Month: August 2022

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Technology

Dinkum and the erasure of First Nations People in Australian video games

Dinkum and First Nations Erasure

First Nations People exist. That’s it. That’s the one line that can’t be argued, or shouldn’t be able to be argued. Indigenous Peoples are everywhere in Australia, despite the many attempts at genocide throughout history.

While this isn’t a hard concept to grasp, many video games made and set in Australia fail to understand or represent this. ForzaHorizon 3 Transformed Australia into a racing stage, which is gross, considering the history of sacred Indigenous sites being turned into race tracks or amusement parks.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel represents the moon as Australia. While containing a lot of humorous dialogue referencing the colonial history of Australia, it fails to pay respect or acknowledgment to what happened to First Nations People as a result.

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is a game that succeeds in some ways, and falls short in others. Although it falls into the trappings of being a colonialist video game, ultimately appropriating aspects of Indigenous Cultures in its gameplay elements, it at least makes references to First Peoples mythology, the Dreamtime – albeit in a simplified respect.

The latest game to fail spectacularly at First Nations representation is Dinkumfrom solo developer James Bendon.

Dinkumcurrently an Early Access game, offers an experience similar to stardew valley and Animal Crossing, paying homage to both in design. All while being set in a fictional, and apocalyptic, version of Australia.

Dinkum screenshot
Images: James Bendon

So what do you do in Dinkum? Well, it can be summarized in one word:

Colonise.

As you set forth on this land inhabited by Kangaroo, Emu and Crocodiles, you’re expected to tame the land by learning how to farm and hunt, and work on building a settlement. But don’t worry, there’s nobody else here – so it’s all territory for you to claim. That being said, on the land that is being settled, you will eventually find remnants of the past indicating the post-apocalyptic nature of the game. You can dig up things from the ‘modern Australia’, yet this presents an even larger issue to me: The only artifacts of the past are of the colonized Australia with no reference to First Nations People? Also, suggesting that the world’s longest-living culture could not survive a capitalist apocalypse? It all feels so wrong.

On its premise, Dinkum presents’terra nullius‘.

Terra nullius means ‘nobody’s land’ and was a term used by the British to justify the colonization and settlement of what would become known as Australia.

Terra Nullius was not only used as justification for colonisation, but also justified the British beginning 200+ years of genocide: Hunting parties were organized to hunt and kill Indigenous People; massacres were officially registered and conducted; children were stolen; enslavement and blackbirding were prevalent. These are just a few reasons why even the suggestion of Terra Nullius is a big deal.

Dinkum starts with this. This fictionalized view of Australia is empty, belonging to no one, and free to be settled by you.

A recent Twitter thread by @alex_verdant brought many eyes to the problems in Dinkum. In particular, they noticed some extremely troublesome dialogue, and provided screenshots.

Dinkum makes jokes about the trading of children for cutlery. Now, it was actually @alex_verdant’s Twitter thread that pushed me to play the game myself and investigate, however, when I personally came to the same scene, it seemed as though this dialogue was silently changed:

Dinkum screenshot, changed dialogue about trading children for cutlery
Image: Nich Richie

But to write a joke like this in the first place suggests ignorance to First Nations Peoples and their history at best, and malicious intentions at worst.

Here’s why: First Nations People in Australia suffered several genocide attempts, with one attempt becoming known as the ‘Stolen Generation.’

The Stolen Generation refers to Indigenous children who were removed from their families during the early 1900s to around the late 1970s. These children were removed because they were considered mixed-race – born of one Indigenous and one Non-Indigenous parent. As such, they were considered as able candidates to be ‘assimilated’ into Anglo-Australian society.

This assimilation was an initiative to essentially enslave children, and have their ‘Blackness’ forcibly bred out over generations. A genocide attempt. As part of this, many Indigenous children were also traded between colonists for various things – including household goods.

In any other game, a line of dialogue about trading children for cutlery might seem like a lighthearted joke. But with so much of Dinkum clearly rooted in the Australian landscape and culture, this line is anything but. It is weirdly specific and very hurtful. It might come from a place of ignorance, but that doesn’t make it any better.

While investigating the development of this game, I discovered that people had been asking Bendon if Dinkum had First Nations representation, to which he responded: ‘I agree that having elements from the many Indigenous Australian cultures would only make the game better. I don’t identify as an Indigenous Australian, so I thought it would be inappropriate to take elements from their culture.’

Some would say this is fair. But as a First Nations person, I challenge this response and offer the following points for anyone making a game in Australia, or a game that references Australia.

  1. When making a game set in Australia, whether a fictionalized version or not, you cannot erase First Nations Peoples. They are the First Peoples of Australia, meaning they are integral to the history, culture, and identity of the country. Erasing them perpetuates the lie of Terra Nullius.
  2. You cannot say you felt it would be inappropriate to include things from First Nations Cultures, and then make an inappropriate joke about child trading in the same game.
  3. Any game made on Australian land – stolen land – can and should acknowledge First Nations Peoplesimilar to how Untitled Goose Game makes reference to First Nations People in the credits. This is a simple gesture, but goes a long way in terms of acknowledgment and respect.
  4. Hire First Nations People as consultants for your video game. And it is. They Exist. If the premise involves a fictional or non-fictional Australia, it is important to hire First Nations People as consultants. Budget for it in the development of the video game. Being a solo developer is no excuse for completely ignoring the history of the country, and the original custodians of the land.

Read: Bringing Indigenous cultural expertise to game development with Broken Roads

With that last point, let’s make this absolutely clear:

First Nations People can and should be consulted on video games set in Australia. To not include First Nations Peoples, Cultures and History is to colonize the reality of what really went on in this country’s bloody history.

It is to perpetuate the myth of Terra Nullius.

And it is to erase First Nations Peoples.

Categories
US

Kansas voters resoundingly protect their access to abortion

Kansas voters resoundingly protect their access to abortion

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters on Tuesday sent a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights, rejecting a ballot measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright.

It was the first test of voter sentiment after the US Supreme Court’s decision in June that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, providing an unexpected result with potential implications for the coming midterm elections.

While it was just one state, the heavy turnout for an August primary that typically favors Republicans was a major victory for abortion rights advocates. With most of the vote counted, they were prevailing by roughly 20 percentage points, with the turnout approaching what’s typical for a fall election for governor.

The vote also provided a dash of hope for Democrats nationwide grasping for a game-changer during an election year otherwise filled with dark omens for their prospects in November.

“This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

After calling on Congress to “restore the protections of Roe” in federal law, Biden added, “And, the American people must continue to use their voices to protect the right to women’s health care, including abortion.”

The Kansas vote also provided a warning to Republicans who had celebrated the Supreme Court ruling and were moving swiftly with abortion bans or near-bans in nearly half the states.

“Kansans bluntly rejected anti-abortion politicians’ attempts at creating a reproductive police state,” said Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of the Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity. ”Today’s vote was a powerful rebuke and a promise of the mounting resistance.”

The proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution would have added language stating that it does not grant the right to abortion. A 2019 state Supreme Court decision declared that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights, preventing a ban and potentially thwarting legislative efforts to enact new restrictions.

The referendum was closely watched as a barometer of liberal and moderate voters’ anger over the Supreme Court’s ruling scrapping the nationwide right to abortion. In Kansas, abortion opponents wouldn’t say what legislation they’d pursue if the amendment were passed and bristled when opponents predicted it would lead to a ban.

Mallory Carroll, a spokesperson for the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, described the vote as “a huge disappointment” for the movement and called on anti-abortion candidates to “go on the offensive.”

She added that after the US Supreme Court ruling, “We must work exponentially harder to achieve and maintain protections for unborn children and their mothers.”

The measure’s failure was also significant because of Kansas’ connections to anti-abortion activists. Anti-abortion “Summer of Mercy” protests in 1991 inspired abortion opponents to take over the Kansas Republican Party and make the Legislature more conservative. They were there because Dr. George Tiller’s clinic was among the few in the US known to do abortions late in pregnancy, and he was murdered in 2009 by an anti-abortion extremist.

Anti-abortion lawmakers wanted to have the vote coincide with the state’s August primary, arguing they wanted to make sure it got the focus, though others saw it as an obvious attempt to increase their chances of winning. Twice as many Republicans as Democrats have voted in the state’s August primaries in the decade leading up to Tuesday’s election.

“This outcome is a temporary setback, and our fight dedicated to value women and babies is far from over,” said Emily Massey, a spokesperson for the pro-amendment campaign.

The electorate in Tuesday’s vote wasn’t typical for a Kansas primary, particularly because tens of thousands of unaffiliated voters cast ballots.

Kristy Winter, 52, a Kansas City-area teacher and unaffiliated voter, voted against the measure and brought her 16-year-old daughter with her to her polling place.

“I want her to have the same right to do what she feels is necessary, mostly in the case of rape or incest,” she said. “I want her to have the same rights my mother has had most of her life from her.”

Opponents of the measure predicted that the anti-abortion groups and lawmakers behind the measure would push quickly for an abortion ban if voters approved it. Before the vote, the measure’s supporters refused to say whether they would pursue a ban as they appealed to voters who supported both some restrictions and some access to abortion.

Stephanie Kostreva, a 40-year-old school nurse from the Kansas City area and a Democrat, said she voted in favor of the measure because she is a Christian and believes life begins at conception.

“I’m not full scale that there should never be an abortion,” she said. “I know there are medical emergencies, and when the mother’s life is in danger there is no reason for two people to die.”

An anonymous group sent a misleading text Monday to Kansas voters telling them to “vote yes” to protect choice, but it was suspended late Monday from the Twilio messaging platform it was using, a spokesperson said. Twilio did not identify the sender.

The 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision protecting abortion rights blocked a law that banned the most common second-trimester procedure, and another law imposing special health regulations on abortion providers also is on hold. Abortion opponents argued that all of the state’s existing restrictions were in danger, though some legal scholars found that argument dubious. Kansas doesn’t ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy.

The Kansas vote is the start of what could be a long-running series of legal battles playing out where lawmakers are more conservative on abortion than governors or state courts. Kentucky will vote in November on whether to add language similar to Kansas’ proposed amendment to its state constitution.

Meanwhile, Vermont will decide in November whether to add an abortion rights provision to its constitution. A similar question is likely headed to the November ballot in Michigan.

In Kansas, both sides together spent more than $14 million on their campaigns. Abortion providers and abortion rights groups were key donors to the “no” side, while Catholic dioceses heavily funded the “yes” campaign.

The state has had strong anti-abortion majorities in its Legislature for 30 years, but voters have regularly elected Democratic governors, including Laura Kelly in 2018. She opposed the proposed amendment, saying changing the state constitution would “throw the state back into the Dark Ages.”

State Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican hoping to unseat Kelly, supported the proposed constitutional amendment. He told the Catholic television network EWTN before the election that “there’s still room for progress” in decreasing abortions, without spelling out what he would sign as governor.

Although abortion opponents pushed almost annually for new restrictions until the 2019 state Supreme Court ruling, they felt constrained by past court rulings and Democratic governors like Kelly.

___

Stafford reported from Overland Park and Olathe.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna. For more AP coverage of the abortion issue, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion.

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Categories
Technology

Elden Ring Video Shows What’s at the Bottom of the Erdtree

Elden Ring Erdtree Base

Using some creative parkour skills, an Elden Ring fan makes an interesting discovery about what’s hidden at the base of the Erdtree.

Some players love to find all the secrets hidden in games, and with a title as big as Elden Ring, fans surely have their hands full. Of all the interesting Elden Ring secrets, some require gamers to think outside the box if they are going to be discovered.

One Elden Ring fan by the name of vlad17design shared a video on the Elden Ring subreddit of their recent discovery. After observing the Elden Ring Erdtree for so long, they decided to find out what’s at the roots of one of the game’s most important landmarks. Using some parkour skills, they can safely reach the bottom of the capital using an Ash of War.

GAMERANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

RELATED: Elden Ring: What the Fallingstar Beast Looks Like Without Fur

The fact that they could get there alone is very interesting and turns out not too difficult to accomplish. Vlad’s Elden Ring discovery unveiled where the avatar of one of Godfrey’s boss phases is held, and potentially an even bigger secret even further below the tree. A faint white outline that looks like an enemy’s shape, potentially hinting at an unused asset.

At the bottom of the tree, there is Hoarah Loux, Godfrey’s second form for his boss fight inside. This is not too surprising, considering his arena is not too far away from this location. Some game developers do this when stashing assets in games. What is interesting is that going through the wall to the right of Hoarah Loux lies a strange light figure at the bottom of the world. Vlad is not able to get a close enough view of the figure since they die every time they jump off but he has suggested it might be the Pest bug enemy.

To get to the Erdtree foot, Vlad started from the Erdtree Sanctuary in Leyndell and went outside right where the root sticks out of the building. By equipping Malenia’s blade, which can only be earned after beating the Malenia boss fight, they used the Ash of War to propel themselves to the appropriate distance safely. Some fans asked if Vlad could use the telescope to get a closer look at the creature at the bottom or perhaps shoot it with an arrow, but the Reddit user said they could not.

Other Reddit users hypothesized that it is a piece of the Elden Beast since the developers could’ve hidden the field for that below Leyndell. A similar thing was done with the Gael boss fight in Dark Souls 3, where the boss avatar was hidden in a different tower and teleported to the arena after the cutscene. While this does make sense, it’s fun to imagine that this could potentially be a hidden scrapped boss waiting to be discovered if players dig further.

Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Elden Ring: 10 Creepiest Locations In The Lands Between

Categories
US

Air traffic controllers say co-pilot ‘jumped’ from plane: 911 call

Air traffic controllers say co-pilot 'jumped' from plane: 911 call

A 911 call made by air traffic controllers suggests that a co-pilot who died after exiting a plane during a mid-flight emergency last week may have jumped, a recording released on Tuesday showed.

The body of Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was recovered last weekend after he plunged from the plane near Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon. The pilot did not have a parachute when he exited the twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar, sparking questions around whether he had failed from the plane or jumped.

The 13-minute recording of a 911 call made by two Federal Aviation Administration employees in the RDU air traffic control tower during the incident may shine some light on the situation, with the workers suggesting the other pilot on the plane reported Crooks had jumped.

A twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar is inspected following an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport
A twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar is inspected following an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in Morrisville, NC on July 29, 2022.Simon Palmore via Twitter

“This is from Raleigh Airport. We have a pilot that was inbound to the field. His co-pilot jumped out of the aircraft,” an FAA employee can be heard saying before providing the coordinates of where the incident unfolded.

“So, they said he jumped out of the aircraft,” they say. “His copilot jumped out without the parachute so he might have impact to the ground.”

“I guess at this point in time, all we can really do is kind of do a recovery,” the dispatcher says at one point.

“Yeah, I know. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know,” a different FAA worker who takes over the call responds. “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever dealt with.”

“I mean, I’m sure this pilot is going to be shaken up. I have no idea. He literally just said, ‘my pilot just jumped out’,” they say. The identities of the FAA workers have not been released.

There was no indication as to why Crooks may have jumped and an investigation into exactly what happened remains ongoing.

The pilot of the plane had told air traffic control that there was an issue with the landing gear and he had asked to make an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

They were able to land the plane on a grassy area at the airport, at around 2:40 pm, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

In a video obtained by NBC affiliate WRAL of Raleigh, the plane can be seen appearing to skid off the runway and spin in a partial circle before coming to a stop.

The plane sustained substantial damage to its landing gear and fuselage, preliminary information gathered by the National Transportation Safety Board showed, according to The Associated Press.

A number of agencies assisted in searching for Crooks. His body was recovered in the Fuquay-Varina neighborhood after a resident flagged down an officer, saying they had heard a noise behind their property.

Crooks’ father, Hew Crooks, told WRAL that his son had spent years working towards his dream of becoming a pilot.

“He pursued his private pilot license while he was in college. I think he got that when he was a sophomore,” Hew Crooks said. “He said a couple weeks ago, he wouldn’t trade places with anybody in the world. He loved where he was.”

He said his family had been left devastated and questioning what exactly happened to their son that day.

“I can’t imagine what happened,” he said. “We’ll figure it out, I suppose.”

Hew Crooks said his son had been certified to fly in any condition and had previously been a flight instructor.

His loss, the father said, has left an irreparable void in the family.

“We’re a strong family and we’re a very loving family. But this, it leaves a hole,” he said.

Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London.

Categories
Technology

AMD Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” 5nm Desktop CPUs & X670 Motherboards Launch on 15th September

AMD Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" 5nm Desktop CPUs & X670 Motherboards Launch on 15th September

While AMD confirmed that it will be officially launching its Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” Desktop CPUs this quarter, we have managed to get the final announcement, review and launch dates from our own sources which confirm that the official retail launch for the Zen 4 CPU family & X670 motherboards will take place in September.

AMD Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” Desktop CPUs & X670 Motherboards Officially Launching On 15th September

Based on the information we have, it looks like AMD will be hosting a product announcement event later this month which will focus on the specifications and prices of its Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” lineup and will also allow motherboard manufacturers to reveal the preliminary prices of their boards. As far as this event is concerned, it will take place on 29th August but you won’t get to purchase Ryzen 7000 CPUs until two weeks later.

The embargo on the AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs & X670 motherboards reviews will lift two weeks later on 13th September followed by a full retail launch for the said products on 15th of September. To sum up the dates:

  • Product announcement: August 29, 2022 at 8:00PM ET / August 30, 2022 at 2:00AM CET / 8:00AM TW
  • Press however: September 13, 2022 at 9AM ET / 3PM CET / 9PM TW
  • sales embargo: September 15, 2022 at 9AM ET / 3PM CET / 9PM TW

Based on a previous leak from AMD themselves, it looks like there will be four SKUs on offer at the start which would include:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
  • AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
  • AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
  • AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

AMD Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ Desktop CPU ‘Preliminary’ Specs:

CPU Name Architecture Process Node Cores / Threads Core Clock (SC Max) Cache TDP Price
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Zen 4 5nm 16/32 ~5.5GHz 80MB (64+16) 105-170W ~$700US
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X Zen 4 5nm 12/24 ~5.4GHz 76MB (64+12) 105-170W ~$600US
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X Zen 4 5nm 8/16 ~5.3GHz 40MB (32+8) 65-125W ~$400US
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Zen 4 5nm 8/16 ~5.3GHz 40MB (32+8) 65-125W ~$300US
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Zen 4 5nm 6/12 ~5.2GHz 38MB (32+6) 65-125W ~$200US

AMD’s first wave of 600-series motherboards would focus on the higher-end X670E & X670 designs followed by B650E & B650 products a few weeks later (around October/November). The new CPUs will feature a brand new Zen 4 core architecture which is expected to deliver up to 8% IPC, >15% ST (Single-Threaded), and >35% MT (Multi-Threaded) performance improvement over the Zen 3 cores . Additionally, AMD is going bonkers with the clock speeds on their next-gen CPUs with up to 5.8 GHz frequency limits, 170W TDPs and 230W PPT. Plus, the platform itself will be outfitted with the latest technologies such as PCIe Gen 5.0 slots, Gen 5.0 M.2 support, DDR5 memory support (EXPO), and a new SAS (Smart Access Storage) Firmware suite that runs on the DirectStorage API framework.

AMD Ryzen ‘Zen 4’ Desktop CPU Expected Features:

  • Up To 16 Zen 4 Cores and 32 Threads
  • Over 15% Performance Uplift In Single-Threaded Apps
  • Brand New Zen 4 CPU Cores (IPC / Architectural Improvements)
  • Brand New TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm IOD
  • 25% Performance Per Watt Improvement Vs Zen 3
  • >35% Overall Performance Improvement Vs Zen 3
  • 8-10% Instructions Per Clock (IPC) Improvement Vs Zen 3
  • Support on AM5 Platform With LGA1718 Socket
  • New X670E, X670, B650E, B650 Motherboards
  • Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support
  • Up To DDR5-5600 Native (JEDEC) Speeds
  • 28 PCIe Lanes (CPU Only)
  • 105-120W TDPs (Upper Bound Range ~170W)

You can find the full details of AMD’s next-gen Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs and the respective 600-series motherboards in our full roundup of the next-gen family here.

AMD Mainstream Desktop CPU Generations Comparison:

AMD CPU Family code name ProcessorProcess Processors Cores/Threads (Max) TDP’s (Max) Platform Platform Chipset memory support PCIe Support Launch
Ryzen 1000 Summit Ridge 14nm (Zen1) 8/16 95W AM4 300-Series DDR4-2677 Gene 3.0 2017
Ryzen 2000 Pinnacle Ridge 12nm (Zen+) 8/16 105W AM4 400-series DDR4-2933 Gene 3.0 2018
Ryzen 3000 Matisse 7nm (Zen2) 16/32 105W AM4 500-series DDR4-3200 Gen 4.0 2019
Ryzen 5000 Vermeer 7nm (Zen3) 16/32 105W AM4 500-series DDR4-3200 Gen 4.0 2020
Ryzen 5000 3D Warhol? 7nm (Zen 3D) 8/16 105W AM4 500-series DDR4-3200 Gen 4.0 2022
Ryzen 7000 raphael 5nm (Zen 4) 16/32 170W AM5 600-Series DDR5-5200/5600? Gen 5.0 2022
Ryzen 7000 3D raphael 5nm (Zen 4) 16/32? 105-170W AM5 600-Series DDR5-5200/5600? Gen 5.0 2023
Ryzen 8000 Granite Ridge 3nm (Zen 5)? TBA TBA AM5 700-Series? DDR5-5600+ Gen 5.0 2024-2025?

Which AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs are you most interested in?

Categories
US

Eric Schmitt wins GOP primary for Senate in Missouri, defeating former governor Eric Greitens

live news

Signs are displayed by a road in Lenexa, Kansas, on Monday.
Signs are displayed by a road in Lenexa, Kansas, on Monday. (Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

Kansas on Tuesday became the first state in the nation to let voters weigh in on abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The closely watched vote offers the first popular look at voter sentiment in the wake of the decision striking down Roe, which eliminated a federal right to abortion and sent the matter back to the states.

Voters regardless of political affiliation were asked whether to amend the state constitution to remove a protected right to abortion. The procedure is currently legal up to 22 weeks in Kansas, where people from Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri have traveled for services amid Republican-led efforts to roll back abortion rights.

The text of the Tuesday’s question reads: “Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion. To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.”

A majority vote for “yes” would result in the state constitution being amended to say that it “does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.”

While such a vote would not ban abortion, it would be up to the GOP-controlled state legislature to pass laws regarding the procedure, including ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy without exceptions for rape and incest. And removing state constitutional protections would significantly curtail the ability of an individual to challenge a restrictive abortion measure.

to “no” vote would leave the state constitution unchanged, and abortions up to 22 weeks would remain legal. Lawmakers could still pass restrictive abortion laws, but the state would have to meet a higher threshold providing that it has a reason to enact the law in court.

Until now, the courts have recognized a right to abortion under the state constitution. Lawmakers had passed a restrictive abortion law in 2015 that would have banned the dilation and evacuation procedure, but it was permanently blocked by the courts.

When the Kansas state Supreme Court in 2019 ruled on the law, it said that the right to an abortion was protected under Section 1 of the Kansas constitution’s Bill of Rights, which reads, “All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The issue was placed on the primary ballot, rather than the general election, which abortion rights advocates believe was intended in order to limit turnout. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state by more than 350,000, according to the latest figures from the Kansas Secretary of State’s office.

The constitutional amendment has already raised voter interest in the primary election, according to the Kansas Secretary of State’s office.

CNN’s Nick Valencia and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.

Read more.

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Categories
US

Election Victories by Trump Allies Showcase His Grip on the GOP Base

Election Victories by Trump Allies Showcase His Grip on the GOP Base

PHOENIX— Primary victories in Arizona and Michigan for allies of Donald J. Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed his continued influence over the Republican Party, as the former president has sought to cleanse the party of his critics, install loyalists in key swing-state offices and scare off potential 2024 rivals with a show of brute political force.

In Arizona, Mr. Trump’s choice for Senate, Blake Masters, won a crowded primary as did his pick for secretary of state, Mark Finchem, an election denier who has publicly acknowledged his affiliation with the far-right Oath Keepers militia group. The governor’s race was virtually tied early Wednesday, even as Mr. Trump’s pick, Kari Lake, was badly outspent.

And in a particularly symbolic victory for Mr. Trump, Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House who gained national attention after testifying against Mr. Trump at the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, lost his bid for State Senate.

In Michigan, a House Republican who voted to impeach Mr. Trump, Representative Peter Meijer, was defeated by a former Trump administration official, John Gibbs, and Mr. Trump’s last-minute choice for governor, the conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, who has echoed his false claims of election fraud, easily won her primary.

Mr. Trump and his allies have been particularly focused on the vote-counting and certification process in both Arizona and Michigan, seeking to oust those who stood in the way of their attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The victory of Mr. Finchem, who marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6, was a key sign of how the “Stop the Steal” movement that was formed on a falsehood about 2020 has morphed into a widespread campaign to try to take control of the levers of democracy ahead of the coming elections.

Tuesday’s primaries in five states — Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Washington State — kicked off a final six-week stretch of races that will provide the fullest picture of the Republican Party’s priorities in 2022, how tight Mr. Trump’s hold remains on the base and the extent to which his falsehoods about a stolen election in 2020 have infected the electorate.

In Washington State, Mr. Trump had backed challengers to two Republican House members who voted for his impeachment. But both of those incumbents appeared to be in strong positions to advance over Mr. Trump’s preferred candidates — benefiting from the state’s top-two primary system, though neither race had been called early Wednesday.

Many Republican strategists are eager to move beyond the primaries and this period of infighting to focus fully on defeating the Democrats this fall and to take advantage of President Biden’s slipping support and growing voter frustrations about inflation and the state of the economy.

In a relief for national party strategists, Missouri Republicans rejected the political comeback attempt of Eric Greitens, the scandal-plagued former governor who ran for Senate. Party leaders had worried that Mr. Greitens would have jeopardized an otherwise safe Senate seat for Republicans. Mr. Trump had stayed out of that race until a bizarre last-minute dual endorsement on Monday of “Eric” — with no last name — a blessing that covered both Mr. Greitens, who finished in a distant third place, and Eric Schmitt, the state attorney general, who won the Senate nomination.

In Kansas, voters offered a warning sign to bullish Republicans, as a ballot measure on abortion showed the electoral potency and shifting politics of the issue in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Voters there strongly rejected the effort to amend the State Constitution to remove the protected right to abortion.

Several of the marquee Republican contests on Tuesday were in Arizona, a top presidential battleground with an open governor’s race, a contested Senate seat and multiple competitive House races in 2022.

In the contest for governor, Mr. Trump endorsed Ms. Lake, a telegenic former newscaster who had become an unabashed champion of Trumpism. Mr. Trump is seeking some redemption after struggling earlier this year in other governor’s races, most notably failing in his attempt to oust the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp.

Unlike Mr. Kemp, the Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, who earned Mr. Trump’s ire by supporting the results of the 2020 election, was term-limited and not on the ballot himself. Mr. Ducey put his support for her behind Karrin Taylor Robson, a wealthy real estate developer who spent more than $18 million on her run for her and who also had the backing of Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s former vice president.

Ms. Lake, who has made voter fraud a centerpiece of her candidacy, declared victory at a moment when she was actually behind in the vote counting. “We won this race,” Ms. Lake said at her election-night party. “Period.” She later took the lead for the first time, but that reply remained too close to call.

In the Senate race, Mr. Masters, a 35-year-old political newcomer, won the Republican nomination to face Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, who is seeking a full six-year term after ousting a Republican in 2020. The race is expected to be among the most contested of the fall midterms.

The primary victory represents the second major win for Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and major Republican donor who co-wrote a book with Mr. Masters. Mr. Thiel put $15 million of his own money into a super PAC backing Mr. Masters and another $15 million into a separate super PAC supporting JD Vance, who won his Senate primary in Ohio this spring.

Mr. Masters defeated Jim Lamon, a businessman who pumped $14 million of his personal fortune into his campaign, and Mark Brnovich, the Arizona attorney general who Mr. Trump had repeatedly attacked for not investigating his baseless theories of voter fraud.

Holly Law, a 53-year-old who lives in Phoenix, said the determining factor in her votes for Ms. Lake and Mr. Masters was the former president’s blessing.

“The Trump endorsement — that’s it,” she said on Monday at a pre-election rally. Ms. Law insisted, despite the lack of evidence of fraud, that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump and said she had stopped watching Fox News entirely because it was the network that first called her state for Mr. Biden.

“Newsmax — 100 percent,” she said of her current viewing habits, referring to the conservative news network.

In Michigan, Mr. Trump had delivered a late endorsement to Ms. Dixon, who easily won the Republican nomination for governor after two top rivals were tossed from the ballot for turning in fraudulent petitions. Among those on the ballot and among those defeated on Tuesday was Ryan Kelley, who led in an early poll after he was arrested in June by the FBI and charged with trespassing and other crimes connected to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr Kelley was in fourth place early Wednesday.

The Democratic primaries on Tuesday for statewide offices were less drama-filled. In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs won the Democratic nomination for governor, and in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer formally became her party’s nominee for a second term.

Michigan did have some intense Democratic House primaries, including an expensive one in the Detroit suburbs where Representatives Andy Levin and Haley Stevens were drawn into the same district. Ms. Stevens won with the heavy financial support of the new super PAC arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, among others.

But the highest profile House race in Michigan was Mr. Meijer’s re-election bid. His primary rival of him received a surprise late boost from the political arm of House Democrats, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television ads because Mr. Gibbs was seen as easier to defeat this fall in a swing seat.

“I’m proud to have remained true to my principles, even when doing so came at a significant political cost,” Mr. Meijer said in a statement conceding defeat.

mr trump personally called Mr. Gibbs to congratulate him.

“Yes, sir, your endorsements have a really, really good record,” Mr. Gibbs told him.

“I’m very proud of you. That’s a great job,” Mr. Trump said.

The meddling by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for a pro-Trump candidate has earned backlash from fellow Democrats, who saw such involvement as undermining the party’s overall message that election deniers are a threat to democracy.

“I’m disgusted that hard-earned money intended to support Democrats is being used to boost Trump-endorsed candidates,” Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota said last month, calling Mr. Meijer “one of the most honorable Republicans in Congress.”

For the other two Trump impeachers, Washington State’s top-two primary system was poised to help them survive, drawing a larger crowd of candidates and splitting the vote among their Republican rivals.

Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler was ahead of her Trump-backed challenger Joe Kent, a retired Green Beret, with more than half the vote counted. Mr. Kent, whose wife was killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 in Syria, first met Mr. Trump at Dover Air Force Base when he went to view his late wife’s remains of her.

Representative Dan Newhouse, another Republican who voted to impeach Mr. Trump, counted among his challengers Loren Culp, a Trump-supported candidate who ran for governor in 2020 and refused to concede that race despite losing by a wide margin. Mr. Culp was not among the top two candidates with roughly half the votes counted.

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Business

Lamborghini backlog rises to 18 months as SUV sales drive record profit

Lamborghini backlog rises to 18 months as SUV sales drive record profit

The strong demand for the Lamborghini brand and supply chain disruptions generally meant the order book was now running 18 months ahead, instead of 12 months. The entire 2023 production schedule was already sold to buyers.

For the six months ended June 30, global deliveries of vehicles were up 4.9 per cent to 5090. The operating profit for Automobil Lamborghini was up 70 per cent to €425 million ($622.4 million). Sales were up 31 per cent to €1.33 billion.

Mr Winkelmann attributed the jump in profits to a better product mix, foreign exchange gains and robust sales. The URUS SUV model accounted for 61 per cent of overall sales, with the Huracan and Aventador making up the remainder.

The United States is the No.1 market for the brand, and makes up almost 30 per cent of total global sales with 1,521 vehicles delivered to that market. Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau makes up the second-largest market at 11 per cent, followed by Germany at 9 per cent.

Being part of such a large global group under the Volkswagen banner meant Lamborghini was in a better position than many rivals for sourcing semiconductors as a shortage continues to constrain car manufacturers, Mr Winkelmann said.

“We have the advantage of being in a large group,” he said.

Lamborghini is pursuing a slow and steady approach to electric vehicles, where all of its models will be available as hybrids from 2023 and 2024.

The shift to hybrid models, and then the move to electric vehicles will require heavier investment, and this is the same for all carmakers. “The life cycles are getting shorter. The technology is getting faster,” he said.

“Everything is getting more expensive.”

But Lamborghini will be making the investments that are required.

“It’s a challenge we have to face, and a challenge we have to accept,” Mr Winkelmann said.

He said the advent of synthetic fuels will also help in the push for decarbonisation around the world, enabling internal combustion engine vehicles to stay on the road.

“We see this as an opportunity that is valuable,” he said.

E-fuels group HIF Global, which is backed by Porsche, announced in early July it had chosen Tasmania as the site for a $1 billion production plant for synthetic green fuels in Australia. The plant, to be located south of Burnie in the north-west of the island state, would produce up to 100 million liters a year of carbon-neutral e-fuels once fully operational. HIF Global is part-way through building a synthetic fuels plant in Chile.

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Sports

Peter Bol on what it’s like to race the 800m

Peter Bol on what it's like to race the 800m

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“It was all pretty consistent, finishing top two or three. I think the difference is with the championships in the 800, you have 48 people in the world, and it gets knocked down to eight people. Everyone else in that final has a kick, everyone has been working on the same thing.

“I am not disappointed in any way of how we performed or anything like that, I just think those guys were better.”

Bol has not raced in the Commonwealth Games before and is keen for it, given that the Commonwealth countries provide most of the best 800m runners in the world. At the world championships in Eugene, five of the eight finalists were from Commonwealth countries.

World and Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir is expected to focus only on the 400m, while the bronze medalists in Eugene Marco Arop from Canada is to miss.

That still leaves Bol, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi and defending champion Wycliffe Kinyamal and a handful of other sub-1:45 runners.

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“You have still got the Kenyans, you can’t escape those guys. It’s still tough. Korir is not running and the Algerian is not running, the Canadian is not running, so you have got the top three [from the world championships] not running Comm Games, but it doesn’t mean it’s any easier.

“That’s what makes the 800 super competitive and interesting. Put it this way: if I ever had to bet on any event, it wouldn’t be the 800. It would be the last event I would bet on.”

Bol has worked on his endurance and tactics in the last year but is shifting up to focus on speed. Next year he will look at running the 400m to build his speed from him.

“Korir, the guy who won it, runs 44 seconds in the 400 so that’s the fastest guy in the field. He is just tough to beat, and with a kick down.

“Endurance, I improved on that. I ran a seven-second PB in the 1500, but I think the 800 is a raw speed event these days. It’s just two 400s. It’s just go! So to be better you have to be better at the speed more than endurance.”

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US

Who is Tudor Dixon? 4 facts about Michigan governor candidate

Tudor Dixon makes a victory speech after winning the Republican Party nomination for governor at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids on August 2, 2022.