SEVENTY IS THE NEW FIFTY

Cher at 74: 'There are 20-year-old girls who can’t do what I do’

Cher: ‘I love the feeling you have in your body when you sing.’ 

Photograph: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott

Her $60m annual Las Vegas residency was off the cards this year, but the singer still has lots to say about animal rights, Trump’s ‘toxic’ politics, cosmetic surgery and the men in her life
by Simon Hattenstone

Mon 14 Dec 2020 06.00 GMT

The Goddess of Pop is in town. And what an entrance she makes. Two-tone black-and-white beret, matching jacket, skinny jeans, black boots, black mask, and an elephant-shaped knuckle-duster. She looks the ultimate in revolutionary chic – Cher Guevara. She is not in London to promote a record (100m sold and counting) or a film (she won the best actress Oscar in 1988 for Moonstruck); she is here to talk about rescuing the world’s loneliest elephant from a zoo in Pakistan and flying him to a sanctuary in Cambodia. Cherilyn Sarkisian, aged 74, has never been predictable.

We meet in a London hotel, close to the BBC’s Broadcasting House, where she has been eulogising elephants. She is masked, I am masked, and we sit at opposite ends of the room. It’s such a strange world we’re living in, I say – how are you coping? And she is straight off into a turbo-charged rant. “How am I taking it? There are no words that describe it. And in my country the president doesn’t believe it has anything to do with him. He doesn’t think he has any responsibility to help us.”


How has Donald Trump changed the culture of the United States? “It’s toxic,” she says. “People who just disagreed with each other before are now enemies. I hate to even call him a president because all he does is watch TV.”

In October, Cher recorded a song for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe, a reworked version of a number from the 1940s musical Cabin in the Sky. I tell her I love it and ask if Biden has said anything to her about it. “Well, yes, I think he loves it, too.” She pauses. “I said if Trump can’t be in the White House, he’s going to burn it down. He’s trying to block Joe at every moment. He’s the most vindictive person I’ve ever witnessed. I think he’s fighting so hard because he’s going to be prosecuted when he gets out of the White House.” Could he end up in prison? “Oh, I hope so. I’ll be dancing around.”


When she talks about Trump she sounds traumatised. She tries not to mention his name. “I hate him,” she says. Have you hated anybody like this before? “No, in my whole life, never. I pretty much disliked Bush when he started those wars, and I could say for a minute it was touch and go for hate. But the one thing I know is he loves America and Trump doesn’t.”

We move to more positive territory – the liberation of Kaavan the elephant. Cher is just back from visiting him in Cambodia. She says he is eating well, readjusting happily, and has already got a couple of girlfriends. “If you saw Kaavan before we took him to this sanctuary, he was a different animal. In a matter of minutes, he completely changed. It was amazing to watch.”

It was Cher’s Twitter followers who first told her about Kaavan, a 36-year-old Asian bull elephant living in dreadful conditions at the zoo in Islamabad. There was no roof on the shed, no water in his pool and he had no toys to play with. He would stand in his tiny shed with his head facing the wall. You never saw a more depressed-looking pachyderm. The more Cher discovered about Kaavan, the more determined she became to rescue him.

She remembered that, four years earlier, she had met Mark Cowne, Bob Geldof’s manager, and that they had bonded over their love of elephants. She rang him out of the blue. “I said: ‘Hi, do you remember me, it’s Cher, would you like to go to Pakistan and save an elephant?’ He said sure.” They started the charity Free the Wild, and masterminded a plan to free Kaavan, who was relocated to Cambodia at an estimated cost of $400,000 (£300,000). A Pakistani court ordered the zoo’s closure last May.

Cher visiting Kaavan the elephant in his new home in Cambodia this month. 

Photograph: Reuters

Cher has barely started with her animal liberation plans. “We’re working on a gorilla right now, and another elephant.” Did she grow up with animals? Yes, I’ve had many dogs, and I have cats now.” She lives in Malibu, Los Angeles. “I live in a particularly beautiful spot, but the fires are just killing us. A fire came right up my house and burned the side of it. I was so lucky.” And suddenly we’re back with Trump; she can’t help herself. “It’s climate change. And he wouldn’t give us any money for it. He hates us. He hates California. He doesn’t have one drop of goodness in him.”

Much of Cher’s recent life has been about campaigning – whether politically, to support abused animals or helping disadvantaged people through the pandemic. Her charity Cher Cares, which she runs with Dr Irwin Redlener, the founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, is directing resources to disadvantaged communities to help them through the Covid crisis.

I hate Trump … He doesn’t have one drop of goodness in him

If it wasn’t for the pandemic she would be playing in Las Vegas, as she has done since 2008. Is it true she gets paid $60m a year for Vegas? “Wait. Say this again, please.” I’m expecting her to tell me not to be so ridiculous, but she is simply considering the figure. “It sounds like a good number, but I don’t know the figure. I know I go to work and I like it and I’m getting paid well, but also I have an overhead you can’t believe. I have 100 people on staff.” Cher is worth an estimated $360m (£270m).

She really has had an incredible life. Cher was born in 1946, her mother the southern beauty Georgia Holt, a bohemian actor/singer-songwriter who got married six times, to five different men. Holt largely brought her up Cher and her half-sister Georganne as a single mother. Cher did not meet her father, an American-Armenian truck driver called John Sarkisian, until she was 11. “He was charming like you cannot believe,” she says. “But he had some larceny in him. He had a criminal past.” Her mother was loving and hot-tempered. Sometimes she hit her (“My mom was from the south and it was kinda the thing”), but usually she championed her. Cher struggled with dyslexia. “My mom was my biggest fan. She said it doesn’t matter, school is not important. And I said: ‘Yeah Mom, but I can’t even see numbers – they look like little scratchy things to me.’ She said: ‘When you grow up, you’re going to have somebody else to do numbers for you.’”

At 16, Cher met 27-year-old Sonny Bono. He was a decent songwriter and a mediocre singer; she was gorgeous with a remarkable contralto. He became her svengali and lover. After working together with Phil Spector (she backed the Ronettes on Be My Baby and the Righteous Brother on You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling), they joined forces and became huge, with hits including the classic I Got You Babe and their own TV show. They were the most famous couple on the planet as a singing duo, a comedy act, and husband and wife. Then it all went to pot.

She was the talent; he took the money – 95% of it, with 5% going to lawyers. Cher divorced him in 1975. “We worked side by side for 11 years and I ended up with nothing. I worked really hard for that money, and it never occurred to me that he would take it.” Actually, she says, she ended up with less than nothing. “I had to give him $2m on top.” Why? “Because I didn’t carry out the contract for Sonny and Cher as a couple. It never occurred to me that I would be charged with the contracts we didn’t fulfil.”

Were you furious with him? “You know, we had such a strange relationship. The day we got our divorce, he grabbed me, bent me backwards and kissed me, and we were hysterical. I couldn’t keep angry with him for some reason. I had a lot of anger, but I couldn’t stay angry.”

Cher with Gregg Allman taking it easy in 1977.

 Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Four days after divorcing Bono, she married the rock star Gregg Allman. Nine days later, she filed for divorce because of his drug and alcohol problems (he was addicted to heroin), although they soon got back together. There have been so many famous men in her life: David Geffen, Tom Cruise, Gene Simmons, Val Kilmer, Warren Beatty, Tommy Lee. And if they weren’t famous at the time, they soon became so. Rob Camilletti, who she dated in the 80s, became known as Bagel Boy because, at the time, she was 40 and he was 22 and he worked in a bagel shop, although he subsequently became a pilot to the stars.

Who has been the love of her life? “Well, I think Robert [Camilletti] and Gregory Allman,” she answers, without a blink. “Gregory was a special man.” And a difficult man? “Well, look, he was a southern gentleman who happened to do drugs. It was that simple. And he tried hard to get off them. One time we were going to a rehab and I said: ‘I’m so tired of doing this,’ and he said: ‘So am I. And I keep doing it for you.’ Robert was completely different. He was like a rock.”

It’s interesting that you call him Gregory, I say. To the public he has always been Gregg. She smiles. “He never called me Cher.” What did he call you? “Chooch.” Why? “People I’m close to don’t call me Cher. They have nicknames. No one ever called me Cher in my whole life.” What does your mother call you? “Honey.”

Cher dated Rob Camilletti in the 1980s. 

Photograph: Time & Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

She once said that Cruise was one of her top-five lovers. Who heads the list? “I’m not telling you that!” Oh Cher, it’s winter, it’s cold, we’re in a pandemic – give us a bit of festive cheer. She laughs. “Tough shit. Don’t even go there. I’ve been around – this ain’t my first time at the rodeo!”

Cher has a touch of Mae West about her – particularly when she talks about men. She once said men are not a necessity; they are luxuries, like dessert (adding that she does love dessert). I start to remind her of the time her mother told her to find herself a rich man, but she beats me to it. “I was struggling to get a movie made. She said: ‘Honey, what you need in your life is a rich man.’ And I went: ‘Mom, I am a rich man.’ It still has a meaning to me. I don’t need that; I am that.”

Few people have reinvented themselves as often or as successfully as Cher. So many decades in music can be encapsulated by her hits – the rousing picaresque pop of Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves and Dark Lady in the 70s; the epic pop-rock of Dead Ringer for Love (with Meat Loaf) and If I Could Turn Back Time in the 80s; the electro-dance pop of Believe in the 90s.

In the 80s she also established herself as a serious, understated actor in Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. There followed memorable performances in films such as Moonstruck, Silkwood and The Witches of Eastwick. In 2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, she stole the show with a gloriously camp cameo. It’s hard to think of anybody who has been as successful in movies and music. Yet Cher has never quite received the acclaim she deserves – bizarrely, she has not been inaugurated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cher with Nicholas Cage in the 1987 film Moonstruck. 

DIRECTED BY THE GREAT CANADIAN FILM MAKER

NORMAN JEWISON

Photograph: Allstar/MGM

And, of course, few women have been so empowering for other women – the independence, the longevity, the chutzpah and, perhaps most of all, the level-headedness. She has often been surrounded by addicts, but she has remained steadfastly sober. Every element of her life has been played out in public – divorces, affairs, the addiction problems of Allman and their son Elijah, the transitioning of her son Chaz Bono, the fallouts and fall-ins with her mother, cosmetic surgery.

When Chaz transitioned, Cher admitted she found it hard to deal with, and was forever getting her pronouns wrong when talking about him in public. She laughs when I mention it today. “I’m much better at it now.” The mere mention of Chaz reminds her of Trump and what she sees as the erosion of respect and rights in the US. “We’ve gone backwards 20 years. We were making great progress and now all these conservative people don’t want black people voting, they don’t want Latino people voting. They don’t want trans people here. They want to go back to the 50s; antebellum days, if they could.”

There is a surprising stillness to Cher. Even when she rages against Trump she does so quietly. There is also a refreshing openness – many megastars are evasive, talk in soundbites or reel off anecdotes on autopilot. Cher answers fully, as if considering every question for the first time. She doesn’t pretend to be your friend or feign intimacy, but she chats with an honesty verging on the compulsive – as if she knows no other way.

I ask about ageing, and she starts talking about her mother, who is 94, though she claims to be 74 (perversely, Cher’s age). “I’ve always thought of her as this kick-ass chick, and now I start to see my grandmother in her. She’s still lively and we still laugh. But I see her getting older, and it makes me nervous.” For your mother or yourself? “For both of us.”

Does ageing worry her? “I hate it.” She gives me a look. “What, I’m going to say I like it? No, I don’t. Any woman who is honest will say it’s not as much fun. When I was working on the road we used to work two shows a night and then go out dancing all night long.” And now? “It’s like we’ve got to rest because you’ve got another night. Also, I don’t like going out now because everybody’s got a camera and it’s not safe. People rush you, and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you or take your picture. Either way, I don’t like it.”
I love standing on the stage and singing. You just feel like you can fill everything, and I pretty much can

Has anybody been hostile? “I had a man try to kill me. I always got dropped off at the stage door when I was doing Come Back To the Five and Dime on Broadway. I thought he was going to shake my hand, and he grabbed my arm and put it behind my back. He started pushing me down the alleyway, and he said: ‘If you make a sound, I’ll kill you.’ Two fans, who later became friends, saw something was wrong, and they started screaming and ran towards me, and he ran away.”

In the past she has talked about the pressure to remain young in her business. Today, she is renowned as the poster girl for cosmetic surgery. I ask if she thinks she normalised procedures. “Wait, what? You say I made it OK for what?” For normal people, regular civilians, to have cosmetic surgery, I say. “These girls are having surgery at 18. So come on! I’ve never seen girls do so much to want to change everything they look like. I never wanted to do that. You’ve got big lips to start with and a big butt. I don’t understand it.”

Does she think cosmetic surgery has prolonged her career? If you’re no good at what you do, she says, people don’t care what you look like. “You don’t pay bucks to stand and look at someone. They’ve got to deliver something.” She may get tired, she says, but her voice is better than it’s ever been. “And I’ve worked my whole life to keep my strength in my body. There are 20-year-old girls who can’t do what I do.”

Indeed she does look fabulously, freakishly fit. It’s weird how the National Enquirer constantly suggests she is on death’s doorstep. “My entire life I am dying!” She looks as if she’s smiling behind the mask. But I’m not sure. “My entire life.” How does that make her feel? “It’s the Enquirer. It sells magazines. I don’t know why they pick dying because I never have done.”

Epic performance: Cher on stage in December 2019. 

Photograph: EMG/REX/Shutterstock

Cher’s first farewell tour started in 2002 and ended three years later, making her an estimated $100m. What keeps her going now? “I love standing on the stage and singing. The feeling you have in your body when you sing.” What is that feeling? “It’s big, no matter how small you are. You just feel like you can fill everything, and I pretty much can. Then you put the audience in. And I’m very shy. But once you get over your stage fright everything gets good.”

But I assumed you would be wildly extrovert – like the Cher on stage. “Nope,” she says. How do you go from one to the other? “A lot of the biggest entertainers are shy. I’ve always been shy. But once I’m on stage and get hold of an audience, I know I can bring the room together as one. No matter how many thousands of people, I can bring it to where they are all friends. If you have a heartbreak or a sickness, for 90 minutes I can make you forget.”

It’s time to leave. Cher gives me a closeup of the elephant knuckle-duster – actually a beautiful ring made for her by another friend, the designer Loree Rodkin. She reminds me how much there is still to do – battling bigotry, rescuing the next Kaavan, helping to ease the pandemic and, hopefully, even that return to Vegas.

I ask what has given her most pleasure in life. What we’ve just been talking about, she says. “Making people happy. It sounds corny, but I mean it. I love being able to take an audience and move them to a different place.” Is she surprised she is still taking them to this different place? “Absolutely,” she says. And now there is no mistaking the smile behind the mask. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Canada inks deal with U.S. to send astronaut around the moon

OTTAWA — The federal government has signed an agreement with the United States to send a Canadian astronaut around the moon as part of a broader effort to establish a new space station above the lunar surface.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Industry Minister Navdeep Bains unveiled the new Gateway Treaty on Wednesday, which formalizes Canada’s involvement in the U.S.-led effort to build that new station known as the Lunar Gateway.

The treaty includes a commitment to having a Canadian on board when the U.S. conducts a manned flyby of the moon in 2023, as well as a second yet-to-be-scheduled flight to the future station.

“Canada will join the U.S. on the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo missions,” Bains said during a news conference with Canadian Space Agency astronauts Jeremy Hansen, David Saint-Jacques, Joshua Kutryk and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons.

“Launching in 2023, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut will be part of Artemis 2, the first mission to carry humans to lunar orbit in over 50 years. This will make Canada only the second country after the U.S. to have an astronaut in deep space.”

The new treaty also formally confirms that Canada will contribute a new robotic arm to help with construction of the Lunar Gateway, which will orbit the moon and allow for exploration of the lunar surface and assist future missions to Mars.

The government last week committed $22.8 million toward development of the new Canadarm3 by MDA Canada.

The Canadian Space Agency is one of several partners in the U.S.-led endeavour along with the European Space Agency and their Japanese counterpart. Russia has also expressed an interest in joining.

The Lunar Gateway is projected to be about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station in orbit around the Earth, with plans to build it over the next decade.

Bains did not say how much Canada will spend to participate in the Artemis 2 flight, which will come after an unmanned flyby of the moon that the U.S. has scheduled for next year.

“It's important to note that we're a spacefaring nation, and very proud of our space history,” he said. “And this investment with regards to the Artemis 2 program, as well as the overall space strategies, is well over $2 billion over the next 24 years.”

Bains later said in an interview with The Canadian Press that the two flights as well as the Canadarm project and other robotics programs on the Lunar Gateway are included in the nearly $2 billion set aside for space.

The minister defended Ottawa’s planned investment in space, touting the economic and scientific benefits that come from Canada’s involvement in extraterrestrial exploration – a sentiment echoed by some of the astronauts in attendance.

MDA president Mike Greenley made similar comments in an interview following the announcement as he welcomed the new treaty with the U.S. as a win for Canada’s robotics sector and space industry.

“And then the astronauts' flights are highly, highly motivational for the rest of the country,” he added.

“It’s been clearly demonstrated that the motivation of youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math and STEM professions has been inspired by astronauts in the space program, is high. And so you're driving the next generation.”

As for the purpose of the Artemis 2 flyby, Kutryk said it will help test the rockets and other systems needed to start work on the Lunar Gateway.

“It's worth pointing out here that this will be, I think, the farthest and fastest that any human in the history of our species has ever gone,” he said. “And so it's a very big deal to be able to do just that: get a vehicle that far away and then safely recover it back to Earth.”

They also spoke about the excitement and interest that is generated among young Canadians who may be encouraged to pursue careers in robotics and other areas with potential links to space.

Exactly who will get to fly past the moon has yet to be determined.

“At some point, we will assign a crew and that's when we'll find out which Canadian astronaut is going to be selected,” Hansen said.

“One of the things that's really important to us as an astronaut corps is the word ‘team,’ and that we take on these big challenges together ... and it doesn't turn into a competitive process, but turns into a process of us lifting each other up all the way.

One of the main drivers in the U.S. plan to get back to the moon has been Donald Trump. Bains suggested the president’s imminent departure from the White House next month after losing the November election to Joe Biden does not threaten the program.

“We'll continue to remain engaged with the Americans,” he said. “But so far, all signals have been positive and we've heard nothing to the contrary. There's a great deal of commitment to this program. And I believe it's bipartisan.”

While Artemis 2 will not touch down on the moon, the U.S. has plans to land a ship on the lunar surface in 2024.

Bains would not rule out a Canadian being on that trip as well, saying: “Conversations are ongoing, and I wouldn't necessarily close that door yet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2020.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

Scientists discover compounds that could have helped to start life on Earth

Compounds discovered on the shores of the Dead Sea

ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: PHOSPHORUS ATOMS IN YELLOW, OXYGEN ATOMS IN RED view more 

CREDIT: BRITVIN ET AL / GEOLOGY, 2020

Phosphorus is an element essential for life. It is fundamental to all living organisms, and is a key component of RNA, DNA, and cell membranes. Phosphorus compounds must have been involved in the emergence of primordial life. Importantly though, these compounds were water soluble and reactive so that they could participate in various chemical processes. Only in this case could phosphorus be involved in phosphorylation, which enables the synthesis of complex molecules. However, phosphorus in nature is only found as a phosphate ion in fairly inert minerals of the phosphate class. Hence, phosphate minerals are unlikely to have been a source for the prebiotic synthesis of phosphorus-containing compounds - the precursors of the first living organisms. For scientists, it remains a mystery which phosphorus compounds contributed to the appearance of the building blocks of RNA and DNA molecules.

A group of researchers from St Petersburg University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have discovered natural cyclophosphates - chemically active phosphorus-containing compounds in the rocks of the Dead Sea area. Cyclophosphates are widely used in industry, but they have never been found in nature before. Hydrolytic decomposition (ring opening) of cyclophosphates results in the release of energy sufficient for initiation of phosphorylation reactions. Therefore, cyclophosphates are considered as a likely source of reactive prebiotic phosphorus on the primitive Earth.

The researchers suggest that cyclophosphates could have been formed as products of phosphide pyrolitic oxidation. Natural phosphides are oxygen-free minerals containing phosphorus in an oxidation state lower than zero. Phosphides are found on Earth in areas of significant geothermal activity, including the Dead Sea region, where high-temperature geological processes took place. Besides, meteoritic bombardment of the Earth's surface is considered as a likely source of different, yet unstudied phosphates, because any cosmic body entering the atmosphere is subjected to severe ablation - the process of vaporisation and high-temperature oxidation of meteoritic substances.

CAPTION

General view of the study area

CREDIT

Britvin et al / Geology, 2020

'The rarity of cyclophosphates in the contemporary lithosphere does not imply that these minerals could not have been more widespread on early Earth; because the geochemical environment billions of years ago differed significantly from that of today. Over time, the Earth's atmosphere became more and more saturated with oxygen. Then, an oxygen-rich atmosphere released phosphorus, thus leading to the formation of cyclophosphates,' says Sergey Britvin, the leader of the research project supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Doctor of Geology and Mineralogy, professor at St Petersburg University.

The phosphides and cyclophosphates discovered on the shores of the Dead Sea can thus be regarded as a model system that reproduces phosphorus speciation during the early stages of the Earth's evolution. Discovery of natural cyclophosphates opens new doors for scientists to understand and model prebiotic phosphorylation reactions that resulted in the emergence of primordial life on our planet.

Photomicrograph of a mineral found in the Dead Sea Basin (IMAGE)

ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

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CAPTION

The yellow-green aggregate is cyclophosphate, surrounded by a complex phosphate assemblage (red-coloured area)

Research dispels fears human stem cells contain cancer-causing mutations

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

Pioneering new research has made a pivotal breakthrough that dispel concerns that human stem cells could contain cancer-causing mutations.

A team of scientists from the University of Exeter's flagship Living Systems Institute has shown that stem cells contain no cancer mutations when they are grown in their most primitive or naïve state.

The ground-breaking advances made by the research team should help allay fears surrounding recent controversy about the genetic stability of human embryonic stem cells.

The study is published in leading peer review journal Cell Stem Cell on Monday, December 14th 2020.

Human embryonic stem cells offer great promise for regenerative medicine because they can be turned into every type of cell in our bodies - such as neurons, heart, pancreatic, and liver cells.

As a result, they represent a significant potential source of cells that could be used to replace those lost through damage or disease.

A major concern, however, had been whether embryonic stem cells acquire cancer-causing mutations.

Recent studies had indicated that human pluripotent stem cells had shown the potential for increased frequency of serious cancer-causing mutations.

However, the new research, led by Senior Research Fellow Dr Ge Guo from the University of Exeter has shown that there is no increased frequency of mutations in cancer-related genes found in these cells.

Analysing RNA-sequencing data from human naïve pluripotent stem calls, the research team found that the actual incidences of cancer-causing mutations were closer to zero.

Dr Guo, who has pioneered research into human naïve embryonic stem cells and is part of the University of Exeter's College of Medicine and Health said: "Our study corrects misinformation in the field and encourages us to continue exploring the potential of naïve stem cells."

Professor Austin Smith co-author of the paper and Director of the Living Systems Institute added: "I am delighted to see Dr Guo launch her team in LSI by publishing these significant results."

###

Dr Guo's research is focussed on mammalian pluripotent stem cells and cell fate transition during early embryo development.

Key research areas in the lab include understanding the developmental plasticity of human naïve stem cells; Modelling early human embryo development ex vivo by reconstruction of embryo structures; and establishing pluripotent stem cells from various mammalian species and elucidation of shared and distinct gene regulatory features.

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council.

RACISM IS AS CANADIAN AS MAPLE SYRUP

Canadian man found guilty of manslaughter in death of Indigenous woman

Brayden Bushby hurled metal trailer hitch that hit Barbara Kentner, 

who later died of complications resulting from trauma

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Mon, December 14, 2020, 

Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

A man who hurled a metal trailer hitch at an Indigenous woman walking along a snowy street in Thunder Bay has been found guilty of manslaughter, in a case widely seen as a grim reminder of the Canadian city’s deadly legacy of racism.

In her ruling Monday afternoon, Justice Helen Pierce found that the actions of Brayden Bushby led to the death of Barbara Kentner, 34, on 29 January 2017.

Five months after she was hit by the hitch, Kentner, the mother of a teenage daughter, died of complications resulting from trauma to her small intestine.


“[Bushby] knew that the hitch was heavy enough to cause damage,” Pierce said in her judgment, adding that he would have been able to foresee that the hitch could cause serious harm.

“This was not a snowball,” she said.

Kentner and her sister Melissa, both from Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, were walking along a residential street around 1am when a vehicle with four people inside sped past.

Bushby, who was in the front passenger seat, admits that he hurled the trailer hitch, striking Kentner in the abdomen, and causing her to drop to her knees in pain.

His friends told the court Bushby, then 18, was drunk – and that he laughed after the incident. Melissa Kentner told the court she heard one of the vehicle’s occupants shout “I got one” after the hitch struck Barbara.

The force of the blow ruptured Kentner’s small intestine, and doctors carried out emergency surgery to repair the tear.

Less than two weeks later, however, she was readmitted to hospital with stomach pains. Doctors diagnosed her with end-stage liver disease and discharged her at the end of March. Kentner died in palliative care on 4 July 2017

“Although she was a very sick woman and she would have died from her liver disease, she would not have died when she did had she not been injured,” pathologist Dr Toby Rose told the court by Zoom. Her post-mortem analysis concluded that Kentner died of bronchopneumonia and acute chronic peritonitis.

During the four-day trial, the defence said it was impossible to claim with certainty that the assault led to Kentner’s death, pointing to her pre-existing health conditions. The defence also denied that the assault was racially motivated – an argument that for many felt at odds with the grim legacy of the city’s history.

For years, Thunder Bay has been known as the hate crime capital of Canada, a designation it only recently gave away.

Two independent reports in 2019 found widespread evidence of systemic racism within Thunder Bay’s force.

One found that systemic racism exists within the city’s police service “at an institutional level” and that officers failed to properly investigate homicides or protect Indigenous peoples from hate crimes.

Related: Mysterious deaths highlight troubling lengths First Nations youth must go for an education

A separate report found that the city’s police had “failed to recognize and address systemic discrimination against the Indigenous community”.

Thunder Bay’s police chief announced last year that the force would reopen investigations into the deaths of at least nine Indigenous people after significant flaws were found in their original investigations.

Even the handling of high-profile prosecution of Bushby troubled many in the city.

He was first charged with second-degree murder, but jury trials in Ontario have been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Crown agreed to try him on manslaughter charges, thereby avoiding the need for a jury.

“We see this time and time again where violence against Indigenous people is not given the same level of care and attention in the Canadian justice system,” said Francis Kavanaugh, who represents 24 First Nations in the region, adding that he found it “difficult” to believe there wasn’t a “racial component” to the decision .

Manslaughter convictions in Canada carry no minimum sentence, and a maximum of life in prison.

Bushby’s sentencing hearing begins 9 February. Family and community impact statements are expected to be submitted and read during the hearing.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M RELIGIOUS FAKIR
Jerry Falwell Jr. spent heavily on Trump, GOP causes with funds from nonprofit Liberty University

Peter Weber
Mon, December 14, 2020


Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as president of Liberty University in August after a series of scandals involving sexual indiscretions and questionable use of university funds on friends and family, but Liberty's board is still split on the partisan direction Falwell steered the private evangelical Christian school founded by his father, Jerry Falwell Sr.

Especially divisive, Politico reports, is the question of whether Liberty should continue funding the Falkirk Center, a conservative "think tank" named after Falwell and GOP activist Charlie Kirk that "has produced no peer-reviewed academic work and bears little relation to study centers at other universities," but did run "pro-Trump ads, hired Trump allies including former adviser Sebastian Gorka and current Trump attorney Jenna Ellis to serve as fellows, and, in recent weeks, has aggressively promoted [President] Trump's baseless claims of election fraud."

As a 501c(3) nonprofit, Liberty University is technically barred from supporting political candidates and spending money on political campaigns. But the Falkirk Center, founded in 2019, "purchased campaign-season ads on Facebook, at least $50,000's worth of which were designated by the network as political ads, that promoted Trump and other Republican candidates by name," Politico reports. And more generally, since endorsing Trump for president in 2016, Falwell has "pumped millions of the nonprofit religious institution's funds into Republican causes and efforts to promote the Trump administration, blurring the lines between education and politics."


Last July, for example, the Falkirk Center held a two-day summit on China policy at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., featuring a host of GOP officials and Trump allies but no Democratic speakers, Politico reports. Numerous evangelical groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars holding events at Trump's Washington hotel, where "prominent evangelical ministers were given VIP status," The New York Times reported in October. But Liberty University also has an academic mission, and slashed its humanities programs even as it poured millions into GOP organizations.

"The Falkirk Center, to me, represents everything that was wrong with Liberty when Jerry was there," Karen Swallow Prior, a professor at Liberty for 21 years who left at the end of last school year, told Politico. "It's brazenly partisan." University spokesman Scott Lamb said the donations to GOP organizations "are consistent with the mission and focus of Liberty University as an evangelical Christian university," and went toward "nonpartisan" activities like voter registration.

Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh fear their medieval churches will be destroyed


Christina Maranci, Professor and Department Chair, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture, Tufts University
Tue, December 15, 2020, 6:19 AM MST

The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was damaged earlier this year during fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

A six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in the South Caucasus, ended on Nov. 9 after Russia brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Under the deal, several ethnically Armenian provinces in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh, were surrendered to Azerbaijan in November and December.

This is the latest chapter in a conflict that dates back at least a century. In 1921, the Soviet Union declared Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan despite its ethnic Armenian majority. Since that time, the territory has been the site of massive demonstrations, failed international agreements and a brutal war from 1992 to 1994.


The human tragedy has been devastating. In the 2020 fighting alone, over 5,000 soldiers died and more than 100,000 people were displaced. Though the war is over, the rich architectural heritage of the region is still at risk.

Heritage organizations worry that the numerous historic Armenian churches, monasteries and tombstones of the region may face damage or destruction now that they are out of Armenian hands.
Damage to historic churches

The war had already damaged many Armenian monuments. In the fall, Azerbaijani offensives shelled the ancient city of Tigranakert, founded in the first century B.C. by the Armenian king Tigranes the Great.

It also damaged the historic Holy Saviour “Ghazanchetsots” Cathedral in Shusha, one of the largest Armenian cathedrals in the world. Shusha, called Shushi by Armenians, is Karabakh’s cultural capital.

After Azerbaijani soldiers took control of the city, online images showed its 19th-century Armenian cathedral defaced with graffiti. Another 19th-century church nearby, known as the Kanach Zham and dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, also appears to be damaged.

The Armenian monuments of Nagorno-Karabakh form part of the broader architectural tradition of Armenian art and architecture which I study. For over 20 years, I have conducted research and fieldwork in historical regions of Armenia, including Nagorno-Karabakh.

The roof of the 19th-century Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha was partially destroyed by Azerbaijani shelling in October 2020. Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Medieval heritage

Nagorno-Karabakh forms a remarkable chapter in Armenian art history because of its antiquity and its visual and religious distinctiveness.

The Monastery of Amaras, in the southeast, was founded in the fourth century, when Armenia became the first country to make Christianity its national religion.

It is the burial place of Saint Grigoris, grandson of Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint and evangelizer of Armenia. It is also the site of the first school to use the Armenian script.

The walled complex houses a large basilica. Underneath it lies Grigoris’ fifth-century tomb – one of the oldest surviving Armenian Christian burial structures.

Recent archaeological excavations show that this tomb could be entered from the east – quite unusual in traditional church architecture. Scholars link the layout to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the place both of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus.

Many other churches in Nagorno-Karabakh date later, from the 13th to 18th centuries, and incorporate carved cross-stones called khachkars into their walls. Khachkars often feature inscriptions written in Armenian that record the donor’s name and family members.

A cross-stone, or khachkar, is built into a church wall in the Armenian village of Sotk. Alexander Ryumin\TASS via Getty Images

In a church in Takyaghaya, the entrance is a beautiful patchwork of khachkars of various sizes and shapes. To the south, near Handaberd, a khachkar that likely dates to the 12th or 13th century is carved with a rare image of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the Christ Child.

Meanwhile, the church of Tzitzernavank, in the west, is an extraordinary example of an intact early Christian basilica. It dates from the fifth or sixth century. An upper-level gallery above its sanctuary is an unusual design in church architecture. It is not clear why worshipers would be permitted to stand above the holiest area of the church.

Tzitzernavank also offers evidence of continued Armenian presence through the early modern period. An inscription on the church from before the 10th century asks Christ to “Remember the prayers of your servant, the undeserving Grigor, for his beloved brother Azat.” Another, from 1613, states that “By the will of God … the fortress wall was repaired by the hand of Prince Haikaz…”

Bearing the names of parents, children and other individuals, these inscriptions – and the monuments on which they appear – form a veritable history book of the region.
Rich past, but uncertain future

Nagorno-Karabakh is home to multiple architectural traditions. There are prehistoric caves and petroglyphs, or rock carvings, as well as medieval and modern Islamic tombs and mosques, and bridges, fortresses and palaces. They reflect the layered and diverse communities of the region.

But heritage organizations, museums, scholars, journalists and church leaders are most concerned about the fate of the vast number of Armenian Christian monuments which represent the indigenous Armenian populations – and which may suffer for precisely that reason.

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Scholars worry the monuments could face the same fate as the Armenian sites located in the nearby Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, where soldiers demolished thousands of khachkars between 1997 and 2007.

I believe digital documentation of the Armenian monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh is crucial to record their condition in the immediate aftermath of war. If destroyed, they are gone forever, which scholars like me believe would be a tragic impoverishment of world heritage.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Christina Maranci, Tufts University.

Read more:

Genocide claims in Nagorno-Karabakh make peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan unlikely, despite cease-fire


The condemnation of memory: what’s behind the destruction of World Heritage sites

Christina Maranci does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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Indian farm widows join protests against agriculture reforms

Protest against the farm bills on outskirts of Delhi


Devjyot Ghoshal
Wed, December 16, 2020

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hundreds of Indian women, including many widows of farmers who were believed to have killed themselves over debt, joined a protest on Wednesday against government reforms that farmers say threaten their livelihoods.

Farmers have been protesting for nearly a month over the reforms, enacted in September, to deregulate the agriculture sector, allowing farmers to sell to buyers beyond government-regulated wholesale markets.


Small farmers fear the changes will mean the end of guaranteed minimum prices for their crops and leave them at the mercy of big retailers.

"If these black laws come, more farmers will go deeper into debt," said 40-year-old Harshdeep Kaur, a widow from Punjab state, at one protest site on the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi.

"More mothers and sisters will become widows like me."

Suicide by struggling farmers has been a problem in India for years.

Nearly 10,350 farmers and agricultural labourers committed suicide in 2018 - making up almost 8% of all suicides in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Kaur said her husband committed suicide three years ago after running up debts of 500,000 rupees (nearly $7,000). As she spoke, she held a passport sized photo of him.

The reforms, contained in three laws, loosen rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to assure farmers the changes will bring them new opportunities but few have been convinced. Several rounds of talks between farm union leaders and the government have failed.

"We'll keep protesting," said Gurbax Singh, a farmer union leader at a north Delhi protest site.

The farmers have gathered at various sites around the capital since late last month, blocking traffic and clashing with police, at least in the early days of their action.

Singh said dozens of buses, tractors and cars were being arranged to bring more women from Punjab – the epicentre of the agitation.

The protesters occupied several kilometres of a busy main road in western Delhi with their tractors on Wednesday.

At a nearby protest site, old farmers lounged in ramshackle shelters beside medical stalls and makeshift kitchens.

Kaur said she and other women were prepared to protest until the laws were repealed.

"More women will come," she said.

(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal in New Delhi; Writing by Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Hunger strike hits India's mass farmer protests

Mon, December 14, 2020, 

Leaders of the massive protests by farmers that have swept India began a one-day hunger strike on Monday (December 14).

They've been demonstrating for weeks against agricultural reforms that they say threaten their livelihoods.

The demonstrations are increasing pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to withdraw the legislation.

"We want to give this message to the government, that the one who feeds the country sits hungry because of your wrong policies."

The legislation would deregulate agriculture in India, and allow farmers to sell produce to buyers beyond government-regulated wholesale markets - where growers are assured a minimum price.

Small growers fear that the changes will mean the end of price support for staples, like wheat and rice - leaving them at the mercy of big business.

The changes are part of Modi's liberalizing reforms.

He has sought to allay concerns, telling farmers they will gain new rights and opportunities.

But six rounds of talks between government officials and farmers' union leaders have failed to resolve the issue.
Video Transcript

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

- Leaders of the massive protests by farmers that have swept India began a one day hunger strike on Monday. They've been demonstrating for weeks against agricultural reforms that they say threaten their livelihoods. The demonstrations are increasing pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to withdraw the legislation.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

TRANSLATOR: We want to give this message to the government that the one who feeds the country sits hungry because of your wrong policies.

- The legislation would deregulate agriculture in India and allow farmers to sell produce to buyers beyond government regulated wholesale markets, where growers are assured a minimum price. Small growers fear that the changes will mean the end of price supports for staples like wheat and rice, leaving them at the mercy of big business.

The changes are part of Modi's liberalizing reforms. He has sought to allay concerns, telling farmers they will gain new rights and opportunities. But six rounds of talks between government officials and farmers' union leaders have failed to resolve the issue.

A farmer from India's Madhya Pradesh became rich overnight after finding a 14.98 carat diamond 

Samaan Lateef

Tue, December 15, 2020

Lakhan Yadav wants to spend the money on educating his children

A farmer from a rural part of India's Madhya Pradesh became rich overnight after finding a 14.98 carat diamond in his leased land.

Lakhan Yadav, 45, of Krishna-Kalyanpur village in Madhya Pradesh sold the diamond for £61,330 at auction on Tuesday. Mr Yadav found the diamond in his land nearly 20 km away from his village.

“It’s sheer luck. You get it once in life. Everybody doesn’t get it,” Mr Yadav told Daily Telegraph.

Mr Yadav found the fortune in the 625 square feet of land that he had taken on lease from the government.

The farmer owns two hectares bought with the compensation money, two buffaloes, and now a motorcycle that he bought with the first payment he was given after depositing the diamond with the district administrion.

During the nationwide Covid lockdown his school-aged children would tend to the buffaloes at home and he went to dig land.

Mr Yadav, who is illiterate, now wants to spend the money to educate his children.

“With this money, anything is possible. I will build a new house and spend money on the education of my children,” he said.

Mr Yadav said he would put the rest of his money into a bank account so that he can live on the interest from it in his old age.

“I am not capable of investing this money because I am illiterate. I want my children to study well and then spend the money wisely,” he said.

However, striking it lucky once was not enough and Mr Yadav wants to continue his search for more diamonds.

“A person is never satisfied with money and life. No one wants an end to his life and no one wants that he should not get more money,” he said.

Madhya Pradesh is richly endowed with mineral wealth. It is the sole producer of diamond in India.

Canada pledges C$485 million in COVID-19

 aid for other nations

Canada's Minister of International Development Gould speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

By Reuters Staff
Mon, December 14, 2020

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada will spend C$485 million ($380 million) to support COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, including antibody treatments, International Aid Minister Karina Gould said in a statement on Monday.

The funds will make it possible for the United Nations children's agency UNICEF buy up to 3 million courses of antibody treatments, pending approval.

Two such treatments have been authorized for emergency use in the United States: one from Eli Lilly and AbCellera and another from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

"This virus will not be fully eradicated until it's eradicated everywhere," the government said in the statement.

Funds will go to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, an initiative that was launched by the World Health Organization and its partners, as well as to other global health organizations.

The Canadian government's announcement includes C$100 million for the WHO, C$45 million for the Pan-American Health Organization and C$75 million to the GAVI vaccine group, partly to fund "a mechanism to equitably reallocate vaccine doses."

Canada is preparing to administer its first doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.

The country has reserved enough COVID-19 doses to vaccinate its population several times over, if several leading vaccine projects succeed.

Huge purchases by rich nations have reduced the pool of doses available to countries that do not have such deep pockets, and to GAVI's COVAX facility, a group purchasing system meant to distribute doses equitably to most countries in the world.

Reuters, citing sources, reported in November that Canada was in talks to donate excess doses through COVAX. Canada has not yet made a public commitment to donate, or said what would be considered excess.

The funds should be allocated within weeks, a spokesman for Gould said.

Statement by UNICEF Canada's President and CEO David Morley on Canada's additional support for equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines

TORONTO, Dec. 14, 2020 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada today showed significant leadership in the world's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a welcome new commitment for COVID-19 tests, treatment and vaccines. This includes support for UNICEF to procure up to 3 million courses of novel COVID-19 antibody therapeutics as soon as clinical trials and regulatory approvals have been completed.

Nurse Lillian Nimaya, 45, fills a syringe with a vaccine at Nyakuron Primary Health Care Centre in Juba, South Sudan. (CNW Group/Canadian Unicef Committee)

UNICEF Canada welcomes the Government of Canada's new contributions to fight the global pandemic, and the critical support this will provide to over-burdened health systems in many developing countries. In the poorest areas of the world, COVID-19 is stretching capacity to respond to other major health concerns that threaten children's survival, including routine immunization and treatment of malnutrition.

Building on years of experience in providing vaccines for almost half of the world's children, UNICEF is leading efforts to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines for 171 countries on behalf of the COVAX Facility. In 2021, UNICEF will deliver 2 billion vaccines, 245 million therapeutics and 500 million tests to low and middle-income countries in a safe and equitable way.

UNICEF is also working to support countries to 'ready' their immunization programs for this historic roll-out. This includes helping countries to strengthen their cold and supply chains, training health workers, and working with communities in addressing misinformation and building trust in vaccines and in the health systems that deliver lifesaving vaccines.

UNICEF is proud to contribute to the efforts of the ACT-Accelerator and COVAX Facility. By positioning itself as the second-largest financial supporter of the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, the Government of Canada has demonstrated that Canada understands that the global COVID-19 pandemic can only be defeated through a coordinated global response.

Canada's support to UNICEF and other global partners cooperating on the ACT-Accelerator is helping to ensure that, as vaccines become available, no country is pushed to the back of the line—recognizing that the whole world will remain vulnerable to the virus until countries with the weakest health systems are protected from it as well.

UNICEF Canada applauds Canada's decision to ensure the additional funding for COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccines does not come at the expense of much-needed funding for existing global priorities. With the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacting children's access to life-saving immunization and nutrition, as well as critical services to protect children from violence and ensure their education, Canada's commitment to existing global priorities must remain unwavering.

We look forward to further collaboration with the Government of Canada to provide the training and support to health systems that will protect and potentially save lives of frontline workers in low and middle-income countries and ensure that the children in those countries survive and thrive to fulfil their potential.

At UNICEF Canada, our top priority remains securing life-saving and life-changing investments and services in children. Supporting COVAX will mean helping put an end to a pandemic that creates serious threats to the most vulnerable children around the world.

SOURCE Canadian Unicef Committee