Month: September 2018

‘This One Really Scares Me,’ Expert Says of Hurricane Florence

Posted on by Cosc

To whip up a monstrous storm like the one chugging for the Carolinas you need a handful of ingredients — and Florence has them all.

— Warmer than normal sea temperatures to add energy and rain to a storm. Check.

— A wind pattern that allows a storm to get strong and stay strong. Check.

— Higher sea levels to make a storm surge worse. Check.

— A storm covering enormous area, to drench and lash more people. Check.

— And an unusual combination of other weather systems that are likely to stall Florence when it hits the Carolinas, allowing it to sit for days and dump huge amounts of rain. Check.

“The longer it stays, the more wind, the more rain. That means the more trees that could fall, the more power outages,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said.

“This one really scares me,” Graham said. “It’s one of those situations where you’re going to get heavy rain, catastrophic, life-threatening storm surge, and also the winds.”

The National Hurricane Center is calling for 10 to 20 inches of rain, and 30 inches in isolated spots. But a computer simulation known as the European model predicts some places could get 45 inches. Sound unlikely? It’s the same model that accurately predicted that last year’s Hurricane Harvey, which also stalled over land, would drop 60 inches.

“It does look a bit similar to Harvey in a sense that it goes roaring into shore and then comes to a screeching stop,” said MIT meteorology professor and hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel. “This is not a pretty sight.”

Florence is unusual in that it is aiming at the Carolinas from the east. Usually storms come to the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic from the south — and those usually curve safely out to sea.

But a weather formation known as a high-pressure ridge is parked over the U.S. East Coast, preventing Florence from doing the normal turn, said University of Miami hurricane expert Brian McNoldy.

After Florence makes landfall, that ridge, now over Washington and New York, will move east — but be replaced by another one forming over the Great Lakes that will most likely keep the storm stuck, McNoldy said.

Florence’s path remains uncertain. It may move a little north into Virginia or a little south into South Carolina. But it’s such a large storm that the rain will keep coming down in the region no matter where it wanders. And with the Appalachian Mountains to the west, there could be flooding and mudslides, experts worry.

Florence’s large size — tropical storm force winds extend 170 miles from the center in all directions — means its fury will arrive long before the center of the storm comes ashore, Graham said.

Some of Florence’s behavior, both what has been seen so far and what experts expect, shows the influence of climate change.

Its expected sluggishness is becoming more common, a result of climate change, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate scientist and hurricane expert Jim Kossin.

The ocean waters that Florence is traveling over are about 2.7 degrees (1.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal, McNoldy said. Even normal water is warm enough for a storm to form there, but this adds to the storm’s fuel and its rainfall. The air is holding 10 percent more water that can be dumped as rain.

And the storm surge, which could be as much as 12 feet in some areas, will be on top of sea level rise from climate change. For example, the seas off Wilmington, North Carolina, have risen 7.5 inches since 1935, according to NOAA.
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Global Gathering for Good Sees Young, Bright Future for Business

Posted on by Coeco

Young people are driving the growth of businesses that benefit society and the environment, the organizer of a global gathering of ethical entrepreneurs said as it opens Wednesday.

Some 1,500 people are meeting in Edinburgh as the 10th Social Enterprise World Forum — one of the most important networking events for the sector — returned to its birthplace after being hosted in Melbourne, Seoul and Rio De Janeiro.

“The key thing [that’s changed] in the decade is the transformational views of, and engagement with, young people,” Gerry Higgins, head of CEIS, which convenes the forum, told Reuters.

“Increasingly, young people are looking for careers of purpose, looking at social enterprise as a way of being involved in business and doing social good — and that has to be significant and heartening and positive.”

Scotland is the only country globally with a dedicated 10-year strategy to support social enterprises, or businesses that seek to make a profit while also doing good.

The country of 5 million has almost 6,000 social enterprises, providing about 80,000 jobs, the government says, many of them in poor rural communities.

Higgins, who has worked in the sector for more than 30 years, said he was encouraged by a rise in the number of universities teaching ethical entrepreneurs as well as growing interest from governments around the world.

Scores of universities, from Hong Kong and India to Greece and South Africa, now teach students about social enterprises, typically through work placements or incubating their startups.

Taiwan is sending more than 60 delegates to the forum as the government regards businesses with a social mission “as a way of reaching young people,” said Higgins.

“Ten years ago, when we pitched up in countries speaking with our partners to their government about social enterprise, God it was a hard sell,” he said.

But politicians are increasingly providing ethical firms with policy support, like the rest of the business sector, because they recognize the economic benefits they can deliver, he said.

“There are a lot of communities and individuals being supported by social enterprises around the world in a more sustainable way than existed 10 years ago,” he said.

“Ten years isn’t a long time in the growth of a business movement. We’re really at the start of the work of creating a global business model that’s used by an increasing number of people coming into the market.”
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Ten Things to Know About World Hunger

Posted on by Cosc

Global hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year, fueled by conflict and climate change, the United Nations revealed in a report published on Tuesday.

Obesity levels also increased.

Here are some facts and figures from the report.

World hunger levels rose in 2017 for the third consecutive year.
Globally 821 million people, or one in nine, do not have enough food to eat.
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one in four may have suffered from chronic hunger in 2017.
Asia has the largest number of undernourished people due to is sheer size - 515 million.
Nearly 151 million children under five suffered from stunting due to malnutrition, a condition that hampers physical and mental development.
More than 50 million children under five are too thin for their height and more than 38 million are overweight.
One in eight adults - 672 million - is obese.
Almost 36 percent of countries that experienced a rise in hunger since 2005 also suffered from severe drought.
Floods cause more climate-related disasters globally than any other extreme climate event.
Between 2011 and 2016, 51 low- and middle-income countries experienced early or delayed onset of seasons.

SOURCE: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017, World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, World Food Program
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Three New Species of Fish Found at Bottom of Pacific Ocean

Posted on by Cosc

Three new species of fish, aptly named Pink, Purple and Blue for their coloring, have been found at the bottom of one of the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean.

The fish belong to the snailfish (Liparidae) family, with bulbous heads, translucent, ribbon-like bodies and no scales. They were found in the Atacama Trench off the west coast of Chile and Peru at a depth of nearly 8,000 meters. Their unusual bodies are designed to withstand frigid temperatures and extreme pressure.

“Without the extreme pressure and cold to support their bodies, they are extremely fragile and melt rapidly when brought to the surface,” Thomas Linley, a scientist with Britain’s Newcastle University, wrote in a statement released Monday. Linley led the team of 40 scientists from 17 countries that made the discovery.

The research captured video of the fish in their environment. At least one specimen was brought to the surface alive for further study.

More than 100 species of snailfish exist all over the world. Scientists believe there are many more left to be discovered, like the trio found at Atacama.

“There is something about the snailfish that allows them to adapt to living very deep. Beyond the reach of other fish, they are free of competitors and predators,” Linley said in the statement.

From the video shot by the Newcastle team, Linley said it was clear “there are lots of invertebrate prey down there, and the snailfish are the top predator. They seem to be quite active and look very well-fed.” 

Pink, Purple and Blue will receive more scientific names when written about in academic papers.
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Tate Modern Makes Time for 24-hour Movie ‘The Clock’

Posted on by Corts

Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” is both the ultimate feature film and an artwork you can set your watch by. 

The Swiss-American artist has edited together thousands of movie clips containing clocks, watches or references to the time — one or more for every minute of the day — into a 24-hour video.

The result is a mesmerizing patchwork that moves forward in time as it dances back and forth across film history. 

Marclay compares the three-year process of creating “The Clock” to slotting together the multicolored facets of a Rubik’s Cube. London’s Tate Modern , where it goes on display this week, calls it “a gripping journey through cinematic history as well as a functioning timepiece.”

Since it was completed in 2010, “The Clock” has taken on legendary status, watched by thousands of people around the world — including a hardcore few who have seen it all in one sitting.

Marclay knows most visitors won’t see the whole thing, and admitted Tuesday that he’s never sat through the full 24 hours.

“It’s a lesson for life — we can’t do everything and we can’t see everything,” the artist said at a preview of the exhibition.

He likened the work to a painting — “You can come back to it endlessly.”

Tate co-owns a copy of “The Clock,” one of six in existence, with the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Marclay places strict conditions on how it is shown. It must always be synched to the actual time, so that midnight onscreen coincides with midnight in the screening room.

Visitors to Tate Modern can see “The Clock” for free from Sept. 16 until Jan. 20, in a screening room that can sit 150 people on comfy couches. Tate plans several all-night openings so that it can be shown in its entirety.

While few viewers of “The Clock” last a whole day, many stay longer than expected — the average is more than an hour.

It’s a seductive work that engages viewers on several levels. There’s the fun of trying to recognize the snippets as they whiz past — Jack Nicholson smirking; Cary Grant flirting; Hugh Grant, late for one of his “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”

Although there’s no plot, “The Clock” contains sex, humor, action and dramatic tension. When Jeremy Irons calls Bruce Willis at 10:50 a.m. in “Die Hard With a Vengeance” and demands he be downtown in half an hour, viewers hope Marclay will cut back to Willis at 11:20. (He does).

The artist says some minutes of the day were easier to work with than others. Film history abounds in noon and midnight encounters, but not so many at 4 a.m.

Only the insomniac or the intrepid will get to see the pre-dawn segments, and Marclay doesn’t mind if late-night visitors nod off. He says he wants “The Clock” to be in synch with viewers’ body rhythms.

“I love the idea of someone going in and out of sleep,” he said. “It becomes a blur. You really become part of the thing.

“I think that’s the magic of this piece,” he added. “It’s really about you.”
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Alfonso Cuaron on Building ‘Roma’ on Childhood Memories

Posted on by Corts

Alfonso Cuaron’s last movie, the dazzling space thriller “Gravity,” won seven Oscars and grossed more than $720 million worldwide. His new movie, “Roma,” is based on his childhood memories and was shot in black and white in the Mexico City neighborhood he grew up in.

With limitless opportunities at his disposal after the success of “Gravity,” Cuaron decided to go home. And the result — a neorealist blend of intensely personal filmmaking and overwhelming visual command — has been hailed as a masterpiece.

“There were huge and beautiful offers after `Gravity,’ and very tempting. And offers from a financial standpoint that were really appetizing,” Cuaron said in an interview. “But it was one of these things that I needed to do out of the deepest admiration for cinema that has to do with personal journeys.”

Days after “Roma” took the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Cuaron and the film arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival where the rapturous responses to his soul-searching continued unabated. “Roma,” which will have a limited theatrical release on Netflix this December, is Cuaron’s first Spanish-language film since his 2001 breakthrough, “Y Tu Mama Tambien.”

But for Cuaron, “Roma” is more than that. It’s a new beginning.

“It’s something that’s been brewing for a long, long, long time. I first started taking it seriously in 2006. It’s the film I was meant to do. It’s my first film. It’s the film in the sense that I made absolutely fearlessly. I threw away everything that I have learned to do this film,” said Cuaron. “Well, not everything because I wouldn’t have been able to do this before now.”

“Roma” is about domestic worker Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio, speaking in her native Mixtec), who devotedly works for a family that lives in the Mexico City neighborhood of Roma. Their home life, while pristine, is cracking (the father leaves his wife). And the tumult of early `70s Mexico, when student protests clashed violently with the police, is all around. Society is fraying, and it’s the women who bear much of the brunt of it.

“It’s an observation of a character journey as much as it’s an observation of a country, and a country that, like the United States and much of the world, has this perverse relationship between social class and race,” said Cuaron.

The production was unique. In the lengthy 108-day shoot, no crew member or actor had a screenplay. The only one beside Cuaron who did have a script was executive producer David Linde of Participant Media, who noted at the film’s Toronto premiere: “And I don’t speak Spanish.” Unlike most films, Cuaron also shot in absolute continuity.

“I didn’t want the actors or even the crew to have preconceptions or defined answers,” said Cuaron. “It was a process for everyone to be constantly searching. I was just honoring moments — the sense of time and space in those moments, but also honoring the emotional elements of those moments.”

Cuaron estimates that 90 percent of the film comes from his own memories and old photographs. He reproduced his family’s home, cast actors who looked as close as possible to his family members and obsessed over recreating the details of his early life. Cuaron served as his own cinematographer after his usual director of photography, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, had to pull out due to other commitments.

“I reproduced every inch of my childhood home with 70 percent of the original furniture,” Cuaron said. “We reproduced every single tile that existed in that house. We shot on the street of my childhood home. We shot in most of the places where those scenes took place.”

And though “Roma” is of a far smaller scale and more intimate than his “Gravity” or “Children of Men,” the 56-year-old filmmaker used many of the techniques he’s mastered from more spectacle-driven movies. He shot it digitally in 65mm and used Dolby Atmos for the lush sound design. In the film’s climactic moment, the sounds of the churning surf on a beach envelop the audience.

On the stage of the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, Cuaron explained the journey of “Roma” to the crowd: “I really wanted to come to terms with the elements that forged me.”
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S. Africa’s Controversial Land Expropriation Stirs Emotions, Uncertainty

Posted on by Coeco

Plans by South Africa’s government to change the law to allow land expropriation without compensation have provoked an emotional response, even reaching the ears of President Donald Trump, who signaled his disapproval last month in a controversial tweet in which he ordered U.S. officials to investigate the situation.

South Africa’s government says it may change the constitution to allow expropriation of some land without compensation, in a bid to redress historical wrongs that left land mostly in the hands of the white minority. Hearings began last month to look into the feasibility of expropriation without compensation. President Cyril Ramaphosa supports the idea and says any expropriation will only happen if land transfer does not harm the economy or the nation’s food security.

 

Farmers, many of whom belong to the white minority, say they live in fear of losing their land; meanwhile, pro-expropriation activists say returning land to members of the traditionally marginalized black majority is only right. And some analysts say this is nothing but a political ploy as the ruling party faces a tough election next year.

The farm

Casper Willemse grew up working a 2,000-hectare maize farm about an hour south of Johannesburg. For years, he’s toiled in the fields from sunup to sundown, as five generations of his family did before him.

 

He always thought he would die here, and be buried alongside them.

“I’m the sixth generation that was born on this farm,” he said. “My children is the seventh … We are farmers, from the morning until noon to night.”

 

The government hasn’t publicly identified which properties, if any, it will target.

Groups like AfriForum, which calls itself a civil rights watchdog with a focus on the white Afrikaans-speaking minority, have circulated what they say are government lists of potential seizures, but the government denies those.

AfriForum says their biggest fear is of the economic impact of such a policy. But even without that, they say talk about expropriation has provoked a rise in illegal land seizures. The group is among many critics of the plan who say they fear expropriation without compensation will hurt South Africa’s economy and will cause the same economic spiral as was seen in neighboring Zimbabwe, after that country began a series of seizures from white farmers nearly two decades ago.

 

“We are seeing an increase in land invasion throughout the country,” said Ian Cameron, the group’s head of community safety. “So there is a definite threat to property rights at the moment. And the uncertainty being created by government increases that problem.”

Willemse said the uncertainty is what fills him with anxiety – and about more than just his future. In the meantime, he said, he has to carry on: he employs 14 people, and can’t leave them hanging. Besides, he said, he has no backup plan.

He agreed that South Africa’s violent, unequal past was wrong. But why, he asked, should he pay the price?

 

“Taking something without compensation is nothing but stealing,” he said. “Buying the land, and giving that to somebody else, that’s a different story. But just taking it for political reasons, and giving it away – it’s not going to yield anymore, because that guy that’s going to get it, they don’t have passion about it, they don’t have knowledge, they don’t have resources. I think that’s not going to work.”

 

Land on demand

But the Black First Land First Movement says that’s beside the point. The relatively new political movement, which launched in 2015 and calls itself a revolutionary, pan-Africanist socialist movement, says much of South Africa’s land was stolen from its original black owners by white settlers during South Africa’s colonial and apartheid periods. Today, the majority of South African agricultural land is owned by white farmers.

 

The group’s deputy president, Zanele Lwana, said all of this land should be returned and no one has the right to ask what the new owners plan to do with it.

 

“We believe South Africa is a black country,” she told VOA. “And we believe that white people in this country are sitting on stolen property. And the call to call for land expropriation without compensation speaks to historical redress.”

Lwana also told VOA that the group considers land occupation a legitimate tactic if the government does not go through with its expropriation plans.

 

Playing politics?

Analysts and critics say the government is exploiting this sensitive issue to win votes for next year’s elections, a claim Lwana and her movement echo, alleging that Ramaphosa has no actual intention of enacting meaningful land reform.

 

Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress has been steadily losing ground at the polls, and analysts say an emotive issue like land redistribution could attract voters, especially lower-income black voters who comprise much of the ANC’s base.

 

“It is a genuine issue, but like all genuine issues, it has been handled with the view of securing short term political gains, unfortunately,” independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga told VOA.

 

Mathekga, who owns a 10-acre farm in the rural Limpopo province, said he understands the emotional aspect of the debate. He got permission from local leadership to farm there about three years ago.

 

“I grew up farming,” he told VOA. “That’s what I did. I used to put together the mules, that’s what I did before I went off to university.”

He said he has issues with the debate’s focus on land reform, though, instead of on agricultural reform. If this is going to work, he said, the government needs to assist new farmers in getting into the economy. If not, this story will not end well, he contends.

 

“I’ve never made a cent out of [the farm],” he said, adding that a recent drought and difficulty in finding eager, competent young workers have made it hard to profit. “It’s a highly risky business, and I think people need to think very carefully about it.”
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US Federal Deficit to Hit $1 Trillion by End of Fiscal Year

Posted on by Coeco

The U.S. federal deficit will reach $1 trillion by the end of the fiscal year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

The CBO said in previous estimates that it did not expect to hit the milestone until 2020.

Spending rose by $222 billion, or 32 percent, in the first 11 months of fiscal 2018, compared with the same period last year.

In the current period, the deficit has reached $895 billion.

The CBO credited the surge to the new Republican tax law and increased government spending. Expenditures rose by 7 percent, while tax revenue rose by only 1 percent. 
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China Puts Off Licenses for US Companies Amid Tariff Battle

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Amid a worsening tariff battle, China is putting off accepting license applications from American companies in financial services and other industries until Washington makes progress toward a settlement, an official of a business group said Tuesday.

The disclosure is the first public confirmation of U.S. companies’ fears that their operations in China or access to its markets might be disrupted by the battle over Beijing’s technology policy. China is running out of American imports for penalties in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes, which has prompted worries that Chinese regulators might target operations of U.S. companies.

The license delay applies to industries Beijing has promised to open to foreign competitors, according to Jacob Parker, vice president for China operations of the U.S.-China Business Council. The group represents some 200 American companies that do business with China.

In meetings over the past three weeks, Cabinet-level officials told USCBC representatives they are putting off accepting applications “until the trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship improves and stabilizes,” Parker said.

Chinese authorities have promised to increase foreign access to areas including banking, securities, insurance and asset management.

“There seem to be domestic political pressures that are working against the perception of U.S. companies receiving benefits” during the dispute, Parker said.

As for what improvement might entail, Parker said Chinese officials want an end to Trump’s tariff hikes and a negotiated settlement. He declined to identify the officials but, in a sign Beijing wants foreign companies to help lobby Washington, said the meetings represented “unprecedented access” for his group.

Beijing matched Trump’s earlier tariff increase on $50 billion of imports but is running out of American goods for retaliation due to their lopsided trade balance. China bought American goods worth about $1 for every $3 of goods it exported to the United States.

Trump is poised to decide whether to raise duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods. Beijing has issued a $60 billion list of goods for retaliation.

A foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said Monday that China will “definitely take countermeasures” if the tariff hike goes ahead.

Economists have warned Beijing might target service industries such as engineering or logistics, in which the United States runs a trade surplus with China.

Chinese commentators have suggested Beijing might use its multitrillion-dollar holdings of U.S. government debt as a weapon, though that would impose costs on China. State-controlled media have encouraged boycotts of Japanese and South Korean products in past disputes with those governments.

The government said in June it would impose unspecified “comprehensive measures” if necessary. That left U.S. companies on edge about whether Beijing will use its heavily regulated economy to disrupt their operations by withholding licenses or launching tax, anti-monopoly or other investigations.

Chinese leaders reject Trump’s demand to roll back official industry plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for state-led creation of global champions in robotics, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

Washington, Europe and other trading partners say those plans violate Beijing’s market-opening commitments. But Communist leaders see them as a path to prosperity and global influence.

Chinese negotiators agreed in May to narrow their multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more American soybeans and other products. Beijing scrapped that deal after Trump’s first tariff increase went ahead July 6.

In addition to rolling back industry plans, the Trump administration wants Beijing to reduce the privileges of state-owned companies and eliminate requirements for foreign companies to hand over technology to Chinese partners.

In their meetings with the USCBC, Chinese officials expressed willingness to buy more American exports but “showed no appetite at all” to talk about industry reform, technology policy or other U.S. priorities, Parker said.

“I don’t consider that to be very positive for any kind of negotiated outcome in the short term or medium term,” he said.

Chinese regulators have shown their willingness to attack foreign companies in disputes with other governments.

Last year, Beijing destroyed South Korean retailer Lotte’s business in China after it sold a golf course in South Korea to the country’s government for construction of a missile defense system opposed by Chinese leaders.

Beijing closed most of Lotte’s 99 supermarkets and other outlets in China. Seoul and Beijing later mended relations, but Lotte gave up and sold its China operations.
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Welty Gets First Marker on Mississippi Writers Trail

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Mississippi has markers noting a blues trail, a country music trail, a civil rights trail and even an Indian mound trail.

Now, with the dedication of a marker to the late author Eudora Welty, the state is starting a writers trail.

Gov. Phil Bryant and National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jon Parrish Peede dedicated the first marker Monday at Welty’s home in Jackson. Some of Welty’s relatives also took part in the ceremony.

A writer of novels and short stories, Welty died in 2001 at 92. She produced a body of work heavily influenced by Mississippi, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Optimist’s Daughter.

Welty was also noted for her photography of rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. 

The writers trail is planned to mark notable sites related to authors across Mississippi. The second marker will be for Jesmyn Ward, the two-time National Book Award winner who lives and works in the coastal community of DeLisle.

“Our state has a rich and evolving literary legacy, which has long been recognized on a national scale,” said Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, in a news release. “The Mississippi Writers Trail shines a spotlight on the state’s many contributors to the canon of American literature in a lasting and interactive way.”

Peede, a native of Brandon, Mississippi, recalled his involvement with the Eudora Welty House as a student and being proud of the endowment’s support for the house. Peede spoke about the importance of honoring the literary greats.

Bryant was not listed as a speaker the dedication program because of his busy schedule, but the governor said he told his staff he was making time to attend such an important event.

Bryant told reporters after the ceremony that the writers trail and the other music and civil rights markers help tell the story of Mississippi: “This is all about our heritage, our place and tourism.”
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Rosanne Cash Calls Threats to Journalism ‘Really Alarming’

Posted on by Corts

Rosanne Cash’s interest in political and social activism started at a young age, but she also had a role model in her father, Johnny Cash.

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter will receive the “Spirit of Americana” Free Speech award Wednesday during the Americana Honors & Awards show in Nashville. Her father received the honor in 2002.   

“I campaigned for [George] McGovern when I was too young to vote,” she told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I learned, too, at my father’s knee. He was tremendously outspoken, but he had the ability to be passionate and righteous and also compassionate at the same time. That’s what I try to do, too.”

Cash’s career started with her 1981 break-out album, “Seven Year Ache,” followed by a string of 11 No. 1 country singles. Today, the singer-songwriter has found a better home for her introspective, poetic music in the Americana genre, which encompasses country, folk, blues, rock and much more.

Cash, a passionate advocate for stopping gun violence, was a longtime member of the board of PAX, an organization that has been folded into the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

She says First Amendment (free speech) rights are under fire around the world.  

“It’s really alarming,” she says. “When the highest echelons of government call to shut down newspapers or strengthen libel laws or investigate journalists, to even attack journalists, that’s a very dangerous time. It’s one of the foundations of the republic.”

And her calls for stricter gun control have been met with threats and vitriol. She said her daughter has received death threats because of her op-ed columns published by The New York Times.

“A lot of times I feel I don’t have the courage, but I say it anyway,” Cash says. “Because I cannot … sit here and watch children being slaughtered when they go to school. It’s wrong. It’s immoral.”

One op-ed came days after the deadliest mass shooting in nation’s modern history occurred at a country music festival in Las Vegas last October. She called on the country music community to reject the NRA, which in recent years has sought to tie country music to gun-linked activities like hunting, while also putting its brand on country music tours and concerts.

Cash said some people have talked to her privately about gun control, but she’s seen little change regarding the NRA among members of the country music industry.

“It’s not just fear of your fans burning your records or the blowback from fans,” Cash said. “It’s fear of some kind of disenfranchisement, or not upholding the iconography of the country music industry. I honestly don’t know. It’s kind of shocking to me.”

She’s also been a supporter of copyright reform and fair compensation for artists as a board member of the Content Creators Coalition.

“I see so many young musicians quit because they can’t pay their rent,” Cash said. “And I see a lot of older musicians that can’t tour anymore because they are barely scraping by. For a lot of reasons, but one is there are no royalties paid from the digital realm for pre-1972 recordings.”

The award is presented in partnership with the First Amendment Center that was founded by journalist and publisher John Seigenthaler Sr. Cash said she deeply admired Seigenthaler for his work during the Civil Rights era when he was the chief negotiator with the governor of Alabama during the Freedom Rides.

During the awards show on Wednesday, Cash will be performing a new song “Everyone But Me” from her upcoming album, “She Remembers Everything.” It’s a poignant date for Cash as well. It’s the 15th anniversary of her father’s death.

“He was propelled by his sense of what was moral and what was righteous, his own passion and his own sense of right and wrong. He spoke for Native American rights, for prison reform, against the Vietnam War and many other things,” Cash said. “It was all in a day’s work.”

 
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EPA Moves Closer to Rolling Back Obama-era Rules on Methane

Posted on by Coeco

The Trump administration moved closer Tuesday to rolling back Obama-era rules reducing oil and gas industry leaks of methane gas, one of the most potent agents of climate change.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency formally released its proposed substitute for a 2016 Obama administration rule that aimed to step up detection and elimination of methane leaks at well sites and other oil and gas facilities. The agency’s move is part of a broad Trump administration effort to undo President Barack Obama’s legacy programs to fight climate change by cutting emissions from oil, gas and coal.

 

The EPA’s proposal Tuesday conceded that relaxing the Obama-era rule for methane leaks at oil and gas sites would put an additional 380,000 tons (350,000 metric tons) of methane into the atmosphere from 2019 to 2025. The amount is roughly equivalent to more than 30 million tons (27 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide, another fossil-fuel emission that receives far more attention in efforts to slow climate change.

 

The EPA noted that overall increased pollution as a result of its proposal “may also degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare.” Relaxing federal oversight will save $75 million in regulatory costs annually, the agency said.

 

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, a Colorado-based group that represents more than 300 companies, said the proposed changes make the EPA rule more efficient and workable. The previous rule was overly burdensome and “full of red tape. This rule cleans that up, makes it more practical” for industry to comply, Sgamma said in an interview.

 

Oil and gas drillers have “a four-decade long trend to reduce emissions,” and the new EPA rules recognize that reality, Sgamma said, adding that she hopes an Interior rule to be finalized in coming days will show a similar practical streak. The pending rule by the Bureau of Land Management applies to fracking sites on public lands.

 

Environmentalists contend energy companies already have demonstrated they can comply with tougher monitoring and that only poorly operated companies were having trouble with the new requirements.

 

“Once again, the Trump administration is putting the interests of the worst-operated oil and gas companies ahead of the health and welfare of everyday Americans,” said Matt Watson, an associate vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund.

 

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown of California on Tuesday told a meeting in San Francisco ahead of a climate conference there that President Donald Trump’s proposal to ease monitoring of methane releases is “insane” and “borders on criminality.”

 

“It perhaps is the most obvious and dangerous and irresponsible action by Mr. Trump — and that’s saying quite a lot,” Brown said.

 

The EPA under Obama completed the existing rule in May 2016, and it took effect that August. Industry groups pushed the EPA to reconsider, and the Trump administration put parts of it on hold in May 2017.

 

The rule was reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., last year after environmental groups sued, and it remains in effect, according to the EPA.

 

Tuesday’s action opens a 60-day period for public comment ahead of any final decision by the Trump administration.

 

In North Dakota, the nation’s biggest oil-producing state after Texas, drillers scaled back production for a time this summer to keep so-called flaring — burning off of methane and other gases pumped up as waste byproducts with the oil — within state limits.

 

North Dakota Air Quality Director Terry O’Clair said the state typically adopts “nothing more stringent than the federal rules.” State officials would reconsider their recently toughened rules on oilfield gas leaks if federal officials loosen theirs, he said.
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Study: US Teens Prefer Remote Chats to Face-to-Face Meetings

Posted on by Cobiz

American teenagers are starting to prefer communicating via text instead of meeting face-to-face, according to a study published Monday by the independent organization Common Sense Media.

Some 35 percent of kids aged 13 to 17 years old said they would rather send a text than meet up with people, which received 32 percent.

The last time the media and technology-focused nonprofit conducted such a survey in 2012, meeting face-to-face hit 49 percent, far ahead of texting’s 33 percent.

More than two-thirds of American teens choose remote communication — including texting, social media, video conversation and phone conversation — when they can, according to the study. 

In 2012 less than half of them marked a similar preference.

Notably, in the six-year span between the two studies the proportion of 13- to 17-year-olds with their own smartphone increased from 41 to 89 percent.

As for social networks, 81 percent of respondents said online exchange is part of their lives, with 32 percent calling it “extremely” or “very” important.

The most-used platform for this age group is Snapchat (63 percent), followed by Instagram (61 percent) and Facebook (43 percent).

Some 54 percent of the teens who use social networks said it steals attention away from those in their physical presence.

Two-fifths of them said time spent on social media prevents them from spending more time with friends in person.

The study was conducted online with a sample of 1,141 young people ages 13 to 17, from March 22 to April 10.
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‘A Star Is Born’ Mania Sweeps Over Toronto Film Festival

Posted on by Corts

The response to Bradley Cooper’s romantic saga “A Star Is Born” has been intense. Critics have boasted of crying uncontrollably. Fans outside theaters have swooned for its star, Lady Gaga. Words like “glorious,” “rapturous” and, of course, “gaga” are running rampant.

 

“Having been on the other side of it, when you do something that doesn’t do well, people tend to avoid you,” Cooper said in an interview alongside his co-star. “I don’t see people, like, going the other way as I’m walking down the street.”

Quite the contrary. Since making landfall at the Toronto International Film Festival, “A Star Is Born” has provoked the kind of mania rarely seen in even the feverish realm of a film festival. It’s been hailed as “a transcendent Hollywood movie” (per Variety) and “damned near perfect” (per Rolling Stone).

 

And it has predictably flown to the top of Oscar prediction lists in just about every category, including its original songs. It’s a breakthrough for Cooper, directing for the first time, and Gaga, who’s leading a movie for the first time.

 

“I have been trying not to read any reviews. But every once in a while, my friends will read over and go (shoving phone in face): ‘You have to see this!'” says Gaga. “But I have to say truly, I feel like an audience member now. Watching the film back, it really impacts me on a deep emotional level.”

And it seems to be impacting those in the audience similarly. Even its trailer, watched by millions on YouTube, has sparked a rare eagerness. Anthony Ramos, who plays a friend of Gaga’s character in the film, said he’s been constantly harangued about details making the film.

 

“It’s lighting in a bottle, man,” said Ramos. “From the moment I stepped on set, the way Bradley works and the way Stefani works, I was like, ‘This could be crazy.’ And sure enough, here we are and people are buggin’ out.”

 

Acclaim hasn’t been universal for “A Star Is Born,” which stars Cooper as the seasoned rock star Jackson Maine and Gaga as a struggling artist he falls in love with. Its sheer popularity is certain to engender the kinds of waves of backlash that are typical of any big cultural force parading through Oscar season.

 

Warner Bros. will release the film Oct. 5 and is planning a sizable awards campaign. It’s the third remake of the original 1937 film, following the 1954 version with Judy Garland and James Mason, and the more rocking 1976 version, with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

 

This remake was initially developed with Clint Eastwood directing and Beyonce potentially starring. Cooper first discussed the role with Eastwood, his “American Sniper” director, before ultimately taking the directing reins himself. In a gesture of encouragement, Eastwood visited the set the first day of shooting.

For Lady Gaga, the experience was transformational. She dyed her hair her natural color. She and Cooper performed songs live.

 

“There can be a 100 people in the room and 99 don’t believe in you, and just one does. And it can change everything,” Gaga said at the press conference. “I wouldn’t be here if Bradley didn’t believe me. My dad, and also Bradley.”

 

“I wanted to give everything that I had, every last drop of blood, all my fear, all my shame, all my love, all my kindness,” she added. “I wanted to give it to him.”
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Japan’s Bid to End Whaling Ban is Top Issue at Conference

Posted on by Coeco

Japan will once again try to get the international ban on whale hunting overturned at the global conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which opened in Brazil on Monday.

The proposal presented by Japan says, “Science is clear: there are certain species of whales whose population is healthy enough to be harvested sustainably.”

While the Japanese proposal is supported by other traditional whaling countries, such as Iceland and Norway, it faces fierce opposition from countries such as Australia and Brazil, and the European Union, as well as from numerous environmental groups.

Japan, which has pushed for an amendment to the ban for years, accuses the IWC of siding with anti-whaling nations rather than trying to reach a compromise between conservationists and whalers.

Whale meat has been a a traditional part of the Japanese diet for centuries.

After the IWC adopted a ban on commercial whaling in 1982, Japan, Norway and Iceland continued to hunt whales. Tokyo justified the practice as a part of scientific research, which was allowed by the moratorium.

But in 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s whaling practice had no scientific basis, but instead it was a way to keep the industry alive.

This year, Japan wants to establish a Sustainable Whaling Committee to oversee the hunting of healthy whale populations for commercial purposes.

But environmentalists say allowing even limited hunting of the mammoth mammals will only again push the species to the brink of extinction. Brazil introduced  proposal Monday that says hunting whales is “no longer a necessary economic activity.”

Australia has vowed to lead the charge against reinstatement of commercial whaling and it has the strong backing of New Zealand, the European Union and the United States.

Japan’s proposal will likely be put to a vote sometime before the conference ends on Sept. 14.
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Probst Leaves Complex Legacy After 10 Years as USOC Chairman

Posted on by Corts

Larry Probst will step down as chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, exiting with a complicated legacy that includes restoring the federation’s international reputation while leaving it saddled with as many problems on the home front as he faced when he arrived.

Probst, who announced his departure Monday, will step down at the end of the year, to be replaced by Susanne Lyons, a board member who recently finished serving as interim CEO following the resignation of Scott Blackmun in February.

Lyons and new CEO Sarah Hirshland are tasked with restoring credibility to a federation that has been widely criticized for its slow response to a mushrooming sex-abuse scandal in Olympic sports.

 

“I became chairman at a difficult time for the USOC and worked diligently with my colleagues here in the U.S., and around the world, to change the USOC for the better,” Probst said. “It’s now time for a new generation of leaders to confront the challenges facing the organization, and I have the utmost confidence in Susanne’s and Sarah’s ability to do just that.”

 

The 68-year-old Probst, a longtime executive at video-game behemoth Electronic Arts, spent hundreds of days overseas during his 10 years at the helm, helping repair badly fractured international relationships that stemmed from decades’ worth of financial disagreements with the IOC, to say nothing of the sometimes-curt style of his better-known predecessor, Peter Ueberroth.

 

Probst’s work helped bring the 2028 Olympics to Los Angeles, giving America a win after a number of embarrassments, including Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Games, and the mistaken, and ultimately aborted, choice of Boston as a candidate for 2024; both debacles came on Probst’s watch.

 

Probst also earned a highly coveted spot on the International Olympic Committee — a position that gave him insider status in the decision-making process. But critics said he didn’t use the position to advocate for U.S. athletes, especially on matters concerning Russian doping, where he rarely broke ranks with IOC president Thomas Bach, who supported Russia’s return to the Olympic fold despite solid evidence of wrongdoing.

 

In the United States, doping has been overshadowed of late by the sex-abuse scandal.

 

The USOC has gotten some credit for creating the U.S. Center for SafeSport to serve as a clearinghouse for all Olympic-related sex-abuse cases. But it has been criticized — and sued — for not acting quickly enough, or taking its share of responsibility. That played a part in Blackmun’s departure, and it’s no surprise to see Probst, whose greatest successes came with Blackmun at his side, follow him out shortly after.

 

Blackmun helped stabilize the federation after Probst and his board surprisingly dismissed CEO Jim Scherr following a successful 2008 Olympics and replaced him with Stephanie Streeter, whose short tenure was a complete failure. Many viewed Scherr’s firing as a self-inflicted mistake, and Probst was forced to spend a large part of his tenure rebuilding trust on both the domestic and international levels.

 

Among his successes were establishing a charitable foundation that raises multiple millions for Olympic athletes, the settling of a controversial revenue-sharing agreement with the IOC, and improving an already healthy financial situation under the tenure of Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird. (Baird left the Olympic movement last month.)

 

The U.S. also stayed atop the medals table in the Summer Games, and had largely successful Winter Olympics under Probst’s watch, though the U.S. team’s total of 23 in Pyeongchang earlier this year — its lowest haul in 20 years — raised some eyebrows.

 

That disappointing showing came as the Larry Nassar scandal was turning into front-page news, and one of the most-repeated critiques of the USOC was that its leaders cared about medals more than the people who won them.

The delicate task for Lyons and Hirshland will be to make sure the USOC keeps winning, while also changing the culture in their own organization, as well as in the various sports that make up the Olympics.

 

“I wish Susanne and Sarah the best of luck in handling the very complex and difficult scenario they find themselves in,” Scherr said.
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Star-studded Human Trafficking Film Scripts Message for Rural India

Posted on by Corts

A new Indian movie about human trafficking starring Freida Pinto and Demi Moore is to be screened in towns and villages around the country to raise awareness of a crime that affects millions.

“Love Sonia,” which traces the journey of a young girl trafficked from rural India into the global sex trade, hits cinemas in the country this week after screenings on the international festival circuit.

Director Tabrez Noorani said he wanted to champion “hope and courage” and raise awareness of trafficking around the world.

“I want to show that the crime of trafficking is not restricted to, say, India or China. It’s a global problem,” Noorani told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

“Everyone has to be aware … that it’s happening in their backyard,” he said.

India is home to at least 8 million slaves, according to the latest figures from the Australian-based Walk Free Foundation. 

Government figures show the country recorded more than 8,000 human trafficking cases in 2016, 20 percent higher than the previous year, although rights activists say many cases go unreported.

Many victims are from rural areas and are often lured with promises of jobs in cities. Instead they are forced to work in brick kilns or farms, enslaved in homes as domestic workers, or sold to brothels.

The founder of anti-trafficking charity Shakti Vahini said movies were an effective way to raise awareness in rural areas — particularly if they featured major stars.

“We go out and do a lot of lectures. But when they see it in a movie, they see the danger as more real,” said Ravi Kant.Other films to have been used in this way include “Mardaani,” a 2014 film i

n which a woman police officer takes on a child trafficker.

“Mardaani” director Pradeep Sarkar said it was important to show traffickers were “regular, normal people living next door.”

“Love Sonia” is the directorial debut of Noorani, a veteran producer whose credits include “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Life of Pi”, and stars the acclaimed Indian actor Rajkummar Rao alongside Moore and Pinto.

Noorani said he wanted to make an “authentic film” on an issue he has worked on for many years as a board member of the Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.

“The film heroes hope and courage,” Noorani said. “Education is the best way to fight human trafficking. People will hopefully walk out of theatres eyes wide open.”
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DOE: US, Saudi Energy Ministers Meet in Washington 

Posted on by Coeco

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih on Monday in Washington, the U.S. Energy Department said, as the Trump administration encourages big oil-producing countries to keep output high ahead of Washington’s renewed sanctions on Iran’s crude exports.

Perry and Falih discussed the state of world oil markets, the potential for U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation and efforts to share technologies to develop “clean fossil fuels,” the department said in a statement.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Perry will also meet with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, on Thursday in Moscow, a U.S. source and a diplomatic source said Sunday night.

High oil prices are a risk for President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Nov. 6 congressional elections. Global oil prices have already risen sharply to more than $76 a barrel in recent weeks on concerns about sanctions on Iran’s oil exports that Washington will renew on Nov. 4. 

Trump withdrew the United States in May from the nuclear deal with Iran, and he is pushing consuming countries to cut their purchases of Iranian oil to zero.

It is unclear what the United States may offer big oil producers in return for higher oil production.

Saudi Arabia has been seeking a civilian nuclear agreement with the United States that could allow the kingdom to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium.

Russia wants the United States to drop sanctions on Moscow. 

OPEC and non-OPEC officials will meet later this month to discuss proposals for sharing an oil output increase, after the groups decided in June to boost output moderately.
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UN Chief: ‘Climate Change Moving Faster Than We Are’

Posted on by Cosc

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned Monday that climate change is moving faster than efforts to combat it and that the international community needs to “put the brake” on greenhouse gas emissions, which drive global warming.

“If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us,” Guterres told a gathering of youth, business leaders and diplomats at U.N. headquarters.

“We are careening towards the edge of the abyss,” he said, standing at a podium in front of a rain-splattered window. “It is not too late to shift course. But every day that passes means the world heats up a little more, and the cost of our inaction mounts.”

The U.N. chief renewed his call for action on the eve of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. California announced Monday that it is committing to 100 percent clean electricity by 2045.

The summit aims to mobilize international and local leaders from states, cities, business and civil society with national government leaders, scientists, students and nonprofits.

Paris agreement

Guterres said the targets agreed to in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord are the “bare minimum” to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. In the agreement, world leaders committed to stop global temperatures rising by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to keep it as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. 

“But scientists tell us that we are far off track,” he cautioned, noting these commitments represent just one-third of what is needed. 

“We need to shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels,” Guterres said. “We need to replace them with clean energy from water, wind and sun.” 

The U.N. says that the planet is still consuming 85 percent of its energy from fossil fuels and only 15 percent from renewable energies, including nuclear wind and solar power. 

The United States, which is the only country to have signed and then withdrawn from the Paris accord, has loosened federal regulations on the fossil fuel industry under President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has also vowed to save the coal industry.

Guterres urged governments to end subsidies for fossil fuels and institute carbon pricing that reflects the true cost of greenhouse gas emissions. 

He said the rise of renewable energy has been “tremendous.”

“Today, it is competitive with — or even cheaper — than coal and oil, especially if one factors in the cost of pollution.”

Guterres singled out China, a major polluter, for investing $126 billion last year in renewable energy — a 30 percent increase over 2016. He noted that countries that have long depended on oil, such as the Arab Gulf states and Norway, are looking at ways to diversify their economies away from fossil fuels. 

“We know what is happening to our planet,” Guterres said. “We know what we need to do. And we even know how to do it. But sadly, the ambition of our action is nowhere near where it needs to be.”

‘Vast opportunity’

Guterres said the transition to cleaner energy and lower carbon emissions can have great economic opportunities. 

“The International Labor Organization reports that common sense green economy policies could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030,” he noted. 

He appealed for leadership from all sectors to mitigate the impact of global warming. 

In September 2019, Guterres plans to convene a climate summit in New York to try to push climate action to the top of the international agenda. 

“I am calling on world leaders to come to next year’s climate summit prepared to report not only on what they are doing, but what more they intend to do when they convene in 2020 for the U.N. climate conference, and where commitments will be renewed and surely ambitiously increased,” he said.
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‘The Hate U Give’ Puts Black Lives Matter on Screen

Posted on by Corts

The short story that begat Angie Thomas’ breakthrough young adult novel The Hate U Give was inspired by the shooting of Oscar Grant III, the Oakland, Calif., African-American 22-year-old who was shot by a white transit police officer in 2009.

In the years that followed, more shootings followed and Thomas kept on writing. Now, a year and a half after The Hate U Give became a bestselling phenomenon, Thomas’ book has been adapted to the big screen by director George Tillman Jr. from a screenplay by Audrey Wells with just as much honesty and urgency as were in Thomas’ first pages. And the tale’s timeliness has painfully persisted.

“This film will empower a lot of people and give them hope,” said Thomas in an interview shortly after the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere. “It’s going to explain some things to people who don’t get it. I think it’s going to open a lot of eyes and change a lot of perspectives, and hopefully help people understand why we say ‘black lives matter’ so that eventually we won’t have to say it. It’ll be understood.”

In a wave of films, including a number at the Toronto Film Festival, the kinds of police brutality-inflicted tragedies that gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement are being filtered into fiction film with anguished and stirring passion. They aren’t the first movies to delve into such stories; Ryan Coogler, for one, told the story of Grant in 2013’s Fruitvale Station.

But many more filmmakers are seeking to capture the humanity beneath the headlines, explicitly confronting the racial fissures in American society while channeling the sorrow and outrage of generations of black Americans.

Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, which played at Toronto before opening in theaters later this month, has similarities to the killing of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who was choked and killed by New York police after being approached on suspicion of selling single cigarettes. Green’s film, set in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, is about a Nuyorican teenager who witnesses a police officer kill an unarmed man selling loose cigarettes on the street. 

Released this summer, Carlos Lopez Estrada’s Blindspotting stars Daveed Diggs as an Oakland mover who, while stopped at a red light, watches a black man gunned down by a police officer. While deciding to come forward, he’s racked by nightmares and arresting visions, like of a cemetery populated by hooded black men standing over their graves.  

Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, is a period film, adapted from James Baldwin’s novel and set in Harlem in the early 1970s. But its intimate tale of two black lovers, Tish and Fonny, whose young lives are wrecked by a racist police officer who frames Fonny for rape, has obvious reverberations today.

“Right now we’re living in a time and a moment where so many things he was writing about are incredibly relevant to the American soul,” said Jenkins in an interview ahead of the film’s Sunday premiere in Toronto. “There’s an ecstatic quality to the way Baldwin writes love, but yet there’s this permanent dread that hovers around them because of the situation they find themselves in. But also, too, because of what Baldwin is saying about the condition of black folks in America at the time he wrote this.”

Other films have come under criticism for not fitting with the times. Some questioned whether Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit, about a hellacious night of police-inflicted torture during the Detroit riots, was the ideal filmmaker to tell that story. Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, about a black police officer who infiltrates a Ku Klux Klan chapter in 1970s Colorado, drew raves for its timely story about race and white supremacy. But it was criticized by Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley for, at this moment, making a police officer “the protagonist in the fight against racist oppression.”

“It’s being put out while Black Lives Matter is a discussion, and this is not coincidental,” argued Riley. He questioned the film’s historical accuracy, claiming that its real-life police detective, Ron Stallworth, was really a “villain,” since he may have helped destabilize black radical groups, not topple the KKK.

Real life also intruded on The Hate U Give. One of its young white actors, Kian Lawley, was replaced by K.J. Apa after a video surfaced of Lawley using the n-word and making racist jokes. And while it was being prepped, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black American, was pulled over while driving in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and killed in a remarkably similar manner.

But part of what makes The Hate U Give so powerful is the way it takes such debate and disagreement around Black Lives Matter and compassionately distills it into a story about a 16-year-old girl (Amandla Stenberg) whose childhood best friend (Algee Smith) is shot and killed for reaching for a hairbrush after he’s pulled over for not signaling a turn. The subsequent fallout is seen through the prism of family (it opens with a father’s firm instruction on how motionless to act around police) and a community. It reserves empathy for all, while not minimizing fury over such injustice.

“I really just want people to take a moment and just feel again. Everybody. We’ve become a cynical society. We’ve lost the idea of human interaction, communicating with each other,” said Russell Hornsby, who memorably plays the father in the film. “I hope that people get that through this movie. And they can feel. However it pierces your heart, let it out. We’re in a pressure-cooked society right now and I feel like, just for a moment, that this movie represents a release valve.”
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Canada’s Freeland to Hold NAFTA Talks Tuesday as Time Runs Short

Posted on by Coeco

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Tuesday for another round of talks to renew the NAFTA trade pact, an official said on Monday, as time runs short to seal a deal.

Freeland spokesman Adam Austen did not give details. After more than a year of negotiations, Canada and the United States are still trying to resolve differences over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which also includes Mexico.

U.S. officials say time is running out to agree on a text on which the current Congress can vote. Canadian officials say they are working on the assumption they have until the end of September.

Freeland spent three days in Washington last week and said on Friday as she prepared to leave that she and Lighthizer were making very good progress in some areas, although a deal remained out of reach.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who says he is prepared to tear up NAFTA, has struck a trade deal with Mexico and threatened to push ahead without Canada.

Uncertainly over the future of NAFTA, which underpins $1.2 trillion in trade, is weighing on markets as well as the Canadian and Mexican currencies.

Officials say the main sticking points are Canada’s dairy quota regime, Ottawa’s desire to keep a dispute-resolution mechanism, and Canadian media laws that favor domestically produced content.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, speaking in an interview broadcast on Sunday, said Canada had to scrap a low-price milk proteins policy to reach a deal on NAFTA. U.S. farmers complain Canada is flooding export markets.

Austen, asked whether Freeland might return to Washington later in the week, said no decisions had been taken. She is due to attend a two-day meeting of legislators from the ruling Liberal Party in western Canada on Wednesday and Thursday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last Wednesday he did not see the need to attend the talks for the time being.
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Documentary Explores Scottish Workers’ Boycott Over Chile 1973 Coup

Posted on by Corts

When Chilean air force jet engines arrived for repair at a Rolls-Royce factory in Scotland in 1974, inspector Bob Fulton swiftly decided he would not touch them.

The World War II veteran had been shaken by images thousands of miles away in Santiago of Hawker Hunter jets bombing La Moneda presidential palace in the Sept. 11, 1973, military coup that toppled democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende.

Despite risking his job, Fulton refused to let the engines through maintenance and, with fellow trade union workers, led an act of international solidarity against the coup and ensuing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Documentary Nae Pasaran, meaning “they shall not pass,” takes a look at the boycott of Chilean air force engines by the engineers in East Kilbride and the impact it had.

“It’s very rare … for anyone … to find out decades later that something you’ve done … actually pays off and affects positively the lives of others,” film director Felipe Bustos Sierra told Reuters.

The son of an exiled Chilean journalist living in Belgium, Bustos Sierra said he first heard of the Scottish workers’ actions as a child.

“I suppose as I got older that story stuck with me because it connects directly with the most iconic image of the coup in Chile, which is the Hawker Hunters flying low over Santiago, and firing … into the palace,” he said. “The idea that Scottish workers on the other side of the world had managed to, I suppose, dent that image in some ways was quite incredible.”

The workers labeled the engine parts “black,” meaning they would not be touched on the factory assembly line for months.

They were then put and left outside, until they disappeared in 1978. The workers were told they had gone back to the Chile.

“That’s the only information they got … for years until we started making this film,” Bustos Sierra said.

Nae Pasaran shows Fulton, now in his 90s, and colleagues, who were honored by the Chilean government in 2015, look back on their actions and hear stories from Chileans jailed after the coup. A Pinochet-era general is also interviewed.

The documentary, which got an ovation at a festival in Glasgow and is to be released in Britain in November, has yet to be screened in Chile, where Bustos Sierra said he had seen positive comments on social media about it and some who thought the story was “science fiction.” He hopes for a 2019 cinema release there.

“I think somebody taking that sort of action today would probably be in more jeopardy than Bob was back then,” he said, when asked if such defiance was still possible. “But I think the idea of a peaceful civil disobedience still stands today.”
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