The San Francisco Giants players who wrote Biblical verses on their hats launched an attack on Pride month and the LGBTQ+ community, selectively quoting verses in their attempt to impose their beliefs.
That’s what you might think if you followed some of the media coverage of the controversy involving several members of the Giants who declined to participate in Pride month, or who staged a quiet protest.
They “defaced their uniforms” said one columnist. They tried “to hijack the event,” she later added.
They “missed the point” with their “tone-deaf response,” another columnist wrote.
They had “weaponiz[ed]” Christianity “for an anti-LGBTQ agenda out of pure spite and nasty politics,” said another.
The San Francisco Giants players who wrote Biblical verses on their hats launched an attack on Pride month and the LGBTQ+ community, selectively quoting verses in their attempt to impose their beliefs. AP Photo/Scott MarshallThey had “weaponiz[ed]” Christianity “for an anti-LGBTQ agenda out of pure spite and nasty politics,” said another. AP
Let’s get one thing clear: Not one of these players set out to cause a fuss. All of them were reacting to something they had been forced to express when they were told to wear a rainbow “Pride” hat.
The team forced these Christian players to say something that violated their deeply held religious beliefs. And so several of them asserted those beliefs in the most tasteful way possible: by citing Biblical verses about the origin of the rainbow, which is now seen as a symbol of the LGBTQ+ movement.
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They are tolerant toward others. They just ask the same in return.
Traditional Christian faith follows the Biblical teaching that God created man and woman, and that homosexuality is morally problematic.
Let’s get one thing clear: Not one of these players set out to cause a fuss. All of them were reacting to something they had been forced to express when they were told to wear a rainbow “Pride” hat.
That is not the final word on the subject. Not in San Francisco, and not in America.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution declares that Congress shall establish no law making any one religion, or religion in general, the law of the land.
But the First Amendment also protects freedom of religion. And Congress has taken special care to make sure that religious freedom is upheld.
The rainbow is supposed to include every color. But a rainbow only appears when light is refracted through water, and splits into its separate wavelengths.
A rainbow can be a sign of division, as well as a sign of unity.
It need not be that way. We need to make sure that tolerance extends to Christians as well.
The baseball players who stood up for their beliefs showed the true meaning of pride.
They are giants of faith, who have reminded us of our nation’s deepest founding values — which we should all share, regardless of where we are on the rainbow.
If the Yankees were looking for any more clarity about the weak parts on a roster that’s looked mostly dominant even without Aaron Judge, they got it on Thursday in The Bronx.
What had been a tight game against a White Sox team they had hammered the previous two games, turned on its head with one pitch from Camilo Doval, the right-hander who’s been unreliable since he was acquired from the Giants nearly a year ago.
Faced with the unenviable task of entering with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the eighth of a tie game, Doval faced pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi and gave up a grand slam on his first pitch in a 5-1 loss.
Doval was far from the only reason the Yankees had their four-game winning streak snapped, losing just the second time in 10 games.
An offense that had piled up 30 runs in their previous three games, couldn’t get anything going against lefty opener Bryan Hudson or right-hander Sean Burke, who had been knocked around by the Dodgers and Phillies in his previous two appearances, but limited the Yankees to one run in 7 1/3 innings to finish the game.
The Yankees brought a season-high 3 ½-game lead in the AL East over the idle Rays- who were just swept by the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
But despite a solid start by lefty Ryan Weathers — who gave up just one run in 6 ⅓ innings — the Yankees were unable to finish off a sweep of Chicago.
Weathers had allowed at least five runs in each of his previous three starts — and four of his last five — but struck out the side in order in the top of the first, an indication of how powerful his stuff was on Thursday.
He began the second by giving up a leadoff homer to Colson Montgomery after allowing seven homers in those three previous starts.
Andrew Benintendi (right) celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 5-1 loss to the White Sox on June 18, 2026 at the Stadium. Robert Sabo for New York Post
But that would be all he would give up to the White Sox on this night.
He responded to the Montgomery homer by facing one batter over the minimum until he walked Montgomery with one out in the seventh to end Weathers’ outing.
Ryan McMahon got to Burke to open the bottom of the third with an opposite-field homer to left-center that tied the game at 1-1.
Camilo Doval gave up a grand slam to Andrew Benintendi in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ loss to the White Sox. Robert Sabo for New York Post
José Caballero gave the Yankees a brief scoring chance against Burke in the fifth, as he reached second on a single and an error by center fielder Tristan Peters.
But Caballero was picked off second and McMahon whiffed.
Anthony Volpe is tagged out trying to stretch a double into a triple during the seventh inning of the Yankees’ loss to the White Sox. Robert Sabo for New York Post
As Junior Pérez raced down the ball, Volpe tried to get to third and was thrown out.
In the eighth, Fernando Cruz gave up a leadoff double to pinch-hitter Luisangel Acuña before lefty Tim Hill entered and hit pinch-hitter Sam Antonacci, as well as Tristan Peters — Peters on an 0-2 pitch — to load the bases with no one out.
With the infield in, Hill struck out Chase Meidroth before Doval entered to face Benintendi, who tagged Doval with a shot out to right on a 99-mph sinker that wasn’t low enough.
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It didn’t help that the Yankees saw Volpe get thrown out trying to steal second to end the fourth, one of several questionable baserunning moves on a rough night at the Stadium.
An international supermarket store finally opened its doors in the Bay Area amid a flurry of social media fanfare from influencers who were the first ones to score an exclusive look inside the first California location.
The Canadian-based T&T Supermarket officially debuted on Thursday in San Jose with a grand opening of its Asian-themed grocery store at the Westgate Center, located at 1600 Saratoga Ave.
An international supermarket store finally opened its doors in the Bay Area amid a flurry of social media fanfare from influencers. TikTok/ttsupermarket
However, the first people inside the 55,000 sq. foot store weren’t customers but content creators who got a sneak peek on Wednesday.
Influencers hit the specialty market — armed with their lights and phones — to film some of its unique products with close up shots on popular Chinese street foods, Taiwanese style sticky rice rolls, and more.
Influencers hit the specialty market to film some of its private-label products. TikTok/soos.foods
Videos on TikTok showed them inside the market promoting items the food chain is known for like huge sushi plates for $30, dim sum, bao, traditional sticky rice and viral mango egg tarts.
Others were filmed dancing through the aisles of the new supermarket or visiting the counter of the enticing Chinese crepe station.
“All the food here feels like it’s picked by locals,” content creator and product manager Yuming Lu told the SF Chronicle.
Others were filmed dancing through the aisles of the new supermarket. TikTok/aangatar7
“It’s very authentic and legit.”
Customers then showed up by the hundreds on Thursday with more videos surfacing online showing people lined up outside the store waiting to get inside to get their hands on products the store is known for like ready-to-eat meals, Asian beauty products, fresh produce, and baked goods.
The store features thousands of products across Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian and other Asian cuisines, according to the company.
The store is known for its ready-to-eat meals, Asian beauty products, fresh produce, and baked goods. TikTok/jessical3690
Shoppers can also expect to find some of the market’s private-label products like pork soup dumplings, green onion pancakes, kalbi sauces and Taiwanese-style sausage, per the company.
“San Jose is a long-anticipated store,” Tina Lee, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.
“We’re bringing more than just exciting, high-quality foods. We’re exporting a new way of life from Canada: one that’s deeply food-centric, celebratory, rich in tradition and fresh-obsessed.”
Shoppers can also expect to find some of the market’s private-label products like pork soup dumplings, green onion pancakes, and more. TikTok/soos.foodsThe T&T store is located at the Westgate Center, located at 1600 Saratoga Ave in San Jose. T&T Supermarkets
T&T was founded in Vancouver in 1993 and headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, with offices in Toronto and Los Angeles.
The company operates more than 39 stores across Canada and the United States — including its first US store in Bellevue, Washington, that opened in 2024.
Socialist firebrands Mayor Zohran Mandani and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders warned of a new radical “movement” sweeping the nation in a rally Thursday night to boost a slate of lefty Big Apple House hopefuls.
The progressive bullhorns juiced the packed “Our Year, Our Team” crowd at Kings Theatre in Flatbush to support a slate of Mamdani-backed Democratic Socialists of America congressional candidates for the pivotal June 23 Democratic primaries.
Mayor Zohran Mandani and Sen. Bernie Sanders touted a new radical “movement” in a rally on Thursday night to boost a slate of lefty New York congressional candidates. REUTERS
The candidates — two of whom are pitted against establishment Dems — include former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, running in the 10th House District, Democratic socialist state Assembly Member Claire Valdez for the 7th House District, and Darializa Avila Chevalier for the 13th House District.
“The Democratic Party must change. The party of the past will not be what leads us into the future, for we need a democratic party with a backbone,” Mamdani told the raucous crowd.
The mayor, wearing a Knicks Jersey under his suit mere hours after a ticker-tape parade through the Canyon of Heroes celebrated the team’s NBA championship, urged New Yorkers to “show up” for the candidates as they showed up for him in his historic November win.
“Our work has never been about any one person or any one office or any one election. Our work has been about a movement. A movement to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas,” Mamdani said.
Sanders, who hails from Flatbush, pointed to progressive wins across the country as a reason to continue the leftist momentum across the Big Apple. AFP via Getty Images
“A movement to usher in a new era for our city. A movement to make government work for every single New Yorker, not just the wealthy and the well-connected.”
Sanders, a Flatbush native, pointed to progressive wins sweeping the nation and said it was crucial to carry that momentum across the Big Apple.
“In the last eight months, progressive, democratic socialist candidates all over this country have been winning major victories,” the Vermont firebrand shouted.
“Why are progressives and socialist candidates winning elections all across this country? The working class of America understands that our current economic system is rigged,” Sanders added.
“That it is designed to benefit the wealthy and the powerful, and while the very richest people in this country become richer, it leaves working families behind, struggling to put food on the table.”
Valdez, Chevalier and Lander all spoke at the get-out-the-vote rally, which was emceed by comedian Ilana Glazer and featured a performance by Sarah Bareilles.
Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander all spoke at the get-out-the-vote rally. Getty Images
Valdez, who is running to represent part of Brooklyn and Queens in the June 23 primaries, was backed by Mamdani over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s pick to fill her seat.
Valdez charged “solidarity does not stop at our borders.”
“The war machine and the billionaire class are not separate people; they are the same. But they are not as powerful as they think because when working people come together, they can move mountains,” she slammed.
Lander, who is challenging Rep. Dan Goldman, also blasted establishment Democrats and billionaires.
“We’ve had it with corporate democrats who don’t know what time it is,” he raged.
“This is not the time for strongly worded letters, or high-dollar fundraisers, or elections bought by billionaires, or crypto bros, or AI oligarchs. It’s time for politics of solidarity.”
The operator of a runaway horse-drawn carriage that led to the death of an 18-year-old tourist is “devastated,” a rep said Thursday – as it was revealed all Central Park horse-and-buggy rides were halted.
“He’s absolutely devastated,” said Christina Hansen, shop steward for Transport Workers Union Local 100, outside carriage driver Ertan Gokdepe’s Queens home.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to him,” she said, noting that Gokdepe has been in the business for 20 years.
The scene of the Central Park carriage accident that killed Romanch Mahajan. Eyewitness News ABC7NYCarriage driver Ertan Gokdepe is “devastated” after Wednesday’s fatal crash. Brigitte Stelzer
Romanch Mahajan, 18, a tourist from India, was on vacation with his family when they booked a carriage ride in Central Park with Gokdepe.
But disaster struck when the horse, 7-year-old Sampson, became spooked as Gokdepe stepped out of the buggy to take a photo of the family, according to sources.
The horse bolted, knocking Mahajan’s mother, Priya, from the carriage.
“My son, just to save his mother, he fell off,” Mahajan’s father, Deepak told the New York Times. “He was screaming, ‘Mom!’”
He later died of blunt force trauma in what the city medical examiner has ruled an accidental death.
Video showed the spooked horse taking off during the fatal incident.
Alexander Kemp, a vice president at TWU Local 100, blasted the driver’s decision to step away.
“A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos — ever,” Kemp said in a statement. “We support a full investigation.”
For the union, the incident has created a sense of shock.
“This is uncharted territory,” Hansen said. “Nobody knows quite what to do because nothing like this has ever happened to our industry. It’s just awful.”
“We’ve never had a fatal accident like this before,” said Kemp.
The union closed down the stables and ceased operations in response to the tragedy.
“We have shuttered the stables and ceased operations today while we have extensive internal discussions on what transpired and how it could have been prevented,” Kemp said in a separate statement to NBC NY.
When Rory McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional by eight shots, it was easy to envision him carrying on to win a bunch more of them.
But that U.S. Open turned out to be a bit of an outlier.
McIlroy was a 22-year-old bull in a China shop back then — just gripping and ripping it with a talent level so extraordinary that he could get away with some poor shots here and there and win anyway.
McIlroy won that Open at 16 under par, a number that probably still has the older USGA heads, traditionally bent on making par a magnet for all competitors, queasy when they look back at that week.
The Parthenon’s restored west pediment is seen atop the Acropolis in Athens, Thursday, June 18, 2026, after Greece’s Culture Ministry unveiled the temple’s western side in its most complete form in more than 200 years. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
The idea was that just like a rainbow contains all of the colors, our society should welcome every kind of person and preference.
But there is one kind of person that is evidently not welcome: a Christian who believes the Bible means what it says.
The baseball players on the San Francisco Giants who decline to participate in Pride month, have often cited the Bible on their caps. Their chosen passage: Genesis 9:12-16.
The gay rights movement adopted the rainbow as its symbol several decades ago.
“And God said: ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations.
‘I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
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‘It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;
‘and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
‘The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’”
“And God said: ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. AP Photo/Scott Marshall
Those words tell the true story of the origin of the rainbow.
God placed the rainbow in the heavens after the Flood, when he had punished the world for its evil ways.
It was a sign of a new beginning. God knew that the world would not be free from sin, but he also knew he could not keep destroying it and starting over.
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Instead of destruction, there would be redemption.
For Jews, that redemption would come through repentance, and the eventual journey to the Promised Land of Israel.
For Christians, that ultimate redemption would come through Christ, who forgives the sins of those who seek Him.
All of that is foretold in the rainbow.
For Christians, that ultimate redemption would come through Christ, who forgives the sins of those who seek Him. Getty Images
The baseball players who protest are not standing up against someone. They are standing up for their basic rights: freedom of expression, and freedom of religion.
They did not seek this confrontation. Yet they have risen to this test of their faith.
Freedom of expression, and freedom of religion, are not only American privileges. These are rights that were granted by God before by codified by the Founding Fathers in our governing documents.
Stronger, still, than that truth is the truth of the Bible, which makes it very clear that God is the designer and creator of mankind, male and female, and that in doing so he has built within us the passion and the ability to express truth.
But not all situations represent the truth. Those in professional baseball who support Pride month demand their freedoms and their rights to profess and proclaim what they believe in. They want to make a statement and to influence culture. Yet why isn’t that same liberty allowed for those who stand for Christ?
The baseball players who protest are not standing up against someone. They are standing up for their basic rights: freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. Getty Images
There is a gross hypocrisy in our culture today that seeks to indoctrinate and to manipulate those who may have a opposing view. Christians are told to get in line and shape up, and warned that they will be disciplined for not agreeing with whoever is in charge. That is the very opposite of tolerance, and exposes that Pride month is not about accepting everyone, but imposing a new set of beliefs.
The baseball players who declined to participate in Pride month, or who cited the Bible, have used their freedom of expression and their God-given opportunity to announce truth.
It’s a sad day in America when we have lost the ability to tolerate someone else’s view. And it is becoming clear that the LBGTQ+ agenda cannot tolerate the Judeo-Christian world view of God’s permanent design.
Pastor Jack Hibbs is president of The Real Life Network.
Shinnecock Hills lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest tests in golf on the opening day of a fog-delayed US Open.
When play did get under way, two hours later than scheduled, only six of the early starters broke par as strong winds buffeted an already tricky course on Long Island, New York.
Among them was world number two Rory McIlroy, whose one-under 69 left him one behind unfancied American Sam Stevens as the 78 players in the later wave headed out onto the course
And with the blustery conditions forecast to strengthen as the day wears on, both players will expect to remain firmly in the mix, given that in the four previous US Opens held at this venue, there have been 1,792 rounds and only 161 (9%) have been played under par. In fact, just three players have ended up under par after 72 holes.
Much of that was down to the substandard playing conditions at Shinnecock in both 2004 and 2018 with players accusing championship organisers the United States Golf Association (USGA) of “losing the course”.
Speaking recently to the No Laying Up podcast, USGA’s John Bodenhamer, the man responsible for course set-up this year accepted the previous conditions had been suboptimal but insisted they had “learned a lot”.
For example, water is being hosed onto the greens during the opening two rounds to stop them from drying out, and to keep the grass alive.
The US Open is generally regarded as the toughest of tests though and all the players spoke of needing to remain patient. And that patience was tested from the off on Thursday with low-lying cloud and fog shrouding the course.
However, once it had been dispersed by the strong gusts whipping in off the Atlantic Ocean, the true nature of the challenge ahead was laid bare.
Thick rough, five inches deep, flanks the fairways. Wispy fescue and undulating and fast greens add further layers of complexity to Shinnecock’s fearsome reputation.
Not that McIlroy seemed perturbed as the wind gusted beyond 30mph across the 7,440-yard track.
The six-time major winner, who started on the 10th, knocked in two birdies in the opening three holes and even bogeys at the 13th and 16th holes did not appear to provide him with any cause to revaluate his approach.
During the round McIlroy, who successfully defended his Masters title in April, told Sky Sports pundit and Solheim Cup great Mel Reid that because conditions were “consistent”‘ he was not finding things too bad at all.
He aptly demonstrated that after the turn with a birdie at the third and by carding a sensational eagle on the par-five fifth after hitting his tee shot a wind-assisted 396 yards before nudging his second shot to 11 feet.
