Netanyahu’s annexation plan threatens Palestinian, Israeli economies already struggling after Covid-19
Issued on: 29/06/2020 -

A labourer puts up banners depicting US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, bearing the words in Hebrew, "No to a Palestinian State" and "Sovereignty Do it right!" as part of a new anti-annexation campaign by the far-right Yesha Jewish settler council, in Jerusalem, on June 10, 2020. © Ammar Awad, Reuters

Text by:Tamar SHILOH VIDON

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to begin annexing parts of the West Bank as soon as July 1 threatens to have severe repercussions on both the Palestinian and Israeli economies, which are already struggling from the effects of a global pandemic.
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The annexation – part of a peace plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu at the White House in January – could mean imposing Israeli sovereignty on up to 30 percent of West Bank territory, although a final plan has not yet been unveiled.

“Truthfully, I think no one knows what will happen on July 1 or any day after. Not even Netanyahu himself,” said Elias Zananiri, vice chairman of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) Committee for Interaction with the Israeli Society. “One thing is clear. The Palestinians will in no way accept any form of annexation,” he told FRANCE 24 on Sunday.

The plan’s opponents, in Israel and abroad, warn that it will end any chance of bringing a lasting peace to the region. The plan has also been rejected by members of Israel’s far right, who argue that it does not go far enough and that by annexing only 30 percent of the West Bank Netanyahu is setting the stage for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the rest of the territory, which they oppose.

But the territory that would be left to the Palestinians could make it impossible to establish a viable state, with isolated pockets of land disconnected from one another and Israel controlling the contour of the territory.


“No matter whether the annexation is marginal or grandiose – whoever in Israel or elsewhere tries to sell the idea of a ‘marginal annexation’, as though it is in line with previous understandings between the Palestinians and Israel on a land swap, is misleading everyone. [A] land swap should be the outcome of a mutual agreement and not a unilateral move by Israel,” Zananiri said.

Economic implications

The annexation could lead to an eruption of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end Israel’s budding cooperation with the Gulf States and bring on painful sanctions by its European trade partners – all at a time when the Israeli economy is already reeling from the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

Netanyahu has said that the plan would include only areas with Jewish settlements, and that the Palestinians would continue to be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

But it is unclear how this can be achieved, when imposing Israeli sovereignty on even some of the 2.3 million West Bank inhabitants would entail extensive and immediate judicial and administrative changes that would affect both the Israeli and Palestinian economies in the long term.

“The Palestinian economy is vastly dependent on Israel's, not only since the Oslo Accord was signed in 1993 but throughout the years of occupation that started in 1967. The annexation will only exacerbate the conditions for the Palestinian economy,” Zananiri said.

In the short term, the move could lead to violent clashes and political ramifications that would also hurt Israel.

Unilateral annexation “runs the risk of a confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians”, according to analysts from the Adva Center, a Tel Aviv-based progressive think-tank, writing in a position paper published on June 17. “Such a confrontation may further exacerbate the economic crisis caused by the corona epidemic, just as the second intifada exacerbated the crisis that accompanied the bursting of the high-tech bubble in 2000.”

They noted that the economic recession that followed the second intifada was described by Israel's central bank as the longest in the country’s history.

“During the second intifada, the number of tourists entering Israel declined to fewer than a million,” according to the Adva Center analysts.

In the past few months, Israeli tourism – booming before the health crisis, with 4.6 million overseas visitors in 2019 – ground to a halt. Unemployment also spiked to 18 percent from 3.4 percent before the pandemic.

“To regain the losses caused by the corona epidemic, Israel needs not only to beat the Covid-19 virus but also to remain free of conflict,” they wrote.

Zananiri said he did not believe the Israeli move would lead to a new intifada but warned that “the future after annexation will look significantly different”.

“I do not think we will see Palestinians resort to armed struggle or attacks on Israel, but we also do not know what will happen if the PA loses control over the crowd. People are hungry for a normal life but never at the expense of national independence.”

Writing on the Ynet Israeli news website on Friday, veteran Israeli war correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai agreed. “What worries Israel the most is that Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas) will decide to react to the annexation by fully or partially halting the civilian services provided by the Palestinian Authority”, something he has threatened to do as part of a pressure campaign on Israel.

“In such a situation, according to international law, Israel will be directly responsible for the day-to-day lives of Palestinians – their health, safety and welfare.”

“The financial burden on Israel will be enormous, as will be the effort to set up the mechanisms necessary for governing 2.6 million Palestinians during the coronavirus crisis,” Ben-Yishai added.

Political repercussions

The Hamas movement has said it would consider an annexation a “declaration of war”.

“The resistance (Hamas) considers this decision to be a declaration of war upon the Palestinian people. The resistance will be the loyal and dutiful guard of the people throughout this war, acting in defence of our people, our land, and our holy sites,” a spokesman, known by his nom de guerre Abu Obeida, said in a speech on Thursday.

World leaders have also exhorted the Israeli government to abandon the plan.

“We are at a watershed moment,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

“If implemented, annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law, grievously harm the prospect of a two-state solution and undercut the possibilities of a renewal of negotiations. I call on the Israeli government to abandon its annexation plans,” he said.

And 1,080 members of parliament from 25 European countries published an open letter on Wednesday expressing strong opposition to annexation, calling the move “fatal to the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace” and saying it would “challenge the most basic norms guiding international relations”.

“We are profoundly concerned about the impact of annexation on the lives of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as its destabilising potential in a region on our continent’s doorstep. These concerns are no less serious at a time when the world is struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic,” they wrote.

The letter called on European leaders “to act decisively in response to this challenge”.

“We fully support this: acquisition of territory by force has no place in 2020 and must have commensurate consequences. Failure to adequately respond would encourage other states with territorial claims to disregard basic principles of international law,” they wrote.

Europe was the single largest market for Israeli exports in 2019, accounting for 43 percent of total exports, according to the Adva Center paper. If European leaders were to act in concert, they could exert enough economic leverage to undermine the Israeli economy.

Netanyahu’s window of opportunity

Some say Netanyahu regards the annexation of the Jordan Valley and the Jewish settlements in the West Bank as his historic legacy, now made possible thanks to the support of the Trump administration.

“Earlier annexations of East Jerusalem (1967) and the Golan Heights (1981) were seen as historic moves by previous heads of government,” writes Israeli journalist Sever Plocker in a Ynet op-ed. “This latest move, Netanyahu believes, will solidify Israel's hold on parts of the biblical land of Israel and ensure defensible borders for the state.”


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With American elections only months away and Trump doing poorly in the polls, the window of opportunity is small. The Democratic Party and its presumed presidential candidate, Joe Biden, have strongly criticised the plan and will not support it if they take over the White House in January.

Netanyahu’s legal troubles might also be adding to the urgency of implementing the plan. One way to deflect talk of his indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust is by annexing Palestinian territories. And indeed, since the beginning of his trial on May 24, headlines on the coronavirus and impending annexation have overshadowed news about the hearings.

Netanyahu might also be wagering that opposition criticism and international pressure to stop the annexation will give credence to his claim – made in front of the courthouse on the day his trial began – that the proceedings were, in fact, a ploy against the entire Israeli right. “What is on trial today is an effort to frustrate the will of the people – the attempt to bring me down along with the right-wing flank,” he declared.

“I am not willing to adjust my policies to receive better media coverage, I am not prepared to uproot settlements, I am not willing to do all sorts of other things, and therefore I must be removed by any means,” he said.

Zananiri called for swift action from the international community. “I believe it is the duty of the international community to step in and, for once, shake the stick at Israel and tell the incumbent government that it cannot continue to behave and act above international law,” he said.

Malnutrition in poorer nations costs firms up to $850 bln: study

Issued on: 08/07/2020 - 

The pandemic is increasing the number of people at risk of acute hunger 

NARINDER NANU AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Hunger, poor nutrition and obesity not only present a health burden in developing countries but carry a hidden economic penalty that costs businesses up to $850 billion a year, according to a new report published Wednesday.

Researchers said malnutrition reduces the resilience of populations to risks such as infectious disease outbreaks and extreme climate events, as well as causing a reduction in productivity and earnings.

With the coronavirus pandemic expected to drive millions more into hunger and poverty, they called for governments and businesses alike to focus on nutrition as part of recovery efforts.

"While the costs of undernutrition and overweight/obesity to societies and governments are well explored, the costs and risks to companies created by malnutrition in the workforce and the wider community have remained under the radar," said lead researchers Laura Wellesley, a senior research fellow at Chatham House.

"We show that the costs and risks are significant and that it is in the interests of businesses to take action."

The report, which was compiled with the Vivid Economics group, defined malnutrition as both undernutrition and overnutrition -- encompassing conditions from stunting and anaemia to being overweight and obese.

In developing nations where the prevalence of malnutrition is high, researchers estimated that the direct costs of productivity loss would total between $130 billion and $850 billion a year.

That is equivalent to between 0.4 per cent and 2.9 percent of the combined gross domestic product of those countries.

The report extrapolated the results from modelling 19 lower- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, Central America and Europe.

According to the 2020 Global Nutrition Report, around one in nine people globally are hungry or undernourished, while one in three people are overweight or obese. Almost a quarter of children under five are stunted.

- Poverty warning -

Problems that once existed at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum are increasingly converging in poor and middle-income countries as populations, households and even individuals face a "double burden" of being overweight and undernourished.

"Both obesity and undernutrition are outcomes of poor nutrition, and both should be tackled together if we're to ease the malnutrition burden on companies and societies," Wellesley said.

She called for efforts to reduce both problems, such as paying a fair living wage, subsidising nutritious food for staff, providing breastfeeding support for mothers and education on how to eat healthily.

The report stressed that action to tackle malnutrition is in businesses' best interests.

Direct costs for companies include the reduction in productivity associated with staff ill-health and limits to workers' physical and cognitive capacity, Wellesley said.

It also traps households into poverty meaning, they have less money to spend as consumers, thus impeding the development of a healthy workforce.

The report comes as Philip Alston, the former United Nations envoy on extreme poverty and human rights, slammed the international community for fostering a misleading narrative that global poverty is being eradicated when in fact he said it is rising.

He warned that the pandemic is expected to push hundreds of millions into unemployment and poverty, while increasing the number at risk of acute hunger by more than 250 million.

"Even before COVID-19, we squandered a decade in the fight against poverty with misplaced triumphalism blocking the very reforms that could have prevented the worst impacts of the pandemic," he said.

Alston criticised the use of the World Bank's international poverty line -- currently $1.90 per day -- as "flawed", saying it gives a deceptively positive picture.

© 2020 AFP

WHO reviewing study on concerns over airborne spread of Covid-19
Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference organized by Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Geneva Switzerland July 3, 2020. © Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Text by:NEWS WIRES

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reviewing a report urging it to update guidance on the novel coronavirus after more than 200 scientists, in a letter to the health agency, outlined evidence the virus can spread in tiny airborne particles.

The WHO says SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, spreads primarily through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person that quickly sink to the ground.

But in an open letter to the Geneva-based agency, published on Monday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, 239 scientists in 32 countries outlined evidence that they say shows floating virus particles can infect people who breathe them in.

Because those smaller particles can linger in the air, the scientists are urging WHO to update its guidance.

"We are aware of the article and are reviewing its contents with our technical experts," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said on Monday in an email.

How frequently the coronavirus can spread by the airborne or aerosol route - as opposed to by larger droplets in coughs and sneezes - is not clear.

Any change in the WHO's assessment of risk of transmission could affect its current advice on keeping 1-metre (3.3 feet) of physical distancing. Governments, which rely on the agency for guidance policy, may also have to adjust public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

Although the WHO has said it is considering aerosols as a possible route of transmission, it has yet to be convinced that the evidence warrants a change in guidance.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said the WHO has long been reluctant to acknowledge aerosol transmission of influenza, "in spite of compelling data," and sees the current controversy as part of that simmering debate.

"I think the frustration level has finally boiled over with regard to the role that airborne transmission plays in diseases like influenza and SARS-CoV-2," Osterholm said.

Professor Babak Javid, an infectious disease consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals, said airborne transmission of the virus is possible and even likely, but said evidence over how long the virus stays airborne is lacking.

If it can hang in the air for long periods of time, even after an infected person leaves that space, that could affect the measures healthcare workers and others take to protect themselves.

WHO guidance to health workers, dated June 29, says SARS-CoV-2 is primarily transmitted through respiratory droplets and on surfaces.

But airborne transmission is possible in some circumstances, such as when performing intubation and aerosol-generating procedures, the WHO says. They advise medical workers performing such procedures to wear heavy duty N95 respiratory masks and other protective equipment in an adequately ventilated room.

Dr. William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the report under review at the WHO "makes many reasonable points about the evidence that this mode of transmission can happen, and they should be taken seriously."

But how often airborne transmission happens, which is unknown, also matters.

"If airborne transmission is possible but rare, then eliminating it wouldn’t have a huge impact," he said in emailed comments.

Officials at South Korea's Centers for Disease Control said on Monday they were continuing to discuss various issues about Covid-19, including the possibility of airborne transmission. They said more investigations and evidence were needed.

(REUTERS)

UPDATED 

Ennio Morricone, the Oscar-winning composer, has 

died at the age of 91.


GREATEST FILM SCORE COMPOSER EVER

The Italian musician, who scored more than 400 films, died on Monday (6 July) at the Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, a week after suffering a fall in which he broke his femur.

He scored seven for his fellow countryman Sergio Leone after they had met as kids in elementary school.

Born in 1928, Morricone began his career as a trumpet player before turning to film composition in 1961, going on to create music for more than 70 award-winning movies.

In 1966, Morricone composed the iconic soundtrack to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a score so influential it earned him a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.

Biography:
Ennio Morricone, (born 10 November 1928) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former trumpet player, writing in a wide range of musical styles. Since 1961, Morricone has composed over 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as over 100 classical works. His score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) is considered one of the most influential soundtracks in history and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. His filmography includes over 70 award-winning films, including all Sergio Leone films (since A Fistful of Dollars), all Giuseppe Tornatore films (since Cinema Paradiso), The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argentos Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III and Le Professionnel, as well as The Thing, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game and The Hateful Eight.

After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he has composed music for artists such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero and Andrea Bocelli. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for Westerns and—with an estimated 10 million copies sold—Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide. From 1966 to 1980, he was a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives, and in 1969 he co-founded Forum Music Village, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty, John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol and En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait. Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, and in many films, including Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. He also scored seven Westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari's Ringo duology and Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski and Henri Verneuil. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission (1986)[7] was certified gold in the United States. The album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums.

Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold", "Se Telefonando", "Man with a Harmonica", "Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai", "Gabriel's Oboe" and "E Più Ti Penso". In 1971, he received a "Targa d'Oro" for worldwide sales of 22 million, and by 2016 Morricone had sold over 70 million records worldwide. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." He has been nominated for a further six Oscars. In 2016, Morricone received his first competitive Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantinos film The Hateful Eight, at the time becoming the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar. His other achievements include three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award and the Polar Music Prize in 2010.

Morricone has influenced many artists from film scoring to other styles and genres, including Hans Zimmer, Danger Mouse, Dire Straits, Muse, Metallica, and Radiohead.
R.I.P.






Ennio Morricone, Oscar-Winning ‘Hateful Eight’ 

Composer, Dies at 91


By Carmel Dagan

Courtesy of Muthmedia GmbH

Oscar winner Ennio Morricone, composer of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “The Mission” and among the most prolific and admired composers in film history, has died. He was 91.

Morricone died early Monday in a Rome clinic, where he was taken shortly after suffering a fall that caused a hip fracture, his lawyer Giorgio Asumma told Italian news agency ANSA.

Shortly after Morricone’s death was confirmed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted: “We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone. It made us dream, feel excited, reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain indelible in the history of music and cinema.”

The Italian maestro’s estimated 500 scores for films and television, composed over more than 50 years, are believed to constitute a record in Western cinema for sheer quantity of music.

At least a dozen of them became film-score classics, from the so-called spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, including “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Once Upon a Time in the West” to the widely acclaimed “The Mission” and “Cinema Paradiso” of the 1980s.

ENNIO MORRICONE CHANNEL ON YOU TUBE

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAwOBo-ZZ8S8cIH0SGoXpg

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He was nominated six times for Oscars — for “Days of Heaven,” “The Mission,” “The Untouchables,” “Bugsy,” “Malena” and “The Hateful Eight,” winning for the last of these — and in 2006 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented him with an honorary Oscar for “his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” He was only the second composer in Oscar history to receive an honorary award for his body of work.

He contributed the original score to Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” in 2015 after having made some earlier comments about being unhappy with the way his music, originally composed for other movies, had been used in earlier Tarantino films.

Their collaboration on “Hateful Eight,” first announced by Variety in June 2015, took place rapidly, with Morricone working from Tarantino’s screenplay, rather than scoring specific scenes, similarly to his technique on “Once Upon a Time in the West.”

Although he preferred to work in Rome — and famously refused to speak any language other than Italian — he worked with a wide range of filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic, including Sergio Leone (“Once Upon a Time in America”), Gillo Pontecorvo (“The Battle of Algiers”), Bernardo Bertolucci (“1900”), Terence Malick (“Days of Heaven”), William Friedkin (“Rampage”), Roman Polanski (“Frantic”), Brian De Palma (“The Untouchables”), Barry Levinson (“Disclosure”), Mike Nichols (“Wolf”) and Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”).

He was classically trained and insisted upon personally orchestrating every note of his scores, unlike many of his contemporaries. The sound he achieved was often unique and innovative, as in the Western scores that featured whistling, bells, electric guitars, wordless soprano vocals and full choirs.





Morricone was so busy in the 1960s and 1970s that he often didn’t conduct his own music. From 1965-73, he wrote nearly 150 scores, more than many composers create in a lifetime. Many were for films never released in the U.S., which led to a small but passionate cult of record buyers who didn’t see the films but doted on the music.

While he is often remembered for his often wildly romantic themes (notably for such 1970s European films as “Metti, una sera a cena” and “Maddalena”), he also excelled at crime dramas (“Revolver”) and enjoyed indulging his passion for dissonance and improvisatory music, especially in the Italian “giallo” thriller films of the 1970s (such as Dario Argento’s “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage”).

Morricone had enjoyed a top-10 hit with the theme for “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” but it was “The Mission” that brought him worldwide acclaim in 1986. His alternately primitive and sophisticated, choral and orchestral music for Roland Joffe’s epic set in 18th century South America won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards but lost the Oscar to “Round Midnight,” a jazz score that wasn’t entirely original.

The loss — which outraged Oscar observers and disappointed Morricone in his best-ever shot at Oscar glory — resulted in modification to Academy rules and, eventually, the honorary Oscar as a 20-years-late consolation prize.

But in general, Morricone devoted more time In later years to classical composition, writing more than 50 works for chamber groups, symphony orchestra, solo voice and choral ensembles. Appearing in concert at the United Nations in early 2007, he conducted his “Voci Dal Silencio,” a cantata in memory of those killed in 9/11 and other terrorist attacks.

He launched a film-scoring career with “Il Federale” in 1961. The Leone films of the 1960s — notably the Clint Eastwood “Man With No Name” trilogy that started with “Fistful of Dollars” in 1964 — ensured his future in movies, although in later years he would regularly remind interviewers that he had worked in every genre, not just Westerns. Director Quentin Tarantino used obscure Morricone tracks in several of his films, including “Kill Bill,” “Inglourious Basterds” and “Django Unchained,” and Morricone composed an original song for “Django Unchained,” “Ancora Qui.”
Morricone was born in Rome. He took up the trumpet at an early age and studied music at Italy’s famed Santa Cecilia conservatory under composer Goffredo Petrassi. Although he initially preferred writing for the concert hall, he began to arrange and conduct for pop singers in the late 1950s as a means of earning a living. His pop song “Se Telefonando” was one of Italy’s big hits of 1966.

Artists in every genre of music-making have paid tribute to the maestro, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a bestselling 2004 classical album and the all-star 2007 tribute “We All Love Ennio Morricone” that featured Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

His albums have sold, it is estimated, more than 50 million units worldwide.

In addition to his honorary Oscar, he received seven of Italy’s David di Donatello awards, another Golden Globe for “The Legend of 1900,” a Grammy and another BAFTA for “The Untouchables,” ASCAP’s Golden Soundtrack Award and the career achievement award of the Film Music Society.

In recent years he had conducted concerts of his own music around the world, including a notable American debut at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 2007. Although he was scheduled to conduct at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009, the event was cancelled and he never returned to L.A.

Morricone is survived by wife Maria Travia and their four children.


A FAVE OF MINE

 



Oscar-winning Italian composer Ennio Morricone 

dies at 91



Ennio Morricone at the 2016 Oscars, where he won the award for best original score for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” (Jordan Strauss / Invision/ Associated Press)

By DAVID COLKER
JULY 6, 2020
12:46 AM

Oscar-winning film composer Ennio Morricone, who came to prominence with the Italian western “A Fistful of Dollars” and went on to write some of the most celebrated movie scores of all time, has died. He was 91.

Morricone’s longtime lawyer, Giorgio Assumma, told the Associated Press that the composer died early Monday in a Rome hospital of complications following a fall, in which he broke a leg.

A native of the Italian capital, Morricone composed music for more than 500 films and television shows in a career that spanned more than 50 years. At first he was closely associated with “A Fistful of Dollars” director Sergio Leone, for whom he scored six films, including “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “Once Upon a Time in America.” Established in his own right, Morricone turned out classic scores for films such as “Days of Heaven,” “Bugsy,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “The Untouchables,” “La Cage aux Folles” and “Battle of Algiers.”

A favorite of critics, directors and other composers, Morricone’s score to the 1986 film “The Mission” was voted best film score of all time in a 2012 Variety poll. On his sixth nomination, he finally won a competitive Oscar, in 2016, for his score for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had awarded Morricone an honorary Oscar in 2007.

He also occasionally did live performances in which he conducted orchestra and choruses in both his film music and concert pieces he composed.

It was a 1960s recording made in Rome of the Woody Guthrie song “Pastures of Plenty” that launched Morricone’s international career. The seemingly incongruous mixture of sounds in the orchestration — surging violins, the crack of a whip, church bells, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, chimes and a chanting male chorus — so entranced Leone that he ditched his original choice of composer and hired Morricone to score what became 1964’s “A Fistful of Dollars.”

Morricone’s music, like the man who wrote it, was never shy.

“The best film music is music that you can hear,” he said in a 1995 BBC documentary about his life and work. “Music you can’t hear, no matter how good, is bad film music.”

Although Morricone scored several Hollywood movies, he usually did so from his home city of Rome and seldom traveled to Los Angeles. He never learned more than a handful of phrases in English and even refused an offer from a studio to buy him a house in L.A. His absence didn’t diminish his popularity among high-profile U.S. musicians — the 2007 tribute album “We All Love Ennio Morricone” featured performers as varied as opera soprano Renee Fleming, rocker Bruce Springsteen, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the heavy metal band Metallica.

“He has taken so many risks, and his music is not polished whatsoever,” said Metallica lead singer James Hetfield in a 1977 New York Times interview. The band regularly used a theme from the western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” in its concerts. “It’s very rude and blatant,” Hetfield said of Morricone’s music. “ All of a sudden a Mexican horn will come blasting through and just take over the melody. It’s just so raw, really raw, and it feels real, unpolished.”

Addressing the more melodic side of Morricone, film music composer and former rock musician Danny Elfman said in a 1999 Los Angeles Times interview, “Anyone who’s ever written any kind of romantic score has been influenced by him.”

If there is a common thread to Morricone’s work, it’s the mixing of that raw and romantic, expressed with a blend of unlikely instruments to create excitement, suspense, joy and pathos — sometimes all in the same film.

That was never more true than in “The Mission” (1986), set in 18th-century South America, in which a tune played on the oboe has a key role in the plot. In the movie, the oboe player is a Jesuit priest who is accepted, in part because of the music he makes, by a native tribe deep in the jungle. The score, which ranges from ominously dissident to celebratory tonal, features pan pipes and drums of various types to represent tribal sounds, plus an orchestra, chorus and child singers. As the action culminates near the end of the film, all these sounds can be heard fitting together like a puzzle that suddenly gets solved.

“These three elements: the oboe, the native music and Western music taught by the Jesuits had to be combined into a whole,” Morricone said in an English translation on the BBC program. “The union of these elements is very important. In them I see myself, spiritually and technically.”

Morricone was born Nov. 10, 1928, in a working-class neighborhood in Rome. His father, Mario, was a musician who played trumpet in night clubs and taught his son to play the instrument at an early age. Ennio did his first composing at age 6. “I wrote silly bits of music,” he said in a 1989 interview with British author Christopher Frayling. “They were hunting themes. I destroyed them.”

He enrolled at age 14 in the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he studied classical music, including works by contemporary composers. But at night he often subbed for his unwell father, playing trumpet in clubs. Graduating from the conservatory in 1954, he went on to compose several serious pieces. He married Maria Travia in 1956 and the following year they had a son.

“Little by little I realized that I couldn’t live on the very meager income from composing contemporary music,” Morricone told Frayling. He turned to arranging pop tunes and in just a few years became quite successful, working on songs for television variety shows and for famed stars such as Mario Lanza. The first film score for which he received a credit was for director Luciano Salce’s 1961 “Il Federale” (“The Fascist”).

Morricone soon found himself in demand as a film composer. Able to work fast, he picked up several more credits over the next couple years, including for two westerns. Those led to his being considered for the Leone film and when the two men met, Morrisone had a surprise for the director. He told him they had met before, more than 30 years ago in third grade and Morricone had the picture to prove it. The class photo, from an school in Rome, showed the two boys sitting just one student apart from each other, although back then they were not close friends.

The recording of “Pastures of Plenty” sealed the deal for Morricone to write the music for “Fistful of Dollars,” and his unorthodox, upfront score for the film starring Clint Eastwood was credited with helping it become a worldwide success.

“I think the music of Ennio becomes almost visible, becomes almost a visual element in the film,” the late director Bernardo Bertolucci said in the BBC documentary.

Morricone and Leone teamed again for two more films in what came to be known as the “Dollars” trilogy of westerns starring Eastwood: “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966), which is likely the composer’s best known work.

In a 2007 tribute to Morricone, Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed called it “audacious” music. “The whistle, the whoop, the ‘60s rock guitar, the ocarina, the quick-tongued trumpets, the simple harmonies, the catchy melody are a combination never before associated with the American West or anyplace or anything else,” Swed said.

The working relationship between the director and composer was so close that Leone sometimes had Morricone compose and record the music before the film was shot. Leone would play the music on the set to help set the mood for actors, and at times he would shoot the film to go with the music instead of the usual other way around.

In all, they did six films together, ending with “Once Upon A Time in America” (1984), which had one of Morricone’s most melodic scores. Leone died in 1989.

Among other directors that Morricone worked with multiple times were Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Brian De Palma and Roland Joffe.

After finishing the 1976 Bertolucci epic “1900,” Morricone cut back a bit on film and TV composing to spend more time writing orchestra works. He stoped working on U.S. films entirely, but for a different reason. “I was being paid no more than the worst American composers,” he said in the BBC documentary. “So I decided to stop working for the Americans.”

English producer David Puttnam broke that logjam by paying him what he wanted for the Warner Bros.-financed “The Mission.” “He doesn’t sell himself cheaply,” Puttnam said in the BBC documentary, “but he does give you everything.”

The one thing that Morricone did not get out of “The Mission” was an Oscar, though he was nominated. At the awards ceremony in 1987, the winner, instead, was Herbie Hancock for “’Round Midnight.”

Morricone did not hide his disappointment. “Despite all the prizes and awards throughout Europe, the thing not fulfilled is the Oscar,” he said in a 1999 Los Angeles Times interview. “I feel there is a hole in me. I just don’t understand it.”

That hole was partially filled in 2007, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an honorary Oscar for “his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” Although the composer was visibly moved when he received the award from Clint Eastwood, he could not help but remind the Academy that it had passed him over for a competitive award.

In 2016, at age 87, he finally took home a competitive Oscar, for the score of “The Hateful Eight.” In his acceptance speech, he thanked the other nominated composers as a group but gave a special shout-out to John Williams, the “Star Wars” composer, perennial academy favorite and fellow octogenarian who had been working nearly as long as he had.

In his later years, Morricone conducted highly popular performances of his works with large orchestras and choruses massed especially for the occasions.

Still, he kept on composing for film and television, with total credits surpassing 520. But taking a stance that was uncharacteristically modest, Morricone said his output was slight compared to at least one classical composer.

“If you think about it, Bach, for example, used to compose one cantata a week. He had to compose the music in time for it to be performed in church on Sunday,” Morricone said in a 2010 interview with the Quietus online arts site. “So if you just consider Bach, you will see that I’m practically unemployed.”


David Colker

David Colker previously wrote and edited obituaries – a beat perhaps foreshadowed by being on the Timothy Leary death watch in 1996 when he took the assignment so seriously he was at Leary’s bedside when he died. He left The Times in 2015. 

Art world, politicians salute talent of Morricone

Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Ennio Morricone, the iconic composer, died aged 91 TIZIANA FABI AFP

Rome (AFP)

Big names from Hollywood, music and politics lined up on Monday to praise the talent and the legacy of Italian maestro Ennio Morricone, after the iconic composer died aged 91, with Antonio Banderas saluting "a big master of cinema."

- Antonio Banderas -

"With great sadness, we say goodbye to a big master of cinema. His music will keep playing in our memories. Rest in peace #EnnioMorricone."


- Monica Bellucci -

"There are people who have the ability to make the world better because they know how to create beauty".

- Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor -

Morricone was "a master for whom I nurtured friendship and admiration."

- Metallica -

"Your career was legendary, your compositions were timeless. Thank you for setting the mood for so many of our shows since 1983," when the rock band started using "The Ecstasy of Gold" from the score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as its walk-on music.

- Edgar Wright, British screenwriter and producer -

"He could make an average movie into a must see, a good movie into art, and a great movie into legend."

- Hans Zimmer, German composer -

"Ennio was an icon and icons just don't go away, icons are forever."

- John Carpenter -

"A friend and collaborator, his talent was inestimable. I will miss him."

- Goldfrapp -

"Sad to hear about the passing of Ennio Morricone today. He was a huge inspiration for Goldfrapp too, in particular Felt Mountain."

- Yo-Yo Ma -

"I'll never forget the way Ennio Morricone described music as 'energy, space, and time.' It is, perhaps, the most concise and accurate description I've ever heard. We'll truly miss him."

- Britain's Royal Philharmonic Society -

"If proof were needed of orchestral music's enduring power and currency, imagine so many of the all-time great films without Ennio Morricone's colossal scores, giving so many of them their soul."

- Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician -

"Ennio Morricone was a source of constant inspiration, like a member of my family... he was omnipresent in my life."

- Giuseppe Conte, Italian prime minister -

"He made us dream, he moved us and made us think, writing unforgettable notes that will remain forever in the history of music and cinema."

© 2020 AFP

In Canada, Montreal moves to make masks obligatory in public places

Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Montreal is going to require masks in all indoor public places such as stores, restaurants, bars and sports facilities Sebastien St-Jean AFP/File

Montreal (AFP)

The Canadian city of Montreal, one of the country's virus hotspots, will make wearing face masks in indoor public places mandatory in the coming weeks, Mayor Valerie Plante said Monday.

Montreal, Canada's second-largest city, follows in the footsteps of Toronto and the capital Ottawa, where masks will be obligatory from Tuesday.

Plante said the move, to come into effect from July 27, was in response to the "emergence of some outbreaks in the suburbs... which could undermine the efforts we have been making since the beginning of this pandemic."

  The measure will apply to shops, sports facilities, bars and restaurants, she said.

Last week, Quebec's provincial government said masks would be mandatory on public transport from July 13.

Plante said that some business owners had struggled "in ensuring that the rules of hygiene and distancing are respected in their establishments."

"For many, a loosening leading to eventual reconfinement would simply mean putting the key under the door," she said in a statement.

"A setback would be a disaster for human lives and for our economy."

Plante said there would be a grace period so everyone could be prepared, but warned that she would not hesitate to "crack down on offenders in the long run."

Quebec accounts for more than half of Canada's roughly 105,000 coronavirus cases, and nearly two-thirds of the 8,700 deaths -- most of them in the greater Montreal area.

© 2020 AFP

On Syria river, craftsmen revive famed water wheels


Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

The water wheels or "norias" of Hama were used for centuries to bring water to gardens and buildings on the shores of the Orontes River MAHER AL MOUNES AFP
Hama (Syria) (AFP)

On a riverbank in Syria's Hama, Mohammed Sultan tinkers away on a giant water wheel, one of a dwindling number of artisans able to restore the city's ancient wooden landmarks.

Used for centuries to bring water to gardens and buildings on the shores of the Orontes River, the water wheels or "norias" of Hama are believed to be unique worldwide, according to UNESCO.

The touristic landmarks have largely been spared by Syria's nine-year war, but some have fallen into disrepair or seen part of their timber stolen or burnt.


"It's our duty to bring them back to life," the 52-year-old said, sweat forming on his forehead after hammering a tenon into a freshly cut wood beam.

Nearby passers-by pose for pictures at the feet of the huge dark wooden wheel he is fixing, the city's largest and oldest, known as the Mohammadia.

Twenty-two metres (72 feet) in diameter, the wheel rises high above the water level and is believed to date back to the 14th century.

"The norias are Hama's spirit," Sultan told AFP, as children splash around in the Orontes.

"Without them, the city would be dead and drab."

- 'Giving back to my city' -

Clambering up and down a stone staircase to the wheel's centre, Sultan replaces some wood along one of its massive spokes.

"When I work with my colleagues to fix the norias, I feel like I'm giving something back to my city," said the artisan, who has 22 years of experience in his unique field.

"I forget how tired I am as soon as one starts turning again."

Hama city, north of the capital Damascus, was mostly spared fighting during the war, though battles did at times rage in the nearby countryside.

In other parts of Hama province, 10 of the region's 25 norias have in recent years stopped their slow, creaking rotation above the waterline.

The water wheels are believed to have originated in the Arab medieval era, but a mosaic dated 469 BC suggests they could have existed even earlier, UNESCO says.

Held together by an assortment of walnut, pine, poplar and oak wood, they once carried small wooden boxes that scooped up water each time they plunged into the river.

The wheels drew from the Orontes to irrigate nearby gardens, as well as supply water to mosques, public baths and homes on its banks.

Though no longer the case today, the wheels remain the pride of the city, drawing in droves of tourists before the war and featuring on Syrian banknotes.

"We continue to give great importance to restoring these historical relics in view of their symbolic value," Hama mayor Adnan Tayyar said.

"It's impossible to visit Hama without stopping by the norias," he added.

- Last of the noria craftsmen -

Ahd Saba al-Arab, head of the Hama noria authority, said he hoped visitors would soon flock back to the city.

But maintenance of the water wheels was becoming increasingly difficult, he said.

This was because the right wood had become expensive and in short supply, and there was now "a great scarcity of artisans with the right know-how".

The number of suitably skilled craftsmen has fallen from 35 to just nine, after many died or emigrated during the conflict.

Ismail, another of the last surviving experts, says he is proud to be able to carry on a tradition "all done by hand".

"The norias are the city's backbone," said the bespectacled man in his fifties.

But, moving agilely from one side of the Mohammadia to the other, he is worried about the next generation's lack of interest in the profession.

"Our craft is transmitted from father to son, but today we can no longer pass it on to our children," he said.

Record Temperatures and Record Low Sea Ice in Siberian Arctic

Wildfire smoke and seasonally low sea ice extent, eastern Laptev Sea, June 24 (NASA Worldview)

BY THE CONVERSATION 06-28-2020

[By Mark Serreze]

The Arctic heat wave that sent Siberian temperatures soaring to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the first day of summer put an exclamation point on an astonishing transformation of the Arctic environment that’s been underway for about 30 years.

As long ago as the 1890s, scientists predicted that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would lead to a warming planet, particularly in the Arctic, where the loss of reflective snow and sea ice would further warm the region. Climate models have consistently pointed to “Arctic amplification” emerging as greenhouse gas concentrations increase.

Arctic amplification is now here in a big way. The Arctic is warming at roughly twice the rate of the globe as a whole. When extreme heat waves like this one strike, it stands out to everyone. Scientists are generally reluctant to say “We told you so,” but the record shows that we did. As director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center and an Arctic climate scientist who first set foot in the far North in 1982, I’ve had a front-row seat to watch the transformation.



This Arctic heat wave has been unusually long-lived. The darkest reds on this map of the Arctic are areas that were more than 14 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the spring of 2020 compared to the recent 15-year average. Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory

Arctic heat waves are happening more often – and getting stuck

Arctic heat waves now arrive on top of an already warmer planet, so they’re more frequent than they used to be. Western Siberia recorded its hottest spring on record this year, according the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Program, and that unusual heat isn’t expected to end soon. The Arctic Climate Forum has forecast above-average temperatures across the majority of the Arctic through at least August.


Arctic temperatures have been rising faster than the global average. This map shows the average change in degrees Celsius from 1960 to 2019. NASA-GISS

Why is this heat wave sticking around? No one has a full answer yet, but we can look at the weather patterns around it.

As a rule, heat waves are related to unusual jet stream patterns, and the Siberian heat wave is no different. A persistent northward swing of the jet stream has placed the area under what meteorologists call a “ridge.” When the jet stream swings northward like this, it allows warmer air into the region, raising the surface temperature.

Some scientists expect rising global temperatures to influence the jet stream. The jet stream is driven by temperature contrasts. As the Arctic warms more quickly, these contrasts shrink, and the jet stream can slow.

Is that what we’re seeing right now? We don’t yet know.

Swiss cheese sea ice and feedback loops

We do know that we’re seeing significant effects from this heat wave, particularly in the early loss of sea ice.

The ice along the shores of Siberia has the appearance of Swiss cheese right now in satellite images, with big areas of open water that would normally still be covered. The sea ice extent in the Laptev Sea, north of Russia, is the lowest recorded for this time of year since satellite observations began.

The loss of sea ice also affects the temperature, creating a feedback loop. Earth’s ice and snow cover reflect the Sun’s incoming energy, helping to keep the region cool. When that reflective cover is gone, the dark ocean and land absorb the heat, further raising the surface temperature.

Sea surface temperatures are already unusually high along parts of the Siberian Coast, and the warm ocean waters will lead to more melting.

The risks of thawing permafrost

On land, a big concern is warming permafrost – the perennially frozen ground that underlies most Arctic terrain.

When permafrost thaws under homes and bridges, infrastructure can sink, tilt and collapse. Alaskans have been contending with this for several years. Near Norilsk, Russia, thawing permafrost was blamed for an oil tank collapse in late May that spilled thousands of tons of oil into a river.

Thawing permafrost also creates a less obvious but even more damaging problem. When the ground thaws, microbes in the soil begin turning its organic matter into carbon dioxide and methane. Both are greenhouse gases that further warm the planet.

In a study published last year, researchers found that permafrost test sites around the world had warmed by nearly half a degree Fahrenheit on average over the decade from 2007 to 2016. The greatest increase was in Siberia, where some areas had warmed by 1.6 degrees. The current Siberian heat wave, especially if it continues, will regionally exacerbate that permafrost warming and thawing.


A satellite image shows the Norilsk oil spill flowing into neighboring rivers. The collapse of a giant fuel tank was blamed on thawing permafrost. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2020, CC BY

Wildfires are back again

The extreme warmth also raises the risk of wildfires, which radically change the landscape in other ways. Drier forests are more prone to fires, often from lightning strikes. When forests burn, the dark, exposed soil left behind can absorb more heat and hasten warming.

We’ve seen a few years now of extreme forest fires across the Arctic. This year, some scientists have speculated that some of the Siberian fires that broke out last year may have continued to burn through the winter in peat bogs and reemerged.

A disturbing pattern

The Siberian heat wave and its impacts will doubtless be widely studied. There will certainly be those eager to dismiss the event as just the result of an unusual persistent weather pattern.

Caution must always be exercised about reading too much into a single event – heat waves happen. But this is part of a disturbing pattern. What is happening in the Arctic is very real and should serve as a warning to everyone who cares about the future of the planet as we know it.

Mark Serreze is a Research Professor of Geography and the Director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

Russian Space Agency aide detained, accused of treason
Ivan Safronov's arrest "could be connected with his previous publications about the military," according to a report. He joined Roscosmos in May this year as policy adviser to the agency's chief Dmitry Rogozin.


A former journalist and current policy advisor to the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, was detained on Tuesday accused of treason, the organization announced.

The charges Ivan Safronov faces relate to the passing of state secrets to a NATO country, the RIA news agency said, citing Russia's security service (FSB).

Read more: UK sanctions Russians, Saudis, and their 'blood money'

The FSB allege Safronov passed on classified military data, as well as defense information, to the other country.

Meanwhile, Roscomos said an investigation was underway and that it was "fully cooperating with the investigative authorities."

Press mobilizes in Safronov's defense

There has been an outpouring of support for Ivan Safronov from within the Russian media sector. Journalists gathering outside the FSB building in Moscow to protest his arrest. Several demonstrators were arrested, though one-man pickets do not have to be authorized in advance in Russia. Many of the assembled protesters told reporters that they were convinced that Ivan Safronov had been arrested for his independent journalism.

Representatives of several well-known media outlets including Safronov's former employer Kommersant and the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, have published official statements of support for Safronov, vouching for his high professional standards.

Speaking in a video from a police van, Kommersant journalist Alexander Chernykh commented that "when journalists are arrested one after the other – that is a very bad sign for our whole country." On Monday, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva was found guilty of inciting terrorism for a column. Some observers have also compared Safronov's case with the arrest of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov last year. He was accused of drugs possession but all charges against him were dropped after a huge public outcry over the case because of a lack of evidence.

Safronov's father, also called Ivan, was an investigative reporter at Kommersant as well. He died in 2007 in murky circumstances having fallen from a high window. An inquiry ruled it was suicide, but some of his colleagues disputed that, saying he had been working on a story about Russian arms deals with Iran and Syria.

Roscosmos: Arrest unconnected to us

The space agency said in a statement that the arrest of Safronov in Moscow had nothing to do with his work at Roscosmos. He joined the space agency as a media and policy adviser in May this year.

A source told news agency Interfax that Safronov's arrest could be connected to his work as a journalist, his previous profession, and that he did not have permission to access state secrets as a member of staff at Roscomos.

Safronov was a journalist and columnist working for the independent newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti, where he wrote about political issues, the military, and space programs in Russia.

In 2019, Kommersant took down an online article co-written by Safronov about the delivery of Russian jets to Egypt. The decision to remove the column was made in the wake of court proceedings getting under way looking into the disclosure of state secrets.

Safronov was forced to resign from Kommersant in May 2019 after filing a report saying the speaker of Russia's upper house was planning to resign.

The entire politics desk of the newspaper quit in protest against the dismissals of Safronov and a colleague who co-authored the piece.

DW's Emily Sherwin contributed to this report from Moscow.

jsi/rc (AFP, dpa, Reuters)


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Date 07.07.2020
Related Subjects Vladimir Putin, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russia, Dmitry Medvedev
Keywords Roscosmos, Space Agency, treason, Russia, NATO

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3euCm

Journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva found guilty of 'inciting terrorism'
The freelance contributor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty had been accused of "publicly inciting terrorism." Prokopyeva, who says she was doing her job, was placed on a list of "terrorists and extremists."


A Russian court on Monday found journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva guilty of justifying terrorism.

Prokopyeva had reported a story about a young man who detonated a bomb inside a government building and faced up to seven years in prison on terrorism-related charges.

The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist used a radio program in 2018 to discuss the case of a 17-year-old who blew himself up at the office of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk.

She denied the charge and said she had been put on trial for doing her job.

The court fined Prokopyeva 500,000 roubles (€6,160, $6,952). The journalist's supporters who were present in the courtroom shouted "shame" and "she is not guility" as the judge read out the verdict.

Prokopyeva, who arrived at the court wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "We will not shut up", said she would appeal the decision.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to jail Prokopyeva for six years and ban her from working in journalism for four years on the charges that carry a maximum sentence of seven years. 

Read more: Prison sentence looms for celebrated Russian director

Dozens of human rights defenders signed a statement published by the Memorial rights group denouncing the case as "openly political" with the goal of "intimidating Russian journalists".

"A journalist is entitled to freely spread information not only on events but also on ideas," the statement read.

Ahead of the sentencing, international press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders urged the Russian authorities to throw out the case saying it set a "dangerous precedent."

Human Rights Watch's Damekya Aitkhozhina — who described the terrorism charge as "bogus" — said Prokopyeva's fine was "another devastating blow to media freedom in Russia."


RIOT DAYS: PUSSY RIOT'S ACTS OF DEFIANCE
Starting a riot
All-girl Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot created an international storm in 2012 with a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral that called for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia's president a few days later. The protest attracted worldwide attention, and three members of the group were arrested. MORE PICTURES 12345678910111213141516

The rights group last month described the case as a "violation of freedom of expression" that sent a "chilling message".

Last week, Prokopyeva's employer said she had done the opposite of what prosecutors had alleged.

"Svetlana's commentary was an effort to explain a tragedy," RFE/RL acting president Daisy Sindelar said in a statement.

Read more: Russian TV abruptly pulls Zelenskiy's sitcom after cutting Putin joke

"The portrayal of her words as 'promoting terrorism' is a deliberate and politically motivated distortion aimed at silencing her critical voice, and recalls the worst show trials of one of Russia's darkest periods."

kw/rc (AFP Reuters)

Coronavirus: China detains professor who criticized President Xi Jinping
Xu Zhangrun has been detained after publishing an essay in which the professor made critical comments of the Chinese government’s handling of the pandemic. The professor also took a dim view of other government policies.


Chinese authorities on Monday detained a law professor who published articles criticizing President Xi Jinping (above) over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as his undemocratic policies, according to friends of the man.

Xu Zhangrun was seized at his home in suburban Beijing, before being taken away by more than 20 people, one of his friends said on condition of anonymity.

The Chinese regime takes a dim view of negative publicity, particularly if it stems from the nation's heavily censored academic sector.

Read more: Coronavirus: Li Wenliang's death 'a moment of awakening' for China

Xu's detention has been linked to an essay he published in February citing the culture of deception and censorship fostered by President Xi as a reason for the spread of the novel virus.

The Chinese "leader system is itself destroying the structure of governance," Xu wrote in the paper that was published on websites outside of China, adding the chaos in the coronavirus epicentre of Hubei province was down to systemic issues.

Xu said China was "led by one man only, but this man is in the dark and rules tyrannically, with no method for governance, though he is skilled at playing with power, causing the entire country to suffer."

Read more: Hong Kong is being 'robbed of its rights'

He also predicted that an ongoing economic slowdown would cause "the decline of national confidence," along with "political and academic indignation and social atrophy."

It is not the first time Xu has been critical of the government. The law professor at Tsinghua University, one of the country's most renowned institutions, had previously criticized the 2018 abolition of presidential term limits in an essay that was also well-circulated online.

jsi/rc (AFP, ARD)