
LPGA names former PGA of America exec as new commissioner
NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - The LPGA board elected Craig Kessler to serve as its new commissioner, the organisation said on Thursday, with the former Chief Operating Officer of the PGA of America stepping into the role on July 15.
Former Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan stepped down in January, days before the start of the 2025 season, after overseeing an increase in popularity and prize money.
"This role is deeply personal to me – not just as a professional opportunity, but as a chance to make a difference in the world and create new opportunities for others. Golf changes lives," Kessler said in a statement.
"I believe in the LPGA's mission, its members and its momentum."
The LPGA Tour put a record $131 million in prize money up for offer across 35 events in its 75th anniversary season this year, with the combined purse for the five majors topping $47 million.
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Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Musk's attack on Trump sparks fears that 'Dark MAGA conspiracy' is coming true
A chilling conspiracy theory claims to know the reason behind Elon Musk 's attacks on President Donald Trump, saying it was his plan all along. Since the 2024 presidential campaign, Musk has been seen wearing and promoting the 'Dark MAGA' cap, a black-colored version of Trump's famously red Make America Great Again apparel. However, believers of the 'Dark MAGA conspiracy' claim this was a signal of Musk's real intentions for joining the campaign despite not having any concrete evidence of a plot existing. The conspiracy claims that a secret group of tech elites is plotting to undermine Trump and turn the US into a 'giant company' run by a new CEO that they would hand-pick. This theory started to gain more attention on social media after JD Vance was chosen as the vice presidential candidate, despite reports that Trump was leaning towards other choices, including Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. Now, as Musk has fired off shocking claims about Trump, including that the president is deeply connected to Jeffrey Epstein and should be replaced by Vice President Vance, the Dark MAGA conspiracy appears to be coming true in real time. Among the tech bosses allegedly part of this plot are Musk and Peter Thiel, the founders of PayPal. Conspiracy theorists believe that the group's ultimate goal is to dismantle American democracy and transform the country into a 'corporate monarchy' run by tech billionaires. Both Musk and Thiel wanted Vance chosen as Trump's running mate last year, according to The Daily Beast. Moreover, their multi-million-dollar campaign war chest for Trump was allegedly tied to the president picking the Ohio senator. According to the Dark MAGA conspiracy, however, the so-called 'PayPal Mafia' and Silicon Valley billionaires have been secretly grooming Vance to eventually replace Trump. Despite the claims Vance is a corporate plant, the vice president came to Trump's defense on Friday morning as he slammed 'corporate media lies' about the president. 'There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he's impulsive or short-tempered,' he posted on X. 'Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that's ridiculous.' Vance added in a follow up post that 'it's (maybe) the single biggest disconnect between fake media perception and reality.' Also a part of the Dark MAGA (also called the Dark Enlightenment) conspiracy is Curtis Yarvin, a former computer coder and self-proclaimed 'Dark Elf' philosopher. Writing under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug in a 2008 blog, Yarvin advocated for a dictator-led monarchy to replace democracy in the US. Yarvin's ideas, once fringe, have allegedly gained a following among tech giants like Musk, Thiel, and billionaire software engineer Marc Andreessen. Yarvin compared democracy to 'outdated software' and called for the creation of a tech-driven government where the federal workforce was significantly slashed, elections became obsolete, and billionaires made all decisions for the country. The parallels between Musk's work with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Dark MAGA conspiracy appear eerily similar. Under Musk's leadership, DOGE has been credited with slashing over 250,000 government jobs since the start of the Trump Administration on January 20. That same day, Dark MAGA conspiracy theorists took note of the eye-opening sight of several tech billionaires in attendance at President Trump's second inauguration. The guests included Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The alleged plot has only gained more attention this week, as Musk's sudden falling out with President Trump reached a new level of animosity. The clash began over Musk's opposition to Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which will reportedly add trillions to the national deficit and wipe out the savings from DOGE. The fight quickly devolved into a string of personal insults between the two men, prompting the president to consider terminating all of Musk's multi-billion-dollar government contracts for SpaceX and Tesla. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump said on Truth Social. Musk fired back right away, saying that SpaceX would begin 'decommissioning' its Dragon spacecraft immediately in response to the threat. The spacecraft is vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to Trump during his first administration and a fierce critic of Elon Musk, quickly weighed in during his 'War Room Live' broadcast on Thursday. He urged the president to seize SpaceX from the billionaire entrepreneur and invoke the Defense Production Act - a national security measure dating back to the Korean War era - to seize control of the company. has reached out to Musk and SpaceX for comment on the status of the Dragon program. In this grim conspiracy, Trump is painted as an unwitting 'messenger of chaos,' with Musk acting as the true director of a tech-driven dystopian society. 'Some of Washington's biggest institutions have been briefed about Dark Enlightenment. They are taking it seriously,' The Daily Beast claimed on Friday. Ironically, Democrats have continued to claim that President Trump is a threat to democracy because of his policies on immigration and government spending. However, the Dark MAGA conspiracy alleges that the real threat comes from those seeking to unseat the 47th president and replace him with a tech-backed CEO. On Friday, Musk continued his assault on the president, re-sharing a stunning clip showing Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein. The clip was from 1992, showing the president and notorious pedophile surrounded by women and dancing at a club. The footage was posted by X user Natalie Danelishen, before Musk re-shared it with an inquisitive faced emoji.


The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on the Trump-Musk feud: we can't rely on outsized egos to end oligopoly
It would have taken a heart of stone to watch the death of the Trump-Musk bromance without laughing. Democrats passed the popcorn on Thursday night as the alliance between the world's most powerful man and the world's richest imploded via posts on their respective social media platforms. Less than a week ago they attempted a conscious uncoupling in the Oval Office. Then Elon Musk's attacks on Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending plan escalated to full-scale denunciation of a 'disgusting abomination' – objecting to its effect on the deficit, not the fact it snatches essential support from the poor and hands $1.1tn in tax cuts to the rich. The president said that Mr Musk had 'gone crazy' and was angry that electric vehicle subsidies were being removed, claimed he had fired him, threatened to terminate his government contracts, and mocked the billionaire's recent black eye. Steve Bannon chipped in, suggesting that Mr Musk should be deported. Mr Musk said Mr Trump should be impeached and alleged the government had not released files on the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein because the president was in them. He threatened to immediately start decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft – now key to Nasa's programme – and suggested it was time for a new political party. The ultimate insult: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election,' he wrote. Mr Musk later appeared minded to limit the damage, backing away from the spacecraft threat – not surprising, perhaps, when he had just watched $152bn wiped off Tesla's value. Each man knows that the other could hurt him, via government fiat or political war chest. Yet both are so unpredictable that the row could still reignite. Two narcissists used to imposing their will were never likely to coexist happily for long, despite the advantages of doing so: this was less a marriage of convenience than of naked self-interest. Mr Trump loathes sharing the limelight; the Tesla boss frequently grabbed it. The president is surely as resentful of as he is dazzled by Mr Musk's spectacular wealth. He was angered to discover that Mr Musk had arranged private briefings on the Pentagon's plans for any potential war with China – not only a blatant conflict of interest, but perhaps more upsettingly, a sign of his growing power. Mr Musk's behaviour has also appeared increasingly erratic. A recent New York Times report alleged he took large amounts of drugs including ketamine while advising Mr Trump prior to the election. Mr Musk has described the story as 'bs'. His departure from the president's orbit is good news. Mr Musk implausibly claimed he would save $2tn annually – approaching a third of the federal budget – by taking a chainsaw to bureaucracy. Wild decisions by the so-called department of government efficiency are mired in the courts. But he has nonetheless caused real damage which will not easily be remedied, gutting agencies and departments which took decades to build. People are dying because of his demolition of USAID. Yet while the bond between the peak of power and the peak of wealth has been severed, politics remains in thrall to money. Mr Trump's approach is particularly noxious, turning wealth directly into political favours and power, and power into further wealth. This is the new oligopoly. He oversees a cabinet of billionaires, and has directed his real estate tycoon friend Steve Witkoff, a man with no diplomatic experience, to bring peace in the Middle East and Ukraine. But though megadonors are heavily skewed towards the Republicans, Democrats too depend on billionaires. Mr Musk is a symptom of the underlying malaise. Democracy requires better safeguards against the unhealthy marriage of wealth and power than the rampant egos of those who command them.


Reuters
33 minutes ago
- Reuters
Jackie Robinson mural in Miami defaced with hate speech
June 6 - Miami murals honoring baseball trailblazers Jackie Robinson and Minnie Minoso were defaced with swastikas and racist slurs this week. The vandalism in the city's Overtown neighborhood was reported Monday to police, who told The Athletic on Friday that they are investigating the incident as a hate crime. The defacements of the murals in Dorsey Park included swastikas painted over the players' faces and a racial slur scrawled on Robinson's image. "This was an act of hate, but it will not define us," Kyle Holbrook, the artist who painted the mural in 2011 as part of the MLK Mural Project, told the Miami Herald. "This mural was born from a community's pride, history, and power. We will restore it -- stronger, bolder, and with even more purpose. Black history is American history. And no spray paint can erase that truth." Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The Hall of Famer's uniform No. 42 is retired throughout the big leagues. Minoso, who was born in Cuba, also broke ground as the first Black Latino player when he played for Cleveland in 1949. He was inducted into Cooperstown in 2022. U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) called the vandalism a "vile act of hatred" in a statement Wednesday. "We must treat this for what it is: a hate crime meant to instill fear and division," she said. "But we will not be intimidated. We will respond with unity, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and the preservation of our history." In 2024, a statue of Robinson was stolen from a park in Wichita, Kan., and later found burned and dismantled. --Field Level Media