Lawyer Claims Depp Was Misogynistic Abuser of Ex-Wife Heard
A lawyer for British tabloid The Sun said Monday that Johnny Depp abused Amber Heard during their relationship, committing acts of violence fueled by misogyny and unleashed by addiction to alcohol and drugs.
Attorney Sasha Wass was summing up at Depp’s libel case against the newspaper over an article alleging he physically abused ex-wife Heard — a high-stakes celebrity trial in which the reputations of both former spouses are at stake.
Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, at the High Court in London over an April 2018 article, which called him a “wife-beater.” He strongly denies being violent to Heard.
The case is due to end Tuesday, but judge Andrew Nicol is not expected to deliver his ruling for several weeks.
In closing arguments, Wass said the newspaper’s defense “is one of truth — namely that Mr. Depp did indeed beat his wife.”
Wass said there was “overwhelming evidence of domestic violence or wife-beating behavior, cataloged over a three-year period.”
She said Depp was “a hopeless addict who repeatedly lost his self-control and all ability to restrain his anger.”
“Permeating all of the evidence in this case is the character of Mr. Depp himself — his well-documented evidence of violence and destruction over his adult life which have occurred when he was under the influence of drink and drugs.”
She said Depp “was subject to irrational mood swings and abnormal behavioral patterns, which would not have been present when Mr. Depp was clean and sober, and Mr. Depp has a name for this metamorphosed entity — namely, The Monster.”
Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.
The former spouses have both been in court throughout three weeks of testimony at the grand neo-Gothic court building, though Depp did not attend on Monday morning. His lawyer is due to sum up on Tuesday.
Lawyers, journalists and members of the public have heard lurid details of the couple’s tempestuous relationship, including prodigious drinking and drug consumption, furious arguments, hurled objects and a deposit of excrement left in a bed — whether by dog or human is disputed.
The Sun’s defense relies on 14 allegations made by Heard of Depp’s violence between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia — where Depp’s finger was severed in contested circumstances — and the couple’s downtown Los Angeles penthouse, which was trashed during the couple’s altercations.
Wass said that the first year of the couple’s relationship, during which Depp was sober, was “idyllic,” but that the violence started in 2013 after he relapsed.
During four days in the witness box last week, Heard claimed Depp flew into jealous rages and turned into violent alter ego the “Monster” under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She accused him of slapping and hitting her and throwing bottles at her “like grenades,” and claimed that she often feared for her life during their relationship.
Heard’s evidence was backed by witnesses including her sister Whitney Henriquez, who said she had seen Depp hit Heard “multiple times” during a fracas at the couple’s Los Angeles apartment in March 2015.
Depp, who gave evidence for almost five days, denies all the allegations and claims Heard was the aggressor during their volatile relationship, which he has likened to “a crime scene waiting to happen.” Several current or former employees gave evidence backing his version of events, and former romantic partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder said in written witness statements that he had never been violent to them.
He acknowledged using a wide variety of drugs including marijuana, cocaine and opioid painkillers, but denied drugs made him violent.
Summarizing the defense case, Wass said that “a deep misogyny … lay at the root of Mr. Depp’s anger.”
“He created a misogynistic persona of (Heard) as the stereotype of a nagging woman,” Wass said. She said Depp branded Heard “a gold-digger, a shrew and an adulterer” in order to discredit
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Flood Risk for 1 Million in Phnom Penh as Wetlands Destroyed
More than one million people in Phnom Penh face the risk of increased flooding and loss of livelihoods as wetlands in the Cambodian capital are destroyed to build apartments and industries, human rights groups warned on Monday. Developments – including the ING City township – will reduce the Tompoun wetlands to less than a tenth of its 1,500 hectares (5.8 sq miles), and lead to the eviction of more than 1,000 families who live on its edge, activists said in a report. It would also impoverish thousands of families who farm and fish in the wetlands in the city of 1.5 million people. “The wetlands sustain local communities and play a vital role in Phnom Penh’s waste management and flood prevention,” said the report from Equitable Cambodia, LICADHO, the Cambodian Youth Network and land rights group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT). “Millions of Cambodians will likely be affected by the potentially devastating impacts of destroying the wetlands.” Phnom Penh, situated on the banks of the Tonle Sap, Mekong and Bassac rivers, is already highly vulnerable to floods, particularly in the rainy season from June to October. Lakes and wetlands such as floodplains, mangroves and marshes regulate water flow, minimize flooding, purify water and replenish groundwater, said Diane Archer, a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute in Bangkok. “City authorities should recognize wetlands as an important resource to be protected and integrated into the urban environment,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Yet in many cities, expansion takes place without the necessary enforcement of urban planning or in-depth environmental impact assessments,” she said. Across rapidly expanding Asian cities, demand for land for housing and office blocks has put greater pressure over land. Cambodia has endorsed the international convention on wetlands protection, yet about half its wetlands have disappeared over the last 15 years, according to conservation group Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT). In Phnom Penh, 15 of 25 lakes have been infilled, with about a third of the Tompoun wetland infilled so far, STT said. Dredging the more than 100 million tons of sand needed for infilling poses added risks to communities and the environment, said Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia. “Given that millions will be affected, in-depth studies and public consultations are needed,” he said. A spokesman for the government said the reclamation was necessary for the city’s development, and that an environment impact assessment had been done. “A canal is being built to divert excess water, and there is a wastewater treatment plant. Some relocations are necessary, but they have been given ample time to move,” said Phay Siphan. In Phnom Penh, nearly 4,000 families were evicted in 2007-08 from their homes around Boeung Kak – “boeung” is lake in Khmer – as it was filled in for a business district. Authorities must now prioritize public interest, said Vuthy. “A balanced model that protects the rights of people and the environment with urban development is possible, but only with meaningful consultation and research,” he said.
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Australian Regulator Sues Google Over Expanded Personal Data Use
Australia’s competition regulator has launched court proceedings against Alphabet’s Google for allegedly misleading consumers about the expanded use of personal data for targeted advertising.The case by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in Federal Court said Google did not explicitly get consent nor properly inform consumers about a 2016 move to combine personal information in Google accounts with activities on non-Google websites that use its technology.The regulator said this practice allowed the Alphabet Inc unit to link the names and other ways to identify consumers with their behavior elsewhere on the internet.Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The move by the ACCC comes amid heightened attention in much of the world on data privacy. U.S. and European lawmakers have recently stepped up their focus on how tech companies treat user data because of privacy concerns.”We are taking this action because we consider Google misled Australian consumers about what it planned to do with large amounts of their personal information, including internet activity on websites not connected to Google,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.The regulator alleges Google used the combined data to boost targeted advertising – a key source of income – and that it did not make clear to consumers about changes in its privacy policy.The regulator did not say what it wanted the court to do, adding that it has filed the claim on a “confidential basis pending claims by Google.”
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Trump Postpones Plans for Yankee Stadium First Pitch
President Donald Trump won’t be throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium next month after all.Trump tweeted Sunday that he won’t be able to make the trip because of his “strong focus” on the coronavirus, vaccines and the economy. Trump said in the tweet: “We will make it later in the season!” He had announced at a briefing Thursday on Major League Baseball’s opening day that he’d be at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 15 to throw out the first pitch.Trump has been trying to show voters that he is taking the virus seriously by holding briefings and canceling Republican convention events set for Jacksonville, Florida. Florida is among several states where the virus is raging.
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Olivia de Havilland, Oscar-Winning Actress, Dies at 104
Olivia de Havilland, the doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of “Gone With the Wind,” but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood’s contract system, died Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104. Havilland, the sister of fellow Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, died peacefully of natural causes, said New York-based publicist Lisa Goldberg.De Havilland was among the last of the top screen performers from the studio era, and the last surviving lead from “Gone With the Wind,” an irony, she once noted, since the fragile, self-sacrificing Wilkes was the only major character to die in the film. The 1939 epic, based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling Civil War novel and winner of 10 Academy Awards, is often ranked as Hollywood’s box office champion (adjusting for inflation), although it is now widely condemned for its glorified portrait of slavery and antebellum life.The pinnacle of producer David O. Selznick’s career, the movie had a troubled off-screen story. Three directors worked on the film, stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were far more connected on screen than off and the fourth featured performer, Leslie Howard, was openly indifferent to the role of Ashley Wilkes, Melanie’s husband. But de Havilland remembered the movie as “one of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had in my life. It was doing something I wanted to do, playing a character I loved and liked.”During a career that spanned six decades, de Havilland also took on roles ranging from an unwed mother to a psychiatric inmate in “The Snake Pit,” a personal favorite. The dark-haired De Havilland projected both a gentle, glowing warmth and a sense of resilience and mischief that made her uncommonly appealing, leading critic James Agee to confess he was “vulnerable to Olivia de Havilland in every part of my being except the ulnar nerve.”She was Errol Flynn’s co-star in a series of dramas, Westerns and period pieces, most memorably as Maid Marian in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” But De Havilland also was a prototype for an actress too beautiful for her own good, typecast in sweet and romantic roles while desiring greater challenges. Her frustration finally led her to sue Warner Bros. in 1943 when the studio tried to keep her under contract after it had expired, claiming she owed six more months because she had been suspended for refusing roles. Her friend Bette Davis was among those who had failed to get out of her contract under similar conditions in the 1930s, but de Havilland prevailed, with the California Court of Appeals ruling that no studio could extend an agreement without the performer’s consent. The decision is still unofficially called the “De Havilland law.”De Havilland went on to earn her own Academy Award in 1946 for her performance in “To Each His Own,” a melodrama about out-of-wedlock birth. A second Oscar came three years later for “The Heiress,” in which she portrayed a plain young homebody (as plain as it was possible to make de Havilland) opposite Montgomery Clift and Sir Ralph Richardson in an adaptation of Henry James’ “Washington Square.” In 2008, de Havilland received a National Medal of Arts and was awarded France’s Legion of Honor two years later.She was also famous, not always for the better, as the sister of Fontaine, with whom she had a troubled relationship. In a 2016 interview, de Havilland referred to her late sister as “Dragon Lady” and said her memories of Fontaine, who died in 2013, were “multi-faceted, varying from endearing to alienating.””On my part, it was always loving, but sometimes estranged and, in the later years, severed,” she said. “Dragon Lady, as I eventually decided to call her, was a brilliant, multi-talented person, but with an astigmatism in her perception of people and events which often caused her to react in an unfair and even injurious way.”De Havilland once observed that Melanie Wilkes’ happiness was sustained by a loving, secure family, a blessing that eluded the actress even in childhood. She was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916, the daughter of a British patent attorney. Her parents separated when she was 3, and her mother brought her and her younger sister Joan, to Saratoga, California. De Havilland’s own two marriages, to Marcus Goodrich and Pierre Galante, ended in divorce.Her acting ambitions dated back to stage performing at Mills College in Oakland, California. While preparing for a school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” she went to Hollywood to see Max Reinhardt’s rehearsals of the same comedy. She was asked by to read for Hermia’s understudy, stayed with the production through her summer vacation and was given the role in the fall.Warner Bros. wanted stage actors for their lavish 1935 production and chose de Havilland to co-star with Mickey Rooney, who played Puck.”II wanted to be a stage actress,” she recalled. “Life sort of made the decision for me.”She signed a five-year contract with the studio and went on to make “Captain Blood,” “Dodge City” and other films with Flynn, a hopeless womanizer even by Hollywood standards.”Oh, Errol had such magnetism! There was nobody who did what he did better than he did,” said de Havilland, whose bond with the dashing actor remained, she would insist, improbably platonic. As she once explained, “We were lovers together so often on the screen that people could not accept that nothing had happened between us.”She did date Howard Hughes and James Stewart and had an intense affair in the early ’40s with John Huston. Their relationship led to conflict with Davis, her co-star for the Huston-directed “In This Our Life”; Davis would complain that de Havilland, a supporting actress in the film, was getting greater and more flattering time on camera.De Havilland allegedly never got along with Fontaine, a feud magnified by the 1941 Oscar race that placed her against her sister for best actress honors. Fontaine was nominated for the Hitchcock thriller “Suspicion” while de Havilland was cited for “Hold Back the Dawn, a drama co-written by Billy Wilder and starring de Havilland as a school teacher wooed by the unscrupulous Charles Boyer.Asked by a gossip columnist if they ever fought, de Havilland responded, “Of course, we fight. What two sisters don’t battle?” Like a good Warner Bros soap opera, their relationship was a juicy narrative of supposed slights and snubs, from de Havilland reportedly refusing to congratulate Fontaine for winning the Oscar to Fontaine making a cutting crack about de Havilland’s poor choice of agents and husbands.Though she once filmed as many as three pictures a year, her career slowed in middle age. She made several movies for television, including “Roots” and “Charles and Diana,” in which she portrayed the Queen Mother. She also co-starred with Davis in the macabre camp classic “Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte” and was menaced by a young James Caan in the 1964 chiller “Lady in a Cage,” condemning her tormenter as “one of the many bits of offal produced by the welfare state.” In 2009, she narrated a documentary about Alzheimer’s, “I Remember Better When I Paint.” Catherine Zeta-Jones played de Havilland in the 2017 FX miniseries about Davis and Joan Crawford, but de Havilland objected to being portrayed as a gossip and sued FX. The case was dismissed.Despite her chronic stage fright, she did summer stock in Westport, Connecticut, and Easthampton, New York. Moviemaking, she said, produced a different kind of anxiety: “The first day of making a film I feel, `Why did I ever get mixed up in this profession? I have no talent; this time they’ll find out.'”
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Prince Harry Took Offence at Brother’s Advice, Says Book
Britain’s Prince Harry took offence at what he thought was Prince William’s “snobbishness” when he advised his brother to “take as much time as you need to get to know this girl” when he was dating Meghan Markle, a new book says.Harry and his wife, Meghan, have distanced themselves from the book called “Finding Freedom,” saying they were not interviewed for the biography being serialized by The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers and made no contributions to it.The book documents, citing sources, a time when Harry and Meghan were dating and William wanted to make sure the American actress had the right intentions, The Sunday Times said.”Don’t feel you need to rush this,” William told Harry, according to sources cited by the book. “Take as much time as you need to get to know this girl.”The Sunday Times said Harry heard a tone of snobbishness in the last two words, “this girl”, and that Harry no longer felt he needed looking after.The couple and their son, Archie, now live in Los Angeles after they stepped down from their royal roles in March to forge new careers. In January they announced plans to lead a more independent life and to finance it themselves. Harry and Meghan married in May 2018 in a wedding heralded at the time as infusing a blast of Hollywood glamour and modernity into the British monarchy and which made them one of the world’s biggest celebrity couples.
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Television Personality Regis Philbin Dies at 88
Regis Philbin, the genial host who shared his life with television viewers over morning coffee for decades and helped himself and some fans strike it rich with the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” has died at 88, People magazine reported.Philbin died Friday, just more than a month before his 89th birthday. He died of natural causes, according to a family statement to the magazine.Celebrities routinely stopped by Philbin’s eponymous syndicated morning show, but its heart was in the first 15 minutes, when he and co-host Kathie Lee Gifford — on “Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee” from 1985 to 2000 — or Kelly Ripa — on “Live! with Regis and Kelly” from 2001 until his 2011 retirement — bantered about the events of the day. Viewers laughed at Philbin’s mock indignation over not getting the best seat at a restaurant the night before or being henpecked by his partner.FILE – Co-hosts Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford share a champagne toast at the end of her last appearance on their morning talk show, in New York, July 28, 2000.”Even I have a little trepidation,” he told The Associated Press in 2008, when asked how he does a show every day. “You wake up in the morning and you say, ‘What did I do last night that I can talk about? What’s new in the paper? How are we gonna fill that 20 minutes?’ “”I’m not gonna say it always works out brilliantly, but somehow we connect more often than we don’t,” he added.After hustling into an entertainment career by parking cars at a Los Angeles TV station, Philbin logged more than 15,000 hours on the air, earning him recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most broadcast hours logged by a TV personality, a record previously held by Hugh Downs.”Every day, you see the record shattered, pal!” Philbin would tell viewers. “One more hour!”He was host of the prime-time game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” briefly television’s most popular show at the turn of the century. ABC aired the family-friendly program as often as five times a week. It generated around $1 billion in revenue in its first two years — ABC had said it was among the most profitable shows in TV history — and helped make Philbin himself a millionaire many times over.’Is that your final answer?’Philbin’s question to contestants, “Is that your final answer?” became a national catchphrase. Philbin was even a fashion trendsetter; he put out a line of monochromactic shirts and ties to match what he wore on the set.”You wait a lifetime for something like that and sometimes it never happens,” Philbin told the AP in 1999.In 2008, he returned briefly to the quiz show format with “Million Dollar Password.” He also picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award from the daytime Emmys.He was the type of TV personality easy to make fun of, and easy to love.When his son Danny first met his future wife, “we were talking about our families,” Danny told USA Today. “I said, ‘You know that show “Regis and Kathie Lee”?’ And she said, ‘I hate that show.’ And I said, ‘That’s my dad.’ “FILE – Regis and Joy Philbin attend a special screening of “The Hero” at the Whitby Hotel, June 7, 2017, in New York.Yet Philbin was a favorite of a younger generation’s ironic icon, David Letterman. When Letterman announced that he had to undergo heart surgery, it was on the air to Philbin, who was also there for Letterman’s first day back after his recovery.Letterman returned the favor, appearing on Philbin’s show when he went back on the air in April 2007 after undergoing heart bypass surgery.In the 2008 AP interview, Philbin said he saw “getting the best out of your guests” as “a specialty. … The time constraints mean you’ve got to get right to the point, you’ve got to make it pay off, go to commercial, start again. Play that clip. Say goodbye.” He gave his desktop a decisive rap.”And make it all conversational.”Regis Francis Xavier Philbin grew up in the New York borough of the Bronx, the son of Italian-Irish parents and named for the Roman Catholic boys high school his dad attended. He went to Notre Dame University, and was such an enthusiastic alum, he once said he wanted his ashes scattered there.After leaving the Navy in 1955, Philbin talked his way into a meeting with the stationmaster at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles. He got a job parking cars, then progressed into work as a stagehand, courier, newswriter and producer of a sports telecast. When its sportscaster didn’t show up one day, Philbin filled in.Program in San DiegoPhilbin got far more on-air experience in San Diego in the early 1960s, when KOGO-TV began producing “The Regis Philbin Show” for a national audience. The program of music and celebrity interviews was taped two weeks before each airing. It was canceled after four months.In 1967, Philbin was hired as the announcer and sidekick to comic Joey Bishop on his network show. When he heard that he was going to be fired because of poor ratings, Philbin tearfully announced he was leaving on July 12, 1968, walking off during a live broadcast. He returned three days later after letters of support poured in.He and Bishop had bad blood: Bishop called Philbin an “ingrate” for walking off during a salary dispute and later badmouthing him.Philbin’s second wife, Joy, was Bishop’s assistant.After three years of commuting to St. Louis each week for a local Saturday night show, Philbin became a star in local morning television — first in Los Angeles, then in New York. In 1985, he teamed with Kathie Lee Johnson, a year before she married former football star Frank Gifford, and the show went national in 1988.The gentle bickering and eye-rolling exasperation in Philbin and Gifford’s onscreen relationship was familiar to anyone in a long-lasting relationship.”No arguments, no harsh words in all this time,” Philbin told a theater audience in 2000. “Well, there was the time I didn’t talk to her for two weeks. Didn’t want to interrupt her.”FILE – Regis Philbin laughs with co-host Kelly Ripa during a broadcast of “Live! with Regis and Kelly,” Feb. 5, 2001, in New York.Gifford left the show in 2000. After a tryout period for a replacement, soap star Ripa (“All My Children”) filled the slot.The same hustler who parked cars in Hollywood worked just as hard to land the job on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” “I begged my way on,” he told People magazine. “There was a short list, and I wasn’t on it. I called my agent, and we made a full assault on ABC in L.A.”The audience responded to Philbin’s warm, comic touch in the role. He later jokingly referred to himself as the man who saved ABC. It wasn’t complete hyperbole: ABC was suffering in the ratings before the game became a smash success. Forbes reported that two-thirds of ABC’s operating profit in 2000 was due to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”Philbin appeared to love every minute of it. Even the ultimate arbiter of hip, the MTV Video Awards, asked him to make an appearance.’No more mountains'”It’s better to be hot,” he told the AP. “It’s fun. I know this business. I was perfectly content with my morning show. People would ask me, ‘What’s next?’ There is nothing next. There are no more mountains for me to climb. Believe me when I tell you, all I wanted when I started this show in 1961 was to be a success nationally.”The prime-time game burned out quickly because of overuse and ended in 2002.Philbin enjoyed a side career as a singer that began when he sang “Pennies from Heaven” to Bing Crosby on Bishop’s show. He said a record company called him the next day, and he made an album.Even though the series “Regis Philbin’s Health Styles,” on Lifetime in the 1980s, was part of his lengthy resume, Philbin had health issues. Doctors performed an angioplasty to relieve a blocked artery in 1993. He underwent bypass surgery in 2007 at age 75.He’s survived by his wife, Joy, and their daughters J.J. and Joanna Philbin, as well as his daughter Amy Philbin with his first wife, Catherine Faylen, according to People.
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Fleetwood Mac Blues Guitarist Peter Green Dies at 73
Peter Green, the dexterous blues guitarist who led the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac in a career shortened by psychedelic drugs and mental illness, has died at 73.A law firm representing his family, Swan Turton, announced the death in a statement Saturday. It said he died peacefully in his sleep? this weekend. A further statement will be issued in the coming days.Green, to some listeners, was the best of the British blues guitarists of the 1960s. B.B. King once said Greenhas the sweetest tone I ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”Green also made a mark as a composer with Albatross,'' and as a songwriter withOh Well” and Black Magic Woman.'' He crashed out of the band in 1971. Even so, Mick Fleetwood said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2017 that Green deserves the lion's share of the credit for the band's success.Peter was asked why did he call the band Fleetwood Mac. He said, Well, you know I thought maybe I'd move on at some point and I wanted Mick and John (McVie) to have a band.' End of story, explaining how generous he was,'' said Fleetwood, who described Green as a standout in an era of great guitar work.Indeed, Green was so fundamental to the band that in its early days it was called Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.Peter Allen Greenbaum was born on Oct. 29, 1946, in London. The gift of a cheap guitar put the 10-year-old Green on a musical path.He was barely out of his teens when he got his first big break in 1966, replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers _ initially for just a week in 1965 after Clapton abruptly took off for a Greek holiday. Clapton quit for good soon after and Green was in.In the Bluesbreakers he was reunited with Mick Fleetwood, a former colleague in Peter B's Looners. Mayall added bass player McVie soon after.The three departed the next year, forming the core of the band initially billed as ``Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring (guitarist) Jeremy Spencer.''Fleetwood Mac made its debut at the British Blues and Jazz festival in the summer of 1967, which led to a recording contract, then an eponymous first album in February 1968. The album, which included ``Long Grey Mare'' and three other songs by Green, stayed on the British charts for 13 months. The band's early albums were heavy blues-rock affairs marked by Green's fluid, evocative guitar style and gravelly vocals. Notable singles included ``Oh Well'' and the Latin-flavored ``Black Magic Woman,'' later a hit for Carlos Santana.But as the band flourished, Green became increasingly erratic, even paranoid. Drugs played a part in his unraveling.On a tour in California, Green became acquainted with Augustus Owsley Stanley III, notorious supplier of powerful LSD to the The Grateful Dead and Ken Kesey, the anti-hero of Tom Wolfe's book ``The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.'' ``He was taking a lot of acid and mescaline around the same time his illness began manifesting itself more and more,'' Fleetwood said in 2015. ``We were oblivious as to what schizophrenia was back in those days but we knew something was amiss.''``Green Manalishi,'' Green's last single for the band, reflected his distress.In an interview with Johnny Black for Mojo magazine, Green said: ``I was dreaming I was dead and I couldn't move, so I fought my way back into my body. I woke up and looked around. It was very dark and I found myself writing a song. It was about money;The Green Manalishi’ is money.”In some of his last appearances with the band, he wore a monk’s robe and a crucifix. Fearing that he had too much money, he tried to persuade other band members to give their earnings to charities.Green left Fleetwood Mac for good in 1971.In his absence, the band’s new line-up, including Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, gained enormous success with a more pop-tinged sound.
Green was confined in a mental hospital in 1977 after an incident with his manager. Testimony in court said Green had asked for money and then threatened to shoot out the windows of the manager’s office. Green was released later in the year, and married Jane Samuels, a Canadian, in 1978. They had a daughter, Rosebud, and divorced the following year. Green also has a son, Liam Firlej. Green returned to performing in the 1990s with the Peter Green Splinter Group. In 1998, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with other past and present members of Fleetwood Mac.
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Women Reflect on Sexist Slur That Often Goes Unpunished
Ask a woman if she’s been called the B-word by a man — perhaps modified by the F-adjective — and chances are she’ll say, “You mean ever, or how many times?”Because most women will tell you it’s a pretty universal experience, especially if they’ve held a position of power in the workplace. “I’d say, maybe 25 times?” estimates Ellen Gerstein, who spent years in technology publishing, a fairly male-dominated field, before becoming a pharmaceutical executive. “And that’s just to my face.”In fact, Gerstein says, use of the word as a slur against women has come to feel so unfortunately routine that her own memories of it tend to blur together — unlike, say, the time 20 years ago when a male colleague asked her who she’d “lap danced” to push a project ahead. But she says she was filled with admiration when she heard Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez take to the floor of the House and call out a male colleague for vulgar words.”I thought, listening to her, ‘Wow, you’re 100% right,'” says Gerstein, now 52. “Why didn’t I apply those same standards to myself?”Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks on Thursday, widely shared online, amounted to a stunning indictment not only of the words of Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Florida, who she said called her a “f—————g bitch” in front of reporters, but a culture of abusive language against women that can lead to violence. Her speech resonated with many women — in politics and out, supportive of her politics or not — who said the language had been tacitly accepted for far too long.The moment was extraordinary, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, not because the language was new — as Ocasio-Cortez herself said, it was nothing she hadn’t heard waiting tables or riding the subway — but because of where it took place, and especially because the freshman congresswoman had the confidence and the support of her colleagues to call it out in such a public way.”This is all part of a shift,” Walsh says, attributing the change to the #MeToo movement, in large part. “Women are feeling empowered to speak up and believe they will be heard.” More than a dozen Democratic colleagues — but no Republicans — joined Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, in speaking out against sexist behavior, including from President Donald Trump.The moment led Gloria Steinem, the nation’s most visible feminist advocate, to reflect on her own struggles with the word Barbara Bush once famously said “rhymes with rich.””It took me years to learn what to do when someone calls you a bitch,” Steinem told The Associated Press in an email. “Just smile in a calm triumphant way, and say, ‘Thank you!'”Steinem, 86, said she hadn’t realized the strategy could be helpful to other women until it made it into the script of a recent off-Broadway play about her life, “and every night, women in the audience burst out in big relieved laughter.”Still, Steinem noted, “Refusing to be hurt may not really change the people who are trying to hurt you.” She called for both “cultural and workplace penalties for such behavior,” and, more profoundly, “raising our children to empathize and treat others as we want to be treated.”Gerstein, too, says she found it helpful to repurpose what was intended as a slur into a compliment. “I didn’t want to feel like a victim, so my theory was to own it,” she says. “As if to say, ‘What you’re really saying is I’m tough, I’m bossy, I’m determined and I’m damned good at what I’m doing.'”Ocasio-Cortez “owned” the word as well when she tweeted, in response to Yoho’s alleged remarks: “Bitches get stuff done.” That itself was a throwback to a 2008 sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” in which Tina Fey and Amy Poehler discussed the slur as often applied to Hillary Clinton. “Yeah, she is. And so am I,” notes Fey on the “Weekend Update” segment. “You know what? Bitches get stuff done.”Feminist author Andi Zeisler, co-founder of the nonprofit Bitch Media, notes that the sketch marked the beginning of a long and evolving process of women “reclaiming” the word, much like the word “queer.””We don’t get to control who uses it and how,” explains Zeisler. “We can only control the way we conceive of it.”Of course, context is everything. When used as Yoho allegedly did, the word is intentionally gender-specific and heavy with implied power dynamics, says Walsh, of Rutgers.It “otherizes women, it dehumanizes them and tells women they don’t belong in these institutions and positions,” Walsh says. “It is about silencing women and keeping them out.”Jen Singer, a freelance writer in New Jersey, says that “when men call you a bitch, it’s a warning shot across your bow — a reminder that they have power and you had better not overstep your bounds.”It’s the feeling that Jennifer Bogar-Richardson, an educator also in New Jersey, felt when she learned that a superior had referred to her as a “ho” in a meeting with colleagues years ago, using words from a Chris Brown song to indicate she’d been disloyal.”I felt naked,” says Bogar-Richardson, 44, “because it obviously didn’t matter how smart I was, how intelligent or how well I did my job. I’m nothing more than that name.”Mila Stieglitz, a 22-year-old New Yorker who graduated college in May, found herself feeling conflicting emotions as she watched Ocasio-Cortez’s speech. On the one hand, she was disheartened to learn of the sexist language experienced by the congresswoman — at 30, only eight years her senior — something she’d hoped was more an issue for an earlier generation. On the other, she said she was inspired by her outspokenness, and the support she received from colleagues.”As I enter the workforce, I recognize there’s been so much progress since my mother’s generation, for which I’m grateful,” Stieglitz said. “But these instances also highlight to me how much more needs to be done.”
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Ancient Greek Theaters Return to Life in Pandemic
Lights! Crickets. Birds. Bats. Action! The ancient theater of Epidaurus, renowned for its acoustics, has reopened for a limited number of open-air performances, with organizers planning a live-streamed event Saturday for the first time in the Greek monument’s 2,300-year history.Live concerts and events have been mostly canceled in Greece this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the Culture Ministry allowed the Epidaurus Theater in southern Greece and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens to host performances under strict safety guidelines. “Only 45% of the seats are occupied, the refreshments areas are closed, there is no intermission, and tickets are only issued electronically,” said Maria Panagiotopoulou, spokeswoman for the cultural organization which organized the events. “We normally have 80 performances in the summer. This year, it’s just 17. … We kept changing the plans. We planned for a September start, and then we were concerned that all events might be canceled. We ended up with something in the middle. It would have been the first summer without a performance in 65 years.” Acts from abroad were off-limits due to the pandemic, and the scheduled artists were instructed not to give encores. Stewards wearing surgical gloves and plastic visors keep spectators apart as they clamber up the steep stone amphitheater steps to find their seats. Just 4,500 of the usual 10,000 seats are being made available at Epidaurus Theatre, a honeycomb-colored stone venue with a shallow, half-funnel shape that allows music and voices from the stage to be clearly heard all 55 rows up. Surrounded by pine-covered mountains of the southern Peloponnese region, audiences also can clearly hear the sounds of birds and crickets along with the protests of people who were locked out of the theater for arriving too late. Christina Koutra, a musicologist from Athens, said she was happy to make the winding three-hour trip to Epidaurus to watch the season’s first event, a solo performance of Bach by acclaimed Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos. “There is a feeling of harmony here. It’s a sacred place,” Koutra said from behind a face mask as she left the theater with her parents.“Culture cannot stand still. We have to take part and keep it going,” she said.The National Theatre of Greece will be performing “The Persians” by ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus for Saturday’s live-streamed show.
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Siberian Heat Wave and Melting Arctic Sea Ice Indicate Climate Change, Scientists Say
Scientists warn record Siberian temperatures and the rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice along the Russian coast indicate that climate change is occurring and may be irreversible. Siberia, famous for its bitterly cold weather, has been experiencing a tropical heat wave, with temperatures reaching a record 38 degrees Celsius June 20 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. This week alone, the World Meteorological Organization reports some parts of Siberia have been warmer than the U.S. states of Florida and California, with temperatures going above 30 degrees Celsius. It says the exceptional and prolonged heat is fueling devastating Arctic fires and causing a rapid decrease in the Arctic sea ice coverage.WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average, and that is having a major impact on local populations and ecosystems.“We always say what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic,” said Nullis. “It does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live. There was a study last week, which says that the extreme heat that we are seeing would have been almost impossible without climate change. So, it does have a clear fingerprint of climate change on it.” Since January, Scientists estimate total carbon emissions from the fires raging inside the Arctic Circle are the highest in 18 years of monitoring the phenomenon. In addition, they warn the melting of ice and thawing of permafrost will potentially release methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.Nullis tells VOA greenhouse gases are having a major impact on infrastructure and ecosystems throughout the region.“It will be very, very hard to reverse because of the law of physics,” said Nullis. “You know, the levels of carbon dioxide, which we have got in the atmosphere now, will carry on heating surface temperatures for generations to come. The lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere runs into many, many, many decades.” A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change warns that the iconic polar bear—a symbol of climate change—may be nearly extinct by the end of the century because of shrinking sea ice. The article suggests high greenhouse gas emissions also will likely cause a steep decline in the reproduction of other Arctic subpopulations by 2100.
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More Than 180 Wildfires Burning in Siberia
Wildfires continue to burn in parts of Siberia this summer as a heatwave has continued to spread in areas north of the Arctic Circle.The World Metrological Organization (WMO) has raised the alarm, saying official figures show record warming in the Arctic.”In general, the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average,” said Clare Nullis, WMO spokesperson. “It’s having a big impact on local populations and ecosystems, but we always say that what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, it does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live.”More than 180 fires are burning in the Siberian region, with many in the northern Sakha Republic, on the Arctic Ocean.”Some parts of Siberia this week have again topped 30 degrees Celsius — so it’s been warmer in Siberia than many parts of Florida,” said Nullis.The wildfires are having effects far beyond the Arctic region, the WMO said.Firefighters are working to stop the fires.
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Russian Scientists Dig Out Well-Preserved Woolly Mammoth
Russian scientists are digging out fragments of a well-preserved woolly mammoth skeleton found by reindeer herders a few days ago at a lake in northern Siberia.The herders initially found parts of the animal’s skull, lower jaw, several ribs and foot fragments with sinews still intact on the shores of Pechevalavato Lake.Scientists are excavating for the remaining fragments of the prehistoric animal in lakeside silt, which is likely to take a significant amount of time and special equipment.“According to the first information we have, the whole skeleton is there,” said Dmitrii Frolov, director the Arctic Research Center of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, in a report by The Siberian Times.”Judging by the pictures, this was a young mammoth, but we’ll have to wait for tests to give the exact age,” he said.Finding the complete skeleton of a mammoth is relatively rare, Yevgeniya Khozyainova of the Shemanovsky Institute in Salekhard said in televised remarks.The ice age animal is thought to have gone extinct around 10,000 years ago and closely resembles today’s Asian elephants, with the exception of a thick coat of brown hair.The thawing of permafrost in regions like Siberia, where the ground normally stays frozen throughout much of the year, has revealed enormous amounts of organic matter, including dead plants, microbes and animals.Siberia has seen record-breaking heat during the first half of this year, driven by climate change.
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Trump Signs Executive Orders to Lower Prescription Drug Prices
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill reelection battle and criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has previously proposed most of the changes made by the executive orders he signed Friday, but this was the first time they had made it into signed executive orders. One order would allow for the legal importation of cheaper prescription drugs from countries like Canada, while another would require discounts from drug companies now captured by middlemen to be passed on to patients, Trump said. Another measure seeks to lower insulin costs, while a fourth, which may not be implemented if talks with drug companies are successful, would require Medicare to purchase drugs at the same price that other countries pay, Trump said. Executives of top drug companies have requested a meeting to discuss how they can lower drug prices, the president said. “We will see what those discussions indicate, but the agency is prepared to move forward,” said Medicare chief Seema Verma. Pharmaceutical industry weighs inThe orders received swift pushback from the pharmaceutical industry. The move was “a reckless distraction that impedes our ability to respond to the current pandemic – and those we could face in the future,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement. Wall Street analysts were skeptical that the orders would have much effect on drugmakers and said they could prove difficult to implement in practice. “We believe they are likely geared more towards deriving campaign talking points rather than producing tangible, material effects,” Brian Abrahams, a biotech analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. Shares of several drugmakers ticked up as Trump outlined the plan, recovering some of the day’s losses. Congress not on boardTrump repeatedly has called for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, but Congress has not yet passed a major drug price reform. Many of the administration’s past efforts to cut drug prices, including its plan to force insurers and other health care payers to pass rebates on to patients, have stalled amid industry pushback. “Reviving a rebate reform proposal now does not address the underlying flaws – that it will drastically increase Medicare premiums for America’s seniors and most vulnerable,” the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, whose members negotiate rebates for health care payers with drugmakers, said in a statement. Paying the rebates directly to seniors in the form of discounts could cut their drug costs by as much as $30 billion, or as much as 30%, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a Friday press call. Trump is under fire for surging coronavirus cases in the United States and beset by decreasing poll numbers ahead of November 3 elections. On Friday, he also said that the White House would propose a health care bill soon but offered few details. Drugmakers often negotiate rebates or discounts on their list prices in exchange for favorable treatment from insurers. As a result, insurers and covered patients rarely pay the full list price of a drug.
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Siberian Heat Wave: Wildfires Rage in Arctic, Sea Ice Melts
The U.N. weather agency warned Friday that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia’s Arctic coast. “The Arctic is heating more than twice as fast as the global average, impacting local populations and ecosystems and with global repercussions,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement Friday. He noted that Earth’s poles influence weather conditions far away, where hundreds of millions of people live. WMO previously cited a reading of 38 Celsius in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on June 20, which the agency has been seeking to verify as a possible record-high temperature in the Arctic Circle. It comes as fires have swept through the region, with satellite imagery showing the breadth of the area surface. The agency says the extended heat is linked to a large “blocking pressure system” and northward swing of the jet stream that has injected warm air into the region. But WMO also pointed to a recent study by top climate scientists who found that such a rise in heat would have been nearly impossible without human-caused climate change. WMO said information collected by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center and the U.S. National Ice Center showed the Siberian heat wave had “accelerated the ice retreat along the Arctic Russian coast, in particular since late June, leading to very low sea ice extent in the Laptev and Barents Seas.”
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Britain PM Calls Anti-Vaccination Activists ‘Nuts’
As he visited a London medical center to promote a flu immunization program Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to opponents of vaccinations as “nuts.” Johnson made the off-hand comment as he chatted with nurses about the importance of a widespread flu vaccination plan as winter approaches. He said the need for such vaccinations is more vital than ever to keep the public health system from being overwhelmed with flu patients as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. As he discussed the flu immunization program, Johnson noted the number of people who don’t vaccinate their children against childhood illnesses. He said, “There are all these anti-vaxxers now, they are nuts.” Anti-vaccination activists, a vocal group that opposes inoculations, has organized protests in the wake of the current crisis. They believe, contrary to scientific evidence, that ingredients in a vaccine can cause harm to the body. And the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about pharmaceutical industry plots regarding vaccines. Health experts have repeatedly said there is no evidence the coronavirus was intentionally created or spread. They also insist that vaccines are not only safe, but essential to global health. The United Nations warned last week about an alarming decline in childhood vaccinations because of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the likelihood a child born today will have all recommended vaccines by the age of five is less than 20%. Johnson was visiting the medical facility as Britain’s new rules mandating wearing masks when visiting retail businesses came into force. As of Friday, police can issue fines of $127 for non-compliance.
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Turkey’s President Prays With Hundreds at Hagia Sophia Mosque
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prayed with hundreds of worshippers Friday inside the Hagia Sophia, the first prayers since the sixth-century Byzantine landmark was redesignated a mosque two weeks ago.The president was joined by other officials, including his son-in-law and finance minister. Only 500 people were allowed inside the mosque because of coronavirus restrictions, while thousands more prayed outside in Sultanahmet Square.Initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral, the mosque’s mosaics depicting Christian figures were covered during the Friday prayers.Erdogan read verses from the Quran, while wearing a white prayer cap. Ali Erbas, head of Turkey’s religious authority, addressed worshippers afterward.“The longing of our nation, which has turned into a heartbreak, is coming to an end today,” Erbas said from the pulpit.“Hagia Sophia will continue to serve all believers as a mosque and will remain a place of cultural heritage for all humanity,” the Turkish president said.Erdogan’s enthusiasm was matched by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, who spoke with Erdogan over the phone.President @RTErdogan spoke by phone with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan. pic.twitter.com/uzusJahlyh
— Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) July 24, 2020 Mirziyoyev expressed his “pleasure” over the mosque’s reopening and “wished for the historic development to have auspicious results for the Turkish nation and the Islamic world.”Not all have voiced similar sentiments over the Hagia Sophia’s renewed status as a mosque.The 1,500-year-old UNESCO-listed site was initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral that became a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. In 1934, modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, converted it to a museum — a status Erdogan overturned July 10.Christian church leaders and officials from the United States, Russia and Greece have voiced their consternation, and UNESCO has questioned Erdogan’s decision.“Hagia Sophia is an architectural masterpiece and a unique testimony to interactions between Europe and Asia over the centuries,” said Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.“This decision … raises the issue of the impact of this change of status on the property’s universal value,” the organization said in a statement July 10.
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US Intelligence Official Warns of Foreign Interference in US Elections
The director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center has warned that Russia, China, Iran and other countries are meddling in U.S. political campaigns as the November 3 general election draws closer.“We see our adversaries seeking to compromise the private communications of U.S. political campaigns, candidates and other political targets,” William Evanina said Friday in a statement.Evanina said that while the United States “is primarily concerned with China, Russia and Iran,” other countries and “nonstate actors” could also try to “harm our electoral process.”US Cybersecurity Experts See Recent Spike in Chinese Digital Espionage The report said it was ‘one of the broadest campaigns by a Chinese cyber espionage actor we have observed in recent years” China is trying to influence the “policy environment” in the U.S. with the intent of affecting the presidential race between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Evanina said.He said “internet trolls and other proxies” are among a variety of disinformation campaigns Russia is using to “undermine confidence in our democratic process.”Iran is also spreading disinformation online and via social media in an attempt to “undermine U.S. democratic institutions and divide the country in advance of the elections,” he added.Evanina said the U.S. intelligence community would continue to watch for “malicious cyber actors” and touted the robust security of state election systems in the U.S. that make it “extraordinarily difficult for foreign adversaries to broadly disrupt or change vote tallies without detection.”He called on the American people to help ensure an orderly election by consuming information with a “critical eye” and by practicing “good cyber hygiene and media literacy.” The NCSC director also urged citizens to report suspicious activity to authorities.VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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Taylor Swift Releases ‘Folklore’
Surprise! Taylor Swift’s got an album out.“Folklore” premiered overnight, less than a year after Swift released her “Lover” album. Swift writes on Instagram she wrote and recorded the album in isolation. It features Bon Iver, Aaron Dessner of The National and Jack Antonoff.Swift says before this year, she would have waited to release it at the perfect time, but the current times remind her “nothing is guaranteed.”
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After Britain, Germany Emerges as Next 5G Battleground
Following Britain’s decision to ban Chinese tech firm Huawei from its 5G telecom network, Germany is emerging as the next potential battleground to check China’s expansion of influence in world affairs, which is increasingly seen as a serious challenge to democratic institutions worldwide.Germany’s decision on whether to include Huawei equipment in its own network “is still up for grabs,” said Reinhard Buetikofer, a member of Germany’s opposition Green Party who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China.Britain’s decision “may very well have an impact on the decision Germany is about to make,” Buetikofer said in a phone interview from Berlin.Buetikofer said Britain’s plan to include Huawei in its next-generation network – which was abruptly reversed in a dramatic announcement last week – had been held out as a model by German supporters of the Chinese telecom giant.“In the past, supporters of having Huawei construct Germany’s 5G network often pointed out: ‘Look, the Brits knew that much more about Huawei than we do, if the Brits are not doing anything about it, why should we?’” But Britain’s July 14 decision has pulled out the rug from under that argument.Buetikofer, a strong advocate for decoupling his country from Huawei, greeted the British announcement with a challenge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.FILE – Huawei headquarters building is pictured in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020.“Now it’s Berlin’s turn to move!” he tweeted. “Does the chancellor really want to be the stumbling block preventing a united EU + transatlantic + 5Eyes stance?”The Five Eyes is a nickname for an intelligence-sharing alliance comprising the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.A German decision to exclude Huawei from its network would be a diplomatic win for the United States, which lobbied hard for the British reversal and is bringing pressure on other countries to follow suit. The Americans warn that Huawei equipment may contain “back doors” that will allow China to spy on sensitive communications.“We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a trip to Britain and Denmark this week.But Buetikofer said his objections to the Chinese company are not influenced by the pressure from Washington. “I oppose Huawei’s playing a part in the German 5G network not because I want to do the U.S. a favor, but because I think it is a threat to German national security,” he said.As in other countries, the German argument over Huawei is rooted in a larger debate about the best way to deal with China’s rising power.Merkel emphasizes the importance of “dialogue” with Beijing, unswayed by the fierce international reaction to its new security law restricting long-established rights in Hong Kong. But others, including a significant number of German lawmakers, believe Beijing is not only an economic rival, but one that is doing all it can to replace democratic norms around the world with its own style of authoritarian rule.German Free Democratic Party legislator Johannes Vogel has argued that Beijing has been explicit in stating that goal. “It would be naive if we didn’t take their assessment at face value,” wrote Vogel, the deputy chair of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group.Merkel has also argued in favor of Huawei on the basis of a “no-spying pact” her government secured from the company.But Buetikofer points out that Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei is a member of China’s ruling Communist Party.“Don’t take us for idiots,” he remarked during a recent podcast.Analysts have warned that China could retaliate against an unfavorable decision on Huawei by targeting Germany’s auto industry, and Buetikofer acknowledged to VOA that the industry plays a significant part in his country’s economy.Nevertheless, he said, “Germany’s national interest is not synonymous with the interests of Volkswagen, just as the U.S.’s national interest is not synonymous with the interests of GM.”
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Advisers Propose Pentagon Create Service Academy for High Tech
Google’s former CEO is working with a former U.S. Defense Department official to create an online program that would train Americans to code for the government, as first reported by Former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, listens during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 28, 2011.Like other service academies, students would not pay tuition or room and board, but would be required to serve in the government after completing their degree.Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is NSCAI’s chairman. The commission was established in 2018 to advise the DOD on the development of artificial intelligence for use in the military.Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, who served Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump in that position from 2014 to 2017, is vice chairman of NSCAI.“The United States government must fundamentally reimagine the way it recruits and builds a digital workforce,” a memo from NSCAI’s July meeting said. It noted that the academy’s creation would be one aspect of a wider plan to enhance technological efforts in the U.S. military.“The United States Digital Service Academy’s mission is to develop, educate, train and inspire digital technology leaders and innovators and imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and service to the United States of America in order to prepare them to lead in service to our nation,” the memo states.It is unclear if DOD would consider the proposal or how long it would take to start a new program.According to a New York Times report analyzing Schmidt’s work since he left Google, “few” of his proposals to the Pentagon have been adopted. Since stepping down as Google’s CEO, Schmidt has taken board positions on two committees that advise the DOD on technology, specifically the use of artificial intelligence.At the request of then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Schmidt agreed to serve as the head of the Defense Innovation Board in 2016 — another civilian board that advises the secretary of defense.
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Summer’s Space Race to Mars Begins
Three countries launched missions officially kicking off the summer space race to Mars. A satellite snaps pictures of the sun in ways Earth-based cameras can’t. And the comet NASA calls a “natural firework” streaks the skies again. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi
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Among COVID’s Victims in Spain: Flamenco
Flamenco, the plaintive music of Spain, faces the worst crisis since the Civil War. The thundering stomp of the dancers – called zapateando – has been silenced across the nation, another casualty of the pandemic. Although Spain has been open for tourists since June, only a trickle of foreign visitors have arrived during what is normally the busiest season. Their absence is a death knell for flamenco halls – called tablaos – which depend on holidaymakers who provide 90% of their income. The tablaos, which take their name from the raised wooden floor on which dancers stamp their feet, remain closed. FILE – A street artist wearing a flamenco dress performs in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid, Sept. 8, 2017.Calls for help The owners of flamenco halls across Spain have begged the government for money but are still waiting. “Since March 13, we have not had any income at all and every day it is tougher to pay bills that we have with the tablaos,” Federico Escudero, president of the national association of flamenco halls, told VOA. “We have received some financial help to pay the rent from local councils in Madrid, Andalusia and there is a possibility of this in Barcelona. But the central government has not given us anything,” he said. Escudero added: “If they do not support us, the flamenco tablaos will disappear. It seems they have forgotten what flamenco means for Spain. It is not just an art form but part of our national identity.” Even a plea from Rosalía, the singer who has become an international star, appears to have fallen on deaf ears. “The tablaos are sacred places which help flamenco to stay alive. I give all my support to all the artists and support to the people who want flamenco to remain alive,” she said in a post on Facebook. Rosalía, who took flamenco and fused it with reggae, became a huge star who has toured the world. Until the COVID-19 epidemic, the spectacle of flamenco dancing, singing and guitar playing, which developed over centuries and was popularized by the gypsies of the southern region of Andalusia, was staged at more than 100 halls across Spain. FILE – Martin Guerrero, general director of tavern-restaurant and flamenco tablao Casa Patas, climbs a ladder to change a light bulb at Casa Patas, which is closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, in Madrid, Spain, June 2, 2020.Death of an art The first to close was Casa Patas in Madrid, which for over 40 years had hosted star performers including Diego el Cigala, Sara Baras and Tomatito. Martin Guerrero, the owner, said: “We have no international clients and without that and with earnings amounting to between 10 and 20 percent of normal levels, it makes it impossible to open.” He said he had been forced to lay off his 25 workers, some of whom had been employed at the hall for more than two decades. As Spain emerged from one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe last month, there has been a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. The number of outbreaks tripled in the past three weeks as young people partying in discos or drinking in groups were linked to over 200 outbreaks. More than 2,000 COVID-19 cases were diagnosed on Thursday, as Spain once again struggled to contain the spread of the coronavirus. These figures have done nothing to encourage tourists to return. The halls, which usually pack tables and chairs close together near the artists, will struggle to open under restrictions that demand 1.5 meters between guests. The sector is asking for the extension of furloughs and subsidies. The pandemic has also affected performers. El Yiyo, a flamenco dancer from Barcelona whose real name is Miguel Fernández Ribas, has worked around the world for the past seven years. “I am going to appear in Italy on television this month and it is the first time that I have worked since the coronavirus epidemic started,” he told VOA in an interview. “All the other artists that I know have been affected in the same way. It is desperate. Without the tourists all is lost.” UNESCO declared flamenco a world treasure by adding it to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. Since the epidemic, it has been declared an item of national heritage in Spain, which means it is entitled to special government grants. Nevertheless, for Escudero, this is not enough. He said that if the government does not help the tablaos, which employ 90% of the country’s 3,500 professional performers, the entire tradition of flamenco may be in danger. “We have no income,” he said. “If we disappear, part of flamenco will die with us.” FILE – Mariana Collado, dancer at tavern-restaurant and flamenco tablao Casa Patas, performs at Casa Patas, which is closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in Madrid, Spain, June 2, 2020.Government’s role “Of course we want to help flamenco,” said a spokeswoman for the Spanish culture ministry, who asked not to be named as per the ministry’s policy. She said the ministry plans to hold a meeting of leading artists; however, the official said the central government’s ability to help is limited. “Financial aid for the sector is mainly the responsibility of local councils,” she said, adding that many of the tablao employees technically count as tourism sector workers. The Spanish government is considering extending temporary unemployment assistance for many workers in the tourism industry until later in the year.
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China Launches First Independent Mission to Mars
An unmanned spacecraft blasted off Thursday on a yearlong journey to Mars, beginning one of China’s most ambitious space missions to date.The Tianwen-1 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch site on China’s southern Hainan Island aboard a Long March 5 rocket as hundreds of cheering fans gathered on beaches across the bay to witness the event.The Tianwen-1, which translates into “Heavenly Questions” or “Questions to Heaven,” is expected to reach the Red Planet by February. Once it enters orbit, a landing probe will detach and land on the planet’s Utopia Planitia region, where it will release a small solar-powered rover that will explore the surface for at least three months.A successful landing would make China only the second nation to place a spacecraft on the Martian surface, with the United States having landed eight probes since 1976. China would also be the first to achieve all three phases — orbiting, landing and deploying a rover — in the same mission.This is China’s first independent mission to Mars. A 2011 attempt failed when a Russian rocket carrying a Chinese orbiter malfunctioned after launch, and was unable to escape Earth orbit.The Tianwen-1 mission is the most ambitious undertaking of China’s rapidly evolving space program. Only the U.S. and Russia have successfully launched their own astronauts into orbit and successfully achieved a “soft” landing of a spacecraft on the lunar surface.Last year, though, China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft became the first to make a soft landing on the far side of the moon.The Tianwen-1 is the third mission to Mars this year. A Japanese rocket blasted off Monday carrying an orbiter developed and built by the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. space agency NASA is scheduled to launch a new Martian rover, dubbed Perseverance, July 30.
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