphy and Attorney General Lori Swanson in Tuesday’s primary. Walz is leaving Congress after six terms representing southwestern Minnesota.

Walz’s outstate appeal and pedigree as a former teacher and a National Guard veteran had long made him a favorite among Democrats trying to hang on to the office as two-term Gov. Mark Dayton retires.

But he lost the party’s endorsement in June to Murphy and shook up his campaign soon afterward.

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11:05 p.m.

County Commissioner Jeff Johnson has beaten former Gov. Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota’s Republican primary for governor, derailing Pawlenty’s bid to reclaim his old job.

Johnson won Tuesday despite Pawlenty’s enormous fundraising and name recognition advantages. He also won despite his own history as the party’s losing candidate for governor four years ago.

Johnson positioned himself as a more conservative candidate than Pawlenty. He branded the former two-term governor as part of the “status quo” and bashed him for calling Trump “unhinged and unfit for the presidency” in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election.

Pawlenty was hoping to resurrect his political career after flaming out as a presidential candidate in 2011. He spent the intervening years as a Washington lobbyist.

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10:55 p.m.

Madison businessman and political newcomer Bob Stefanowski has won the Republican primary for Connecticut governor, defeating four fellow GOP contenders.

The 56-year-old former General Electric executive promoted his ability to turn around struggling companies and dubbed himself “Bob the Rebuilder” in his campaign advertisements.

Stefanowski was the second-biggest spender in the campaign primary, trailing only former Greenwich hedge fund manager David Stemerman.

Stemerman and former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst questioned Stefanowski’s Republican pedigree, noting he became a Democrat only to switch back to the GOP shortly before announcing his candidacy for governor.

Stefanowski was the first to launch a major TV ad campaign in the race. He has called for eliminating the personal income tax.

Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is not seeking a third term.

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10:40 p.m.

A Wisconsin state senator and close ally to Gov. Scott Walker has defeated a former Marine who cast himself as a political outsider in the state’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Leah Vukmir beat Kevin Nicholson in Tuesday’s primary and now advances to face Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Vukmir won the endorsement of the Wisconsin Republican Party and the backing of most prominent GOP officeholders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. She ran as the proven conservative in the race, pointing to her long voting record in support of Republican priorities.

Both she and Nicholson ran as strong supporters of President Donald Trump.

Nicholson failed to overcome his past as a Democrat. He also lost despite millions more being spent on his behalf by outside groups.

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10:25 p.m.

Former Meriden Mayor Manny Santos has won the Republican nomination for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Connecticut Rep. Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut, who came under fire for her handling of a sexual harassment case in her office.

The party’s endorsed candidate defeated two GOP rivals — Ruby Corby O’Neill of Southbury and Rich Dupont of Watertown — in Tuesday’s primary.

Santos has called President Donald Trump’s economic policies “dead on” and has vowed to fight tax increases and unnecessary spending.

He comes into the general election at a significant financial disadvantage. Recent reports show he has less than $500 in cash still on hand for the race.

Esty, a Democrat, abruptly announced in April she would not seek a fourth term. She apologized for not protecting her employees.

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10:20 p.m.

Pete Stauber has won the GOP primary for the northeastern Minnesota congressional seat being vacated by Democrat Rick Nolan.

Stauber, a St. Louis County Commissioner and retired Duluth police officer, defeated former Duluth School Board member Harry Robb Welty on Tuesday to advance to a general election contest that’s seen as one of the Republicans’ best chances anywhere in the country of picking up a House seat now held by a Democrat.

The 8th District was once a Democratic stronghold but has evolved into a swing district.

Stauber’s campaign got a boost from visits in June by President Donald Trump and last week by Vice President Mike Pence. Trump carried the district by 15 percentage points in 2016.

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10:10 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has won Minnesota’s Democratic primary for attorney general.

Ellison defeated four other candidates to win Tuesday’s primary days after a former girlfriend accused him of domestic abuse. Ellison denied the allegation.

Ellison decided to give up his safe Minneapolis-area seat to try for attorney general when incumbent Lori Swanson ran for governor. He said it was a chance to make a difference in pushing back against some of President Donald Trump’s policies that he says are hurting people.

In 2006, Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress. He is also vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Republicans haven’t held the Minnesota attorney general seat for more than half a century.

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10:08 p.m.

Randy Bryce, a union ironworker known as “Iron Stache,” has won the Democratic primary in the race to replace retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Bryce defeated Janesville schoolteacher Cathy Myers in Tuesday’s primary. Former Ryan aide Bryan Steil (STY’-uhl) was the Republican front-runner, facing token opposition in the primary.

Bryce captured national attention with a slick announcement video last year, before Ryan announced his retirement. He’s raised more than $6 million, six times what Myers brought in. He won endorsements from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and labor activist Dolores Huerta.

Democrats are optimistic for their chances to pick up the southeast Wisconsin district that Ryan has represented for 20 years. But opponents argue that Bryce’s past, which includes failing to pay child support and a 20-year-old drunken-driving arrest, makes him unreliable and unelectable.

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10:05 p.m.

Jennifer Zielinski has won a three-way Republican primary for the Minnesota seat in Congress being vacated by Democrat Keith Ellison.

The 35-year-old Zielinski had the GOP endorsement over two little-known rivals. She is a business services worker for Allina Health who hasn’t held elected office before.

The Minneapolis-area seat is so reliably liberal that a Republican hasn’t held it since 1960. She will face Minnesota state Rep. Ilhan Omar, the nation’s first Somali-American legislator. She won the Democratic primary Tuesday.

Ellison was leaving the seat to run for state attorney general.

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10 p.m.

Wisconsin state schools chief Tony Evers has won the Democratic primary for governor and will face Republican Gov. Scott Walker in November.

Evers emerged from a field of eight candidates in Tuesday’s primary.

He was the only candidate to have won election statewide before and now faces his biggest challenge against Walker.

Walker has built up a big financial advantage for his re-election bid. He’s already run more than a dozen television ads touting his record of the past eight years.

The 66-year-old Evers has been the state’s education chief since 2009 and has clashed with Walker in the past on mostly education issues.

Walker’s campaign and Republicans criticized Evers for not revoking the license of a teacher who was caught viewing pornographic emails on his school computer.

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9:55 p.m.

Minnesota state Rep. Ilhan Omar, the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, has won a crowded Democratic primary to replace Rep. Keith Ellison in Congress.

Omar’s victory Tuesday all but ensures she’ll set another historic mark as the first Somali-American in Congress. Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District includes Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs that tilt heavily Democratic.

Omar positioned herself as the best-equipped to counter President Donald Trump’s administration. She rose to national prominence after winning her legislative seat in 2016.

The first-term lawmaker defeated former state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (KEL’-uh-hur), state Sen. Patricia Torres Ray and others.

Ellison triggered a scramble for the seat when he filed a last-minute run for Minnesota attorney general.

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9:50 p.m.

A former aide to House Speaker Paul Ryan has won the Wisconsin Republican primary race to replace him.

Bryan Steil (STY’-uhl) won Tuesday over five other competitors. Steil far outraised his opponents and secured the backing of prominent donors and Republicans, including Ryan.

He will face either Randy Bryce or Cathy Myers in November.

Steil is general counsel for Charter NEX Films Inc., an independent producer of polyethylene film used for food and consumer packaging. He previously worked eight years as a corporate attorney at electric motor manufacturer Regal Beloit Corporation.

He is from Janesville, the same hometown as Ryan, in southeast Wisconsin, not far from the Illinois border. The congressional district leans Republican.

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9:42 p.m.

Minnesota state Sen. Karin Housley has easily won the state’s Republican primary in a race to finish the last two years of Al Franken’s Senate term.

Housley faced no major challengers when launching her campaign in the days after Franken announced his resignation over allegations of sexual misconduct.

His departure unexpectedly put a Democrat-held seat in play, complicating the party’s hopes of retaking the Senate. But Minnesota hasn’t yet appeared as a top pick-up target for Republican groups.

Sen. Tina Smith was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to replace Franken in January. She won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the seat.

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9:40 p.m.

A celebrated teacher has defeated the party-endorsed candidate in the Democratic primary for a Connecticut U.S. House seat being vacated by Rep. Elizabeth Esty, who acknowledged mishandling sexual harassment complaints in her Washington, D.C., office.

In Tuesday’s primary, 2016 National Teacher of the Year Jahana Hayes bested former Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman. If elected in November, Hayes would become the first black woman elected to Congress from Connecticut.

The 45-year-old educator from Wolcott has attracted significant out-of-state political contributions and endorsements from unions and liberal organizations. She says there’s an “appetite for change” among voters.

Recent campaign finance reports show Hayes leading Glassman and all three Republican candidates in fundraising.

Esty abruptly announced in April she would not seek a fourth term. She apologized for not protecting her employees.

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9:35 p.m.

Sen. Tina Smith has won Minnesota’s Democratic primary to finish the final two years of former Sen. Al Franken’s term.

Smith took her spot in the Senate in January after Franken resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations. She was the state’s lieutenant governor before Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton appointed her to the seat.

She defeated several Democrats to clinch the party’s nomination, including Richard Painter, the former GOP ethics attorney whose profile rose as a strident critic of President Donald Trump.

Smith is a longtime political operative in Minnesota.

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9:30 p.m.

Minnesota state Rep. Jim Newberger has won the GOP primary to take on incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (KLOH’-buh-shar).

Newberger beat three other candidates Tuesday but faces an uphill battle in November against the popular Klobuchar, who is seeking a third term in the Senate.

Klobuchar won her first two terms by at least 20 percentage points and has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2020.

Newberger, a paramedic from Becker, has served three terms in the Minnesota House.

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9:25 p.m.

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker has dispensed with a nominal GOP challenger as he awaits the winner of a crowded Democratic primary.

Walker is seeking a third term in office after a failed 2016 presidential run. Eight Democrats were seeking to challenge him in November.

Walker handily defeated his token opposition, Robert Meyer, who was not actively campaigning. Walker has amassed nearly $5 million and has already run more than a dozen television ads as he positions himself for the fall election.

Democrats are optimistic that this year presents their best chance ever to take down Walker. They’ve scored unexpected election victories in other races this year and polls generally show Republicans to be vulnerable.

In 2012, Walker became the first governor to ever defeat a recall election.

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9:20 p.m.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (KLOH’-buh-shar) of Minnesota has easily won a Democratic primary as she seeks her third term.

In a year marked by high-profile lawmakers losing primary challenges, Klobuchar had no serious opposition Tuesday.

Klobuchar is one of Minnesota’s most popular politicians, winning her first two terms by at least 20 percentage points. She has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2020.

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9:15 p.m.

A former utility executive from Vermont has become the first transgender candidate to win a major political party’s nomination for governor.

Christine Hallquist defeated three other Democrats en route to victory in Tuesday’s primary.

The former CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative says she’s running because she feels she has the best plan to help Vermont residents get higher-paying jobs, provide health care for their families and better educate their children.

The 62-year-old Hallquist is part of a wave of LGBTQ candidates seeking higher office across the U.S.

Hallquist is being supported by The Victory Fund, a political action committee that backs LGBTQ candidates across the country. The committed labeled her a “game changer.”

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9:10 p.m.

Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott has won his party’s nomination to run for a second term as the state’s top executive.

Scott angered many people in the GOP base for supporting a series of gun restrictions but on Tuesday defeated Springfield businessman Keith Stern, a perennial candidate who described himself as a conservative Republican and campaigned on financial issues.

Scott based his first term as governor on the premise of making the state more affordable by helping to balance the budget without raising taxes or fees. He supported gun restrictions after what law enforcement authorities said was a narrowly averted school shooting.

Scott lost some voters with his gun stance but was supported by others who favored the restrictions.

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9:05 p.m.

Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin is advancing to the November general election after facing no opposition from her own party.

She faces a tough re-election bid against one of two loyalists to President Donald Trump who are seeking to run against her. Baldwin is the only Democrat in a statewide office of importance in Wisconsin, and outside groups have already spent millions on television ads attacking her.

Baldwin’s campaign has played up her work on moderate and core Wisconsin issues, including her buy-America plan that Trump supports and her work with Republican Sen. John McCain on lowering drug costs.

The Republicans battling to run against her are political outsider Kevin Nicholson and state Sen. Leah Vukmir. Polls show their race to be very close.

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9 p.m.

Polls have closed for primary elections in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Polling places across the two states shut their doors at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Local election officials are now counting the votes. Results will trickle in over the coming hours.

Primaries in both states included races for governor and Senate, and both Senate seats were on Minnesota’s ballot because of a special election to finish Al Franken’s term.

Key House races included the Wisconsin primary for the seat that currently belongs to House Speaker Paul Ryan and a Minnesota seat being vacated by Democrat Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to serve in Congress. Ellison is running for state attorney general amid domestic abuse allegations from an ex-girlfriend. He denies them.

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8:40 p.m.

Small-business owner Matthew Corey has won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Connecticut and will face an uphill battle against Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.

In Tuesday’s primary the Manchester Republican defeated Dominic Rapini, a national accounts manager for Apple computers.

Corey is a U.S. Navy veteran and owner of a Hartford pub and a window-washing business. He earlier unsuccessfully challenged Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson.

Corey has called for more investment in small businesses in low-income communities. He’s also supportive of apprenticeship programs, corporate tax reform and a tax credit for home school parents.

As of July 25, records show Corey had raised about $31,000 in campaign funds compared with nearly $13.5 million for Murphy.

There was no primary on the Democratic side.

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8:30 p.m.

Businessman Ned Lamont has won the Democratic nomination for Connecticut governor, defeating Bridgeport mayor and ex-convict Joe Ganim.

Lamont’s victory comes 12 years after he defeated U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in a Democratic showdown, only to lose the general election when Lieberman ran as an independent. That race was seen as part of a national referendum on the Iraq War.

Lamont has said he’ll “save Connecticut” from President Donald Trump’s policies, whether it’s the weakening of environmental standards or abortion access.

Lamont says he’ll bring a businessman’s approach to solving the state’s fiscal woes. He supports unions and a higher minimum wage.

Ganim was elected Bridgeport mayor in 2015 despite serving seven years in prison for public corruption.

Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy decided against running for a third term.

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8:05 p.m.

Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has won Vermont’s Democratic Senate primary but is expected to turn down the nomination and support the state’s Democratic candidates, as is his practice.

In Tuesday’s balloting, Sanders defeated little-known candidate Folasade Adeluola (foh-LAH’-shah-day ah-DAY’-loo-hoh-lah), who says she believes Vermont needs a full-time senator.

Sanders is thought to be considering a presidential run in 2020. He already is on Vermont’s November ballot as an independent.

Under Vermont law he cannot appear on the November ballot as both a Democrat and an independent.

In his U.S. Senate races, in 2012 and 2006 he declined the nomination but accepted the formal endorsement of the state’s Democratic Party.

Four little-known candidates were seeking the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

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8 p.m.

Sen. Chris Murphy is advancing to the November election after sailing through the primaries without facing a challenger from his Democratic Party.

The first-term senator from Connecticut will face the winner of a two-man Republican primary featuring small-business owner Matthew Corey and Apple computer executive Dominic Rapini.

Polls in the state closed at 8 p.m. Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin are also holding primaries Tuesday.

Murphy’s campaign has raised about $13.5 million, an amount that far exceeds the fundraising of each of his GOP rivals.

Murphy was first elected in 2012 and became a prominent advocate for gun control following the shooting massacre that year at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown that killed 20 first-graders and six educators. He has gained a higher profile lately through his outspoken criticism of the policies of President Donald Trump.

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7:30 p.m.

Early figures show voter turnout in Connecticut’s primaries is low despite the large number of candidates vying to become their party’s nominee in November.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill says turnout was around 15 to 16 percent with 153 of Connecticut’s 169 towns reporting as of about 3 p.m. Tuesday. That figure doesn’t include the major cities.

Merrill says she ultimately expects about 20 to 25 percent of the state’s roughly 1.2 million registered Democrats and Republicans will vote, similar to past primaries. Polls close at 8 p.m.

Unaffiliated voters are not able to vote in Connecticut’s primaries.

The Republican primary for governor is expected to be particularly close, given that five candidates are vying for the nomination. Merrill predicts the winner could take as few as 20,000 votes.

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7 p.m.

The polls have closed in Vermont, where voters were picking nominees for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

Vermont and three other states, Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin, are holding primaries Tuesday.

In Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott is facing a challenge from Springfield businessman Keith Stern.

Four Democrats are seeking the party’s nomination to run for governor. They include a former utility executive who, if elected, would become the nation’s first transgender governor, and a 14-year-old boy who is taking advantage of a quirk in state law that does not require gubernatorial candidates to be registered voters.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is appearing on the Democratic ballot, even though he’s already registered to run in November as an independent.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch is also facing a primary challenge.

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5:20 p.m.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission says no major problems have been reported across the state as voters cast their ballots in the primary.

The commission says statewide turnout figures for Tuesday’s elections are not available yet.

Wisconsin is among four states holding primaries Tuesday. Connecticut, Minnesota and Vermont are the others.

In Milwaukee, the Journal Sentinel reports that election officials are projecting turnout to be 25 to 30 percent of the city’s registered voters, which is about 75,000 people. The turnout is about 10,000 more than the 2014 gubernatorial primary.

Democratic voters are choosing among eight candidates to challenge Gov. Scott Walker in November. Republican voters are deciding between Leah Vukmir and Kevin Nicholson to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

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2:25 a.m.

Democrats are fighting to beat back Republican gains across the Midwest as the 2018 primary season roars through Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Tuesday’s primary contests for governor, the Senate and the House will test the strength of President Donald Trump’s fiery coalition against the energy of the Democratic resistance among working-class voters.

Meanwhile, accusations of domestic violence involving the Democratic National Committee’s deputy chairman, congressman and attorney general candidate Keith Ellison, could undermine the “blue wave” in Minnesota.

In all, four states including Vermont and Connecticut will host elections on Tuesday as the 2018 primary season nears its final chapter.

Democrats appear particularly motivated in Wisconsin, where eight candidates want the chance to take on Republican Gov. Scott Walker. In Minnesota, former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants his job back.

Poll: Democrats Favor Socialism Over Capitalism

Democrats in 2018 feel more positive toward socialism than capitalism, according to a Gallup Poll released Monday.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents indicated they had a positive view of socialism, a percentage that has not changed drastically since 2010. “The major change,” Gallup reports, “has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year—lower than in any of the three previous measures.”

The survey is the fourth time Gallup has measured views of socialism among Democrats in this poll. It specifies that the question’s “wording does not define ‘socialism’ or ‘capitalism’ but simply asks respondents whether their opinion of each is positive or negative.”

The sharpest contrasts in views of socialism, the survey revealed, were between older and younger Americans, on both sides of the political aisle:

Americans aged 18 to 29 are as positive about socialism (51%) as they are about capitalism (45%). This represents a 12-point decline in young adults’ positive views of capitalism in just the past two years and a marked shift since 2010, when 68% viewed it positively. Meanwhile, young people’s views of socialism have fluctuated somewhat from year to year, but the 51% with a positive view today is the same as in 2010.

These poll results have been building slowly since the 2016 election, Gallup infers, starting with Bernie Sanders’ competitive challenge to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

The month after Clinton lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, membership in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) surged; six times as many people joined in November 2016 as in the previous month.

In November 2017, DSA-backed candidates won 15 races on election night, in states from Virginia to Montana, as reported by Slate. Most were local wins, except for that of Lee Carter, a 30-year-old Marine veteran who beat his Republican opponent for a Virginia House of Delegates seat by nine points. In Pennsylvania in May, four DSA-backed candidates won their primaries.

Then, on June 26, first-time, DSA-backed candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley in a New York primary race, and the DSA surpassed 40,000 members. A day after Ocasio-Cortez’s win, 1,152 people joined, 35 times the normal number for one day, as The Hill reported in July.

Gallup points out that these results may not translate to winning more national elections: “Several candidates with socialist leanings lost their primary bids in Aug. 7 voting, raising doubts about the depth of Democrats’ embrace of socialism.”

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Is a Success Story That Audiences, and Hollywood, Shouldn’t Miss

So much of Hollywood’s meager push for diversity has resulted in people of color making bad movies to match those made by white men for decades. The reason is it’s hard to make good movies, no matter your color. It’s a numbers game. Make enough movies and some are bound to be good. The problem is only white men have been given the chance to make enough movies for that ratio to tilt in their favor.

Fortunately, , director of tent-pole movies like “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and a pair of Justin Bieber documentaries, was given the chance to adapt “Crazy Rich Asians.” Even more fortunate was casting the effervescent as his lead. Wu plays Rachel Chu, an NYU economics professor who travels with her boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding), to his hometown of Singapore for his best friend’s wedding.

The action begins when Young and Chu are photographed by a Malaysian influencer and, in a sprightly montage, the moment goes viral on social media, causing every nubile in the South Pacific to ask, “Who is Rachel Chu?” For the audience, the more pressing question would be: Who is Nick Young? He’s heir to a global hotel empire, that’s who, making him the region’s most eligible bachelor.

Nick had until then kept his secret from Rachel because he wanted her to like him for who he was and not for his money. The other key detail from his background that he’s been shielding her from is his mother, Eleanor (), who oversees the family business and wants her number-one son to return to Singapore and marry a proper Chinese woman, not one raised in the U.S.

Americans are given to pursuing their passions instead of putting family first, Eleanor admonishes her Nick when it becomes clear he plans to marry Rachel. It’s a familiar conflict in movies with ethnic characters, but director Chu and his writing team of and imbue it with an emotional veracity that elevates it from hackneyed to heartfelt.

A rowdy bachelor party for the boys, and a corresponding soirée for the girls, are shown in scenes that seem de rigueur in a rom-com. But the tonally miscued bloody revenge attack on Rachel that follows isn’t. It’s a turning point that starts her thinking maybe her million-dollar bachelor isn’t worth all the trouble.

The good news is her old New York girlfriend, Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina), has her back. The Queens-born rapper made her mark earlier this year in “Ocean’s 8,” but here she comes close to stealing every scene she’s in, if not for the even zanier antics of , who plays her father.

Ronny Chieng, one of the most talented correspondents from “The Daily Show,” is wasted here as obnoxious cousin Edison Cheng. And British actress (Mia on AMC’s “Humans”), as cousin Astrid, has a striking screen presence but limited emotional range as the betrayed wife in a subplot that drags.

As shrewd as she is gracious, Michelle Yeoh’s Eleanor Young is used to ordering the world around her, especially when it comes to her family. And she will relinquish nothing to a girl whom she perceives as a flighty gold digger from Manhattan. A formidable action star from the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, Yeoh is known to most Western audiences from the Oscar-winning kung fu classic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Needless to say, she conveys the gravity and dignity of her deep filmography with incidental ease.

After a strenuous search, Henry Golding was cast as Nick Young based on a Malaysian travel show he hosted. He now has two more movies, “A Simple Favor,” with and , and “Monsoon,” coming out later this year. His character here is mainly a cipher, a depository for the dreams of lovelorn women. Given so little to do, it’s difficult to gauge his acting range, but suffice to say he’s an attractive guy with an easygoing warmth that complements Wu’s conflicted Rachel.

More than anyone, Constance Wu occupies the center of “Crazy Rich Asians.” There, amid a flurry of beauties in designer dresses, fit and handsome men, outlandish excess all around her, she holds the film together. Best known for the ABC sitcom, “Fresh Off the Boat,” on which she plays tiger mom Jessica, a broader comedic version of Eleanor Young, in this film Wu effortlessly seems to drive the story despite the fact that she’s mostly a passive protagonist, struggling with her inability to do right in anyone’s eyes. Paramount is Wu’s ability to convey the everywoman quality of classic screwball heroines while easily switching to bombshell mode, as she does in a baby-blue dress during the climactic sequence.

With a history of directing dance movies including “Step Up 2: The Streets” and its sequel, as well as his work with Justin Bieber, director Chu has developed a keen understanding of rhythm. He uses that sensibility in “Crazy Rich Asians,” maintaining tight comedic timing and a zippy pace, assisted by an ear-catching score that mixes classic jazz tunes sung in Mandarin with composer Brian Tyler’s more pedestrian strains.

Chu and his writers find a delicate cultural balance that makes his characters universally familiar without forsaking Asian aspects of the story. What they give us is a cast of characters, sober, nutty, crass, classy, discreet and ostentatious, a panoply of Asian types rarely expressed on film—so rare that it’s been 25 years since the last all-Asian cast directed by a Chinese-American came to theaters in 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club.” That film, budgeted at $11 million, earned $33 million at the domestic box office for Disney’s Hollywood Pictures. Box-office tracking has “Crazy Rich Asians” likely enjoying the strongest opening for a romantic comedy this year, disproving, yet again, conventional Hollywood thinking.

Pennsylvania Priests Molested More Than 1,000 Kids Since 1950s, Grand Jury Finds

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — since the 1950s, and senior church officials, including a man who is now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., systematically covered up the abuse, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday.

The “real number” of abused children might be in the thousands since some secret church records were lost, and victims were afraid to come forward, the grand jury said.

“Church officials routinely and purposefully described the abuse as horseplay and wrestling and inappropriate conduct. It was none of those things. It was child sexual abuse, including rape,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference in Harrisburg.

The report put the number of abusive clergy at more than 300. In nearly all of the cases, the statute of limitations has run out, meaning that criminal charges cannot be filed. Many of the priests are dead or retired, while others have been dismissed from the priesthood or put on leave.

“We are sick over all the crimes that will go unpunished and uncompensated,” the grand jury said.

Authorities evaluated each suspect and were able to charge just two, including a priest who has since pleaded guilty. Shapiro said the investigation is ongoing.

The grand jury accused Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who leads the Washington archdiocese, of helping to protect abusive priests when he was Pittsburgh’s bishop. Wuerl, who led the Pittsburgh diocese from 1988 to 2006, disputed the allegations.

“While I understand this report may be critical of some of my actions, I believe the report confirms that I acted with diligence, with concern for the victims and to prevent future acts of abuse,” he said in a statement. “I sincerely hope that a just assessment of my actions, past and present, and my continuing commitment to the protection of children will dispel any notions otherwise made by this report.”

The grand jury scrutinized abuse allegations in dioceses that minister to more than half the state’s 3.2 million Catholics. Its report echoed the findings of many earlier church investigations around the country in its description of widespread sexual abuse by clergy and church officials’ concealment of it.

Most of the victims were boys, but girls were abused, too, the report said.

The abuse ranged from groping and masturbation to anal, oral and vaginal rape. One boy was forced to say confession to the priest who sexually abused him. A 9-year-old boy was forced to perform oral sex and then had his mouth washed out with holy water. Another boy was made to pose naked as if being crucified and then was photographed by a group of priests who Shapiro said produced and shared child pornography on church grounds.

The grand jury concluded that a succession of Catholic bishops and other diocesan leaders tried to shield the church from bad publicity and financial liability. They failed to report accused clergy to police and sent abusive priests to so-called “treatment facilities,” which “laundered” the priests and “permitted hundreds of known offenders to return to ministry,” the report said.

The cover-up extended beyond church grounds. The grand jury said it found cases in which police or prosecutors learned of clergy sex abuse allegations but did not investigate out of deference to church officials.

The grand jury’s report comes at a time of renewed scrutiny and fresh scandal at the highest levels of the U.S. Catholic Church. Pope Francis stripped 88-year-old Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of his title and ordered him to a lifetime of prayer and penance amid allegations that McCarrick had for years sexually abused boys and had sexual misconduct with adult seminarians.

Wuerl has come under harsh criticism over his response to the McCarrick scandal, with some commentators questioning his claims of surprise and ignorance over allegations that McCarrick molested and harassed young seminarians.

Wuerl replaced McCarrick as Washington’s archbishop after McCarrick retired in 2006.

The Pennsylvania grand jury, convened by the state attorney general’s office in 2016, heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed more than a half-million pages of internal documents from the Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton dioceses.

The Pittsburgh diocese said a few priests are still in ministry because the diocese determined allegations against them were unsubstantiated.

Tim Lennon, the president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged Pennsylvania lawmakers to lift civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sex crimes, and to provide victims who no longer meet the age requirements in state law with a new window to file civil lawsuits.

Some current and former clergy named in the report went to court to prevent its release, arguing it violated their constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court said the public had a right to see it, but ruled the names of priests and others who objected to the findings would be blacked out pending a September hearing on their claims.

Twenty of the grand jurors said Tuesday they objected to “any attempts to censor, alter, redact or amend” the report.

Several dioceses decided to strip the accused of their anonymity and released the names of clergy members who were accused of sexual misconduct.

___

Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Vatican City, Claudia Lauer and Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania and David Porter in New Jersey contributed to this report.

Dispatches From Gaza: A Wave of Sadness

Editor’s note: This excerpt is one of a series by the author—to read more of this story, click on the link following the passages posted below. View a full assortment of Tolan’s dispatches here.

The indelible images of suffering and stories of loss are everywhere in #Gaza. The family of 19 in three small rooms whose only drinking water comes from plastic jugs filled at the mosque. The woman who lost 38 members of her family during Israeli strikes in 2014. The man who lived with 49 others in a relative’s house after his neighborhood of Shujaiya was flattened. But there is something else that abides in the day-to-day life in Gaza that for me resonates just as deeply: a kind of stubborn resilience in the face of catastrophe.

The other night I was walking along a spit of sand and rock that forms part of the Gaza harbor with Raed, my colleague and translator. The place was rippling with everyday life: fishermen pulling up their nets, laughing and giving each other grief; kids posing for selfies; families gathered under beach umbrellas at small plastic tables, sharing a modest picnic.

A young couple with their three kids invited us to join them. The children nibbled from bags of chips, eyeing me shyly. Rana Dilly poured mango soda into small plastic cups while her husband, Ahmad, pushed an unopened package of chocolate wafers toward me. I politely declined, which of course was a mistake. He laughed and pushed the package closer, telling me, “You are with Palestinians!” In other words, your resistance to our hospitality is futile!

Ahmad told me that despite the hardships and frequent dangers, he tries to come to this little finger of land nearly every day, just to clear his head and have some kind of normal feeling. He brings the family once or twice a week. “I want to share life,” he told me. “To share some things with my family and my kids. To show them something is possible.”

Read more

ACLU: Federal Agencies Are Setting ‘Trap’ to Deport Immigrants

BOSTON — Federal immigration agencies have launched a coordinated campaign to arrest and deport immigrants seeking to become legal U.S. residents through marriage, according to documents released this week in a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The documents, which include depositions and correspondence from federal officials, show the extent to which officials for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have been coordinating with their counterparts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement to facilitate arrests at citizenship offices in New England.

The ACLU, in its arguments, criticizes the efforts as a deportation “trap” that violates the constitutional rights of immigrants otherwise following the rules to become legal residents.

“The government created this path for them to seek a green card,” Matthew Segal, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in an interview Tuesday. “The government can’t create that path and then arrest folks for following that path.”

A spokesman for USCIS said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation, and ICE representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The two agencies both fall under Department of Homeland Security oversight.

The ACLU lawsuit argues that Homeland Security regulations created under former President Barack Obama allow immigrants with U.S.-citizen spouses to stay in the country while they seek a green card — even if they’re already subject to deportation.

“That regulation is still the law of the land,” Segal said Tuesday. “So arresting these folks is not about law and order. These are people with a path to legalization and the government is trying to block that.”

The federal government, in seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, argues in part that the federal District Court has no jurisdiction in the matter.

The ACLU’s more than 250-page legal brief includes emails between ICE officials outlining how it coordinates arrests with USCIS in New England.

Andrew Graham, a Boston-based ICE officer, said the agency generally receives from USCIS lists of immigrants seeking legal residency who have already been ordered for deportation, had re-entered the country illegally or were considered “an egregious criminal alien.”

Graham says ICE then works with USCIS to schedule interviews so that ICE agents can be present to make an arrest. He notes ICE prefers to spread out the interviews to ease the workload on its agents and to prevent generating “negative media interest” from the arrests.

“In my opinion, it makes sense for us to arrest aliens with final removal orders as they represent the end of the line in the removal process,” Graham wrote in part. “(A)t the end of the day we are in the removal business and it’s our job to locate and arrest them.”

The ACLU’s legal brief is the latest in the class-action suit it filed earlier this year on behalf of immigrants who have been or fear being separated from their U.S.-citizen spouses.

The case will be argued Aug. 20 in Boston federal court and names five couples, including lead plaintiffs Lilian Calderon and Luis Gordillo, of Rhode Island.

Gordillo is a U.S. citizen, but Calderon is a native of Guatemala who came to the country with her family at the age of 3. She was ordered to leave in 2002 after her father was denied asylum.

The 30-year-old mother of two was detained by ICE in January after she and her husband attended an interview at the USCIS office in Johnston, Rhode Island, to confirm their marriage.

Calderon was released in February after the ACLU challenged the detention.

Ben Carson to Gut Anti-Segregation Rule in New Attack on Fair Housing Act

With much of the corporate media’s attention focused on Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s latest reported racist remarks, the president’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made its latest move away from its core mission of ensuring all Americans of all races have access to fair housing.

Scandalized by Trump’s use of a racist term for a black former White House staffer? Wait till you hear what his administration is doing to fair housing rules, which were put in place to keep wealthy neighborhoods from excluding poor minorities: https://t.co/ujMnqyWyAW

— Lydia DePillis (@lydiadepillis) August 14, 2018

HUD Secretary Ben Carson announced late Monday that he was moving to roll back the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule (AFFH), a 2015 regulation the Obama administration passed to ensure that local governments that receive federal funding combat racial segregation in housing. The rule was introduced with the intent of making sure communities were observing the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which banned housing discrimination based on race.

Under AFFH, well-off communities that accept federal grants have been pushed to introduce affordable housing to de-concentrate poverty.

Carson has derided the rule as “social engineering” and claimed on Monday that the rule was “suffocating investment” in distressed neighborhoods.

HUD has argued that the benefits of allowing low-income families to move out of impoverished neighborhoods “are likely limited to certain age and demographic groups,” a theory rejected by Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard and author of a landmark study on the issue.

“Overall, the research shows that deconcentrating poverty is likely to greatly improve the health and well-being of low-income families and to have long-run economic and educational benefits for the children of low-income families,” Katz told Slate.

Without the AFFH in place, communities will be free to shut low-income families out of middle-class areas.

“You’re going back to communities willfully blinding themselves to patterns of segregation,” Sara Pratt, a former HUD attorney under the Obama administration, told NBC News. “Without this rule, communities will not do the work to eliminate discrimination and segregation.”

Several civil rights groups sued HUD earlier this year over its efforts to delay implementation of the rule until at least 2020. Fair housing advocates involved in the suit spoke out against Carson’s latest attack on the AFFH on Tuesday.

#AFFH Rule is at the core of #FairHousing Act. It’s about expanding opportunity, investing in communities, and giving people choice. We have joined with other orgs filing a lawsuit to protect this critical rule. https://t.co/kLTSbCuB6P

— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) August 13, 2018

Trump’s War on Regulation Is Just Another Form of Trickle-Down Economics

When Trump’s not blaming foreigners for everything that ails America, he’s blaming regulations.

Last week he even blamed regulations for the wildfires now ravaging California. They’re “made so much worse,” he tweeted, “by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount[s] of readily available water to be properly utilized.”

I have news for Trump. California’s tough environmental laws are among America’s (and the world’s) last bulwarks against climate change. And it’s climate change – not regulation – that’s reaping havoc across California as well as much of the rest of the world.

Oh, and Californians are using water very carefully.

Yet Trump is pushing in the opposite direction. He’s now proposing to let cars pollute more and to strip California of its right to set higher air-quality rules.

It’s not just the environment. Trump is also gutting regulations that protect consumers, workers, investors, students, and children.

The Trump regime is now contemplating a loophole through which companies can apply to use asbestos – a known carcinogen banned by most developed countries – in making adhesives, roofing material, floor tile, and other products.

What’s the justification for all of this? “The Administration’s agenda of deregulation is unleashing the …  true potential of American businesses,” trumpets Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors in its 2018 economic report.

Translated: Cutting regulations means more corporate profits. More profits satisfies Trump’s donor class.

Don’t get me wrong. Some regulations should be eliminated because they’re just too costly relative to the protections they provide.

But many regulations protect you and me from being harmed, fleeced, shafted, injured, or sickened by corporate products and services. And they’re worth it.

Yet Trump is taking a meat axe to all regulations. In so doing he’s creating a new form of trickle-down economics – where the benefits go to corporate executives and major investors, while the costs and risks land on the rest of us.

Trump’s Education Department under Betsy DeVos intends to repeal a regulation limiting the amount of debt students attending career programs at for-profit colleges can pile up. It has already stopped investigating for-profit colleges.

These moves will result in more profits for the for-profits. But they will leave many young people and their parents more vulnerable to fraud.

After heavy lobbying by the chemical industry, Trump’s EPA is scaling back the way the government decides whether some of the most dangerous chemicals on the market pose health and safety risks.

This may increase the profits of the chemical industry. But it will leave the rest of us less protected from toxins that can make their way into dry-cleaning solvents, paint strippers, shampoos and cosmetics.

Trump’s Labor Department is reducing the number of workers who are eligible for overtime pay. And it’s proposing to allow teenagers to work long hours in dangerous jobs that child labor laws used to protect them from.

Again, more profits for business. But more cost and risk for the rest of us.

Trump is weakening banking regulations put in place after the financial crisis of 2008, even rolling back the so-called Volcker Rule that prevented banks from gambling with commercial deposits.

The result: More profits for the banks, more risk on you and me.

It would be one thing if corporations were plowing all these extra profits into higher pay for average workers. Maybe that would help make up for some of the extra costs and risks borne by average Americans.

But they’re not. They’re using most of the profits to buy back their own shares of stock – thereby boosting share prices.

Which is good for the richest 1 percent of Americans who own 40 percent of the stock market, and the top 10 percent who own 80 percent. But, like trickle-down tax cuts, this does nothing for most Americans.

Trump’s gang of industry lobbyists and executives who are busy deregulating the same industries they once represented will no doubt do very well when they head back into the private sector.

The rest of us won’t do well. We may not know for years the extent we’re unprotected – until the next financial collapse, next public health crisis, next upsurge in fraud, or next floods or droughts because the EPA failed to do what it could to slow and reverse climate change.

Make no mistake. Trump’s attack on regulation is just another form of trickle-down economics – where the gains go the top, and the risks and losses trickle down.

Trump Calls Omarosa ‘That Dog’ as Campaign Takes Legal Step Against Her

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump escalated his messy clash with former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman on Tuesday, referring to the longtime colleague, who had been the top African-American in his White House, as “that dog!”

The pressure on Manigault Newman increased, as the Trump presidential campaign filed arbitration action against her, alleging a breach of a confidentiality agreement. A campaign official said the action was filed with the American Arbitration Association.

Trump tweeted a barrage of insults Tuesday morning as Manigault Newman continued promoting her White House tell-all and releasing secret audio recordings. Her book paints a damning picture of Trump, including her claim that he used racial slurs on the set of his reality show “The Apprentice.”

“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out,” Trump said. “Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!” John Kelly is White House chief of staff.

While Trump trades in insults on a near daily basis, deeming Manigault Newman a “dog” was a stunning move in a row that touched on several sensitive issues in Trump’s White House, including a lack of racial diversity among senior officials, security concerns — Manigault Newman taped her firing in the White House Situation Room — and extraordinary measures such as non-disclosure agreements to keep ex-employees quiet.

Trump has also pushed back against Manigault Newman’s claim that she had heard an audiotape of him using the N-word. He tweeted that he had received a call from the producer of “The Apprentice” assuring him “there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa.”

Trump insisted, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have.” He said Manigault Newman had called him “a true Champion of Civil Rights” until she was fired.

Manigault Newman, the former White House liaison to black voters, writes in her new memoir that she’d heard such tapes existed. She said Sunday that she had listened to one after the book closed.

On CBS on Tuesday, Manigault Newman released another audio recording that she said showed campaign workers discussing an alleged recording of Trump using the racial slur. The White House and the campaign did not immediately respond to questions.

One of the people allegedly featured on the tape is Katrina Pierson, an adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign who served as a spokeswoman for his 2016 campaign. Pierson has said she never heard Trump use this type of language and said on Fox that the only person she heard talking about a tape was Manigault Newman. The tape appears to show Pierson saying of Trump: “He said it. He’s embarrassed.”

Asked if the book can be backed up by email or recordings, Manigault Newman said on CBS that every quote in the book “can be verified, corroborated and it’s well documented,” suggesting she may have more information to release.

The dispute has been building for days as Manigault Newman promotes her memoir “Unhinged,” which comes out officially Tuesday.

In a series of interviews, Manigault Newman has also revealed two audio recordings from her time at the White House, including portions of a recording of her firing by Kelly, which she says occurred in the high-security Situation Room, and a phone call with Trump after she was fired.

Manigault Newman says she has more recordings. Asked on MSNBC’s “Hardball” if special counsel Robert Mueller — investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia — would be interested in any of them, she said, “If his office calls again, anything they want, I’ll share.”

Trump officials and a number of outside critics denounced the recordings as a serious breach of ethics and security — and White House aides worried about what else Manigault Newman may have captured in the West Wing.

The tape recording appears to show Trump expressing surprise about her firing, saying “nobody even told me about it.” But Manigault Newman said he “probably instructed General Kelly to do it.”

On Twitter, Trump declared Monday that she had been “fired for the last time,” a reference to her appearances on his reality TV show. He said Kelly had called her a “loser & nothing but problems,” but he himself had tried to save her job — because he liked her public comments about him.

“I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!” Trump tweeted.

Responding on NBC, Manigault Newman said, “I think it’s sad that with all the things that’s going on in the country that he would take time out to insult me and to insult my intelligence.”

She added, “This is his pattern with African-Americans.”

First lady Melania Trump, meanwhile, is disappointed that Manigault Newman “is lashing out and retaliating in such a self-serving way, especially after all the opportunities given to her by the President,” said White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.

Manigault Newman’s exit does highlight the lack of diversity among Trump’s top aides. She was the highest-ranking African-American on the White House staff. She said on NBC that in her absence “they’re making decisions about us without us.”

Trump’s battle with Omarosa underscores the racial tensions that have defined his presidency. He notably blamed “both sides” for violent clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, a year ago and has questioned the intelligence of other prominent black figures including California Rep. Maxine Waters, basketball star LeBron James and TV journalist Don Lemon. He also has targeted black NFL players for kneeling in social protest during the national anthem.

Manigault Newman also alleges that Trump allies tried to buy her silence after she left the White House, offering her $15,000 a month to accept a “senior position” on his 2020 re-election campaign along with a stringent nondisclosure agreement.

The offer raises fresh questions about the ways that White House aides are being offered safe landing spots after they leave. For example, Trump’s former personal aide John McEntee, who was removed from his job in April, went to the campaign.

Trump tweeted Monday that Manigault Newman has a “fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement!”

It was not clear exactly what he was referring to. White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday on ABC that there are “confidentiality agreements” in the West Wing. And Trump’s campaign said that in the 2016 race she “signed the exact same NDA that everyone else on the campaign signed, which is still enforceable.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said on “Fox and Friends” Monday that Manigault Newman may have broken the law by recording private conversations inside the White House.

“She’s certainly violating national security regulations, which I think have the force of law,” Giuliani said.

But experts in national security and clearance law said that, while she seriously violated rules — and would likely be barred from ever being granted a security clearance — she probably didn’t break any law unless the conversations she recorded were classified.

In the recording with Kelly, which Manigault Newman quotes extensively in her new book, Kelly can be heard saying that he wants to talk with her about leaving the White House.

“It’s come to my attention over the last few months that there’s been some pretty, in my opinion, significant integrity issues related to you,” Kelly is heard saying, before adding that if she makes it a “friendly departure” then she can “go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”

Manigault Newman said she viewed the conversation as a “threat” and defended her decision to covertly record it and other White House conversations, saying otherwise “no one” would believe her.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Hope Yen contributed to this report.

Facebook Exec Threatens News Outlets in Private Meeting

During a closed-door and off-the-record meeting last week, top Facebook executive Campbell Brown reportedly warned news publishers that refusal to cooperate with the tech behemoth’s efforts to “revitalize journalism” will leave media outlets dying “like in a hospice.”

Reported first by The Australian under a headline which read “Work With Facebook or Die: Zuckerberg,” the social media giant has insisted the comments were taken out of context, even as five individuals who attended the four-hour meeting corroborated what Brown had stated.

“Mark doesn’t care about publishers but is giving me a lot of leeway and concessions to make these changes,” Brown reportedly said, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “We will help you revitalize journalism… in a few years the reverse looks like I’ll be holding hands with your dying business like in a hospice.”

As The Guardian reported on Monday, Facebook is “vehemently” denying the veracity of the comments as reported by The Australian, referring to its own transcript of the meeting. However, Facebook is refusing to release its transcript and tape of the gathering.

Facebook is saying these comments didn’t happen but The Australian has an explosive story on the company’s position with publishers. Five people at the meeting confirmed these comments and the company has tape of the conversation that it will not release. pic.twitter.com/dzcGOUDl2k

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) August 13, 2018

Brown’s warning about the dire prospects for news outlets that don’t get on board with a future in which corporate giants like Facebook are the arbiters of what is and isn’t trustworthy news comes as progressives are raising alarm that Facebook’s entrance into the world of journalism poses a major threat to non-corporate and left-wing news outlets.

As Common Dreams reported in July, progressives’ fears were partly confirmed after Facebook unveiled its first slate of news “segments” as part of its Facebook Watch initiative.

While Facebook claims its initiative is part of an effort to combat “misinformation,” its first series of segments were dominated by such corporate outlets as Fox News and CNN.

Reacting to Brown’s reported assertion that Zuckerberg “doesn’t care about publishers,” Judd Legum, who writes the Popular Information newsletter, argued, “Anyone who does care about news needs to understand Facebook as a fundamental threat.”

“In addition to disputed quote, there are also Facebook’s actions, which are fully consistent with the quote,” Legum added. “We desperately need to develop alternative delivery mechanisms to Facebook.”