Latest news with #flatEarth
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Props Trump Used in Oval Office Rant Were Embarrassingly Wrong
An image Donald Trump held up in the Oval Office on Wednesday as evidence of violence against white South African farmers actually showed people in an entirely different country. In a wild Oval Office meeting, Trump confronted South African president Cyril Ramaphosa with a printed image that he claimed showed 'burial sites all over the place' in South Africa and 'white farmers that are being buried.' But according to multiple fact checks, the image comes from a Reuters news agency clip filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The president has been accusing South Africa's Black-led government of being anti-white, and has long entertained an unfounded narrative that a 'white genocide' is being committed against South African farmers. That wasn't the only questionable material Trump served up during the tense meeting. According to the liberal Meidas News network, another piece of paper Trump held up showed a post that came from a fringe South African Facebook account that promotes white nationalist rhetoric and flat Earth conspiracy theories. The Daily Beast has not independently verified that claim. The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast's request for comment. Ramaphosa's White House visit was widely viewed as an attempt to improve relations with the U.S., amid ongoing criticism of the country from Trump and the expulsion of the South African ambassador to the U.S. in March. 'Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates' Trump, Secretary of State Rubio claimed in a post on X in March, declaring the diplomat 'no longer welcome in our great country.' During Wednesday's meeting, Trump also had his South African counterpart sit through a video that he said at one point showed the burial grounds of white farmers. That was also misidentified by Trump, according to CNN, and actually showed symbolic crosses as part of a demonstration representing farmers who had been killed.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Shaquille O'Neal reveals the only time his controversial comments landed him in trouble with HR
Shaquille O'Neal has revealed the only time he got in trouble with human resources during his career was after he came out in support of flat-Earth conspiracy theories. O'Neal has not been shy about making controversial comments and speaking out on any topic that comes to mind, especially if its in disagreement with colleague Charles Barkley. O'Neal put faith in flat-Earth conspiracies in 2017, just after Kyrie Irving came out bombastically believing them. Although O'Neal does not make it clear when the HR meeting was, he alludes to it being around that time. O'Neal also clarified he thought it was clear he was joking about the conspiracy. 'I said that as a joke and the internet went freaking crazy on me,' O'Neal said on 'The Big Podcast'. 'I had a corporation I was working with… when I said that and it went viral, they actually called me in. And I had to talk to the HR department and they were talking about dropping me.' 'I said, "You can drop me if you want, you're still gonna have to pay me." They were like, "Yeah, we got a lot of hate mail." That's when I knew the world was really shifting, especially listening to the comments.' O'Neal has not been shy about making controversial comments and speaking out on any topic The company O'Neal was working with is unclear but it was not TNT Sports, where he has had a successful broadcast career. Irving's flat-Earth conspiracies were not the only time he has been in hot water with the NBA. The now-Dallas Maverick shared his hesitancy to take the coronavirus vaccine and was suspended in 2022 after sharing a series of anti-Semitic messages through social media and the press. O'Neal has never been in that amount of hot water, as 'DJ Diesel' reaches an apex of his career. TNT's broadcast deal with the NBA is expiring, with the future of the famed quartet of Barkley, O'Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith sticking together and heading to ESPN.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Flat Earth on the ballot? Debunked claim pops up in US politics.
Humans have known the Earth is round for more than 2,000 years, but a movement questioning that fact has reached the corners of American politics. People involved in politics in Alabama, Georgia and Minnesota have attracted attention for their links to the flat Earth movement, although their beliefs and reasoning vary. To some, the beliefs have a spiritual connection. Others say they have a healthy skepticism of scientific consensus. Data from a 2021 University of New Hampshire survey shows nearly 10% of Americans believe the Earth is flat, indicating how widespread pseudo-scientific conspiracy theories are emerging in the U.S. Meanwhile, political observers have met the emergence of some flat Earth beliefs in politics with a mix of alarm and apathy. Political candidates who believe the Earth is flat and other similar beliefs are "consistent with the current dumbing down and anti-intellectualism of America," said James Taylor, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco. Taylor said these theories have thrived mostly due to the internet and social media compared to 20 years ago. In Alabama, there's Dean Odle, a pastor who lost when he ran for governor in 2022, and is now seeking to become lieutenant governor next year. Odle, who describes himself as the "Anti-estabishment Republican," told USA TODAY he became "a flat-earth/biblical-earther believer" in 2015, even attending the inaugural Flat Earth International Conference in 2017. He cites his 2019 self-published book, titled "Like Clay Under the Seal," saying his belief that the Earth is flat initially came as a "spiritual download from the Holy Spirit." Odle said he's aware of the flak he gets for his beliefs, but it won't stop him from running for office to try improving the state's low-ranking education status and stop the Second Amendment from being attacked. "I typically refer to Article VI, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which says no religious tests should be put on a person as a qualification or disqualification to run for office," Odle said. "What that means is we're all going to have different beliefs, but that doesn't mean we're unfit to protect the God-given constitutional rights of all Americans and Alabama residents." In Minnesota, Bret Bussman, an Army veteran who became Minnesota's 7th Congressional District Republican Party chair in March, has reportedly publicly shared videos on social media explaining why he believes the Earth is flat. That includes a 2024 Facebook post titled, "5 Reasons Why I BELIEVE in the Flat Earth (And You Should Too!)." When asked about his beliefs by the Minnesota Reformer in April, Bussman said, "You can print whatever you want. I spent 20+ years in the Army defending that right, but if you do that, there would be no chance of me speaking with you in the future." (USA TODAY has reached out to Bussman for comment.) And in Georgia, Kandiss Taylor, a former Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate and the state's current District 1 GOP Chair, has announced she's running for Congress in 2026. She faced scrutiny after interviewing two prominent flat Earth believers on a podcast two years ago, at one point saying: "Everywhere there's globes. It's constant…and that's what they do to brainwash," Taylor said. "For me, if it is not a conspiracy, if it is, you know, 'real,' why are you pushing so hard? Everywhere I go, every store, you buy a globe, there's globes everywhere—every movie, every TV show, news media. Why? It doesn't make sense." Taylor has since said she does not believe the Earth is flat, but that she remains skeptical. "I will clearly state that I simply do not believe anything that I have not seen for myself," Taylor said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY. "With that being said, I will gladly take one of those 11-minute rocket flights to the stratosphere (Like Katy Perry did) and report back to the people what I see." In general, most flat-earthers believe Earth is a flat, hockey-puck-like object covered by a dome, sometimes called a firmament, with walls of ice around the edges of the dome. Flat-earthers think they can prove this because the seas appear level, not curved, and say it is not possible to view the Earth's curvature of the horizon from airplanes. They also dispute photographic evidence from space, saying it cannot be trusted and that the NASA moon landing was a hoax. Fact check roundup: Debunking the flawed science behind flat Earth claims Although some flat Earth believers have been active in politics, there's no evidence of an organized flat-earther movement in U.S. politics, political experts told USA TODAY. "You're unlikely to have candidates openly saying they think the earth is flat because it sounds like a goofier position and a less widely held belief," said John Cluverius, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. "I hesitate to think about this as a conspiracy theory as much as it is an anti-science belief that can be countered with scientific evidence." Round and round: Surreal April 2024 total solar eclipse renews debunked flat Earth conspiracy theories There's a common flat Earth error, popularized in the 19th century, suggesting that before scientific study began in the 17th century, most people believed the Earth was indeed flat. However, ancient Greeks figured out the Earth was round around 500 B.C., and it's been commonly accepted by scholars, navigators and cartographers since. The flat Earth belief as a conspiracy theory rose again in the mid-1800s in England. The Flat Earth Society was founded in 1956. Then, flat-earthers had a resurgence in the 2010s as the rise of social media became a portal for conspiracy theorists, as James Taylor, the San Francisco political scientist, mentioned. Contributing: Elizabeth Wiese, Doyle Rice, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Flat Earth on the ballot? Some politicians linked to debunked claim.
