Archives for March 2021

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Mark Emmert acknowledged the glaring failures to give the coaches and players in the women’s tournament the same attention the NCAA gave the men was a result of a lack of communication between the two basketball staffs along with focusing on trying to tip off both events safely during a pandemic.

The NCAA president said the oversights resulted in overlooking differences that led to inequities that has cast a dark, looming cloud over the women’s tournament.

.“Clearly we should have had better communication between my teams,” Emmert said in a 30-minute interview with The Associated Press on Friday. “Clearly we should have really had a better focus on a number of those details that are hardly details, but are really, really important.

“The emphasis that needed to be on health and wellness and the complete and utter focus on how to pull this off in a pandemic led us to get our eye off the ball on a handful of things and that’s really unfortunate. Had we done that better we wouldn’t have had these things emerge.”

The NCAA announced on Thursday that it was hiring a law firm to review potential gender equity issues in all men’s and women’s championship events.

“We can’t just say we’re in favor or everything being equivalent and fair, we’ve got to make sure that’s actually the case across the board,” Emmert said.

The NCAA has been accused the past two weeks of not providing equal amenities to the teams in the men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments. Among other things, female players, coaches and staff in San Antonio have criticized the NCAA for not initially providing a full weight-training area to the women’s teams, noting the men’s teams in Indianapolis did not have the same problem.

“We dropped the ball in San Antonio in the women’s basketball tournament,” Emmert said.

He said now the focus is on making sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We know that we’ve had decades of undervaluing women’s sports throughout the entire sports spectrum,” Emmert said. “We need to think through how we address that. We need to think through how we want to more aggressively support and promote women’s sports.”

The NCAA has also received criticism for using the term March Madness only to promote and brand the men’s tournament. Emmert said the popular nickname could be used for the women’s tournament if organizers and those who support the game want it.

“The mark March Madness isn’t exclusively the men’s basketball mark and it wasn’t intended in that context,” he said. “There has been an ongoing discussion about how to build the women’s basketball brand and how much similarity versus how much distinction is appropriate between the two games.”

While the budget to run the men’s NCAA Tournament in 2018-19 was nearly double that of the women, according to a report in the New York Times, Emmert said those numbers were much closer for this year’s tournaments, with both events being held in one geographic area.

“It has changed for this tournament,” he said. “We spent on the women’s side, about another $16 million on COVID related expenses and less than that on the men’s side.”

Emmert apologized to women’s basketball players.

“We failed to deliver the things they earned and deserved,” he said. “Beg them to understand that’s not a reflection of how they are valued and how much we care about their success as athletes and young women.

“It’s been deeply frustrating and disappointing. My staff in San Antonio has been working so unbelievably hard. This should be a moment we’re celebrating the return of college sports. Celebrating our ability to pull off championships in the midst of a pandemic and do it well. Instead we’re having this conversation. It’s disappointing and frustrating for everybody.”

The controversy over the basketball tournament comes as the NCAA is heading toward potentially landscape-changing events for college sports.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in an antitrust case involving the NCAA next week.

Meanwhile, the NCAA is trying to change its rules to allow athletes to earn money from third parties for things such as endorsements and personal appearances, but name, image and likeness reform has bogged down.

Dozens of states are forcing the issue with bills that will grant college athletes NIL rights. The NCAA is asking federal lawmakers for help, but none are in a rush to bail out the association.

At a time when Emmert is facing pressure to guide the NCAA through a tumultuous time, issues with the basketball tournaments have created yet another problem.

He plans to see it through.

“My timeline has always been as long as I’m successful in contributing to an enterprise in a meaningful well and my bosses are supportive then I like what I do a lot,” Emmert said. “Nobody likes being in the middle of this. I love working for the NCAA. I’m very proud of all the things that have happened over the past decade.

“We’ve had a bunch of challenges to say the least but there’s no doubt in my mind the NCAA is moving in a good direction despite all of this and as long as my board is supportive I want to keep doing this job.”

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More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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ROMA, Texas (AP) — As darkness sets on the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents hear pumps inflating rafts across the river in Mexico. It is about to get busy.

Within an hour, about 100 people have been dropped off in the United States, including many families with toddlers and children as young as 7 traveling alone. All of them wear numbered yellow plastic wristbands that look like they could be used to get into a concert or amusement park, and everyone rips them off and tosses them on the ground after setting foot in the U.S. Large black letters on the wristbands read, “Entregas,” or “Deliveries,” apparently a mechanism for smugglers to keep track of migrants they are ferrying across the river that separates Texas and Mexico.

Roma, a town of 10,000 people with historic buildings and boarded-up storefronts in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, is the latest epicenter of illegal crossings, where growing numbers of families and children are entering the United States to seek asylum.

U.S. authorities reported more than 100,000 encounters on the southern border in February, the highest since a four-month streak in 2019. Encounters have averaged about 5,000 people per day throughout March, which would be about a 50% increase over February if those figures hold for the entire month, according to a senior Border Patrol official, who spoke to reporters Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary figures.

More than 16,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of Thursday, including about 5,000 in substandard Customs and Border Protection facilities.

President Joe Biden, whom many migrants see as more welcoming than his predecessor, pushed back on suggestions that his administration’s immigration policies are responsible for the rising numbers. At his first news conference since taking office, Biden said Thursday that the government will take steps to more quickly move hundreds of migrant children and teenagers out of cramped detention facilities.

On the Rio Grande, a smuggler balked when a U.S. agent asks him to land downriver on a rare patch of sand, complaining that another agent punctured his raft days earlier. The agent reassures him and negotiates a landing away from gnarly branches.

“Children aboard,” another smuggler shouts to authorities.

As the rafts approached shore Wednesday night, smugglers jumped into the shallow water, lifted children and took the hands of adults lined up single file to get off the rafts. The migrants walked — or are carried — a few steps, and the smuggler turned around for the next passenger without touching dry land.

A 7-year-old girl named Kaylee fought back tears as she bemoaned leaving her phone in the raft. A smuggler tells her she didn’t, and she appears to shrug it off. Her mother’s U.S. phone number is written in black marker on the arm of her shirt.

U.S. agents escort groups of migrants about a half-mile over dirt roads to a dead-end street on the edge of Roma, where other agents at a white folding table examine identification documents, take names and destinations, and answer questions. Children traveling alone are separated from families, and people put their valuables in plastic bags.

From there, they head to a nearby parking lot and get into buses, vans and SUVs. Unaccompanied children are supposed to be held by CBP no more than 72 hours, but they are often held longer because U.S. Health and Human Services lacks space. The agency is housing children at the Dallas Convention Center and said it will open emergency facilities at venues or military bases in San Antonio, El Paso, San Diego and elsewhere.

The Biden administration expels nearly all single adults without an opportunity to seek asylum under a public health order issued at the start of the pandemic. They make up about 2,200 of the roughly 5,000 people encountered per day in March, the Border Patrol official said.

Of that total, about 450 to 500 are unaccompanied minors and the rest are families who are being allowed to stay, at least temporarily, if the children are under 7 and if they can’t immediately be returned to Mexico, which has reduced the number of families it will accept into shelters in the state of Tamaulipas, south of the Rio Grande Valley, the official said.

It’s not unusual to see increases in migrants crossing the border in the spring and summer, and the Border Patrol has faced similar situations in the past. But the official said the large numbers of teens and children and the pandemic-related space limitations have made this year especially difficult.

“The reason this is much different this year than it has been in previous years is one, we are faced with some unique challenges,” he said.

A group of Republican senators on Friday visited the Rio Grande Valley, which is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, and toured a holding facility. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz blamed the Biden administration for the increasing numbers.

“The Biden administration is taking people who are testing positive for COVID-19 and locking them in cages side by side. This is inhumane,” Cruz told reporters. “It is wrong, and it is the direct consequence of policy decisions by the Biden administration to stop building the wall, to return, to catch and release and to end the stay in Mexico policy.”

In 2019, Central American migrants favored crossing in a nearby area of the Rio Grande Valley, but a wall built during Donald Trump’s presidency has pushed them closer to Roma, where the channel is relatively narrow but the current is brisk.

A 17-year-old from El Salvador said he left home recently because he felt threatened by gangs and believes Biden is sympathetic to migrants. Asked how he knew of Biden’s positions, he said, “people who talk.”

Maynor Cruz, 29, said Biden’s policies had nothing do with his decision to leave San Pedro Sula, Honduras, about two months ago, but he heard that families with young children were being allowed to remain in the United States.

Cruz said he was happy to be in the U.S. after a treacherous journey through Mexico, during which someone tried to kidnap his daughter. He left Honduras with his wife and children, ages 7 and 2, because he lost his job in a condiment factory when the pandemic struck and his home was destroyed by a tropical storm in November. He was able to raise enough money for the journey through family in the United States.

“It’s difficult to begin from zero (in Honduras) with what you earn there,” he said.

At the river, a lull set in after the initial rush. CBP reported that it took 681 unaccompanied children into custody Wednesday, a total that excludes Mexicans, who are typically returned immediately.

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Associated Press reporter Ben Fox in Washington contributed.

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HONG KONG (AP) — H&M disappeared from the internet in China as the government raised pressure on shoe and clothing brands and announced sanctions Friday against British officials in a spiraling fight over complaints of abuses in the Xinjiang region.

H&M products were missing from major e-commerce platforms including Alibaba and JD.com following calls by state media for a boycott over the Swedish retailer’s decision to stop buying cotton from Xinjiang. That hurts H&M’s ability to reach customers in a country where more than a fifth of shopping is online.

Shockwaves spread to other brands as dozens of celebrities called off endorsement deals with Nike, Adidas, Burberry, Uniqlo and Lacoste after state media criticized the brands for expressing concern about Xinjiang.

Brands are struggling to respond to pressure abroad to distance themselves from abuses without triggering Chinese retaliation and losing access to one of the biggest and fastest-growing markets. That pressure is rising as human rights activists are lobbying sponsors to pull out of the Beijing Winter Olympics planned for February 2022.

Tencent, which operates games and the popular WeChat message service, announced it was removing Burberry-designed costumes from a popular mobile phone game.

In a high-tech version of the airbrushing used by China and other authoritarian regimes to delete political enemies from historic photos, H&M’s approximately 500 stores in China didn’t show up on ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing or map services operated by Alibaba and Baidu. Its smartphone app disappeared from app stores.

It wasn’t clear whether companies received orders to erase H&M’s online presence, but Chinese enterprises are expected to fall in line without being told. Regulators have broad powers to punish companies that fail to support official policy.

The ruling Communist Party’s Youth League launched attacks Wednesday on H&M following the European Union’s decision to join the United States, Britain and Canada in imposing sanctions on Chinese officials blamed for abuses in Xinjiang.

On Friday, the Chinese government announced penalties against nine Britons and four institutions. They are banned from visiting China or having financial transactions with its citizens and institutions.

More than 1 million members of the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities have been confined to detention camps in Xinjiang, according to foreign governments and researchers. Authorities there are accused of imposing forced labor and coercive birth control measures.

The Chinese government rejects complaints of abuses and says the camps are for job training to support economic development and combat Islamic radicalism.

State media accused H&M and other brands of improperly profiting from China while criticizing it. That prompted Chinese retailers and internet companies to distance themselves from the Swedish retailer, though other brands still were available on e-commerce platforms.

“It’s a form of self-preservation,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.

Rein said the outpouring of anger at H&M is the harshest he has seen against a foreign brand. He said companies are especially sensitive because this comes at a time when Chinese anti-monopoly and other regulators are stepping up scrutiny of internet operators.

“If they don’t try to criticize, they’ll also get in trouble,” Rein said.

In Washington, State Department spokesperson condemned China’s state-led social media campaign and corporate and consumer boycott against companies.

“We commend and stand with companies that adhere to the U.S. laws and ensure products we’re consuming are not made with forced labor,” deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters. “We continue to support and encourage businesses to respect human rights in line with the U.N. guiding principles on business and human rights in the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises.”

The Communist Party often pressures foreign clothing, travel and other brands over actions by their governments or in an effort to compel them to adopt its positions on Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues.

Most comply because China is one of the biggest, fastest-growing markets for global fashion, electronics and other consumer brands.

China is H&M’s fourth-largest market behind Germany, the United States and Britain and accounted about 5% of 2020 revenue.

Greater China is Nike Inc.’s third-largest market after North America and Europe.

Greater China accounted for 23% of Nike’s global sales in the quarter ending in February, compared with 36.5% for North America. But China revenue rose 51% over a year earlier as consumer demand rebounded from the coronavirus, while North American sales fell 10%.

An H&M outlet in Shanghai had only a handful of customers on Friday afternoon.

“I wasn’t aware of the backlash. I came here to buy a coat for spring because H&M is reasonably priced and fashionable,” said Wang Yuying, a 52-year-old retiree who was shopping at the store.

“I’ll still buy something since I’m already here, but if this backlash lasts for a really long time, I will buy less from this brand.”

A salesman, who asked not to be identified by name due to the sensitivity of the matter, said there were far fewer shoppers than on a normal Friday. The salesman said he understood why consumers were angry but said if the backlash continues, it will hurt the livelihoods of local employees of the brands targeted.

Two Burberry-designed character outfits in Tencent’s popular Honor of Kings mobile game were removed, the game’s social media account said Thursday. It gave no reason.

Celebrities including at least one Uyghur announced they were ending endorsement deals with foreign shoe and clothing brands.

Gulnazar, an actress from Xinjiang, said she was breaking ties with Puma. On her social media account, Gulnazar said she “resolutely resists all attempts to discredit China.”

Singers Eason Chan and Angelababy of Hong Kong announced they were breaking ties with Adidas. Actress Zhou Dongyu split from Burberry. Actors Ni Ni and Jing Boran broke with Uniqlo.

Song Qian, a singer and former member of the Korean pop group f(x) who also is known as Victoria Song, and actor Huang Xuan announced earlier they were ending endorsement deals with H&M.

In Hong Kong, pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip said in a Twitter post that she would stop buying Burberry, one of her favorite brands.

“I stand with my country in boycotting companies that spread lies about Xinjiang,” she said.

Not all brands have shunned Xinjiang sourcing.

South Korean athletic shoe brand FILA said Friday the company buys cotton from Xinjiang and will keep doing so.

On its social media account, FILA China said it has started the process of withdrawing from the Better Cotton Initiative, an industry group that promotes environmental and labor standards.

H&M’s announcement last year that it no longer would use Xinjiang cotton cited the BCI’s move to stop licensing cotton from the region because it was difficult to trace how it was produced.

It was unclear why the party targeted H&M, whose expression of concern about Xinjiang was similar to that of other companies. But its home country of Sweden might be seen by Chinese leaders as more susceptible to pressure due to its small size.

Relations between Beijing and Stockholm have been strained since 2015 when a Chinese-born Swedish publisher disappeared from Thailand and surfaced in China. The Chinese ambassador angered the Swedish government by referring to it in a TV interview as a “lightweight boxer.”

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McDonald reported from Beijing. Associated Press researchers Yu Bing in Beijing and Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.

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TORONTO (AP) — The Canadian government waived its mandatory 14-day quarantine period for players acquired by Canadian NHL teams from U.S. clubs “under national interest grounds” ahead of the league’s April 12 trade deadline.

The Canadian Press reported Friday, citing two unidentified people with knowledge of the decision, that players will now observe a seven-day quarantine upon arrival in the country and be subject to daily testing for COVID-19. Players will then be eligible to suit up for their new teams while continuing to undergo daily testing the following week.

The people spoke to CP on condition of anonymity because details of the exemption have not been made public. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly earlier Friday told The Associated Press the NHL had not yet received official word from the Canadian government about the reduction in quarantine time.

Players entering Canada during the season previously had to observe the standard two-week quarantine period with the border closed to non-essential travel due to the pandemic. That included Pierre-Luc Dubois when he was traded from Columbus to Winnipeg.

Eric Staal is the first beneficiary of the new agreement after being traded from Buffalo to Montreal on Friday.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement to The Canadian Press late Friday the five provinces with NHL teams — British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec— have all “provided written commitment that they support the proposed risk mitigation measures from the NHL.”

“The Public Health Agency of Canada was consulted on the NHL’s plan and assessed it against public health criteria,” the statement said. “With the support of provincial and local public health authorities, PHAC concluded that, if fully implemented, it offers robust measures to mitigate the risk of importation and spread of COVID-19 in Canada for the purposes of in-season additions.”

The cut in quarantine time, which also applies to players called up from American Hockey League teams in the U.S., is a boost for Canada’s seven NHL franchises ahead of the trade deadline.

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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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