Gary Clark Jr. has created a lot of conversation with "This Land," the provocative first song off his latest album that shares the same name.
In the angry blues-rock song, he recounts racial epithets hurled his way and other racist taunts before he defiantly asserts that he too is "America's son." In the accompanying video, young black children confront racist imagery, including a noose, among other disturbing things.
Clark says the song was sparked after he sensed a change in his Austin, Texas neighborhood during the 2016 presidential election campaign between Hillary Clinton and eventual victor Donald Trump, and then a confrontation with a neighbor prompted him to write it.
FILE - This Jan. 28, 2018 file photo shows Gary Clark Jr. at the 60th annual Grammy Awards in New York. Clark confronts racism with his latest album "This Land." (Photo by Evan AgostiniInvisionAP, File)
Clark is currently on a tour across the United States.
FILE - This March 17, 2017 file photo shows Gary Clark, Jr. performing at the LEVI's Outpost during the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Clark confronts racism with his latest album "This Land." (Photo by Jack PlunkettInvisionAP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.
FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
