Chris Hedges's Blog, page 621

Trump Warns Assad: ‘Big Price to Pay’ for Fatal Syria Attack

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday condemned a “mindless CHEMICAL attack” in Syria that killed women and children, called Syrian President Bashar Assad an “animal” and delivered a rare personal criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting the Damascus government.

As Washington worked to verify the claim by Syrian opposition activists and rescuers that poison gas was used, Trump said there would be a “big price to pay” for resorting to outlawed weapons of mass destruction. A top White House aide, asked about the possibility of a U.S. missile strike in response, said, “I wouldn’t take anything off the table.”

Just over a year ago, Trump ordered dozens of cruise missiles to be fired at a Syrian air base after declaring there was no doubt Assad had “choked out the lives of helpless” civilians in an attack that used banned gases. White House advisers said at the time that images of hurt children helped spur the president to launch that air strike, and television new shows on Sunday aired similar depictions of suffering young Syrians.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Trump tweeted. “Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!”

Saturday’s attack took place in a rebel-held town near Damascus amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce. Syrian activists, rescuers and medics said a poison gas attack in Douma killed at least 40 people, with families found suffocated in their houses and shelters. The reports could not immediately be independently verified.

The developments come as Trump has moved to dramatically scale back U.S. goals in Syria, pushing for a quick military withdrawal despite resistance from many of his national security advisers. Trump has given no formal order to pull out the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria or offered a public timetable other than to say the U.S. will withdraw as soon as the remaining Islamic State fighters can be vanquished.

But Trump has signaled to his advisers that, ideally, he wants all troops out within six months.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Assad heard Trump’s signal that he wanted to withdraw from Syria and, “emboldened by American inaction,” launched the attack. In a statement, McCain said Trump “responded decisively” last year with the air strike and urged Trump to be forceful again to “demonstrate that Assad will pay a price for his war crimes.”

Images released by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, a volunteer organization, show children lying on the ground motionless and foaming at the mouth. The Assad government, in a statement posted on the state-run news agency SANA, denied responsibility.

Trump was briefed about the attack by his chief of staff, John Kelly, officials said. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Thomas Bossert, noted the timing of the suspected chemical attack — almost a year to the day of the U.S. missile strikes.

“This isn’t just the United States. This is one of those issues on which every nation, all peoples, have all agreed and have agreed since World War II, it’s an unacceptable practice,” Bossert said.

Asked about the potential for an American missile strike in response, Bossert said: “I wouldn’t take anything off the table. These are horrible photos. We’re looking into the attack at this point.”

Trump was to meet with his senior military leadership on Monday, the same day his new national security adviser, John Bolton, assumes his post. Bolton has previously advocated significant airstrikes against Syria.

Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday deemed it a “likely chemical attack” and reiterated Trump’s threat that consequences would be coming for those responsible.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the assault on innocent lives, including children,” Pence tweeted. “The Assad regime & its backers MUST END their barbaric behavior.”

Trump’s decision to single out Putin in a tweet appeared noteworthy because Trump long has been reluctant to personally criticize the Russian leader. Even as the White House, after some delay, imposed tough new sanctions on Russia in the wake of its U.S. election meddling and suspected poisoning of a former spy on British soil, Trump left it to others in his administration to deliver the rebukes to Moscow.

Last month, Trump called Putin and, against the counsel of his advisers, congratulated the Russian president on his re-election and invited him to the White House. On Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, urged Trump to “ramp up the pressure and the sanctions on the Russian government, because, without the support of Russia, I do not believe that Assad would still be in office.”

Trump also invoked Iran in his series of tweets, further challenging Tehran while signaling he may scuttle its nuclear deal with the West. The president has often laid some blame on his predecessor, Barack Obama, for Assad’s continued grip on power after years of civil war.

Obama said in 2012 that Syria’s use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” that would change his decision-making on intervening in the war and have “enormous consequences.” After such an attack in 2013 killed hundreds outside Damascus, American ships in the Mediterranean were poised to launch missiles. But Obama pulled back after key U.S. ally Britain, as well as Congress, balked.

He opted for a Russian-backed proposal that was supposed to remove and eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

“If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!” Trump tweeted from the White House.

Questions about the administration’s possible response reverberated throughout Washington in the hours after the attack.

“It’s a defining moment in his presidency” that comes as Assad sees the U.S. “determination to stay in Syria waning,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

“If he doesn’t follow through and live up to that tweet, he’s going to look weak in the eyes of Russia and Iran,” Graham said. “You need to follow through with that tweet. Show a resolve that Obama never did to get this right.”

Graham and Bossert were on ABC’s “This Week,” and Collins appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The Campaign to Exterminate Muslims

The Israeli army’s wanton slaughter of unarmed Palestinians trapped behind the security barriers in Gaza evokes little outrage and condemnation within the United States because we have been indoctrinated into dehumanizing Muslims. Islam is condemned as barbaric and equated with terrorism. The resistance struggle against foreign occupation, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Gaza, sees Muslims demonized as the enemy. Muslims are branded as irrational and inclined to violence and terrorism by their religious beliefs. We attack them not for what they do but because we see them as being different from us. We must eradicate them to save ourselves. And thus we perpetuate the very hatred and counterviolence, or terrorism, that we fear.

Muslims in this age of racialized authoritarianism have been stripped of due process in our courts and are subject—as Abid Naseer and Haroon Aswat were in Britain before being extradited to the United States—to pretrial incarceration for years. They endure police brutality and secret trials, are convicted on secret evidence they cannot see and suffer long-term detention in solitary confinement, often in clandestine prisons known as black sites. They are kidnapped anywhere in the world and taken, hooded, drugged and shackled, to the secret sites. They are tortured through savage methods such as beatings, “walling,” sexual humiliation, close confinement, prolonged isolation, water dousing, electric shocks, waterboarding and so-called rectal rehydration. Their citizenships are revoked. Their communities and mosques are harassed, infiltrated and monitored by law enforcement. Muslim children are viewed as future terrorists. Muslim women as breeders of terrorists. Muslim men as dangerous. We are the maniacal Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” keeping the heads of “savages” on stakes outside our fortress and crying out “Exterminate all the brutes!”

We have declared a worldwide war on Muslims. Muslims, who read us better than we read ourselves, are rising up to resist. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the Middle East have been butchered since our invasion of Afghanistan. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya have been destroyed as viable states. Millions of Muslims have been displaced or are refugees. And when desperate Muslim families attempt to flee to Europe or the United States from the hell we created in the Middle East, they are thrown into displacement camps or turned back and branded as disease carriers, thieves, rapists, barbarians and terrorists. Islamic culture and religion in our Manichean narrative have been shorn of all nuance, humanity, complexity and depth. Islam has been replaced by a xenophobic cartoon version, an image that, to use the words of Frantz Fanon, is the “quintessence of evil.” We respond to the crisis we created out of ignorance, self-exaltation and racism.

As the imprisoned poet Syed Talha Ahsan writes:

to kill

is to erase an image

off a mirror:

side-step

no body

just a gaping hole

upon an indifferent world

Israel’s slow-motion genocide of the Palestinian people, justified by the racism and Islamophobia that are central to Israeli identity, has entered a new, deadlier phase. No longer constrained by any pretense of respecting human rights or a peace process, Israeli soldiers, although they are not threatened, fire indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed Palestinians, killing or wounding men, women, children, the elderly and journalists. The sheer number of the dead and wounded—nine or more Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and hundreds injured on Friday alone—testifies to raking the crowd with gunfire. In a civilized world, Israel would be immediately slapped with sanctions, boycotts and divestment—the only mechanism left to protect the Palestinian people from extermination—but we do not live in a civilized world. We live in a world where murder and racism are state policy, where the oppressed are dehumanized and unworthy of life and where our mutant demagogues and despots revel in the rivers of blood they create.

This racialized authoritarianism, one that defines Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has ominous consequences for the oppressed. It is fed by a willful refusal to accept our responsibility for the social and political disintegration as well as the violence in the Middle East and, increasingly, at home. Most academics, trapped in the meaningless silo of Islamic writings on apocalyptic terrorism, contribute nothing to the debate. The press, which has turned journalism into nonstop entertainment and the celebration of nonexistent American virtues, is complicit in this perpetuation of anti-knowledge, which Tennessee Williams once called our voluntary matriculation into a school for the blind. It dehistoricizes these movements. It certifies radical jihadists, and by extension Islam, as incomprehensible. Since terrorism is incomprehensible, and since it is an intrinsic part of Islam, Muslims are worthy not of investigation but annihilation. But facts don’t speak for themselves, as Edward Said noted. They require context to be understood, and all context is absent.

“You could hardly begin (in the public sphere provided by international discourse) to analyze political conflicts involving Sunnis and Shi’is, Kurds and Iraqis, or Tamils and Sinhalese, or Sikhs and Hindus—the list is long—without eventually having to resort to the categories and images of ‘terrorism’ and ‘fundamentalism,’ which derived entirely from the concerns and intellectual factories in metropolitan centers like Washington or London,” Said wrote in “Culture and Imperialism.” “They are fearful images that lack discriminant contents, or definition, but they signify moral power and approval for whoever uses them, moral defensiveness and criminalization for whomever.”

The pattern of persistent decontextualization traps us in an endless cycle of violence for violence. Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou in his book “A Theory of ISIS: Political Violence and the Transformation of the Global Order” writes of the now-standard response following a terrorist attack:

For every time a new radical Islamism-related attack takes place in New York, Washington, London, Paris, Brussels or Berlin, a ritual of denial of the deeper political issues plays out in an increasingly familiar fashion. The sequence is performed thus: shock gives way to fear followed by anger; security experts step up hurriedly in television studios and on social media to denounce the lack of preparation by the authorities; specialists in radical Islamism (or simply Islam) follow, declaring that IS (previously Al Qaeda) has been weakened, is on its way to be defeated and is merely lashing out with desperate attacks; Muslim communities in Western countries are called out and racist and violent attacks against them sometimes take place (hours after the March 2016 attacks in Brussels a #stopislam movement started trending, revealing the depth of bias that had come to overtake sectors of the Western world, readily associating Islam and terrorism); sympathy movements for the victims of city where the attack took place are set up (Je suis Charlie, I am Brussels, etc.); calls for tougher legislation (surveillance mechanisms, detention conditions, nationality measures, immigration procedures, travel regulations, dress codes, access to pools, prayer sites, etc.) are spoken urgently; arrests are made in neighborhoods where Muslim migrants are known to reside and bombing is redoubled in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen or Libya.

The Obama administration under counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, now a national security and intelligence analyst for NBC and MSNBC, set up a database, Disposition Matrix, of terrorism suspects across the globe. It is known informally as the kill list. Those on the list are targeted by clandestine CIA extradition units, special forces, militarized drones and airstrikes. These techniques for racialized control of Muslims are drawn from the blueprint of colonialism, although the state now uses the coded language of ideology to mask its racist assault. As in colonialism, those who defy the “liberal democratic” state have forfeited all rights and deserve to be treated as beasts because they are beasts. This stance of collective criminalization of a group or race will have ominous consequences as the corporate state, beset by the growing unrest from deindustrialization and global warming, begins to view larger and larger segments of the population as hostile.

“In some sense, the figure of the terror suspect forms the testing ground upon which Western versions of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ are deliberated,” writes Nisha Kapoor in “Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism.” “It is via the representation of these individuals that cases are made in support of summary killings, bigger bombs, drone strikes, ever more grotesque forms of torture, and clandestine and indefinite detention. It is also through the policing of such individuals that mechanisms have been put in place in Britain [and the United States] for the growing use of secret justice, the retraction of the provisions of citizenship and the move away from human rights protections.”

Policies have consequences. The decision to hunt down Muslims around the globe, giving to the so-called war on terror a transnational dimension, means also that those who oppose us are not restricted by national boundaries. The terrorists who carry out these attacks are mirror images of ourselves, consumed by the same narcissism and cult of the self that define celebrity culture. They post self-indulgent videos of rants against the West and of their beheadings of captives clad in orange jumpsuits. They replicate the cultural effort to film “Life the Movie.” The images we use to communicate with the world, as well as each other, infect all of their messages to us. They are not from a medieval era. They are creations of modernity. They feed to us their own versions of the pornographic violence that fascinates and deforms our culture. They know this is how you communicate with the West. And we communicate back in the same manner.

The Israeli massacre of Palestinians is a prelude to a dystopian, neocolonial world where global elites, hoarding wealth and controlling the mechanisms of power, increasingly resort to widespread bloodshed to keep the oppressed at bay. What Israel is doing to Palestinians—impoverished and trapped without adequate food, water and medicine in the open-air prison that is Gaza, a strip of land subject to repeated murderous assaults by the Israeli war machine—will be done to desperate climate refugees and citizens who rise up to protest the pillage by global oligarchs. Those who resist will be as dehumanized as Muslims. They too will be branded as terrorists. The global elites have a plan for the future. It is visible in the killing fields of Gaza.

In Wake of Gaza Massacre, Israeli Leaders Should Be Prosecuted for War Crimes

On March 30, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers shot unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, killing 17 and wounding 1,400. Twenty remain in critical condition. The protesters were marching to demand the internationally mandated right of return of refugees to their cities and villages in what now constitutes Israel.

The Israeli leaders who ordered the massacre were in clear violation of international law. They should be prosecuted for war crimes.

Premeditated Use of Deadly Force Against Peaceful Protesters

The use of deadly force against the peaceful protesters was premeditated. The IDF deployed 100 snipers to the border fence between Gaza and Israel, where 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinians had gathered for the Great March of Return. In a damning tweet, later deleted, the IDF wrote, “Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed.”

Jihad al-Juaidi, director of the ICU at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that all of the injured people who came to the hospital were shot in the head, pelvic joints or knee joints. “This shows that Israeli forces were shooting-to-kill, or to cause disabilities,” al-Juaidi stated.

B’Tselem, a Jerusalem-based human rights organization, characterized the military orders as “shoot-to-kill unarmed Palestinians taking part in these demonstrations.”

“Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations,” Eric Goldstein, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Middle East and Africa division, stated.

Senior IDF officers told Haaretz before the protest that a large number of casualties was “a price we would be willing to pay to prevent a breach” of the fence at the border.

Israeli leaders fostered the false narrative that Hamas was sponsoring the protest. Jason Greenblatt, US envoy to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, followed suit, tweeting, “Hamas is encouraging a hostile march on the Israel-Gaza border” and accused Hamas of “inciting violence against Israel.”

To read more stories like this, visit Human Rights and Global Wrongs.

But the demonstration was actually organized by several Palestinian civil society organizations. “No Palestinian faction, organization or group can claim this march as its own. Hamas was simply riding the wave,” Jamil Khader wrote on Mondoweiss. Palestinian flags, not factional ones, were visible.

Conflating civilians with terrorists and framing the planned response as protection against a security risk, Israeli authorities referred to Gaza as a “combat zone.”

Lethal Force Can Only Be Used if Imminent Threat to Life

It is illegal to shoot unarmed civilians under international humanitarian law. Some protesters threw rocks and burned tires near the border fence. But HRW found “no evidence of any protester using firearms or any IDF claim of threatened firearm use at the demonstrations.” No Israeli soldiers were killed and “the army did not report any injuries to soldiers.”

“Even if a Palestinian was throwing a stone, the chances that under these conditions such an act could cause an imminent threat to life — the only situation that would justify the use of lethal force under international law — are infinitesimal,” Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, wrote on HuffPost. “Indeed, even if Palestinians were trying to climb the fence, that would not give Israel the right to use lethal force.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director of HRW, concurred, stating, “Israeli allegations of violence by some protesters do not change the fact that using lethal force is banned by international law except to meet an imminent threat to life.”

Indeed, the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement specifies, “intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.”

“Senior Israeli leaders who unlawfully called for the use of live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life bear responsibility” for the deaths and injuries, HRW asserted in a statement. That includes Israel’s prime minister, defense minister and chief of staff.

B’Tselem, which has called for Israeli soldiers to disobey patently illegal orders, described the legal duty to disobey unlawful orders: “It is also a criminal offense to obey patently illegal orders. Therefore, as long as soldiers in the field continue to receive orders to use live fire against unarmed civilians, they are duty-bound to refuse to comply.”

Prosecute Israeli Leaders in International Criminal Court

Israeli leaders responsible for the deaths and injuries on March 30 should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power has a legal duty to protect the occupied. Grave breaches of the convention constitute war crimes. They include willful killing; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population; and intentionally launching attacks with knowledge they will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians The IDF committed all of these grave breaches on March 30.

Furthermore, under international humanitarian law, the IDF failed to comply with the principles of distinction and proportionality. Distinction requires parties to a conflict to direct their attacks only against people taking part in the hostilities. Proportionality prohibits an attack if the damage to the civilian population will be greater than the military advantage anticipated from the attack. The IDF violated both of those principles on March 30.

An independent commission of inquiry convened by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate Israel’s 2014 massacre in Gaza documented the deaths of 2,251 Palestinians, which included 1,462 civilian deaths and the injuring of 11,231 Palestinians. Six civilians and 67 soldiers were killed and 1,600 injured on the Israeli side. The commission concluded that Israel, and to a lesser extent, Palestinian armed groups, had likely committed violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, some constituting war crimes.

Currently, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is conducting a preliminary examination into the 2014 massacre. She should expand her inquiry to include the events of March 30, 2018.

US Vetoes Security Council Resolution Calling for Investigation

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini advocated independent investigations into the use of deadly force by the IDF at the border fence on March 30. But the day after the massacre, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution that called for an “independent and transparent investigation” and affirmed the right of Palestinians to peaceful protest.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s defense minister, said the IDF soldiers “deserve a medal” for protecting the border. “As for a commission of inquiry — there won’t be one,” he declared on Israeli Army Radio.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised his troops for “guarding the country’s borders” and permitting “Israeli citizens to celebrate the [Passover] holiday peacefully,” adding, “Well done to our soldiers.”

Rabbi Alissa Wise, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, noted in a statement, “The Israeli military evidently believes that any time Palestinians assert their basic rights in any way, they will be considered violent, and met with deadly violence.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian protests are slated to last until May 15, the day Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, or the “great catastrophe” of 1948-9, when Israel expelled 800,000 Palestinians from their lands to create Israel. Approximately 70 percent of the 1.3 million Gazans are refugees.

“I think the only way truly forward is to recognize that there is a root cause: 70 years of Nakba,” Wise said.

Solar Geoengineering ‘Too Uncertain to Go Ahead Yet,’ Expert Cautions

Progress to deploy solar engineering, experimental technology designed to protect the world against the impact of the changing climate, must pause, a former United Nations climate expert says, arguing that governments need to create “effective guardrails” against any unforeseen risks.

Janos Pasztor, who served as a UN assistant secretary-general on climate change, is using a speech to Arizona State University, broadast via Facebook Live by ASU LightWorks, 6:30-8pm Arizona time (9:30pm EDT – US Eastern Daylight Time) today [Friday], to warn the world that governments are largely ignoring the fundamental question of who should control geoengineering, and how.

There are widespread misgivings, both among scientists and more widely, about geoengineering, with many regarding it as at best a strategy of last resort to help to avoid calamitous climate change.

Mr Pasztor’s warning comes as researchers prepare for what is thought to be the world’s first outdoor experiment on stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), one type of solar geoengineering. The test is due to take place later this year over Arizona.

Pasztor heads the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2),  an initiative of the New York-based Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The Initiative wants solar geoengineering deployment to be delayed until the risks and potential benefits are better known and governance frameworks are agreed.

“Some time within the next year, we may see the world’s first outdoor experiment on stratospheric aerosol injection take place here in the skies above Arizona, yet for the most part governments are not aware of, nor addressing, the profound governance issues this poses,” Mr Pasztor says.

“We urgently need an open, inclusive discussion on how the world will research and govern solar geoengineering. Otherwise we could be in danger of events overtaking society’s capacity to respond prudently and effectively.”

Solar geoengineering does not remove carbon from the atmosphere, and so it can be used only to supplement action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: it can never replace that action. Many risks and unknowns remain, Pasztor says, including possible harm to the environment, and to justice, geopolitical concerns and governance.

With SAI aerosols are sprayed into the stratosphere to reflect the sun’s radiation and cool the earth fast. It is still in its early stages, and scientists say it will take another 15 to 20 years for the technology to be developed fully.

Too soon to decide

Any eventual full-scale deployment of technology of this sort would have planet-wide effects and pose profound ethical and governance challenges, C2G2 says. Pasztor says the risks and potential benefits of SAI are not yet understood well enough for policymakers to reach informed decisions.

This year’s planned experiment, called SCoPEx (Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment) is run by a Harvard University research group, which says the physical risks posed by the quantity of aerosols to be released during SCoPEx will be hundreds of times smaller than during a transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner.

Even so, Pasztor says, the governance of SCoPEx will probably set important precedents. “As solar geoengineering moves from the lab to outdoor experiments, crucial questions remain unanswered,” he argues.

“How does this experiment acquire legitimacy from other scientists? Do civil society groups and the public, including those located in the area of the experiment, have a say? What are the ramifications for other proposed experiments in this country or in other countries?”

Priority for cuts

So far, he says, many governments and civil society groups have shied away from the need to create governance for the new technology, or have not been aware of it. One common concern is that discussing geoengineering could distract society from concentrating on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

Other geoengineering ideas, which may be nearing testing, include proposals to refreeze parts of the Arctic and to brighten clouds at sea.

“There’s no question we must accelerate efforts to rapidly reduce global emissions, whilst at the same time remaining open to the possibility that other approaches may also be needed if we are to limit some of the adverse impacts of global warming”, Pasztor says.

“Public policy needs to address very legitimate safety, human rights and accountability issues, as well as concern for future generations.

“Getting this right is a challenge that affects all humanity, and needs to be addressed through discussions that include all sectors of society. It’s critical the world addresses this issue as soon as possible.”

Tony Robbins, Women See Who You Are

Editor’s note: Following is an open letter from Robyn Furse to Tony Robbins concerning the motivational speaker’s controversial appearance in San Jose, Calif., last month in which he criticized the #MeToo movement. To illustrate a point during the March 15 event, Robbins physically and repeatedly pushed an audience member, Nanine McCool, who challenged his theories on the movement and what motivates women to support it.

A video clip of the relevant part of the event is now available here. An editorialized version of the encounter has gone viral and can be seen here.

Tony Robbins,

I understand that a video of you discussing the #MeToo movement with audience member Nanine McCool was removed from the internet at the behest of your legal team.

Luckily, I was able to watch it first, and many people downloaded it. In it, you said it would be “inauthentic” to apologize for your behavior to McCool. I assume that means you value authenticity. If so, I suggest allowing the video to be available to the public. There is nothing authentic about hiding your own actions.

It appears that you think the movement fosters fear-based thinking. If so, and if you do not believe that you yourself are acting from fear, I suggest showing the world that you are being open and actually listening to the feedback people have about your behavior in the video.

You evidently believe that #MeToo fosters a “victim” mindset. If you think you yourself are not of that mindset, I suggest that you do not imply that you and other men are helpless in the face of potential sexual harassment lawsuits. Instead, take the initiative to learn how to prevent sexual harassment and deal properly with employees who engage in that behavior, rather than feigning helplessness and fear over the idea of employing women because they might be sexually harassed by your employees.

You seem to think that #MeToo also fosters anger. To that, I say no: Being treated like nothing more than a sexual object is what elicits feelings of anger. And anger is not a bad thing. Anger, like all feelings, is useful when we know how to work with it. Anger is a powerful feeling that not only can provide us with valuable information, but also give us the energy and drive to act on that information when necessary.

Anger lets us know something is happening that we are not OK with. Anger lets us know when we are being treated in a way we don’t want to be. Anger lets us know when our boundaries are being violated. Anger lets us know when something is unfair. It lets us know what we care about, what is important to us, what we want and don’t want, and therefore who we are and what we can do about it.

By vilifying this basic and incredibly powerful human emotion, you show that you do not understand its power to do good. You betray the likelihood that you are not comfortable with anger and have not learned how to use it in a healthy manner. This dynamic of unprocessed anger certainly seems to be playing out in your interaction in the video.

We see you.

Yours are not the actions of an evolved man. They are not the actions of a man of integrity. They are not the actions of a man who is secure in his beliefs or in his position. They are certainly not the actions of a man who understands feelings, power dynamics, social and cultural programming, or those of a man who has examined his own position of power and privilege in this world and uses them to ensure a better, safer world for everyone.

If you remain frozen in your bubble of unexamined, unearned power and privilege, you will be left behind. Women and “minorities” are rising up and we are speaking up, and the momentum is too great to stop us now. But why would anyone want to?

You have a choice: You can be left behind, or you can use this opportunity to learn to listen, step back, and recognize the limits of your understanding based on your limited worldview—a world in which you have grown accustomed to being listened to, a world in which you have grown accustomed to being treated like an expert, even when you are not, a world in which you have grown accustomed to having your voice heard, over and above others—even on topics you have no personal experience with, such as being a woman in a world that treats you like an object on a daily basis.

Plenty of women and men are ready to lead from a place of understanding these things without needing to ignore or bypass these realities to maintain their spirituality or their worldview. Plenty of men know how to embrace, feel, process, express, work with, learn from and use emotions such as anger to grow, heal and better themselves and the world. These are the ones who will lead us forward.

I recommend humbling yourself and opening up to learning from these people. Kundan Chhabra for example, can be found here, on Facebook and on Patreon. He teaches about the power of anger and how it can be used for good in the world. Another is Vito Mucci, who is on Facebook and Patreon. He teaches how to process our emotions, including anger, for greater authenticity and healthy self-expression. Ukumbwa Sauti, on Facebook and elsewhere, has a deep understanding of power dynamics, sociopolitical hierarchy, and how these things directly affect women and people of color on a day-to-day basis. He teaches men to listen to women and to believe us about our experiences, as well as how to be men in a way that does not require the subjugation of others to feel powerful or strong as a man. His words can be found using the hashtags #menswork and #mentakenotice.

I have much more to say, and I will keep saying it whether you and your ilk like it or not. For now, I end this letter with a genuine thank you. Thank you for the good you have done, as well as for your time. And understand that your time may be coming to an end.

A version of this commentary first appeared on the online publishing platform Medium.

Muenster Van Driver Was Well Known to German Police

MUENSTER, Germany — The Latest on the van crash in the German city of Muenster (all times local):

1:30 p.m.

Authorities say a 48-year-old German man who killed two people and injured 20 others in a van crash before shooting himself to death in Muenster was well known to police.

Prosecutor Elke Adomeit told reporters Sunday there had been three previous court procedures in the western city of Muenster and one in nearby Arnsberg in 2015 and 2016 involving the van driver.

Adomeit said the perpetrator, whose name was not released, had run-ins with the law regarding threats, property damage, fraud and a hit-and-run, but that all charges were dismissed.

Adomeit also said authorities “have no indications that there is a political background” to Saturday’s deadly crash outside the Kiepenkerl bar in the city’s old town.

Muenster police president Hajo Kuhlisch said the man had four apartments and several cars, all of which were searched by police.

___

1:10 p.m.

German authorities say some of the 20 people injured when a van crashed into people outside of a pub in Muenster are still in a life-threatening condition.

Authorities have not identified the injured in the crash Saturday in the western German city but a German security official says people from The Netherlands are among them.

Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Muenster is located, visited the crash scene on Sunday. He says, “this was a horrible and sad day for the people of Muenster, all of Germany … and also the people of The Netherlands, who were sitting here and became victims.”

Laschet didn’t give any further details on how many Dutch were injured when a 48-year-old German crashed his van into a crowd in the city’s downtown area. Two people were killed in the crash and the van driver took his own life.

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11:35 a.m.

The German news agency dpa is quoting police as saying that that the driver who crashed his van into a crowd in the western German city of Muenster had no accomplices.

The 48-year-old German man killed two people and injured 20 others Saturday before shooting himself to death in the van.

Witnesses of Saturday’s crash had initially said they’d seen two other perpetrators flee the van after it crashed into a crowd outside the city’s traditional Kiepenkerl pub in the city’s medieval old town.

The driver of the van was not identified by name. Authorities are still clueless about his motives and said they’re investigating in all possible directions.

Local media have described the 48-year-old as a psychologically instable man.

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11 p.m.

German prosecutors said Sunday they still have no indication why a 48-year-old German man drove a van into a crowd of people in the western German city of Muenster, killing two and injuring 20 before shooting himself to death inside the van.

“As of now, we don’t have any leads regarding a possible background for the deed,” prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt wrote in a joint statement with police. “The investigations are being led under high pressure in all possible directions.”

Authorities have identified the two fatalities of Saturday’s crash as a 51-year-old woman from Lueneburg County and a 65-year-old man from Broken County. Their names weren’t given as is customary in Germany.

Local media have identified the perpetrator as an industrial designer living in Muenster who had been suffering from psychological problems, but police wouldn’t confirm those details.

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9 a.m.

Inside the van in Muenster, police found illegal firecrackers which were disguised as a fake bomb, a fake pistol and the gun that the perpetrator used to kill himself.

Inside the man’s apartment, which was nearby the crash scene and raided late Saturday, police found more firecrackers and a “no longer usable AK-47 machine gun.”

Police said some of the 20 injured persons were still in life-threatening condition, but did not release further details on their identities.

The local daily Muenstersche Zeitung reported that the perpetrator had vaguely announced his suicide plans a week ago in an email to friends and that he was known to the authorities for previous violence and drug violations, but police wouldn’t confirm any of those details.

The 48-year-old had driven his van into a crowd Saturday afternoon in the historical city center of Muenster. The city was buzzing on one of the first warm spring days of the year and people were sitting outside the Kiepenkerl when he drove into the bar’s tables with such a vengeance that the vehicle only came to a stop when it hit the wall of the pub. Police quickly evacuated the area and ambulances, firefighters and helicopters rushed to the scene to aid those who were injured.

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Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

Passage of Kansas School Funding Hike Highlights GOP Split

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators approved an increase in spending on the state’s public schools in hopes of meeting a court mandate after the rancorous final days of debate highlighted deep divisions among top Republicans.

Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer publicly endorsed a bill that would phase in a $534 million increase in education funding over five years, siding with GOP leaders in the state House who largely drafted it. Attorney General Derek Schmidt, another Republican, had joined Colyer in pressuring legislators to act over the past week.

But the plan passed did not feel like a compromise to the Senate’s GOP leaders, who favored a plan to phase in a $274 million increase over the same five years. They argued that the bigger plan approved early Sunday and sent to Colyer would force lawmakers to raise taxes within two years.

“We know — absolutely know — if we’re going to pay this bill, we’re going to have to increase taxes,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican.

Dozens of teachers, many wearing red shirts, converged on the Statehouse, camped out for hours and cheered after the Senate approved the bill, 21-19, early Sunday. The House had passed the bill Saturday, 63-56.

“I am pleased that we were able to compromise and pass a bill that ensures our schools will remain open and are funded adequately and equitably,” Colyer said in a statement.

The Kansas Supreme Court declared in October that the state’s current funding of more than $4 billion a year isn’t enough for lawmakers to fulfill their duty under the Kansas Constitution to finance a suitable education for every child. The court gave Schmidt until April 30 to report on how legislators responded.

Colyer and the Republican-controlled Legislature worried that a frustrated high court would take the unprecedented step of preventing the state from distributing dollars through a flawed education funding system, effectively closing schools statewide.

Many Democrats had argued that the plan, drafted largely by top House Republicans, would not satisfy the Supreme Court. Most Democrats in the House voted against it.

But all of the Senate’s nine Democrats voted for it. The state’s largest teachers union put aside its own misgivings that the plan was too small and had members pack the Senate gallery and hallways outside the chamber.

“It is certainly the best bill we’ve seen,” said Kansas National Education Association lobbyist Mark Desetti. “It’s time to get something before the court.”

Colyer argued in a statement Saturday that the new plan could be sustained without increasing taxes. Supporters believe the annual growth in tax revenues will cover the new spending.

Senate GOP leaders had excoriated a previous, similarly sized plan from the House as likely to force higher and had hoped to talk the House into accepting less spending. In turn, its GOP negotiators felt they had found the right size.

Besides objecting to the level of spending, some conservative Republicans said the court is improperly encroaching on the Legislature’s power to determine the state budget.

“We haven’t had the collective backbone to stand our ground,” said Rep. Randy Powell, a conservative Olathe Republican.

Lawmakers had been scheduled to start an annual 2½-week spring break Saturday and return April 26 — four days before Schmidt’s deadline. He and Colyer urged legislators to delay the break until a school funding bill passed, which they did.

But the dispute among Republicans became heated enough that the Legislature’s annual session came close to ending abruptly at midnight Saturday.

Saturday was the 90th day since lawmakers opened their session in January, the limit set in the state constitution. Two-thirds majorities in both chambers were required to pass a resolution for lawmakers to work past midnight Saturday and reconvene April 26 to wrap up budget matters and other issues. It’s normally a routine matter.

Had the session ended at midnight, all pending legislation would have died immediately. And GOP leaders remained at odds over the text of the resolution until two minutes before midnight, when a Senate version won the House’s approval.

 

Ex-President of Brazil Begins Sentence for Graft

CURITIBA, Brazil—Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was spending his first night in jail, a stunning fall from grace for a man who rose from nothing to lead Latin America’s largest nation and later became engulfed in corruption allegations.

Foreshadowing possible clashes in the weeks to come, police shot rubber bullets and sprayed tear gas late Saturday at supporters waiting for da Silva as he landed in a police helicopter in the southern city of Curitiba, where he will serve his 12-year sentence for money laundering and corruption.

Just a few hours before that, da Silva had to have guards push their way out of a metal workers union in a Sao Paulo suburb so he could turn himself in to police; supporters were trying to keep him from going into custody.

Speaking to thousands of supporters at the union that was the spiritual birthplace of da Silva’s rise to prominence, the former leader said would turn himself in so as to continue fighting a corruption conviction that he said amounted to a way for enemies to make sure he doesn’t run — and possibly win — re-election in October.

When he first tried to leave the metal workers union headquarters, however, dozens of supporters blocked a gate where a car carrying da Silva was trying to exit.

“Surround, surround (the building) and don’t let them arrest him,” chanted supporters. After a few minutes of tense words between guards and supporters, the former president got out of the car and entered the headquarters.

Police vehicles surrounded the union, raising the fears of clashes. Da Silva emerged a second time shortly after nightfall, this time surrounded by bodyguards who pushed back scores of supporters who tried to stop his advance.

Such dramatic scenes throughout the day underscored the drama that has rapt a nation deeply divided on da Silva’s legacy and whether he is guilty of corruption. The latest developments began when the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s top court, ruled against his petition on Thursday to remain free while he continued to appeal his conviction.

Judge Sergio Moro, who oversees many of the so-called “Car Wash” cases, then ordered an arrest warrant for da Silva, giving him until 5 p.m. Friday to present himself to police in Curitiba, about 260 miles (417 kilometers) southwest of Sao Bernardo do Campo, and begin serving his 12-year sentence.

Da Silva, who Brazilians simply call “Lula,” did no such thing. Instead, he hunkered down with supporters in the union headquarters.

“The police and ‘Car Wash’ investigators lied. The prosecutors lied,” said da Silva, as a few thousand supporters cheered.

“I don’t forgive them for giving society the idea that I am a thief,” he continued.

Still, da Silva said he would turn himself in “to go there and face them eye to eye. The more days they leave me (in jail), the more Lulas will be born in this country.”

While da Silva spoke, some people cried while others chanted “Free Lula!” When he finished speaking, a sea of supporters carried him on their shoulders back into the building.

Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said that by not complying with the order on Friday da Silva “wanted to demonstrate strength and popularity, showing that he is a political leader capable of gathering a crowd in his support.”

Choosing the metal workers union to take refuge, and not the Workers’ Party headquarters, was also significant, said Santoro.

“It shows that he wants to emphasize his trajectory as leader of a social movement, rather than his role as leader of a party marked by allegations of corruption,” he said.

Last year, Moro convicted da Silva of trading favors with a construction company in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. That conviction was upheld by an appeals court in January. The former president has always denied wrongdoing in that case and in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried.

Still, his jailing marks a colossal fall from grace for a man who rose from poverty to power against steep odds in one of the world’s most unequal countries. During his two administrations, several social welfare programs and a booming economy helped tens of millions come out of abject poverty, making his downfall deeply personal for many Brazilians who saw him as a symbol of hope.

Born in the hardscrabble northeast, da Silva rose through the ranks of the union in the country’s industrial south. In 1980, during the military dictatorship, he was arrested in Sao Bernardo do Campo for organizing strikes. He would spend more than a month in jail.

After running for president several times, in 2002 da Silva finally won. He governed from 2003 to 2010, leaving office an international celebrity and with approval ratings in the high 80s.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama once called da Silva the “most popular politician on Earth.”

Like so much in a nation that has become deeply polarized, that da Silva would soon be behind bars was being interpreted differently by supporters and detractors.

“We have no choice but to keep our head high. Our struggle will be bigger tomorrow,” said Fernando Lauro, a supporter who watched da Silva be taken by police.

“I hope he never gets out, but I fear he will,” said Silvia Gend, a 72-year-old housewife in Sao Bernardo do Campo. “Brazil is the country of impunity.”

Workers’ Party leaders insist that da Silva, 72, will still be the party’s candidate in October. Technically, being jailed does not keep him off the ballot.

In August, however, the country’s top electoral court makes final decisions about candidacies. It is expected to deny da Silva’s candidacy under Brazil’s “clean slate” law, which disqualifies people who have had criminal convictions upheld. Da Silva could appeal, though doing so from jail would be more complicated.

The former leader is the latest of many high-profile people to be ensnared in possibly the largest corruption scandal in Latin American history. Over the last four years, Brazilians have seen near weekly police operations and arrests of the elite.

Investigators uncovered a major scheme in which construction companies essentially formed a cartel that doled out inflated contracts from state oil company Petrobras, paying billions in kickbacks to politicians and businessmen.

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Peter Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press reporter Jill Langlois in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

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Mauricio Savarese on Twitter: twitter.com/MSavarese

Peter Prengaman on Twitter: twitter.com/peterprengaman

Muslims Accused of Violent Crimes Get More Media Attention, Harsher Sentences

A new study from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, or ISPU, asserts that perpetrators of violent crimes are sentenced more harshly when they are perceived to be Muslim. The report also asserts that major American media outlets focus a disproportionate amount of attention on Muslims accused of plotting violence.

“The findings of this report build and expand on existing research, and [provide] quantitative backing to many people’s instinctual perceptions of what has been going on in the media and in our legal system,” Kumar Rao, a fellow at ISPU and a co-author of the report, told The Intercept. “As it relates to acts of ideological violence, there is, frankly, a double standard in how perpetrators are described in the media, as well as how they are treated in the courts.”

The report states:

On average, prosecutors sought three times the sentence length for Muslim perpetrators as for perpetrators not identified as Muslim for similar plots of attempted ideologically driven violence (230 months vs. 76 months). Additionally, Muslim perpetrators received four times the average sentence as their non-Muslim counterparts for attempted plots of similar conduct (211 vs. 53).

Moreover, undercover law enforcement or an informant provided the means of the crime (such as a firearm or inert bomb) in a majority (two-thirds) of convictions in plots involving a perceived Muslim perpetrator, but in a small fraction (two out of twelve) of those involving a non-Muslim perpetrator.

In terms of print media coverage, Muslim-perceived perpetrators received twice the absolute quantity of media coverage as their non-Muslim counterparts in the cases of violent completed acts. For “foiled” plots, they received seven and half times the media coverage as their counterparts.

Differences also extended to media references to a perceived Muslim perpetrator’s religion as compared to ideologies of perceived non-Muslims, mentions of specific phrases such as “terrorist” or “terrorism,” and coverage of the ultimate prison sentences.

“What was really interesting is that in the majority of cases involving people perceived to be Muslim, the perpetrators were not acquiring weapons on their own, but were instead being provided with them by government agents—yet they were being charged more heavily,” said Carey Shenkman, a Truthdig contributor, fellow at ISPU, and co-author of the report. “Meanwhile, in cases involving non-Muslim perpetrators, you very often had people actually making explosives and stockpiling firearms. They didn’t need the FBI to go over and hand them weapons, because they already had them.”

Murtaza Hussein at The Intercept adds:

This disparity in media and legal attention to cases of ideologically motivated violence has grown more troubling with the increase of violence carried out by sympathizers of the “alt-right” movement over the past several years. More than 100 people have been killed or wounded in the U.S. since 2014 by people believed to have been supporters of the “alt-right,” according to a February report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. … Despite these acts of violence, however, the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump has been working to strip funding from groups that work to mitigate far-right violence, while redirecting counter-extremism programming to focus exclusively on Muslim terrorism.

Indeed, Reuters reported in February 2017 that the Trump administration wanted to rename the program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” which focused on all violent ideologies, to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism.”

Dalia Mogahed, director of research at ISPU, told The Intercept, “At heart, there is a question here of what we as a society deem threatening, and what we as a society are afraid of. What you often find is that when a crime is committed by a member of the dominant, privileged group in any society, it’s excused as an aberration, while crimes committed by members of an out-group are pathologized toward that group as a whole. This implicit bias finds its way into all our institutions, including courtrooms and the media.”

Youth Hockey Team Crash Stuns Canada: 15 Dead

NIPAWIN, Saskatchewan—A semi-trailer slammed into a bus carrying a youth hockey team in western Canada, killing 15 people and injuring 14 in a catastrophic collision that a doctor compared to an airstrike and left the vehicles obliterated in the snow. The crash sent shockwaves through the team’s small hometown and a country united by the national sport.

Canadians were moved to tears on Saturday as they learned of the identities of the deceased on the bus that was driving the Humboldt Broncos hockey team to a crucial playoff game Friday against the Nipawin Hawks.

“An entire country is in shock and mourning,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “This is every parent’s worst nightmare. No one should ever have to see their child leave to play the sport they love and never come back.”

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock fought back tears as grief resonated across Canada and the NHL. “It’s got to rip the heart out of your chest,” Babcock, who grew up in Saskatoon, said at Air Canada Centre. “We pray for those families and think about them. Horrific, horrific accident.”

Added NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman: “The NHL mourns the passing of those who perished and offers strength and comfort to those injured while traveling to play and be part of a game they all love.”

Toronto center Tyler Bozak said he had difficulty sleeping after hearing the news about the crash near Nipawin.

“You can’t really put into words, anything,” Bozak said before Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Montreal Canadiens. “I can’t imagine what everyone’s going through back in Saskatchewan.”

Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar grew up in Humboldt. He said a friend’s son plays goaltender for the Broncos and survived the crash.

“He went to surgery last night in Saskatoon, and hopefully he’s doing better,” Bednar said from Denver. “It’s a tough time for that town. It’s a tight-knit community. It’s only 6,000 people.”

Patrick Marleau of the Maple Leafs knows the hold the game has in his country, and how “hockey is everything in Canada.”

“But in Saskatchewan, every community’s fairly small,” he said. “So everybody knows everybody and you try and look out for each other and take care of each other.”

The bus had 29 passengers, including the driver, when it crashed at about 5 p.m. on Highway 35, police said. Among the dead are Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan, team captain Logan Schatz and radio announcer Tyler Bieber. Authorities earlier said three were in critical but later provided an update to say that 15 have now died.

Canadian police said the truck driver was initially detained but has since been released and provided with mental health assistance. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said it’s too early to state a cause for the crash.

In a tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump said he called Trudeau to offer his condolences to the families of victims.

Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks, who the Broncos were set to play against, said a semi T-boned the players’ bus — an account police confirmed.

“It’s a horrible accident, my God,” Opp said.

Hassan Masri, an emergency room doctor at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital who has done work in war-torn Syria, said the crash reminded him of an airstrike. Photographs of the wreckage showed the twisted trailer with most of its wheels in the air and the bus on its side and its back portion destroyed.

Kelly Schatz, Logan’s father, says his 20-year-old son played for the Broncos for just over four years and had served as team captain for the past 2½ years. Meanwhile, tributes poured in online for coach Haugan, a father of two who was described as an amazing mentor to young players.

The names of others killed have not been confirmed. STARS air ambulance said it sent three helicopters to the scene.

The Broncos are a close-knit team from the small city of Humboldt, which has a population of about 6,000. Many gathered at the community center at the hockey arena there after word of the crash began to circulate.

Humboldt Mayor Rob Muench, wearing a green and yellow Broncos team jersey, hugged people Saturday morning as they came to the Elger Petersen Arena to comfort each other and learn more.

“It’s overwhelming. It’s been tough on everybody,” Muench said in a phone interview. “We’re a small community; some of those kids have been on the team for a number of years. A lot grew up in the community and everybody knows each other.”

The team was on its way to play in Game 5 of a semifinal against the Nipawin Hawks.

“Hockey was what brought us all together and we had two communities that were rivals in the rink. To find out that it was their first responders that aided our boys just warms your heart,” the mayor said as his voice cracked.

Multiple crisis workers were assisting relatives and friends.

“Everybody is just so devastated. These poor young boys,” said Penny Lee, the communications manager for the town of Humboldt.

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is a junior ‘A’ hockey league under Hockey Canada, which is part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League. It’s open to North American-born players between the ages of 16 and 20.

Team President Kevin Garinger said parents from across western Canada were struggling to cope with the tragedy and were rushing to the scene.

“Our whole community is in shock, we are grieving and we will continue to grieve throughout this ordeal as we try to work toward supporting each other,” he said.

Michelle Straschnitzki, who lives in Airdrie, Alberta, said her 18-year old son Ryan was transported to a hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

“We talked to him, but he said he couldn’t feel his lower extremities so I don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “I am freaking out. I am so sad for all of the teammates and I am losing my mind.”

Garinger said he still didn’t know the fate of one of the players living in his home.

“We just need to try to support each other as we deal with this incredible loss to our community, to our province, to our hockey world.”

Kevin Henry, a coach who runs a hockey school in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, said he knows players on the team.

“This is I would think one of the darkest days in the history of Saskatchewan, especially because hockey is so ingrained in how we grow up here,” he said.

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Rob Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto and Ivan Moreno contributed from Milwaukee.