The Times - UK (2022-05-28)

the times | Saturday May 28 2022 2GM 49

Wo r l d

senator, told the NRA event that taking

away guns would not stop crime. “Gun

bans do not work — look at Chicago. If

they did work Chicago wouldn’t be the

murder hellhole that it has been for far

too long. The reason is simple, the law-

abiding citizens follow the law but the

criminals do not.”

He called for more funding for

Mourners seek comfort at a

memorial in Uvalde town

square for the 21 victims of

the shooting at Robb

Elementary School. Despite

protests, the National Rifle

Tesla’s sleek electric cars are an increas-

ingly common sight in the car park on

Capitol Hill, but the decision to buy one

has become more controversial among

members of Congress as Elon Musk

wades deeper into America’s partisan

politics.

The vehicles, previously seen as an

indicator of left-wing politics and

support for the transition to renewable

energy, have surged in popularity

among conservatives on the Hill since

Musk, the company’s chief executive,

announced earlier this month that he

would vote Republican after a feud with

President Biden’s administration.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this

week that she wanted to sell her Tesla

after a public spat with Musk over his

plans to buy Twitter. The left-wing

Democratic representative from New

York bought her Tesla Model 3 at the

start of the pandemic, but told Bloom-

berg she “would love to switch” to an

electric car built by unionised workers

after declaring Musk “a billionaire with

an ego problem”.

Musk responded by tweeting: “Stop

hitting on me, I’m really shy.” He then

announced that he would vote Republi-

can in future, claiming that the Demo-

crats had become the party of “division

and hate”. He accused Biden of being

“beholden” to the unions, unlike his

predecessors Donald Trump and

Barack Obama.

Biden snubbed Musk when he

Democrats love their Teslas

but not the company boss

invited senior US business leaders to

discuss his green-energy agenda at the

White House in February. The presi-

dent’s proposed tax on billionaires

prompted Musk to ridicule him as “a

damp sock puppet in human form”.

It was reported last week that Musk’s

SpaceX company had paid a $250,000

settlement after a flight attendant on

his private jet claimed he had exposed

himself in 2016 and offered to buy her a

horse in return for sex.

The world’s richest man dismissed

the story as a “dirty tricks campaign”

orchestrated by the Democrats.

His feud with the president and the

Democrats has inevitably won

the approval of senior

Republicans, among

them Ted Cruz. The

Texas senator de-

nounced Biden’s

“radical climate

agenda” last year

but now says he is

considering buying

a Tesla; in part

because his young

daughters had told

him that the onboard

computer “makes fart

noises from each of the

seats”.

In fact, surveys suggest that the

gap between the number of Democrat-

ic and Republican Tesla buyers has

been narrowing for some time. Trust

for the Tesla brand among Republicans

now outstrips that among Democrats,

buoyed in part by Musk’s decision to

move the company headquarters to

Texas from California last year; one of

several tech companies fleeing the west

coast for the low-tax haven.

Thomas Massie of Kentucky was one

of the first Republican Tesla converts in

Congress, although his Model S sports

an incongruous “Friends of Coal” stick-

er on the number plate, above the slo-

gan “Coal keeps the lights on.”

Musk has always worked both sides

of the aisle. His Tesla and SpaceX

companies spent more than

$2 million on lobbying

and political donations

to both parties last

year.

Even when dis-

cussing gun con-

trol after the

Uvalde school

massacre in Tex-

as this week he

has stepped care-

fully, in a manner

that belies his

often petty and reck-

less comments on

social media.

He said he supported “tight

background checks” for all gun sales,

which Cruz and most Republicans in

Congress oppose, but also told CNBC

that he backed the Second Amendment

as “an important safeguard against

potential tyranny of government”.

United States

Hugh Tomlinson

Supermodel rolls up for talks

with call to legalise cannabis

She is perhaps an unlikely lobbyist in

the heart of Berlin, yet the supermodel

Heidi Klum is said to have met senior

drugs officials to press for Germany to

legalise cannabis.

The talks involving Klum, 48, in

Berlin last week follow her new duet

with the American rapper Snoop Dogg,

who once professed to “smoke weed

every day”.

The mother of four met Burkhard

Blienert, 56, the federal government’s

commissioner for addiction and drug

issues last Friday, according to the

German broadcaster RTL. Also present

is said to have been Finn Hänsel, 30,

who heads the medicinal cannabis

company Sanity Group.

According to Bild, Blienert had been

expecting Klum to talk about drug

abuse, and was surprised to hear her

suggest investing in a future legalised

cannabis industry.

Afterwards the model talked to

the Bundestag MP Andrew Ull-

mann, an advocate for decriminalis-

ing cannabis, while her husband,

the rock guitarist Tom Kaulitz,

32, is also campaigning to legal-

ise the drug, RTL reported.

The couple, who married in

2019 after Klum divorced the

singer Seal in 2014, have not

commented on the reports. A

spokesman for Ullmann

would neither confirm or

deny the meeting.

Growing, owning, buying

or dealing in cannabis in

Germany can carry a prison sentence

of up to five years. Prosecutors tend to

turn a blind eye to using small quanti-

ties for personal consumption but there

is no nationwide definition of what a

small quantity constitutes.

The centre-left coalition govern-

ment of Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, has

said that it will legalise cannabis sales to

adults through licensed outlets. No

legislation has been drafted and the

government has said any law will not

take effect until next year or 2024.

Experts have said there are numerous

hurdles, including securing a supply of

quality-certified cannabis.

In California, where Klum spends

most of her time, cannabis for personal

consumption has been legal since 2018.

Following the recording of her duet

with Snoop Dogg and the DJ duo Wed-

dingCake, entitled Chai Tea with Heidi,

Klum commented: “Snoop Dog has the

biggest cloud of smoke around him.

It’s so big that it probably has its

own zip code. I can’t remember

everything about that day, just

this: I was craving chips like

crazy.”

The 50-year-old rapper

once admitted that he

would pay an aide

$35,000-$45,000 a year to

roll joints for him. He also

supports a company that

operates an app allowing

people to order mari-

juana via a smartphone.

Klum takes a less re-

laxed approach to stimu-

lants as a judge on the TV

show Germany’s Next Top-

model, forbidding candi-

dates from alcohol, drugs or

fatty foods.

Germany

Rob Hyde Bremen

Redwoods spared

wear and tear of

Instagram blight

Keiran Southern Los Angeles

The ancient redwoods called the Grove

of Titans had been one of California’s

best-kept secrets for decades — until

social media arrived.

Visitors seeking a perfect Instagram

picture began promoting the grove’s

exact location, leading to an explosion

in tourism. With few official trails, the

trees’ roots were damaged and the eco-

system further harmed by litter.

Now tourists will be able to marvel at

the trees, some of which are 300ft tall

and 2,000 years old, without damaging

their fragile roots by using a $4 million

elevated boardwalk that winds 1,400ft

through the forest.

“This place was almost loved to

death,” Erin Gates, the acting deputy

superintendent for Redwood National

and State Parks, told the San Francisco

Chronicle. “We had an overabundance

of visitors causing irreversible damage

to the place.”

The redwoods, tucked away deep in

the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State

Park, had stood almost undisturbed

since the park opened in 1929.

California State Parks said crews

spent 23,000 hours realigning an exist-

ing three-mile official trail and building

the new walkway. The old, unofficial

trails were removed and previously

damaged areas were restored.

To minimise damage to the habitat,

workers carried in almost 128 tonnes

of construction materials and tools to

the site.

Gates added: “This project is really a

story about legacy: being mindful of the

role we all play in helping to keep our

parks thriving.”

schools to employ protection officers or

military veterans. “Ultimately as we all

know what stops armed bad guys is

armed good guys.”

NRA members at the conference

argued that the Uvalde massacre was

no reason to cancel the meeting.

Insular America can’t see its

gaping flaws, Janice Turner, page 31

Association’s annual

convention is going ahead

in Houston, although guns

were not allowed in the

auditorium during Donald

Trump’s address last night

blood and played dead’

the Texas Department of Public Safety

(DPS), said officers from Uvalde police

department and school police were

“inside making entry” within four min-

utes of the gunman’s arrival.

Information given out earlier in the

week by the DPS, stating that police

based in the school had engaged in a

gunfight with the teenager, was “not

accurate”, he conceded. There had been

no school police officer on campus, he

confirmed. “He walked in unobstructed

initially. So from the grandmother’s

house to the ditch, into the school, he

was not confronted by anybody. Four

minutes later, law enforcement are

coming in,” Escalon said. “They hear

gunfire, they take rounds, they move

back, get cover and during that time

they approach where the suspect is at.”

After the gunman barricaded himself

into a classroom, where 19 students and

two teachers were shot and killed, there

was a stand-off. It was not until about 45

minutes later that he was killed. Esca-

lon said: “Once we interview all those

officers, we’ll have a better idea. We’re

not there yet.”

Ida Tristan, a resident whose son

teaches at another school, took flowers

and balloons to place outside Robb

Elementary. “As a teacher, yeah maybe

you expect to have to pick kids up and

brush them down when they fall and

scrape their knee, but not have to shel-

ter them and watch them die,” she said,

Two memorials have been set up,

with 21 white wooden crosses bearing

the names of each victim — one outside

the school and one in the town square.

The older sister of Alexandria Rubio,

a ten-year-old victim, collapsed as her

father knelt beside her. She wrote on

her sibling’s cross: “Your big sister was

here. I love you. Visit me in my dreams.”

Fernando Gonzales, nine, a pupil at

the school, laid red roses outside with

his mother, Regina, and sister, Veroni-

ca, four. He said: “I brought flowers

because I want to help sad people.”

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she

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Heidi Klum met an official

to discuss decriminalisation