“I can’t help but feel like a horrible person now.”

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Kyrie Irving has stepped up over the last week to be the leading voice pushing back against the NBA’s planned restart in the Disney bubble. His chief concern is whether playing basketball and resuming the season would distract from players efforts in social activism amid nationwide protests of racism and police brutality.

The NBA issued a memo to teams noting that they are committed to “create meaningful and generational change” with its restart and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement by working with the NBPA to figure out the best ways to do so. It’s a nice statement, but until a firm plan of action is in place, many will remain understandably skeptical of how significant the league’s contribution will be, whether that’s by a monetary investment that goes towards creating programs both internally and in the community, or in offering its massive platforms to allow players to make the statements they feel are necessary.

Avery Bradley issued a plan he’d like to see the league enact as part of a coalition with Irving before players agree to join the bubble (with a June 24 deadline to do so), but Kyrie seems to be moving full steam ahead on trying to convince players. According to Stefon Bondy of the New York Daily News, Irving “urged” his Nets teammates to skip the bubble in a group chat and also — and this is the part you’ll see discussed for days and weeks — threw out there that the players could leave the NBA and start their own league.

Irving not only led a discussion with close to 100 union members in a conference call, he also urged Nets players to skip the bubble recently in a separate group chat, the Daily News has learned. In that chat, Irving proposed that players could start their own league, according to a source.

As Russ Bengston noted, this isn’t unprecedented talk from a player, as there were whispers of such discussions when the NBA was in a lockout in 1998, but the difference there, of course, is that without a CBA, there are no contracts and, as such, there’s not as much difficulty in breaking them to set off on their own. Right now, there would be a logistical nightmare in doing so, beyond the other issues of creating the infrastructure of a new league and finding places to play and TV deals.

Still, it’d be fascinating to see what a players-led league would look like, even just in how they would structure things, from roster sizes to games played and more. Irving’s proposal, which may have just been a throwaway line in a group text for all we know, will end up being joked about for some time, but the overall point that I think he’s trying to make is that the players have more power in this situation than they may recognize. While I doubt he’s fully thought through the finer points of the difficulties of starting their own league, the reason the NBA is a multi-billion dollar business is because of the players and in this situation, they need to ensure they get the most out of the league on an issue in systemic racism that entities like the NBA often make nice statements about, create a diversity initiative, and donate money before moving on mostly with the status quo intact.

Players need to push for more this time, and Bradley’s plan — which includes calls for better hiring practices to get more Black coaches and executives into the sport as well as the league partnering with more Black-owned business — tries to address those things, along with securing financial commitments for organizations working for the movement.

NBA players have raised a number of questions about the league’s plan to restart the 2019-20 season in Orlando. One of the main questions has been how can players use a potential restart in order to spark social change amid nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, with some arguing that the best approach may be to just not play at all and keep the focus on the current moment.

It’s an important conversation to have, and a number of players are doing what they can to get the league to have this conversation with them. As a result, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that the league sent a memo to all 30 teams in which it made a commitment to making sure its restart is done in such away that the NBA can “drive action and create meaningful and generational change.”

Of course, there is a big difference between a statement in which a commitment is made and actually acting on it, and we’ll have to wait and see what the league would have in store to take on such a gigantic task. This will assuredly be something that gets ironed out over days, if not weeks, worth of conversations in the lead-up to Orlando, but at the very least, the NBA is making it clear that it hears players and will try to do right by them.

As Spain enters the final phase of lifting its lockdown, the country is testing reopening part of its tourism sector before they officially reopen borders to Shengen Area tourism — referring to the border-free zone in Europe between 26 European countries — later this month. Spain and Germany have teamed up to test a one-week pilot program that’ll allow around 10,900 German tourists to visit Spain’s Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera.

Germany was chosen for the tourism test due to its epidemiological similarity with regards to COVID-19 to the islands (although Germany has a fairly low level of testing capability, even when compared to Spain). The program is called the “Safe Corridor” scheme and aims to analyze the risks of opening up the tourism sector and Spain’s ability to deal with an outbreak if it does occur.

The trips from Germany to Spain sold out in 36 hours when they went on sale just last week. Germans started arriving on 47 flights yesterday, June 15th, and have to stay at least five days. The program has some guidelines that’ll allow both countries to monitor the possibility of spreading COVID-19.

According to The Guardian, the German tourists will have to “fill out a public health form, have their temperature taken on arrival at the airport, and give the authorities their contact details and the address of their accommodation.” The Spanish authorities will not require a COVID-19 test before travel or observe the current, mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival to Spain. If someone falls ill, Spain has set up a special team to test for COVID and, if needed, isolate any ill person.

The Spanish government said they’re conducting this test “to see how the model for the lifting of temporary controls on internal borders and the return to freedom of movement is working.” The idea is to run a test before they officially reopen to international travel in July, allowing the authorities to figure out what they can handle in real-life and not just on paper.

Spain gets 12 percent of its GDP from the tourism sector alone. That can easily be dismissed as just a number, but in reality, that number has a massive effect on people who run everything from restaurants to hotels to tours to farms (and so much more) around the country. When you isolate the Balearic Islands, that number jumps to 35 percent.

Spain’s Canary Islands are planning on running a similar program in the second half of June that’ll see another 10,000 Germans arrive for a one-week holiday. This will serve as a similar test — to better judge the viability of actually reopening Spain’s international borders in July.

(Via The Guardian)

Even before HBO Max officially announced that it would “Release the Snyder Cut,” director Zack Snyder had been an open book when it comes to sharing his original vision for Justice League with fans, and he’s not showing signs of stopping anytime soon.

In a recent Q&A on Snyder’s preferred social media platform, Vero, he confirmed that the spray-painted Robin suit seen in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice actually belonged to Dick Grayson and not Jason Todd as most fans believed. For non-comic book readers, Dick Grayson is the first Robin who eventually grew out of being Batman’s sidekick and went out on his own as the superhero Nightwing. Jason Todd became his replacement, but he experienced a tragic end after DC Comics let fans call a telephone number deciding if he should die at the Joker’s hands. To the shock of DC Comics editors, fans chose “Yes,” and Jason was murdered by the Joker in the classic Batman story A Death in the Family. (Although, he did come back to life in the early aughts because comic books.)

While replying to a fan’s question about whether he planned to explore Dick Grayson’s death, Snyder said there would’ve been a “hint” in his version of Justice League, but he didn’t elaborate on what the hint would be or whether it could show up in the upcoming Snyder Cut.

In a later question, however, Heroic Hollywood reports that Snyder had a streamlined plan for depicting Robin in the DC Extended Universe. In addition to eschewing comic book canon and making Dick Grayson the dead Robin, Snyder revealed that he planned to jump straight to Carrie Kelley in future films. Carrie Kelley is the female Robin featured in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns where she fights alongside an elderly Batman at the end of his career.

Would Snyder’s fast and loose portrayal of the Dark Knight’s sidekicks have gone over well with fans? We’ll never know, but it’ll be interesting to see if any of his Bat-family plans make an appearance when the Snyder Cut hits HBO Max in 2021.

(Via Heroic Hollywood)

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The NBA’s plans for how the bubble at Disney in Orlando will function was revealed on Tuesday, with The Athletic’s Shams Charania offering a look at the various phases of the league’s restart plan as well as where players will be staying (hotels were seeded by record) and how the league plans to keep players occupied while stuck in the bubble for potentially three full months.

Keeping players entertained is important, given that there are significant repercussions for leaving the bubble — including the loss of checks for games missed while in quarantine. According to Charania, the league is looking to provide them with a number of amenities, from a “24-hour VIP concierge” to a players only lounge, but what is most notable for fans is the final point here.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1273021293827444738

Players attending other games might make for some fascinating interactions and liven up the in-arena experience given there will otherwise be no fans at games. It would be tremendous to see LeBron James seated in the third row, socially distanced as best as possible, heckling Chris Paul while the Thunder play. Given that there will be regular testing and they’re all staying at the same hotel, it makes sense to allow them to pop in for games, but it is an added wrinkle that is never available to players in other playoff situations. Real-time scouting will be a unique opportunity, and might lead to some fun interactions.

On top of Charania’s list, Dan Woike of the LA Times reports the league is also working with Disney on opening up select portions of parks for players, among other entertainment ideas to try and keep players occupied.

Concerts and comedy are certainly interesting, but the logistics of getting an act into the bubble requires more testing and ensuring all parties are kept safe and healthy. That said, given the star power that will be in the bubble it’d be interesting to see what acts might be willing to drop by — and, if they’re tested, if they’d be allowed to pop in and watch a game.

An iPhone shortcut that lets you record an interaction with the police is gaining popularity in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and ensuing protests.

The shortcut was first created by Robert Petersen in 2018 who shared his creation on Reddit.

“I just wanted a way for anyone to have proof of their version of events in the unlikely scenario that something unexpected happens during a police interaction,” said Petersen, according to CNN. “If 1 in 10,000 people find my shortcut useful at all I’d be glad.”

After downloading and installing the shortcut, all the user has to do is say, “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over,” and the application kicks off a series of actions to help safely document your interaction with the police.

It pauses any music that may be playing on your phone, turns on Do Not Disturb, turns down the iPhone’s brightness and activates the camera to record video and audio of the interaction.

It also sends a text message to a person of your choosing who immediately knows you’re being pulled over and is alerted to your exact location via a pin dropped on a map. After the interaction, it will send video of the incident to your contact, as well.

“Once you stop the recording it sends a copy of the video to a contact you specify, puts volume and brightness back to where they were, turns off Do Not Disturb, and gives you the option to send to iCloud Drive or Dropbox,” according to a Reddit post by Petersen.

Petersen says it works best with a dash mount, so it can take stable video. That also gives you the option to angle the phone’s camera toward your window so the police officer can be seen on video as well.

Should you have to use the app, don’t worry about the legality of filming the police. It’s part of our First Amendment rights and is a powerful way to hold agents of the state accountable.

“In a public space, people are generally allowed to record on-duty police,” Quinnan Law says. “The only requirements are that the person filming is also legally allowed to be in the same public space, the activity being filmed is in plain view, and the recording is not being conducted in secret.”

One benefit of the app is that you can turn it on without using your hands. Police are often suspicious of the people they approach making sudden movements.

Here’s how to download it the shortcut:

Step 1: Go to the app store and download the “Shortcuts” app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Open the “Shortcuts” app and click “Gallery” on the bottom right corner.

Step 3: Next, go to your iPhone settings and scroll down to “Shortcuts.” It’ll be with all of your other apps.

Step 4: Open this link in Safari to download the “I’m getting pulled over” shortcut. Tap “Get Shortcut.”

Step 5: Once it opens, scroll down and tap “Add Untrusted Shortcut.”

Step 6: Choose a contact(s) for who you would like to send your location and a copy of the video recording to. Then tap done.

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In a press conference held at noon on Tuesday, President Trump announced the signing of a new executive order on police reform, the first of such reforms to come after the killing of George Floyd prompted Americans across all 50 states to take to the streets in protest. The executive order will seek to ban the use of chokeholds, establish new programs to help law enforcement when responding to issues involving mental illness, and create a National Registry to track police officers who repeatedly engage in excessive force.

According to Axios, the somewhat confusing executive order doesn’t outright ban chokeholds but will incentivize police departments to avoid the use of excessive force by only allowing access to federal funds to police departments that comply with criteria outlined by the Justice Department. Police may still use chokeholds if the officer is the target of deadly force.

The full executive order (obtained by CNN) indicates that officers will be retrained regarding their response to calls regarding mental illness and will “provide guidance regarding the development and implementation of co-responder programs, which involve social workers or other mental health professionals working alongside law enforcement officers so that they arrive and address situations together.” This is perhaps the most significant part of the President’s executive order, as according to the Treatment Advocacy Center, people with untreated mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement.

The Executive order also seeks to create a national registry to track police officers who have a record of responding with excessive force, Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd through his use of excessive force, reportedly had a record of misconduct complaints and a reputation for aggression. Whether or not a national registry would actually affect an officer’s ability to retain their job remains to be seen.

For those hoping the President would take steps toward defunding the police, Trump has indicated that he’s still positioning himself as a “Law and Order” president, addressing the movement that was now gaining popularity nationwide at Tuesday’s press conference.

“We have to find common ground,” he said. “But I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defund, dismantle, and dissolve our police departments, especially now when we’ve achieved the lowest recorded crime rates in recent history.”

Ultimately, the President’s executive order won’t do much to quell the justifiable anger that continues to bring so many thousands into the streets now three weeks after George Floyd’s death, especially considering the order does little to address the systemic racism and racial profiling that many believe has led to police to disproportionally target African Americans. The executive order also fails to address the “qualified immunity” enjoyed by police officers, a doctrine that often shields police officers from lawsuits over their conduct. However, the move does signal to lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the President may be willing to play ball on more substantive legislative reform.

According to CNN, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are currently working on two separate police reform bills, though it’s unlikely anything will be passed before the Senate enters its two-week Fourth of July recess.