Chris Hedges's Blog, page 561

Anthony Bourdain: The Only Mensch on Gaza

Anthony Bourdain was the only major American celebrity who succeeded in depicting publicly the Palestinians as rational, caring human beings rather than as irrationally angry inciters to violence. He was the anti-Bernard Lewis. Lewis smeared the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims with the charge of “Islamic rage” (as though large swathes of humankind are angry for no reason).

Bourdain said, “The world has visited many terrible things on the Palestinians, none more shameful than robbing them of their basic humanity.”

The Israel propaganda machine has even attempted to smear Razan al-Najjar, the 21-year-old nurse in Gaza who was shot dead by an Israeli-American sniper as she tended, unarmed and clearly wearing medic’s clothing, to injured Palestinians being shot with live ammunition by Israeli troops on the Gaza side of the border. Shooting Razan was a war crime. Razan was engaged in an act of unselfish bravery. We should all be so “complex.” That attempt to dehumanize one Palestinian is typical of the American and Israeli media in general. I can’t tell you how many “panels” on Palestine I’ve seen on CNN that included no Palestinian; often it was three middle-aged males, and sometimes they lacked even religious diversity among them.

In the face of this dehumanization, Bourdain stood as an all too rare exception. Half the people in Gaza are children, and Bourdain loved them:

Here is Anthony Bourdain with a group of children in Gaza. Thank you for shining your light on the dark places. pic.twitter.com/225CETUQZd

— Erin Cunningham (@erinmcunningham) June 8, 2018

When the Israeli army, notorious for its use of indiscriminate fire, hit Palestinian children on a beach in Gaza, Bourdain wrote:

Maybe it’s the fact that I walked on that beach—and have a small child that makes this photo so devastating. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/s067RShbVh

— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) July 16, 2014

And this is how he responded to being honored by a Muslim-American organization for his segment on cooking in Gaza, in which he was forthright about how the world has mistreated the Palestinians (70 percent of the families in Gaza are refugees, created by a campaign of deliberate ethnic cleansing on the part of Jewish immigrants into British Mandate Palestine, in which the Palestinians were chased from their homes in what was turned into southern Israel and then imprisoned in the Gaza Strip to this day):

Anthony Bourdain: MPAC Media Awards

And this is the segment on Gaza for which Bourdain was honored:

CNN: “Israel: Anthony Bourdain has traditional Palestinian meal (Parts Unknown, Jerusalem)”

Bourdain got away with his humane sentiments toward Palestinians and his calling of bullshit on Israeli propaganda presumably because he had a cooking show rather than doing hard news. Or perhaps he stood where he stood because of the sheer force of his personality and his refusal to compromise with principle.

He will be sorely missed.

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Border Detainee Dies in Cell After Alleged Separation From Wife and Son

HOUSTON—U.S. authorities have confirmed that a Honduran man was found dead in a Texas jail cell of an “apparent suicide” last month, but made no mention of details in a Washington Post report that the man was enraged after his wife and son were separated from him.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a statement Saturday confirming the death of Marco Antonio Munoz. The CBP statement says Munoz was apprehended at the Weslaco, Texas, border station on May 11 and transferred to the Rio Grande Valley immigration processing center. The Post report, citing unnamed Border Patrol agents, said he was with his wife and 3-year-old son and separated from them, but the federal statement made no mention of family members.

The statement says that while Munoz was being processed, he “became disruptive and combative” and was transferred to the Starr County jail. He was found unresponsive in his cell on May 13.

The Trump administration has been sharply criticized for separating families of immigrants arriving in the country illegally.

Trump Disowns G-7 Declaration and Calls Trudeau Untruthful

LA MALBAIE, Quebec—The annual G-7 summit appeared to have weathered tensions over President Donald Trump’s threats of a tariff-fueled trade war until the mercurial American pulled out of a joint statement while citing “false statements” by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It was an unprecedented attack on the leader of the U.S. neighbor and ally.

Trump was aboard Air Force One heading to an historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un when he issued a pair of tweets Saturday criticizing the G-7 host and stepping back from the generally positive tone that had ended the two-day meeting. A few hours earlier, Trudeau had told reporters that all seven leaders had come together to sign the joint declaration.

Trudeau said he had reiterated to Trump that tariffs would harm industries and workers on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. He said unleashing retaliatory measures “is not something I relish doing” but that he wouldn’t hesitate to do so because “I will always protect Canadian workers and Canadian interests.”

“As Canadians, we are polite, we’re reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around,” Trudeau said, and he described all seven leaders coming together to sign a joint declaration despite having “some strong, firm conversations on trade, and specifically on American tariffs.”

In the air by then, Trump tweeted: “Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!”

He followed up by tweeting: “PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, “US Tariffs were kind of insulting” and he “will not be pushed around.” Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”

A spokesman for Trudeau did not address Trump’s insults in a statement. “We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the #G7 summit,” spokesman Cameron Ahmad said. “The Prime Minister said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public, and in private conversations with the President.”

Reporters asked Trudeau for his reaction as he and his wife and another couple took an evening stroll, but the prime minister begged off. “Good to see you guys … It’s a beautiful evening, a great weekend,” he said.

Before leaving for Singapore, Trump had delivered a stark warning to America’s trading partners not to counter his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. But Trudeau, whose nation was among those singled out by Trump, pushed back and said he would not hesitate to retaliate against his neighbor to the south.

“If they retaliate, they’re making a mistake,” Trump declared before departing the annual Group of Seven summit, which includes Britain, Italy, France, Germany and Japan.

Trump himself insisted relationships with allies were a “ten” just before he left the summit. But his abbreviated stay at this Quebec resort saw him continuing the same type of tough talk on trade as when he departed the White House, when he accused Trudeau of being “indignant.”

The summit came during an ongoing trade dispute with China and served as a precursor to the unprecedented meeting with Kim, in which Trump has sought to extend a hand to the Asian autocrat who has long bedeviled the international order.

“His message from Quebec to Singapore is that he is going to meld the industrial democracies to his will — and bring back Russia,” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign and White House adviser. Bannon said China is “now on notice that Trump will not back down from even allies’ complaints in his goal of ‘America First.'”

Speaking on Saturday during a rare solo news conference, Trump said he pressed for the G-7 countries to eliminate all tariffs, trade barriers and subsidies in their trading practices. He reiterated his longstanding view that the U.S. has been taken advantage of in global trade, adding, “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing, and that ends.”

He said U.S. farmers had been harmed by tariffs and other barriers and warned that U.S. trading partners would need to provide him with more favorable terms. “It’s going to stop or we’ll stop trading with them,” he said.

Trump cited progress on reaching an agreement on the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, saying the final outcome would lead either to an improved trade deal or separate pacts with the two U.S. neighbors. Trump said he was discussing two types of sunset provisions in which any of the countries could leave the deal. A Canadian official said the leaders discussed accelerating the pace of the talks.

But Trudeau objected strenuously to a sunset clause of any length. “If you put an expiry date on any trade deal, that’s not a trade deal. That’s our unequivocal position,” he said.

Prior to his arrival on Friday, the president injected additional controversy by suggesting that the G-7 offer a seat at the table to Russia, which was ousted from the group in 2014. Trump said Saturday that re-admitting Russia to the elite club would be “an asset,” telling reporters, “We’re looking for peace in the world.” Trump said he had not spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a while.

Discussing Russia’s absence, Trump made the vague comment that “something happened a while ago where Russia is no longer in. I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in.” In fact, Russia was expelled from what was then the G-8 after it invaded and annexed Crimea and for its support for pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine.

Trump placed the blame on his predecessor, President Barack Obama. “He was the one who let Crimea get away — that was during his administration,” he said, adding: “Obama can say all he wants, but he allowed Russia to take Crimea. I may have had a much different attitude.”

It was not clear what Trump thought Obama should have done to prevent Putin from sending in Russian troops to seize the Black Sea peninsula from neighboring Ukraine.

Trudeau said he told Trump that readmitting Russia “is not something that we are even remotely looking at at this time.”

___

Thomas reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Darlene Superville in Washington, and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

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Independents Seeking Presidency Might Be Barred From Democratic Primaries

Bernie Sanders may have garnered millions of votes, despite his unusual status as an independent, when he ran in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, but that might not be possible for candidates hoping to borrow from his playbook in the future.

According to a draft rule change proposed Friday by the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee, future presidential candidates would have to identify themselves as Democrats to seek to Democratic nomination.

The rule, Yahoo News reports, states:

At the time a presidential candidate announces their candidacy publicly, they must publicly affirm that they are a Democrat. Each candidate pursuing the Democratic nomination shall affirm, in writing, to the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee that they: A. are a member of the Democratic Party; B. will accept the Democratic nomination; and C. will run and serve as a member of the Democratic Party.

The proposed change was met with accusations that the party was trying to shut out Sanders, in particular, as well as other outsider candidates who may consider throwing in with the Democrats in the future. Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, told Politico that he was “stunned that the Democratic Party’s rules committee would want to try to make the Democratic Party an exclusive club, for which we want to exclude voters and large segments of the American electorate.”

Still, as Yahoo News points out, the DNC’s proposed rule probably wouldn’t affect Sanders directly, and, if approved, it could also increase the chances that one of his favorite reforms would be adopted.

First, Sanders has plenty of time to register as a Democrat, should he want to run for president again. Second, while the rules committee considers the party affiliation rule change, it is also mulling the elimination of superdelegates—specially appointed delegates to the national party convention who are empowered to support any presidential candidate they choose, regardless of which candidate wins their state’s primary.

Sanders, Yahoo notes, “viewed these superdelegates as a way for the Democratic Party establishment to control the nominating process irrespective of the will of the party’s voters.” After the 2016 election, when the DNC established a unity commission to attempt to unite the fractured Democratic Party, eliminating superdelegates was a major priority.

The full DNC will vote on both proposed rules in August.

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Rapture-Ready: How U.S. Policy Meshes With Armageddon

Brothers and sisters! Let us speak now of the return of Jesus to the Holy Land in a blaze of glory. For it is this fervent promise, I kid you not, that now drives the Middle East policy of the most powerful nation on earth.

For years conservative evangelicals, from their pulpits and pews across the American heartland, have toiled in relative obscurity. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the more vocal part of the Israel lobby, is far better known for advancing Israeli interests in Washington. But in recent years, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the evangelical lobbying group spearheaded by Texas preacher John Hagee, has surpassed AIPAC as the largest pro-Israel organization in the U.S. And so Christian Zionists—those who believe that only a strong Jewish state will bring the son of the Christian god back to the holy city, to mete out justice—have moved to the center of U.S. Middle East policy.

Their coming-out party was May 14, at the dedication of the newly relocated U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. “Let the name of the Lord be glorified today,” the Rev. Hagee proclaimed in his benediction, facing the assembled strange bedfellows of right-wing rabbis, U.S. senators and congressmen, settlement bankroller Sheldon Adelson, Israeli Likudniks and fellow Christian Zionists. “For the defender of Israel today, tomorrow and forever, is here. Can we all shout hallelujah?”

“Hallelujah!”the throng responded. “Amen,” Hagee concluded.

The core beliefs of these evangelical preachers and their tens of millions of followers in the U.S. deserve a much closer look now that they’re riding shotgun alongside President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman, who is America’s ambassador to Israel and a supporter of Israel’s settlements.

Christian Zionists embrace a chilling, apocalyptic vision of vengeance upon the many and salvation for the few. Their angry Jesus looks nothing like the loving, turn-the-other-cheek savior of my Catholic upbringing.

The basic tenet of Christian Zionism? Global Armageddon will soon be at hand. “They’re counting down the hours now, eagerly expecting the implementation of the remaining items on their biblical prophecy agenda, anticipating the thrilling climax of the cosmic story,” writes Victoria Clark, author of “Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism.” Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif, the third holiest site in Islam, would then “be destroyed, and replaced with a new Jewish temple. The completion of that temple … will herald the appearance of an Antichrist who might be a European diplomat or the head of the United Nations.” Eventually, writes Clark, this “will trigger the battle of Armageddon … all non-born-again Christians—including two-thirds of all Jews—who refuse to accept Jesus as their personal savior … will be slain in the conflagration.”

True Christians need not worry about their own destruction, however. For they will be saved by the rapture. “Jesus will come in the air, catch up the Church from the earth, and then return to heaven with the Church,” states raptureready.info, which cites as proof the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess, 4:16-18): “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. … Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. …”

Hagee, from the pulpit, fills in the details:

Neighbors are going to be standing in the streets, and they’re going to be having conversations like this: “I was standing here talking to Mr. Jones and suddenly he started rising into the air, over the house past the tree tops, gone, gone, GONE! He’s vanished in the clouds right before my eyes.” Headlines will be screaming, “Millions Are Missing Without a Trace!” Cars are going to be parked out here beside Loop 1604 and every highway in the world, the motors are still running, with the drivers and the occupants of the car sailing for mansions on high. I’m saying to you, pray up, pack up, LOOK up, we’re going up! In Jesus’ name, hallelujah to the Lamb of God.

For Hagee and other evangelicals, God has been bringing about the end of days, one step at a time. Even the Holocaust, Hagee once claimed, was part of God’s plan to drive surviving Jews out of Europe toward Palestine. (The remarks led Arizona Sen. John McCain to reject Hagee’s 2008 presidential endorsement.) Yet Hagee’s Holocaust remarks were part of a larger Christian Zionist worldview that sees modern Israel as part of divine destiny. In this belief, God’s will made Israel, and Christians now must protect that covenant and keep Jerusalem “united” under Israel’s control, in order for Jesus to return to earth. In his book “Jerusalem Countdown,” which sold more than 700,000 copies, Hagee also pushed for a confrontation with Iran to hasten global conflagration and Christ’s return. “From this moment forward, for the rest of our lives, until Christ comes, Jerusalem is the center of the universe,” Hagee declared from the pulpit.

Preachers like Hagee have been firing up their flocks for decades. Now, they believe, the time is nigh. Across Israel and the occupied West Bank, which settlers and their Christian supporters prefer to call “Judea and Samaria,” hundreds of rapturous tours led by American preachers underscore the biblical prophecy.

“The final act of the Book of Revelations is going to take place right here,” said the Rev. Irvin Baxter, founder of Texas-based Endtime Ministries. He stood on a hill in the Israeli town of Megiddo, overlooking a vast stretch of the Holy Land. Irvin, whose tour was captured by Vice News, told several dozen rapture-ready Americans: “The word ‘Armageddon’ is actually two words: Har Megiddo, or hill of Megiddo. You are standing on the hill of Megiddo right now. And when Israel’s about to be defeated, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ himself will intervene. He is going to defeat the Antichrist; he is going to defeat the false prophet. Both of them will be cast alive into the lake of fire. At that time Satan is going to be bound for the next 1,000 years. And we are going to crown Jesus Christ as king of kings, and lord or lords.”

Before this can happen, Christian Zionists believe, Israel must be in full control of the Holy Land—including the occupation and military rule of Palestinians in the West Bank. Hagee has built a political powerhouse on this belief. CUFI, which Hagee calls the “Christian AIPAC,” now boasts more than 4 million members. CUFI’s annual conference features the luminaries of the American political right, and even the occasional progressive, including rising Democratic star and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The group has staged more than 2,500 pro-Israel events in the U.S., built a presence on more than 300 U.S. college campuses and led hundreds of U.S. pastors and right-wing congressional delegations on trips to Israel.

Many of Hagee’s delegations come to Ariel, one of Israel’s biggest and most problematic settlements. With a population of 20,000, Ariel sits strategically on a hilltop in the heart of the West Bank, dividing Palestinian families and villages, which are subject to random military inspections and intimidation by Israeli soldiers. Hagee and CUFI have poured millions of dollars into the settlement. A recreation center there bears his name.

This support underscores the evangelical conviction that a strong Israel, fully in control of “Judea and Samaria,” is essential for the apocalyptic prophecies to come to pass. Which brings us back to the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem: It is all part of the end-of-days plan.

“We see the embassy as crucial to God’s timing to bring about the revelation of the messiah,” the Rev. David Swaggerty, founder of Ohio-based CharismaLife Ministries, told Religion News on the eve of the ceremony, after a joint Christian-Jewish Bible study session at the Israeli Knesset.

Added Tommy Waller, founder of the Missouri-based Christian Zionist group Hayovel: “Israel was established, exactly where God said it would be established. I see the hand of God in this, and [in] the relocation of the embassy.” A video on Hayovel’s website declares, “The days are coming.”

And so, my brothers and sisters! Your tax dollars no longer fund a U.S. policy that at least gives lip service to a fair solution of an age-old conflict and a Palestinian state of its own. One, by the way, that would immeasurably ease tensions in the most volatile corner of the planet, help keep American soldiers out of harm’s way and reduce terror attacks on innocent citizens. Instead, we are privileging the foot soldiers in a new holy war—a war in which those of us who aren’t among the believers will end up in a lake of fire.

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Sexual Misconduct Cases Jolt Southern Baptists

The Southern Baptists are facing their own #MeToo crisis as the biggest Protestant denomination in the U.S. heads into its annual meeting next week.

A series of sexual misconduct cases has prompted the Southern Baptist Convention’s socially conservative, all-male leadership to seek forgiveness for the ill treatment of women and vow to combat it. Hoping for more than rhetoric, women and some male allies plan a protest rally in Dallas when the two-day meeting opens on Tuesday.

“The past two months have been tough for our convention,” SBC President Steve Gaines wrote this week. “I believe God has allowed all of this to happen to drive us to our knees.”

Illustrating the SBC’s predicament, the central figure in the most prominent of the #MeToo cases, Paige Patterson, had been scheduled to deliver the featured sermon at the gathering. However, Patterson withdrew from that role Friday, heeding a request from Gaines and other leaders.

Patterson was recently dismissed as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas because of his response to two rape allegations made years apart by students.

In a 2015 case, according to the seminary’s board chairman, Patterson told a campus security official that he wanted to meet alone with a student who had reported being raped, to “break her down.”

Patterson also was accused of making improper remarks about a teenage girl’s body and contending that abused women should almost always stay with their husbands.

Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news service, has reported on other cases, including the resignations of one seminary professor who acknowledged “a personal moral failing” and another who cited “personal and spiritual issues.”

SBC leaders say there are many more cases — adding up to a humiliating debacle for the 15.2-million-member denomination.

“The avalanche of sexual misconduct that has come to light in recent weeks is almost too much to bear,” wrote the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a recent blog post. “These grievous revelations of sin have occurred in churches, in denominational ministries, and even in our seminaries.”

Mohler acknowledged that the crisis might raise questions about the SBC’s doctrine of “complementarianism” — which espouses male leadership in the home and in the church and says a wife “is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”

Mohler said the SBC will not abandon the doctrine. But “we need to realize there are unbiblical and toxic forms of complementarianism,” he said. “We should be honoring women, not abusing them.”

The Rev. Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s public policy arm, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the #MeToo moment would not trigger a move to ordain women as ministers.

“There is, though, a great deal of conversation about how women can have a greater voice in decision-making,” he said, suggesting that more women could serve as trustees of seminaries and other institutions.

Moore and Mohler are among dozens of SBC leaders who have co-signed a resolution that will be submitted for approval in Dallas. It calls on the SBC to repudiate any rhetoric or behavior that dishonors women, and denounces those who commit or cover up such actions. It also urges congregations and ministers to abide by all reporting laws.

The resolution’s author, Midwestern Seminary president Jason Allen, bristled at the notion that wives should endure abuse to save their marriages.

“We can work against our matrimony-shattering ‘no-fault’ divorce culture and shore up marriages,” he wrote. “But this needed work never means asking women to suffer abuse.”

The draft resolution received a mixed review from Ashley Easter, a writer and speaker from Raleigh, North Carolina, who is an advocate for victims of abuse and an organizer of Tuesday’s planned protest rally.

She and the others want the SBC to create a database of clergy sex offenders and require all pastors and seminarians to undergo training on how to address domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Easter said she wishes the SBC would change its doctrine about gender roles but doubts that is imminent.

“When you have a patriarchal theology, with one person in power and control of the other, some will use that theology to abuse,” she said. “It’s unsafe for women not to be in an equal place.”

A rally organizer, Texas-based author and speaker Mary DeMuth, commended the draft resolution but expressed dismay that women were given minimal speaking time at the two-day SBC meeting. She said she wishes for an SBC in which women “are no longer dismissed, stereotyped or relegated to subcommittees.”

At least one of the scheduled speakers at the rally is a man. Wade Burleson, an author and lead pastor of Emmanuel Enid church in Enid, Oklahoma, is critical of the way many of his fellow ministers restrict women’s roles in the church.

“I believe they are misinterpreting the Scriptures big time,” he tweeted recently. “I also believe change is coming soon in the SBC to reflect a more biblical approach toward women. The Southern Baptist Convention may even have a female President sooner rather than later.”

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Tardy Trump Disrupts G-7 Gender Equality Meeting

LA MALBAIE, Quebec—President Donald Trump arrived late for a gender equality meeting at an international summit, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to kick it off without waiting for “stragglers” to arrive.

Trump created a distraction when he walked in late for Saturday’s breakfast meeting during the Group of Seven summit of leading industrialized nations being held in Quebec.

He missed Trudeau’s introductory statement and entered the room while Gender Equality Advisory Council co-chair Isabelle Hudon was speaking.

Security personnel had to open a path for Trump through a throng of journalists and cameramen. The camera clicks for Trump almost drowned out Hudon.

French President Emmanuel Macron stared at Trump after he sat down.

Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland later tweeted photos of the women’s empowerment meeting, showing Trump’s empty chair.

Trudeau had made the issue of gender equality a priority for the gathering. He said gender equality must “cut through” everything the G-7 does.

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Florida Stopped Checking Gun Permits for More Than a Year

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—For more than a year, Florida failed to do national background checks that could have disqualified people from gaining a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

The lapse, revealed in an internal report that was not widely known about until Friday, occurred during a time period when there was a significant surge in the number of people seeking permission to legally carry a concealed weapon. Florida does not allow the open carry of weapons, but more than 1.9 million have permits to carry guns and weapons in public if they are concealed.

The state ultimately revoked 291 permits and fired an employee blamed for the lapse after an inspector general’s report detailing the problem was sent in June 2017 to top officials in the department who oversee the program. The Tampa Bay Times was the first to publish information about the report, which pointed out that the state failed to check the National Instant Criminal Background Check System from February 2016 to March 2017.

The Times interviewed the [former] employee, Lisa Wilde, who told them she was working in the mailroom when she was given oversight of the database in 2013.

“I didn’t understand why I was put in charge of it,” Wilde told the newspaper.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a Republican running for governor who has touted his efforts to make it easier for people to obtain concealed-weapons permits, said the state did conduct its own criminal background checks on those applying for permits during that time period.

Putnam blamed the problem on the negligence of the employee.

“The former employee was both deceitful and negligent, and we immediately launched an investigation and implemented safeguards to ensure this never happens again,” Putnam said in a statement.

McKinley Lewis, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Rick Scott, said the governor’s office was never provided a copy of the inspector general’s report.

Democrats and gun control advocates quickly criticized Putnam over the incident and said he should resign. Putnam has raised the ire of gun control advocates for his proclamation last year that he was a “proud NRA sellout” who supports the National Rifle Association. He also said that he would not have signed the new gun and school safety law enacted by the Florida Legislature in the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

“Career politicians like Mr. Putnam think this is just another bad day at the office — but when you conceal a level of negligence that endangers every resident, and every child, in Florida, you forfeit any moral right to lead,” said former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, one of the Democratic candidates running for governor.

The state used the national system to see if there were reasons such as mental illness or drug addictions that should prevent someone from being issued a concealed-weapons permit. But in March 2017 an investigation was triggered after a state employee noted that the state was not getting any correspondence from people whose applications had been rejected due to information gleaned from the national database.

The final report issued in June 2017 states that an employee in the Division of Licensing did not run applications through the national system because she couldn’t log into the database. The employee is quoted in the report as saying that she “dropped the ball.”

Statistics compiled by the department show that from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2017, the number of new applications for concealed-weapon permits jumped dramatically, to its highest level in 25 years.

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Will the ‘Master Dealmaker’ Meet His Match in Kim?

WASHINGTON—The self-proclaimed master dealmaker is facing doubts from multiple corners as he prepares to negotiate with Kim Jong Un.

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s landmark summit next week with the North Korean leader, U.S. allies and many Republicans are raising concerns that he may impulsively give in on issues they say should be deal-breakers for the United States. Ambiguity about exactly what “denuclearization” must look like has left some wringing their hands, while others fear he may yield on a longtime North Korean wish that the U.S. withdraw some or all of its military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

There are worries from some quarters about Kim’s intentions and his willingness to actually follow through on any commitment he might make in Singapore.

“My suspicion remains that he is going to try to get as much sanctions relief as possible without having to give up his weapons,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Rubio, who applauded Trump’s now-reversed decision to cancel the summit, said at the time that it was apparent that Kim’s goal “was either to gain sanctions relief in exchange for nothing or to collapse international sanctions by making the U.S. appear to be the unreasonable party.”

The concerns have been voiced on both sides of the aisle in Congress, where top Senate Democrats have sent Trump a letter insisting any deal will be a bad one unless it forces North Korea to comply with a long list of onerous demands. Even Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, generally averse to publicly criticizing fellow Republican leaders, warned the president last week that “you could get snookered.”

In their letter, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for any agreement with North Korea to meet five key points: that all weapons of mass destruction be removed or dismantled; that there be no uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing; that it end all ballistic missile testing; that it allow “anytime, anywhere” inspections of its facilities; and that a deal be permanent.

“The president has talked tough when it comes to North Korea, but more important than any tweet, more important than any comment about the size of the big red button will be the president’s willingness to stand strong and secure a strong and enduring deal,” Schumer said. “We hope that he’ll be successful and strongly encourage him to reach an agreement that meets the five principles that we’ve laid out.”

Trump, clearly eager for a summit he can sell as a success, has played into the concerns that he may find himself outmatched at the negotiating table by Kim. Kim’s detailed command of the issues central to his country’s nuclear conflict has impressed U.S. officials who have interacted with him since Trump’s diplomacy with the North began.

“I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude,” Trump said of the summit before meeting Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “It’s about willingness to get things done.”

Although the Trump administration has said that America’s 28,500 troops in South Korea aren’t bargaining chips in Singapore, there are persistent concerns — fueled by Trump’s own comments — that he may waver. For years Trump has complained about the U.S. bearing too much of the burden for other countries’ security, and as president he’s sought to pull troops from Syria and other locations. He’s also specifically questioned the need for so many troops in South Korea, asking in 2016, “What are we getting for this?”

Agreeing to a troop withdrawal from South Korea would be the worst possible outcome for the summit, said Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador who ran negotiations with North Korea in the George W. Bush administration.

“Even if he tried to couch it in terms of South Korea not paying the bills, which is nonsense, I just think it would make him look weak,” Hill said.

Another North Korea expert from the Bush administration, Victor Cha, noted that only Trump has raised troop presence as a possible negotiating point.

“We are the ones who have been talking about putting it on the table,” he said. “This should be a matter between U.S. and South Korea.”

Trump’s diplomacy with North Korea has been cheered on by South Korea, whose new leadership is more supportive of engagement with the North than any South Korean government in years. The level of concern is higher, though, in Japan, another U.S. treaty ally in Asia with much at stake.

Japan’s government is worried that Trump, with his “America First” focus, may accept a deal that eliminates the threat from North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles that could strike the U.S. mainland, without dealing sufficiently with medium-range missiles that could strike Tokyo. Japan also been pressing Trump to force the North to release Japanese abductees seized years ago, Japanese officials have said, although Trump has given little indication that’s a high priority for his summit.

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Associated Press writer Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.

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Pope Issues Stark Warning to Oil CEOs on Climate Change

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis told world oil executives Saturday that the transition to less-polluting energy sources “is a challenge of epochal proportions,” and warned that the satisfying the globe’s energy needs “must not destroy civilization.”

The Vatican says the two-day conference with oil executives was meant as a follow-up to the pope’s encyclical three years ago calling on people to save the planet from the ravages of climate change and other environmental ills.

Participants included the CEOs of Italian oil giant ENI, British Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Norway’s Statoil as well as scientists and managers of major investment funds. Their remarks on the first day of the closed-door conference were not released by the Vatican.

While Francis lauded the oil executives for embedding an assessment of climate change risks into their planning strategies, he also put them on notice for their “continued search for fossil fuel reserves,” 2½ years after the Paris climate accord “clearly urged keeping most fossil fuels underground.”

“Civilization requires energy, but energy must not destroy civilization,” he implored.

Energy experts and those who advocate fighting climate change expressed doubts before the conference that it would amount to anything other than a PR opportunity for the companies to burnish their image without making meaningful changes.

In his remarks, the pope said he hoped the meeting gave participants the chance to “re-examine old assumptions and gain new perspectives.”

Francis said that modern society with its “massive movement of information, persons and things requires an immense supply of energy.” And still, he said, as many as one billion people still lack electricity.

The pope said meeting the energy needs of everyone on the planet must be done in ways “that avoid creating environmental imbalances, resulting in deterioration and pollution that is gravely harmful to our human family, both now and in the future.”

Frances also recalled his own appeal in the “Laudato Si” encyclical for an energy policy “aimed at averting disastrous climate changes that could compromise the well-being and future of the human family, and our common home.” That includes transitioning to efficient, clean energy sources.

“This is a challenge of epochal proportions,” he said Saturday. “At the same time it is an immense opportunity to encourage efforts to ensure fuller access to energy by less developed countries … as well as diversifying energy sources and promoting the sustainable development of renewable forms of energy.”

The pope called for a “long-term global strategy to provide energy security,” along with “precise commitments” to tackle the challenge of climate change.

He said it was “disturbing and a cause for real concern” that the levels of carbon dioxide emissions and the concentrations of greenhouse gases remain high despite commitments taken in the 2015 Paris accord to fight global warming.

He urged participants to use their “demonstrated aptitude for innovation” to address “two of the great needs in today’s world: the care of the poor and the environment.” He noted that the poor pay the highest price for climate change, often being forced to migrate due to water insecurity, severe weather and an accompanying collapse in agriculture.

“The transition to accessible and clean energy is a duty that we owe toward millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poor countries and generations yet to come,” the pope said.

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