Deaf Actor Kotsur Makes Oscars History, Debose Wins Supporting Actress
Troy Kotsur made history on Sunday as the first deaf man to win an Oscar for his role in “CODA,” and Ariana DeBose took the supporting actress trophy for “West Side Story” as Hollywood returned to all-out glitz at this year’s Academy Awards.
In “CODA,” an acronym for “child of deaf adults,” Kotsur played Frank Rossi, the father of a teenager who struggles to help her family’s fishing business while pursuing her own aspirations in music.
“This is amazing to be here on this journey. I cannot believe I am here,” Kotsur said in a heartfelt speech delivered in sign language as he accepted the supporting actor honor.
“This is dedicated to the deaf community, the ‘CODA’ community and the disabled community. This is our moment,” he added.
The only other deaf person to win an Oscar was Kotsur’s “CODA” co-star Marlee Matlin. She won best actress for her role in 1986 romantic drama “Children of a Lesser God.”
Supporting actress went to DeBose for playing the spirited Anita, who sings “America” in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical.
As she held her gold statuette, the Afro-Latina actress asked the audience to imagine her as a young girl “in the back seat of a white Ford Focus.”
“You see a queer, openly queer Latina, who found her strength in life through art. And that’s what we’re here to celebrate,” she said.
“So, anybody who’s ever questioned your identity. Or find yourself living in the gray spaces, I promise you this: There is indeed a place for us,” she added, referencing the moving song from “West Side Story.”
DeBose also thanked “divine inspiration” Rita Moreno, who earned the best supporting actress award in 1962 for playing Anita in the original movie version of the musical.
Beyonce opened the show by performing “Be Alive,” an Oscar-nominated song from the movie “King Richard,” about the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. She and her backup dancers, clad in sparkling yellow gowns, performed from a tennis court in the sisters’ hometown of Compton, California.
After going three years without a host, a trio was chosen to guide Sunday’s ceremony: Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes.
“This year, the Oscars hired three women to host because it’s cheaper than hiring one man,” Schumer joked.
“And for you people in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night,” added openly gay Sykes, referring to legislation in the state that limits LGBTQ discussion in schools and has been labeled by critics in Hollywood and elsewhere as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
A dark Western, “The Power of the Dog,” is battling the feel-good drama “CODA” for the prestigious best picture prize. A win by either movie would mark a milestone by handing the statuette to a streaming service.
Netflix Inc NFLX.O released “Power of the Dog” while “CODA” streamed on Apple TV+ AAPL.O.
Producers said they planned an upbeat show but will acknowledge the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed thousands and driven a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes. Actor Mila Kunis, who was born in Ukraine, is among the night’s presenters. Jason Momoa wore a handkerchief in the colors of the Ukrainian flag: blue and yellow.
Jessica Chastain, Nicole Kidman and other nominees donned a rainbow of colors for a ceremony with 2,500 gown- and tuxedo-clad attendees and free from last year’s pandemic restrictions. Nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee wore a light blue suit, while Chastain picked a lavender and gold gown with giant ruffles on the skirt. Kirsten Dunst and Marlee Matlin chose bright red.
After past complaints about a lack of diversity, two of this year’s four acting accolades may go to people of color. Will Smith is likely to earn his first Oscar for “King Richard,” awards watchers say, as is Ariana DeBose for “West Side Story.”
In a bid to draw more viewers, especially younger ones, after years of declining ratings, the show will add two awards, the results of fan votes for favorite film and scene. Some winners were announced ahead of the live show with their speeches edited into the show.
The best picture race hinges on whether the 9,900 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences back a gothic psychological thriller or an uplifting story.
“Power of the Dog,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a repressed cowboy who torments his brother’s new wife, outpaced all movies with 12 nominations. It had been considered the leader until “CODA” landed top honors from the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild.
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Oscars Set for Return to Normal, Except All the Changes
For the first time in two years, the Academy Awards are rolling out the red carpet at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre for what the film academy hopes will be a back-to-normal Oscars. Except for all the stuff that’s changed.
The telecast for the 94th Academy Awards will begin, as usual, at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. But little else about how this year’s Oscars will get underway is traditional. An hour before the broadcast begins, attendees will assemble in the Dolby for the presentation of eight awards and acceptance speeches that will be edited into a broadcast that producer Will Packer has promised will be a tight three hours.
It’s one of many shifts, both slight and tectonic, around this year’s ceremony. After two years of pandemic — and a socially distanced 2021 edition with record-low ratings — the Academy Awards will try to recapture their exalted place in pop culture with a revamped telecast that’s expected to see a streaming service win best picture for the first time.
It won’t be easy. The film industry recovered significantly from the pandemic in 2021, but despite one of the biggest hits in years in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the rebound has been fitful. The global movie industry sold about half the tickets last year as it did two years ago, $21.3 billion in 2021 compared to $42.3 billion in 2019, according to the Motion Picture Association. Hollywood pushed more of its top films directly into homes than ever before; half of this year’s 10 best-picture nominees were streamed at or very near release. Even the film academy shifted entirely to a streaming platform for voters, rather than DVD screeners.
Then there are the challenges of commanding worldwide attention for a night of Hollywood self-congratulation after two years of pandemic and while Russia’s war ravages Ukraine. Packer has said the war in Ukraine will be respectfully acknowledged during the broadcast.
Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog,” Jane Campion’s gothic western, comes in with a leading 12 nominations and a good chance of snagging the top award. But all the momentum is with Sian Heder’s deaf family drama “CODA,” which, despite boasting just three nods, is considered the favorite. A win would be a triumph for Apple TV+, which acquired the movie out of the Sundance Film Festival last year and has spent big promoting it to academy members.
But expect the most awards on the night to go to “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve’s sweeping science fiction epic. It’s the odds-on-favorite to clean up in the technical categories.
After several years sans-host, the Oscars will turn to the trio of Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall to emcee the broadcast, which is also streaming on platforms including Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV and on ABC.com with provider authentication. Producers have also lined up a star-studded group of performers including Billie Eilish and Beyoncé to sing nominated songs, while the “Encanto” cast will perform Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”
It will be a staggered start, with stars making their way into the Dolby at different times. ABC’s red carpet preshow will run 6:30 to 8 p.m., with the first hour of awards happening inside the theater between 7-8 p.m. News of those winners will spread first on social media and later be woven into the telecast. To accommodate the shift, the red carpet will also open an hour earlier than usual, at 4 p.m. Eastern.
The rejiggered approach, which has been deeply unpopular with some academy members, should make for some complicated red-carpet logistics. The academy, wanted to give each winner an uncompromised moment, is urging attendees to be in their seats by 7 p.m. Some stars, like “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” nominee Jessica Chastain, have said they won’t do red carpet interviews if it means missing the presentation of awards like best hair and makeup, for which the artists of “Tammy Faye” are nominated.
That’s one of the eight pre-show categories to be handed out during what producers are calling the “golden hour.” The others are: film editing, sound, original score, production design, live-action short, animated short and documentary short.
Earlier this month, more than 70 Oscar winners, including James Cameron, Kathleen Kennedy and Guillermo del Toro, warned that the change would turn some nominees into “second-class citizens.”
Behind the change is alarm over the Oscars fast-falling ratings. While drops have been common to all major network award shows, last year’s show attracted only about 10 million viewers, less than half of the 23.6 million the year before. A decade ago, it was closer to 40 million.
To help restore the Oscars’ position, some argued in the lead-up to this year’s awards that a blockbuster like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” should have been nominated for best picture. It’s up for just visual effects.
Instead, a wide gamut of films are in the hunt, ranging from the much-watched Netflix apocalyptic comedy “Don’t Look Up” and the roundly acclaimed three-hour Japanese drama “Drive My Car.”
One thing producers have promised: the night’s final award will be best picture. Last year’s show concluded awkwardly with the unexpected presentation of best actor to a not-present Anthony Hopkins.
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Drugs Found in Taylor Hawkins System; Investigation Continues
Taylor Hawkins, for 25 years the drummer for Foo Fighters and best friend of frontman Dave Grohl, has died during a South American tour with the rock band. He was 50.
There were few immediate details on how Hawkins died, although the band said in a statement Friday that his death was a “tragic and untimely loss.”
Colombia’s Prosecutor’s Office released a statement Saturday saying toxicological tests on urine from Hawkins’ body preliminarily found 10 psychoactive substances and medicines, including marijuana, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines. It did not provide a cause of death and investigations are continuing.
Foo Fighters had been scheduled to play at a festival in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday night. Hawkins’ final concert was Sunday at another festival in San Isidro, Argentina.
“His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” said a message on the band’s official Twitter account that was also emailed to reporters. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family.”
The Bogota municipal government issued a statement Saturday that the city’s emergency center had received a report of a patient with “chest pain” and sent an ambulance, though a private ambulance had already arrived at the hotel in northern Bogota.
Health workers tried to revive him but were unable to do so.
“It was a band I grew up with. This leaves me empty,” Juan Sebastian Anchique, 23, told The Associated Press as he mourned Hawkins outside the hotel.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota also expressed its condolences in a tweet.
After Grohl, Hawkins was the most recognizable member of the group, appearing alongside the lead singer in interviews and playing prominent, usually comic, roles in the band’s memorable videos and their recent horror-comedy film, Studio 666.
Hawkins was Alanis Morissette’s touring drummer when he joined Foo Fighters in 1997. He played on the band’s biggest albums including One by One and In Your Honor, and on hit singles like Best of You.
Tributes poured out on social media for Hawkins.
“God bless you Taylor Hawkins,” Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello said on Twitter along with a photo of himself, Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell. “I loved your spirit and your unstoppable rock power.”
“What an incredible talent, who didn’t also need to be so kind and generous and cool but was all those things too anyway,” tweeted Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother, co-writer and producer. “The world was so lucky to have his gifts for the time that it did.”
At the festival where Foo Fighters had been scheduled to perform, news of the death leaked out slowly, said Diego Báez, a 33-year-old fan.
A concert organizer first announced the performance was canceled for medical reasons. Minutes later, fans learned from social media of Hawkins’ death.
“Some cried. Others were sad, astonished, moved. It was a very powerful moment,” Baéz said.
A screen projected the words “Taylor Hawkins forever” while the song My Hero played.
Hawkins is survived by his wife, Alison, and their three children.
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Southern Malawi Records Continued Rise in Cholera Cases
Southern Malawi has started recording a rise in cholera cases, which health authorities blame on flooding from a recent tropical storm and cyclone. More than 30 people have been infected and two have died. UNICEF is intervening to reduce the spread of the disease.
Malawi confirmed the first cholera case March 2 in the Machinga district.
Health authorities say the disease has so far hit the Nsanje and Machinga districts in southern Malawi with a cumulative number of cases now reaching 33. There have been two deaths as of Friday.
“Out of 33 cases, eight cases were still receiving treatment at the cholera treatment center, Ndamera treatment center specifically. We also have a cumulative number of two deaths. The rest were discharged,” said George Mbotwa, the spokesperson for the Nsanje District Health Office.
He says they have put in place measures to prevent and control the further spread of the disease such as surveillance and contact tracing.
“We are also doing health education; health talks in [evacuation] camps where there are a lot of people and of course in surrounding communities. We have also instituted health workers; HSAs (Health Surveillance Assistants) in all uncharted entry points where actually they are conducting health promotion in water treatment efforts, health talks and all that,” he said.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with bacteria. The disease affects both children and adults if untreated and it can kill within hours. Cholera is more common during the rainy season.
Health authorities in Malawi say the disease is largely a result of floods caused by Tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe, which hit Malawi in the past two months.
Estere Tsoka, an emergency specialist for the U.N.’s children agency, UNICEF, in Malawi, told VOA that UNICEF is making several interventions to control the further spread of the disease.
“UNICEF is supporting the disinfection of household water sources and also chlorination of water sources at community level that got affected by the floods. UNICEF is also supporting sanitation of the cholera treatment centers that have been established so that they should not become a source of infection,” she said.
Tsoka also says plans are underway to procure a cholera vaccine.
“Also there are plans to administer oral cholera vaccine in eight districts of the country. And UNICEF is providing support to bring in the vaccines in the country and also supporting planning processes for the vaccine’s national campaign.”
Maziko Matemba, the national health ambassador in Malawi, says cholera can be prevented if community health structures are financially empowered to effectively perform their task of educating communities on matters of hygiene and sanitation particularly in flood-prone areas.
“Because we already know that we normally have cholera and also floods more especially in that part of Malawi because it’s a low-lying area and our rivers do burst when the rains come more than expected,” Matemba said.
The Ministry of Health said in a statement this week that it is distributing chlorine to communities in affected areas for water treatment as well as sending cholera control information to all the people there through various channels of communication.
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Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins Dead at 50
Taylor Hawkins, for 25 years the drummer for Foo Fighters and best friend of frontman Dave Grohl, has died during a South American tour with the rock band. He was 50.
There were no immediate details on how Hawkins died, although the band said in a statement Friday that his death was “tragic and untimely loss.”
Foo Fighters had been scheduled to play at a festival in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday night. Hawkins’ final concert was Sunday at another festival in San Isidro, Argentina.
“His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” said a message on the band’s official Twitter account that was also emailed to reporters. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family.”
Police vehicles, an ambulance and fans were gathered outside the hotel in northern Bogota where Hawkins was believed to have been staying.
“It was a band I grew up with. This leaves me empty,” Juan Sebastian Anchique, 23, told The Associated Press as he mourned Hawkins outside the hotel.
Authorities in Colombia have not commented on Hawkins’ death. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota expressed its condolences in a tweet.
After Grohl, Hawkins was the most recognizable member of the group, appearing alongside the lead singer in interviews and playing prominent, usually comic, roles in the band’s memorable videos and their recent horror-comedy film, Studio 666.
Hawkins was Alanis Morrissette’s touring drummer when he joined Foo Fighters in 1997. He played on the band’s biggest albums including One by One and On Your Honor, and on hit singles including My Hero and Best of You.
In Grohl’s 2021 book The Storyteller, he called Hawkins his “brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet.”
“Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we ever played together,” Grohl wrote. “We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime.”
It’s the second time Grohl has experienced the death of a close bandmate. Grohl was the drummer for Nirvana when Kurt Cobain died in 1994.
Tributes poured out on social media for Hawkins on Friday night.
“God bless you Taylor Hawkins,” Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello said on Twitter along with a photo of himself, Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Ferrell. “I loved your spirit and your unstoppable rock power.”
“What an incredible talent, who didn’t also need to be so kind and generous and cool but was all those things too anyway,” tweeted Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother, co-writer and producer. “The world was so lucky to have his gifts for the time that it did.”
Born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1972, Hawkins was raised in Laguna Beach, California. He played in the small Southern California band Sylvia before landing his first major gig as a drummer for Canadian singer Sass Jordan.
Hawkins told The Associated Press in 2019 that his early drumming influences included Stewart Copeland of The Police, Roger Taylor from Queen, and Phil Collins, who he said was “one of my favorite drummers ever. You know, people forget that he was a great drummer as well as a sweater-wearing nice guy from the ’80s, poor fella.”
When he spent two years in the mid-1990s drumming for Morrissette, he was inspired primarily by the playing of Jane’s Addiction’s Stephen Perkins.
“My drums were set up like him, the whole thing,” Hawkins told the AP. “I was still sort of a copycat at that point. It takes a while and takes a little while to sort of establish your own sort of style. I didn’t sound exactly like him, I sound like me, but he was a big, huge influence.”
He and Grohl met backstage at a show when Hawkins was still with Morrissette. Grohl’s band would have an opening soon after when then-drummer William Goldsmith left. Grohl called Hawkins, who was a huge Foo Fighters fan and immediately accepted.
“I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical ‘twin flame’ that still burns to this day,” Grohl wrote in his book. “Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find.”
Hawkins first appeared with the band in the 1997 video for Foo Fighters’ most popular song, Everlong, although he had yet to join the group when the song was recorded. He would, however, go on to pound out epic versions of it hundreds of times as the climax of Foo Fighters’ concerts.
In another highlight of the group’s live shows, Grohl would get behind the drums and Hawkins would grab the mic to sing a cover of Queen’s Somebody to Love.
“The best part of getting to be the lead singer of the Foo Fighters for just for one song is I really do have the greatest rock ‘n’ roll drummer on the planet Earth,” Hawkins said before the song in a March 18 concert in Chile.
Grohl can be heard telling him to shut up.
Hawkins also co-starred in Foo Fighters’ recently released horror-comedy film, Studio 666, in which a demonic force in a house where the band is staying seizes Grohl and makes him murderous. Hawkins and the other members of the band are killed off one by one. The premise came out of their work on their 10th studio album at a home in Los Angeles.
He also drummed and sang for the side-project trio Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. They released an album, Get the Money, in 2006.
Hawkins is survived by his wife Alison and their three children.
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Ice Shelf Collapses in Previously Stable East Antarctica
An ice shelf the size of New York City has collapsed in East Antarctica, an area long thought to be stable and not hit much by climate change, concerned scientists said Friday.
The collapse, captured by satellite images, marked the first time in human history that the frigid region had an ice shelf collapse. It happened at the beginning of a freakish warm spell last week when temperatures soared more than 70 degrees (40 Celsius) warmer than normal in some spots of East Antarctica. Satellite photos show the area had been shrinking rapidly the last couple of years, and now scientists say they wonder if they have been overestimating East Antarctica’s stability and resistance to global warming that has been melting ice rapidly on the smaller western side and the vulnerable peninsula.
The ice shelf, about 460 square miles wide (1200 square kilometers) holding in the Conger and Glenzer glaciers from the warmer water, collapsed between March 14 and 16, said ice scientist Catherine Walker of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. She said scientists have never seen this happen in this part of the continent and that makes it worrisome.
“The Glenzer Conger ice shelf presumably had been there for thousands of years and it’s not ever going to be there again,” said University of Minnesota ice scientist Peter Neff.
The issue isn’t the amount of ice lost in this collapse, Neff and Walker said. It’s negligible. But it’s more about the where it happened.
Neff said he worries that previous assumptions about East Antarctica’s stability may not be so right. And that’s important because the water frozen in East Antarctica if it melted — and that’s a millennia-long process if not longer — would raise seas across the globe more than 160 feet (50 meters). It’s more than five times the ice in the more vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where scientists have concentrated much of their research.
Scientists had been seeing the ice shelf shrink a bit since the 1970s, Neff said. Then in 2020, the shelf’s ice loss sped up to losing about half of itself every month or so, Walker said.
“We probably are seeing the result of a lot of long time increased ocean warming there,” Walker said. “it’s just been melting and melting.”
And then last week’s warming “probably is something like, you know, the last straw on the camel’s back.”
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‘CODA,’ ‘Audible’ Spread Awareness of Deaf Culture
((EDS: This can be used before or after Sunday’s Oscar Awards show. This intro can be adjusted if one of both films win on Sunday.))
Two films, CODA and Audible, have received multiple Oscar nominations. Whether they will nab the coveted statuettes remains to be seen, but their real victory is that both have made the hearing world more aware of Deaf culture. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Audible filmmaker Matthew Ogens, Audible executive producer Nyle Dimarco, and faculty members and students at Gallaudet University, a school for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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EU Negotiators Agree on Landmark Law to Curb Big Tech
Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states agreed Thursday on a landmark law to curb the market dominance of U.S. big tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.
Meeting in Brussels, the lawmakers nailed down a long list of do’s and don’ts that will single out the world’s most iconic web giants as internet “gatekeepers” subject to special rules.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has sped through the bloc’s legislative procedures and is designed to protect consumers and give rivals a better chance to survive against the world’s powerful tech juggernauts.
“The agreement ushers in a new era of tech regulation worldwide,” said German MEP Andreas Schwab, who led the negotiations for the European Parliament.
“The Digital Markets Act puts an end to the ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech companies,” he added.
The main point of the law is to avert the years of procedures and court battles needed to punish Big Tech’s monopolistic behavior in which cases can end with huge fines but little change in how the giants do business.
Once implemented, the law will give Brussels unprecedented authority to keep an eye on decisions by the giants, especially when they pull out the checkbook to buy up promising startups.
“The gatekeepers – they now have to take responsibility,” said the EU’s competition supremo Margrethe Vestager.
“A number of things they can do, a number of things they can’t do, and that of course gives everyone a fair chance,” she added.
‘Concrete impacts’
The law contains about 20 rules that in many cases target practices by Big Tech that have gone against the bloc’s rules on competition, but which Brussels has struggled to enforce.
The DMA imposes myriad obligations on Big Tech, including forcing Apple to open up its App Store to alternative payment systems, a demand that the iPhone maker has opposed fiercely, most notably in its feud with Epic games, the maker of Fortnite.
Google will be asked to clearly offer users of Android-run smartphones alternatives to its search engine, the Google Maps app or its Chrome browser.
Apple would also be forced to loosen its grip on the iPhone, with users allowed to uninstall its Safari web browser and other company-imposed apps that users cannot currently delete.
In a statement, Apple swiftly expressed regret over the law, saying it was “concerned that some provisions of the DMA will create unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities for our users.”
After a furious campaign by influential MEPs, the law also forces messaging services such as Meta-owned WhatsApp to make themselves available to users on other services such as Signal or Apple’s iMessage, and vice versa.
France, which holds the EU presidency and negotiated on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states, said the law would deliver “concrete impacts on the lives of European citizens.”
“We are talking about the goods you buy online, the smartphone you use every day, and the services you use every day,” said France’s digital affairs minister, Cedric O.
Stiff fines
Violation of the rules could lead to fines as high as 10% of a company’s annual global sales and even 20% for repeat offenders.
The DMA “will have a profound impact on the way some gatekeepers’ operations are currently conducted,” said lawyer Katrin Schallenberg, a partner at Clifford Chance.
“Clearly, companies affected … are already working on ways to comply with or even challenge the regulation,” she added.
The Big Tech companies have lobbied hard against the new rules and the firms have been defended in Washington, where it is alleged that the new law unfairly targets U.S. companies.
With the deal now reached by negotiators, the DMA now faces final votes in a full session of the European Parliament as well as by ministers from the EU’s 27 member states.
The rules could come into place starting Jan. 1, 2023, though tech companies are asking for more time to implement the law.
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Russian Agents Charged With Targeting US Nuclear Plant, Saudi Oil Refinery
U.S. and British officials on Thursday accused the Russian government of running a yearslong campaign to hack into critical infrastructure, including an American nuclear plant and a Saudi oil refinery.
The announcement was paired with the unsealing of criminal charges against four Russian government officials, whom the U.S. Department of Justice accused of carrying out two major hacking operations aimed at the global energy sector. Thousands of computers in 135 countries were affected between 2012 and 2018, U.S. prosecutors said.
Cybersecurity analysts described the moves as a shot across the bow to Moscow after U.S. President Joe Biden had warned just days ago about “evolving intelligence” that the Russian government might be preparing cyberattacks against American targets.
John Hultquist, whose firm Mandiant investigated the Saudi refinery hack, said that by making the criminal charges public, the United States “let them know that we know who they are.”
In one of the two indictments unsealed on Thursday and dated June 2021, the Justice Department accused Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh, a 36-year-old Russian Ministry of Defense research institute employee, of conspiring with others between May and September 2017 to hack the systems of a foreign refinery and install malware known as “Triton” on a safety system produced by Schneider Electric SE.
The refinery wasn’t named, but the British government said it was in Saudi Arabia and had previously been identified as the Petro Rabigh refinery complex on the Red Sea coast.
In a second indictment, dated August 2021, the Justice Department said three other suspected hackers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out cyberattacks on the computer networks of oil and gas firms, nuclear power plants, and utility and power transmission companies between 2012 and 2017 — a campaign researchers have long attributed to a group sometimes dubbed “Energetic Bear” or “Berserk Bear.”
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The three accused Russians in the second case are Pavel Aleksandrovich Akulov, 36, Mikhail Mikhailovich Gavrilov, 42, and Marat Valeryevich Tyukov, 39. None of the four defendants have been arrested, a U.S. official said.
Britain’s Foreign Office said that the FSB hackers targeted the systems controlling the Wolf Creek nuclear plant in Kansas “but failed to have any negative impact.”
“Russia’s targeting of critical national infrastructure is calculated and dangerous,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement. She said it showed Russian President Vladimir Putin “is prepared to risk lives to sow division and confusion among allies.”
A Justice Department official told reporters that even though the hacking at issue in the two cases occurred years ago, investigators remained concerned Russia will carry out similar attacks in future.
“These charges show the dark art of the possible when it comes to critical infrastructure,” the official said.
The official added that the department decided to unseal the indictments because they determined the “benefit of revealing the results of the investigation now outweighs the likelihood of arrests in the future.”
The 2017 Saudi refinery attack stunned the cybersecurity community when it was made public by researchers later that year. Unlike typical digital intrusions aimed at stealing data or holding it for ransom, the attack appeared aimed at causing physical damage to the facility itself by disabling its safety system. U.S. officials have been tracking the case ever since.
In 2019, those behind Triton were reported to be scanning and probing at least 20 electric utilities in the United States for vulnerabilities.
Two weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Russian government-backed Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics. Prosecutors believe Gladkikh worked there. On Thursday, British officials also announced sanctions on the institute.
The Foreign Office said FSB hackers had targeted British energy companies and had successfully stolen data from the U.S. aviation sector. It also accused the hackers of trying to compromise an employee of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who fell afoul of the Kremlin and now lives in London.
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Nigerian Authorities, Partners Raise Concerns of Funding Gaps for TB Programs
On World Tuberculosis Day, Nigeria said cases of the disease increased by nearly 50 percent last year. At a summit Thursday to heighten awareness of the disease, health authorities said to tackle the epidemic, they need to close a huge funding gap.
At least 200 people attended the ministerial briefing Thursday in Abuja, where health authorities said confirmed cases jumped from about 138,000 in 2020 to more than 207,000 cases last year.
Health minister Osagie Ehanire said the actual number of cases is probably higher.
“There’s still a significant gap between the estimated and the notified cases,” he said. “The 207,000 which I spoke of represents only 45 percent of what we estimated.”
Health authorities said the increase was as a result of heightened surveillance and that Nigeria was one of the few countries in the world to sustain its TB detection program despite COVID-19 disruptions.
Authorities said there is still a huge funding shortage when it comes to tuberculosis interventions, as only 31% of funding needed for TB control in 2020 was achieved.
“This year’s world TB Day theme, ‘Invest to End TB, Save Lives,’ is a call to action that resonates with the most critical needs of Nigeria’s national TB program,” said Rachel Goldstein, officer for HIV and TB control for the U.S. Agency for International Development. “We know that the program currently has a significant funding gap, and that’s something we’ve got to work together to advocate for additional resources.”
Every year, about 590,000 new cases of tuberculosis occur in Nigeria, and around 200,000 people die.
Experts said apart from low awareness, stigmatization prevents early reporting of the disease.
Joyce Agerl was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2019, but only began her treatment late last year. Now, she’s helping to warn others about the dangers of the disease.
“For me, one way I’ll help to give more to the society is to talk to someone about TB,” she said, “and another way is to also do my own publicity on social media.”
Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that affects the lungs. Nigeria has the sixth-highest TB burden in the world, and has the most cases in Africa.
your ad herePeace in Space Despite War on Earth
NASA says international space cooperation “hasn’t missed a beat” despite Russia’s war on Ukraine and punishing Western sanctions on Moscow. Meanwhile, Europe’s space agency cancels travel plans with Russia, and space station astronauts perform repairs. Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.]
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WHO: Increased Funding Can End Global TB Epidemic
The World Health Organization warns the fight against tuberculosis is at a critical juncture. It says the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed gains made since 2000 in saving lives from the infectious disease. For the first time in over a decade, the WHO says TB deaths increased in 2020.
It says around 1.5 million people died of TB during that pandemic year because of disruptions in services and lack of resources. Most deaths have occurred in developing countries, with conflict affected countries across Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East at greatest risk.
The director of the WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Program, Tereza Kaseva, says an extra $1.1 billion a year is needed for the development of new tools, especially new vaccines, to achieve the goal of ending TB by 2030.
She says investing in the fight against tuberculosis is a no-brainer given the benefits gained for each dollar spent.
“For every one dollar invested to end TB, 43 is returned as the benefits of a healthier, functioning society…Ending TB by 2030 can lead to avoiding 23.8 million tuberculosis deaths and almost 13 trillion U.S. dollars in economic losses.”
The WHO says extra funding would allow the world to treat 50 million people with TB, including 3.7 million children and 2.2 million with drug-resistant TB. WHO officials say that would be particularly beneficial for children and young adults who lag adults in accessing TB prevention and care.
Team leader of vulnerable populations in the WHO’s global TB program, Kerri Viney, says 1.1 million children and young adolescents become ill with tuberculosis every year.
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Seattle-Based Teenager Designed Relocation Website for Ukrainian Refugees
Seattle-based teenager Avi Schiffmann is doing what he can to help Ukrainian refugees. He has launched a website that helps refugees find safe places to stay, matching refugees with people willing to share their homes. Anush Avetisyan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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Cameroon Says Hospitals Overwhelmed with Cholera Patients
Cameroon’s public health ministry says a cholera outbreak is sweeping across the towns of Limbe, Buea and Tiko, near the border with Nigeria.
The government says 12 of the 600 patients rushed to hospitals in those towns died within the past 72 hours.
Nyenti Annereke, director of the Limbe government hospital, said the facility, which has a capacity of 200 beds, has received more than 240 cholera patients.
“We built three tents in Limbe hospital yesterday because patients were at the veranda, in the corridors of the wards,” he said. “All the beds were full. The Tiko district hospital, the capacity also is overpowered. The hospital in Bota is another crisis zone.”
To cope with the overflow, humanitarian workers are helping to erect tents at the hospitals in Limbe and Buea.
Still, The government says many families are rushing their sick relatives to surrounding towns, including Mutengene and Douala, a commercial hub on the Atlantic coast.
Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the South West region where Limbe, Tiko and Buea are located, chaired at least three crisis meetings on Wednesday.
Bilai said the cholera outbreak is caused by a shortage of clean drinking water in western towns and villages provoked by the long dry season and civilians should desist from drinking open stream water. He said the disease is spreading fast because cattle and civilians defecate in the open and in rivers.
“Our structures, the hospitals are overloaded, but thank God that the medical officers in charge of those hospitals have been proactive and they have taken measures to receive various patients,” he said. “All the patients are under treatment.”
Bilai said the government will provide water to arid towns like Limbe, Buea and Tiko and surrounding villages but did not say when.
Meanwhile, health officials are moving from door to door encouraging civilians to boil water from wells and streams before drinking it.
The government says people should also eat only properly cooked food and wash their hands before and after meals, and after using the bathroom.
Another cholera outbreak in Cameroon in February affected 1,300 people and killed about three dozen.
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Oscar Preview: 5 Big Questions Ahead of Sunday’s Awards
The Academy Awards have always loved a comeback story. This year, the Oscars are attempting to star in one, too.
On Sunday, the Academy Awards will try to bounce back from a 2021 ceremony that was plagued by pandemic restrictions, a botched ending and record-low ratings. The 94th Academy Awards will return to their usual home, Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, and be broadcast live on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. EDT. (It’s also possible to stream it live on services like Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV and on ABC.com with provider authentication.)
How much of the Oscars’ downturn should be chalked up to COVID-19? How much is it the new normal? These are just some of the questions that hang over an Academy Awards that feels like a crossroads for one of America’s most enduring pop-culture institutions, and still the most-watched annual show outside the Super Bowl.
Can the Will Packer-produced awards shrug off the pandemic, reverse years of declining ratings for network TV award shows and coalesce a big-tent event for a fast-evolving movie landscape? In the interminable run-up to the springtime Oscars, many in the industry have been skeptical. Which leads us to the first of five questions heading into the show.
Will the Oscars’ latest makeover work?
The biggest drama heading into Sunday revolves around a broadcast that has been substantially retooled to stem the ratings slide. As if making up for several host-less years, this time there are three: Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes. Will their combined star power move the needle at all?
Facing pressure from ABC, the academy will also first present eight categories — production design, editing, sound, score, makeup and hairstyling, and the three short film awards — before the telecast begins. Clips of their wins and speeches will be edited into the show. Critics throughout the industry, though, have lined up to decry the change. The largest union representing behind-the-scenes workers, IATSE, on Monday called the decision detrimental to the “fundamental purpose” of the Oscars.
So what will Packer do with the extra time? Beyoncé and Billie Eilish will perform their nominated songs. An eclectic group of presenters has also been announced, including some unexpected names like DJ Khaled, Tony Hawk, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Shaun White — so this could finally be the year that Judi Dench learns how to perform a “McTwist.”
Will a streamer take home Best Picture?
The two favorites both hail from streaming services, which have ever won best picture.
The lead nominee, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” up for 12 awards, had long been the presumed frontrunner, and possibly Netflix’s best chance yet to win Hollywood’s top award. But after back-to-back wins with the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild, Sian Heder’s deaf family drama “CODA” may have the edge. The film’s deep-pocketed backer, Apple TV+, has spent big to push a feel-good underdog indie to the front of the pack. If “CODA” wins, it will be the first time since 1932’s “Grand Hotel” that a film with fewer than four nominations (“CODA” has three) took best picture.
Some predictions this year have been wildly off, though, so other nominees like Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” could still pull off an upset.
How much will COVID-19 drag down the party?
Last year’s Oscars decamped to Union Station for an intimate show with a small number of attendees and lots of social distancing. This year, a full stage show and red carpet is planned, albeit with uneven COVID-19 protocols.
Attendees are required to submit two negative tests and proof of vaccination. Those presenting or performing don’t have to be vaccinated but need recent negative tests. Masks will be in the mix, too, for attendees sitting outside the orchestra at the Dolby and for media on the red carpet. After numerous attendees contracted the virus after attending the March 13 BAFTAs in London, several nominees have been quarantining, including Branagh and “Belfast” co-star Ciarán Hinds. With infection and hospitalization rates way down, Los Angeles County is set to lift many virus restrictions for indoor events on April 1, five days after the Oscars.
Will Will Smith win his first Oscar?
Nominated twice before for best actor (for “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness”), Will Smith appears a lock to win his first Academy Award. Smith’s performance as Richard Williams, father to Venus and Serena, in “King Richard” has remained the most likely choice throughout the season. And the speech by the exuberant 53-year-old star should be one of the most lively of the night. A win, though, will have to come over some formidable competition — including the actor who bested Smith’s “Ali” performance 20 years ago: Denzel Washington, a winner then for “Training Day” and a threat this time for “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”
Who’s set to make history?
Many of the top awards could feature some major milestones. Ari Wegner, cinematographer of “The Power of Dog,” may become the first woman to ever win that award. Her director, Jane Campion, is also poised to make history. Campion, the first women ever nominated twice for best director, is set to become only the third woman to win the category. It would mark the first time the directing award has ever gone to women in back-to-back years, after “Nomadland” filmmaker Chloé Zhao won last year.
Troy Kotsur of “CODA” is in line to be the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar. His widely expected win would make him and his “CODA” co-star Marlee Matlin the only deaf actors to land Academy Awards. And supporting actress, which Ariana DeBose seemingly has sewn up for her breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” may see the first Afro-Latina and openly LGBTQ actor win in the category. A win for DeBose would come 60 years after Rita Moreno won for the same role, Anita, in the 1961 original. That would be the third time that two actors have won for playing the same role, following Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, and Marlon Brando and Robert DeNiro as Vito Corleone. But we’ll have to wait and see if DeBose’s “West Side Story” co-star Rachel Zegler is there to cheer her on.
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Beyoncé, Billie Eilish to Sing Nominated Songs at Oscars
Beyoncé, Billie Eilish and other nominees for best original song will perform at Sunday’s Oscars, the show’s producers announced Tuesday.
Beyoncé will perform her nominated song “Be Alive” from “King Richard,” and Eilish and her brother and co-writer Finneas will perform “No Time To Die” from the James Bond film of the same name.
Sebastián Yatra will perform “Dos Oruguitas,” the nominated song from “Encanto” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Reba McEntire will sing writer Diane Warren’s “Somehow You Do” from the film “Four Good Days.”
Van Morrison, who wrote and sings the nominated song “Down to Joy” from “Belfast,” will not be able to make the show because of his touring schedule. The song will not be performed.
The original song Academy Award goes to the songwriter, not the artist who performs it, and whoever wins this year will get their first Oscar.
That includes Beyoncé, a 28-time Grammy winner, who co-wrote “Be Alive” with Dixson.
Warren was nominated this year for the 13th time but is still seeking her first win.
Miranda will join the elite “EGOT” club of winners of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony should “Dos Oruguitas” win. The song was tapped as the Oscar submission from “Encanto” before another Miranda-penned song from the Disney movie, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” became a runaway hit.
The Oscars are returning to Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre after the pandemic sent the show to Union Station for a smaller, more intimate ceremony last year.
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Russian, Belarusian Swimmers Banned from World Championships
Russian and Belarusian swimmers, divers, water polo players and artistic swimmers will no longer be able to compete in the upcoming world championships over the war in Ukraine, swimming’s governing body announced Wednesday.
Soon after the invasion, swimming’s governing body, FINA, said it would allow the swimmers to compete, but as neutral athletes who didn’t use national symbols.
“Following the review of an independent risk assessment, the FINA Bureau met today and confirmed that athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus will not take part (in the world championships),” FINA said.
“FINA maintains its strongest condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” it said in a press release.
The world championships will be held in Hungary in June.
In the last world championships held in 2019, Russia got the third most medals after the United States and China.
FINA also said it was investigating double Olympic backstroke champion Yevgeny Rylov over his alleged participation in a pro-Putin rally in Moscow last week.
Governing bodies for many sports, including soccer, track, gymnastics, skiing and ice skating, have taken measures to ban or restrict Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing.
Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
your ad hereModerna Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine Is Safe, Effective for Young Children
U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna said Wednesday interim studies it has conducted indicated its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for very young children, and the company is submitting a request for its approval to U.S. and international drug regulators.
In a release published on its website, Moderna said interim data from its Phase 2/3 Study showed “a robust neutralizing antibody response” from a 25 microgram two-dose series of its vaccine among children ages 6 months to just under 2 years of age, and children from 2 years to just under 6.
Based on these results, the company said it will submit a request for approval for the two-dose series for children 6 months to just under 6 years old to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and other global regulators in the coming weeks.
If approved, it would be the first vaccination available in the United States for children under the age of 5. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently available in smaller doses for children 5 to 12, and in full-size doses for those 12 and older.
An initial trial of the Pfizer vaccine for 2- to 4-year-olds showed a weaker immune response than in adults, forcing the trial to be extended to test a third dose. Results are expected in April.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Rachel Zegler Invited to Present at Oscars, Report Says
“West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler may get her Oscars moment after all. The 20-year-old actor has been invited to be a presenter at the ceremony, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter.
The gesture came two days after Zegler, who plays Maria, posted on social media that she had not been invited to the awards and would be rooting for “West Side Story” from her couch. The Steven Spielberg film is nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, director and supporting actress for Ariana DeBose, who is expected to win.
The post drew a lot of attention online as many couldn’t fathom why the lead of a best picture nominee wouldn’t have been invited to the ceremony or at least been asked to present an award.
“I hope some last minute miracle occurs and I can celebrate our film in person but hey, that’s how it goes sometimes, I guess,” Zegler wrote on Instagram Sunday. “Thanks for all the shock and outrage — I’m disappointed, too. But that’s OK. So proud of our movie.”
Next role: Snow White
Best picture nominees are allotted a certain number of tickets by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which the film’s studio then doles out as they see fit.
Presenters and individual nominees get a pair of tickets. And other spots in the room go to the broadcaster, sponsors and academy members, who can enter a lottery.
Zegler is not nominated, but her next big role is as Snow White, which she is currently filming in London. Some wondered why The Walt Disney Co., which owns Oscars broadcaster ABC, wouldn’t want their new Snow White there in some capacity, like presenting or performing. Others saw it as a missed opportunity to have a rising young Latina star represented at the show.
Russ Tamblyn, who played Riff in the 1961 “West Side Story” and is a voting member of the Academy, tweeted that it was the Academy’s, “duty to find Rachel a seat at the Oscars. … When they say representation matters, this is what that means. Please do right by her.”
Alec Baldwin tweeted that he would buy Zegler two tickets to the show.
And “One Day at a Time” showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett tweeted at ABC and the Academy, “How about the rare time that Latine people have a movie nominated for an OSCAR you invite the lead. Latine people are 18.5% of this country. ENOUGH!”
Tickets hard to get
Oscars tickets are always hot commodities, and this year are even more limited than usual because of efforts to maintain more space between guests to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Most Academy members have never gotten to attend.
And the outrage has only intensified as more and more presenters with limited connections to the nominated movies or the movie business at all are announced. On Monday, producers revealed that DJ Khaled, Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater and Shaun White would all be presenting awards at the show, which will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
News of Zegler’s invitation to present came Tuesday afternoon. Zegler has yet to comment and it is still unclear if she’ll be able to attend on this short notice and with her Snow White production schedule.
Representatives for the Academy, Disney and Zegler did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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Hackers Hit Authentication Firm Okta; Customers ‘May Have Been Impacted’
Okta whose authentication services are used by companies including Fedex and Moody’s to provide access to their networks, said on Tuesday that it had been hit by hackers and that some customers may have been affected.
The scope of the breach is still unclear, but it could have major consequences because thousands of companies rely on San Francisco-based Okta to manage access to their networks and applications.
Chief Security Officer David Bradbury said in a blog post that the computer of a customer support engineer working for a third-party contractor was accessed by the hackers for a five-day period in mid-January and that “the potential impact to Okta customers is limited to the access that support engineers have.”
“There are no corrective actions that need to be taken by our customers,” he said.
Nevertheless, Bradbury acknowledged that support engineers were able to help reset passwords and that some customers “may have been impacted.” He said the company was in the process of identifying and contacting them.
The nature of that impact wasn’t clear, and Okta did not immediately respond to an email asking how many organizations were potentially affected or how that squared with Okta’s advice that customers did not need to take corrective action.
On its website, Okta describes itself as the “identity provider for the internet” and says it has more than 15,000 customers on its platform.
It competes with the likes of Microsoft, PingID, Duo, SecureAuth and IBM to provide identity services such as single sign-on and multifactor authentication used to help users securely access online applications and websites.
Okta’s statement follows the posting of a series of screenshots of Okta’s internal communications by a group of ransom-seeking hackers known as Lapsus$ on their Telegram channel late on Monday.
In an accompanying message, the group said its focus was “ONLY on Okta customers.”
Lapsus$ responded to Okta’s statement on Tuesday by saying the company was trying to minimize the importance of the breach.
Some outside observers weren’t impressed with Okta’s explanation either.
Dan Tentler, the founder of cybersecurity consultancy Phobos Group, earlier told Reuters that Okta customers should “be very vigilant right now.”
There were signs that Okta customers were taking action to revisit their security.
Web infrastructure company Cloudflare issued a detailed explanation of how it reacted to the Okta breach and saying the company did not believe it had been compromised as a result.
FedEx said in a statement that it too was investigating and “we currently have no indication that our environment has been accessed or compromised.” Moody’s did not return a message seeking comment.
Lapsus$ is a relatively new entrant to the crowded ransomware field but has made waves with high-profile hacks and attention-seeking behavior.
The group compromised the websites of Portuguese media conglomerate Impresa earlier this year, tweeting the phrase “Lapsus$ is now the new president of Portugal” from one newspaper’s Twitter accounts. The Impresa-owned media outlets described the hack as an assault on press freedom.
Last month, the group leaked proprietary information about U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to the Web.
More recently the group has purported to have leaked source code from several big tech firms, including Microsoft. In a blog post published Tuesday and devoted to Lapsus$, the software firm confirmed that one of its accounts had been compromised, “gaining limited access.”
The hackers did not respond to a message left on their Telegram group chat seeking comment.
your ad hereSurprise Hit ‘Flee’ Tells Human Story of Refugees
An Oscar-nominated Danish documentary chronicling a gay Afghan refugee’s perilous journey to Europe tries to show that being a refugee is what happens to you, not who you are, its director told AFP.
“Flee,” an animated film which is up for three Academy Awards, is in the spotlight ahead of Sunday’s Oscars ceremony as the world witnesses another mass exodus, the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country.
“I really hope that we can give some nuance and some perspective,” director Jonas Poher Rasmussen told AFP in an interview held on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Being a refugee is not an identity. It’s a circumstance of life.”
In 2015, “we had Syrian refugees on the highways here in Denmark, and all over Europe. And I felt a need to give these people a human face,” he said.
The idea for the documentary stemmed from a conversation between the 40-year-old director and his childhood friend, dubbed “Amin” in the movie to protect his identity.
Amin arrived as a teenage refugee in Rasmussen’s small village near Copenhagen in 1996.
“The story is told from inside a friendship,” Rasmussen said. In the beginning, “I didn’t think about making a political film.” But his perspective changed over the 10 years between the film’s conception and the start of production.
Combining 2D, sketch animation and archive newsreel footage, “Flee” is as much a reflection on the agony of a refugee’s flight as the universal theme of man’s quest for a place in the world.
“I think people can really relate to the universality of the story,” Rasmussen said. “Most people at some point of their life look for that place where they feel they can be, honestly, who they are.”
The film also evokes parallels with the Taliban’s seizure of power again in Afghanistan last summer.
As a young boy and teenager in the 1980s and 1990s, Amin donned his sister’s dresses and later fantasized about secret crushes, such as Hollywood muscleman Jean-Claude Van Damme.
But he was not able to freely express his homosexuality.
His situation grew even more untenable with the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan in 1990s.
“It’s really a story about someone who’s had to flee himself all his life,” said Rasmussen. It is “about looking for a place in the world where you can be who you are, with everything that entails, with your sexuality, with your past, and everything else.”
Amin spent years not daring to speak about his past and his secrets, building up walls that prevented him from opening up to others.
Now married, he is thrilled that animation allowed him to tell his story incognito, without everyone he meets having to know his personal traumas and his innermost secrets, the director said.
“Flee,” which won the Sundance festival’s jury prize, has been nominated for three Academy Awards: best international film, best documentary, and best animated feature.
Ironically, Denmark is known for its ultra-restrictive immigration policy, even if it has eased its curbs during the Ukraine crisis.
Rasmussen said he was surprised by the success of “Flee.”
A former radio documentary-maker, he has made several other films, but the success enjoyed by his Danish contemporaries Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg has thus far eluded him.
This is his international breakthrough.
“At the beginning … our criteria for success was going to be a national TV broadcast here (in Denmark). And then the project grew and grew and grew and all of a sudden here we are with three nominations for the Academy Awards,” Rasmussen said.
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Nicaraguan Entrepreneur in LA Joins Aid Effort for Ukraine
As the war unfolds in Ukraine, the owner of Amazing Piñatas in Los Angeles, has found a creative way to help Ukrainian refugees. Originally from Nicaragua, Lorena Robletto tells VOA’s Verónica Villafañe why she wants to help.
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New Corporate Climate Change Disclosures Proposed by SEC
Companies would be required to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions they produce and how climate risk affects their business under new rules proposed Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a drive across the government to address climate change.
Under the proposals adopted on a 3-1 SEC vote, public companies would have to report on their climate risks, including the costs of moving away from fossil fuels, as well as risks related to the physical impact of storms, drought and higher temperatures caused by global warming. They would be required to lay out their transition plans for managing climate risk, how they intend to meet climate goals and progress made, and the impact of severe weather events on their finances.
The number of investors seeking more information on risk related to global warming has grown dramatically in recent years. Many companies already provide climate-risk information voluntarily. The idea is that, with uniform required information, investors would be able to compare companies within industries and sectors.
“Companies and investors alike would benefit from the clear rules of the road” in the proposal, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said.
The required disclosures would include greenhouse gas emissions produced by companies directly or indirectly — such as from consumption of the company’s products, vehicles used to transport products, employee business travel and energy used to grow raw materials.
The SEC issued voluntary guidance in 2010, but this is the first-time mandatory disclosure rules were put forward. The rules were opened to a public comment period of around 60 days and they could be modified before any final adoption.
Climate activists and investor groups have clamored for mandatory disclosure of information that would be uniformly required of all companies. The advocates estimate that excluding companies’ indirect emissions would leave out some 75% of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Investors can only assess risks if they know they exist,” Mike Litt, consumer campaigns director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said in a prepared statement. “Americans’ retirement accounts and other savings could be endangered if we don’t acknowledge potential liabilities caused by climate change and take them seriously.”
“Climate risks and harms are growing across our communities with threats to our economy,” said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. “Investors, pension fund managers and the public need better information about the physical and transition-related risks that climate change poses to hard-earned investments,”
On the other hand, major business interests and Republican officials — reaching down to the state level — began mobilizing against the climate disclosures long before the SEC unveiled the proposed rules Monday, exposing the sharply divided political dynamic of the climate issue.
Hester Peirce, the sole Republican among the four SEC commissioners, voted against the proposal. “We cannot make such fundamental changes without harming” companies, investors and the SEC, she said. “The results won’t be reliable, let alone comparable.”
The SEC action is part of a government-wide effort to identify climate risks, with new regulations planned from various agencies touching on the financial industry, housing and agriculture, among other areas. President Joe Biden issued an executive order last May calling for concrete steps to blunt climate risks, while spurring job creation and helping the U.S. reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Biden has made slowing climate change a top priority and has set a target to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 52% below 2005 levels by 2030. He also has said he expects to adopt a clean-energy standard that would make electric power carbon-free by 2035, along with the wider goal of net-zero carbon emissions through the economy by 2050.
“This is a huge step forward to protect our economy and boost transparency for investors and the public,” White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy tweeted as the SEC acted.
The premier business lobby, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top trade group, expressed objections in letters to the SEC last year.
Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at API, said Monday the group is concerned that the SEC’s proposal could require disclosure of information that isn’t significant for investors’ decisions, “and create confusion for investors and capital markets.”
“As the (SEC) pursues a final rule, we encourage them to collaborate with our industry and build on private-sector efforts that are already underway to improve consistency and comparability of climate-related reporting,” Macchiarola said in a statement.
The threat that opponents could take the SEC to court over the regulations has loomed.
Last June, a group of 16 Republican state attorneys general, led by Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia, raised objections in a letter to SEC Chairman Gensler. “Companies are well positioned to decide whether and how to satisfy the market’s evolving demands, for both customers and investors,” they said. “If the (SEC) were to move forward in this area, however, it would be delving into an inherently political morass for which it is ill-suited.”
Morrisey previously threatened to sue the SEC over expanded disclosures from companies of environmental, social and governance information.
your ad hereParis Olympics Sets $26 Rate For 1 Million Tickets
One million tickets for the 2024 Paris Olympics will be sold for $26.50 (24 euros) each with availability for all 32 sports, organizers said Monday.
The Paris proposal to the International Olympic Committee sets the basic price lower than that of the 2012 London Olympics, where the tickets cost more than $31.
“This is something important for us,” Paris organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said. “This is a very strong promise to offer accessibility of everyone to Olympic sports.”
A centralized global sales program unveiled by Paris Olympics organizers calls for pricing nearly half of the 10 million total tickets at no more than $55 (50 euros).
For the 2024 Paralympics, prices start at $15.60 (15 euros), and about half of the 3.4 million tickets will cost no more than $27.50 (25 euros).
Paris aims to raise $1.22 billion (1.1 billion euros) in revenue — about 30% of its budget — from ticket sales, Estanguet said.
Hitting that target would lift ticket income for Paris above the $1 billion raised by London from more than 8 million tickets sold.
Tokyo organizers aimed for $800 million from ticket sales before the COVID-19 pandemic prevented fans from attending nearly all the events at the 2020 Games, which were postponed to 2021.
Fans wanting to secure tickets for Paris events can start toward the end of this year in a process overhauled to include buyers worldwide. Previously, tickets were sold in the host country and a network of agents worldwide handled sales elsewhere.
Estanguet said the new system should “limit the frustration” of people who previously specified their preferred tickets with no guarantee of getting them.
Instead, a two-month registration period will let prospective buyers sign up for a lottery that will allocate the winners a time slot next February of several hours to choose the tickets they want for multiple sports sessions.
“We can then guarantee that if you buy those tickets, you will receive them,” Estanguet said.
Single tickets for events will go on sale in May 2023, and a third sales phase will start toward the end of next year.
Estanguet said a new ticketing portal managed by French companies would also offer a resale platform.
Asked if discussions were made about limiting portal access for residents of Russia and Belarus because of the invasion of Ukraine, Estanguet said no decision was needed for several months.
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