It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
GM QUIT YER WHINING General Motors profits top estimates on limited Q3 strike hit
John BIERS Tue, 24 October 2023
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain appeared with US President Joe Biden last month at a picket in front of a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Michigan (Jim WATSON)
General Motors reported better-than-expected quarterly profits Tuesday behind strong US sales and a limited impact from a labor strike that began late in the quarter.
The big US automaker reported third-quarter profits of $3.1 billion, down seven percent from the year-ago period but better than analyst estimates, as it withdrew its full-year forecast due to uncertainty over the strike, which is nearing its sixth week.
Revenues rose five percent to $44.1 billion, the company said.
"Great vehicles are the foundation, and we have earned leadership in key segments like full-size pickups and full-size SUVs that have consistently strong pricing and margins," said Chief Executive Mary Barra in a letter to investors.
GM notched higher vehicle sales in the United States amid still-strong pricing trends for popular truck and sport utility vehicles, offsetting a drop in sales in China and some other overseas markets.
The United Auto Workers strike, which has also affected fellow Detroit automakers Ford and Stellantis, cost GM $200 million during the quarter.
The stoppage, which was launched September 15 about two weeks before the end of the quarter, has also resulted in a $600 million hit thus far in the fourth quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson.
- Expanded strike -
The strike has been gradually expanded as the UAW seeks to raise pressure on Detroit's "Big Three" in a push to win higher wages and better benefits for auto workers.
GM's dealer inventories actually grew modestly in the third quarter compared with the prior quarter, although the stocks significantly lag those from pre-pandemic levels.
In an interview with CNBC, Jacobson acknowledged that supplies at GM repair shops have "gotten a little bit tighter" after the UAW ordered a stoppage at the company's parts and distribution centers last month.
On Monday, the UAW halted work at a giant Stellantis truck plant in Michigan. The union has threatened to expand the strike at GM if the company does not improve its offer.
Jacobson said the strike results in a $200 million weekly impact based on the operations targeted by the UAW thus far.
"We remain optimistic and hopeful that we'll make progress and get this resolved," Jacobson told reporters in a briefing.
Jacobson acknowledged that the earnings are "strong," but said the union needs to recognize that "there's a lot of uncertainty out there in the future with electric vehicle adoption and with the economy."
"We can't get ourselves into a situation of signing a deal that we can't afford to pay or that doesn't allow us to compete in the global marketplace."
In her letter to investors, Barra defended the company's current offer to the UAW, reiterating the proposal of roughly $84,000 a year for the majority of the hourly workforce constitutes a "record" contract.
GM said earlier this month it was delaying the conversion of the Orion EV truck plant in Michigan to late 2025 instead of next year due to slowing demand growth in EVs.
Jacobson said the deferred timetable would save GM "at least" $1.5 billion in capital in 2024.
Shares of GM rose 1.6 percent in pre-market trading.
jmb/st
Ukraine's Stolen Children, review: an unsettling glimpse into Russia's alleged mass abduction
Anita Singh Mon, 23 October 2023 14-year-old Danii with his mother Alla in Kherson, Ukraine - ITV
With the focus now on Israel and Gaza, Ukraine has fallen down the news agenda. Perhaps that is why ITV1 chose not to promote Ukraine’s Stolen Children from the 10.45pm slot reserved for its Exposure strand. The documentary felt a little rough and ready, with the air of an extended news item. But it told an important story about children taken from Ukraine by the Russian authorities, and the efforts of their relatives to bring them home.
According to Shahida Tulaganova’s film, this is a tale of alleged “abduction and indoctrination”. Some of the children, for example, were taken to Russian “holiday camps” as respite from the conflict. One boy, Kostya, pleaded to be allowed to go, because it sounded exciting. The children thought they’d be staying for a couple of weeks. But when that date passed, they were told that they would not be going home. It was “not safe” to return. Desperate parents tried and failed to get in contact.
According to some of the children interviewed here, they were soon moved to a prison-like environment, where they were required to speak Russian and sing patriotic Russian songs. Anything connected to Ukraine was forbidden. The months dragged on. “They said Santa would arrive by boat,” one girl recalled. “The next day we woke up at six and started looking for our presents. We checked every room… they said Santa didn’t make it.”
Some parents managed to get their children back with the aid of a charity, Save Ukraine. The cameras followed one of these journeys. But a woman who attempted to reach her 17-year-old godson was turned back. That boy, Denis, now appears in Russian propaganda videos talking about “our President” Putin. In calls home, he spoke of being well-fed and clothed, and being given a voucher to buy a property. The programme alleged that Russia wants to keep boys of Denis’s age so that they can be drafted at 18.
Into the film came Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s children’s commissioner and a woman who could have come straight from Roald Dahl’s The Witches. She granted Tulaganova an interview and smoothly batted away all of the allegations about children being indoctrinated. Russia is doing “all we can” to reunite children with their families. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to “demonise” Russia.
Lvova-Belova has many foster children, including a Ukrainian teenager from Russian-occupied Mariupol. His mother died when he was young, he didn’t know his father, and he had been raised in care. “Maria, my beloved mother, she’s the person I’ve been missing my whole life,” he said, eyes shining. His appearance, under the watchful eye of Lvova-Belova’s press officer, was unsettling.
RIP Massive Attack confirm death of guitarist Angelo Bruschini
Ellie Iorizzo, PA Tue, 24 October 2023
British band Massive Attack said they were “devastated” to announce the death of guitarist Angelo Bruschini.
It comes after the Bristol-born musician confirmed in a social media post in July that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and that several specialists had wished him “good luck” in battling the condition.
On Tuesday, an official X account (formerly Twitter) for Massive Attack confirmed the death of Bruschini in a statement that read: “A singularly brilliant and eccentric talent.
“Impossible to quantify your contribution to the Massive Attack canon.
“How lucky we were to share such a life together.”
Sharing the same black and white image of the guitarist on Instagram, the band added that they were “devastated” over the loss.
The trip hop band was formed in the 1980s and secured two number one albums in the UK with Mezzanine and 100th Window, as well as winning a Brit award in 1996 for best British dance act and outstanding contribution to British music prize at the Ivor Novello Awards in 2009.
In July this year, Bruschini wrote a post on Facebook updating fans about his cancer diagnosis.
He wrote: “Twice now I have been told ‘Good luck’ by specialists at the hospital over lung cancer, I think I’m f***ed!
“Had a great life, seen the world many many times, met lots of wonderful people, but the door is closing, think I will write a book.”
Last of the ‘gentlemen gangsters’ Dave Courtney bows out
Louisa Clarence-Smith Mon, 23 October 2023 Dave Courtney started a security firm and gained notoriety for organising the security for the 1995 funeral of Ronnie Kray - ITV/Shutterstock
Friends mourning the death of the notorious gangster Dave Courtney remember him as a “gentleman”, but he was never far from a weapon.
At a digital clay pigeon shooting bar in the City of London where I was celebrating a friend’s birthday last year, he offered advice to fellow participants on how to hold a gun.
Impressed by a female friend’s attempts, he cheered: “Go on gel, you could be a gangster.”
Ticking off an instructor for his shooting poise, he grabbed the gun and wielded it like a sawn-off tool of gangland murder.
Mr Courtney, 64, was found dead by his best friend Brendan McGirr, 56, in bed on Sunday morning.
Police are investigating his death, but friends said they believe Mr Courtney took his own life.
When I met him unexpectedly last year he appeared to be enjoying life running a film-prop company, supporting his football club Charlton and gallivanting as a reformed celebrity gangster.
However, he was famous for his earlier life as a gangster with associates including the ruthless Kray twins behind the 1960s East End criminal empire. Friends said Mr Courtney was capable of knocking people out with one punch with a knuckle duster - Alex Woods/Shutterstock
Thousands of tributes have poured in to friends and family of the larger-than-life character, who is rumoured to be the inspiration behind Vinnie Jones’s character in Guy Ritchie’s gangster film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Mr Courtney was born in Forest Hill, south east London, friends said. His mother, who is still alive, was a cub scout leader and his late father was a gas fitter.
He started a security firm and gained notoriety for organising the security for the 1995 funeral of Ronnie Kray. He also worked as a “debt collector”, said Mr McGirr.
Friends said that the Kray funeral effectively marked an end to his security firm because he became known to the police who told companies not to work with him.
He later reinvented himself in the entertainment industry. He starred in a film called Hell to Pay, published six books and starred in podcasts.
Mr Courtney had a reputation for repeatedly evading the law, claiming to have been found not guilty in 19 separate trials.
He has previously told journalists that he killed people, but was never convicted of murder. He spent time in jail, including at Belmarsh. Friends said he was on remand for assault for which he was later found innocent. From painters to porn stars
Mr Courtney called his own gang “The Firm” and friends said loyal fans ranged from painters and plumbers to porn stars. Always by his side in recent years was Mr McGirr, his flatmate and business partner.
Mr McGirr said of his death: “I opened his bedroom door and he was slumped on the bed. But he looked at peace. He looked happy.”
He added: “I’ve lived in that world a long time. So you know, I’ve seen dead people before and I’ve seen people… so it wasn’t the shock that a normal person will probably feel.
“It was a relief for me to see someone I love at peace, because I’d seen him in so much pain for a long, long time. And I just kissed him and said thank you, and I’m eternally grateful. He has left me just so many good memories and so much love.”
Mr McGirr said: “He was the last era of gentleman gangsters.
“Like pirates, cowboys, knights in shining armour, they don’t exist anymore. They’re all now fictitious figures. That gangster world doesn’t exist anymore. The new gangsters are modern-day drug dealers. Drugs have changed the whole criminal era to a very ruthless, violent way of life.”
Another mourning friend of Mr Courtney, who didn’t want to be named, said: “Gangsters respect women, they respect elderly people, and they respect communities. The young ‘uns of today don’t. They don’t respect anyone.”
Friends said that while Mr Courtney diversified his career long ago, he never gave up his knuckle duster. ‘Lovable rogue’
“He was a lovable rogue,” Mr McGirr said. “A very crafty character. But he was always, on the day, if he had to be violent, if you want to use that term – if he had to apply violence to protect his own, or to do justice, he was exceptionally good at it.”
He said he was capable of knocking people out with one punch with a knuckle duster.
“He was still doing that up to about four months ago”, knocking out a young man who was “being rude and cheeky” at a bare-knuckle boxing show.
Mr McGirr said that his friends believed he “only ever used a fair amount of violence for what was needed at the time”.
“He wasn’t a bully,” he said. “He would bend over backwards to be exceptionally nice to everyone.” All the people he harmed had “antagonised him” and “left him no option but to make that decision”, he said.
Bunches of flowers were piled up outside Mr Courtney’s home on Monday afternoon, where police have taped off the premises.
Mr Courtney leaves behind five children. In a statement on Monday, his family said: “On October 22 Dave made the decision to ‘stop the ride’.
“He had lived an incredible, colourful rock-‘n’-roll life in which he touched the hearts of so many.
“The physical pain of living the lifestyle he chose, especially due to the pain of both cancer and arthritis in his later years, became too much.
“So, rather than be a burden to his family and friends, he chose to ‘stop the ride’ and take his way out.”
George Marwick, entrepreneur who brought modern farming to Orkney and led the islands’ 1970s oil negotiations – obituary
Telegraph Obituaries Mon, 23 October 2023 George Marwick, departing Lord-Lieutenant of Orkney, being made Commander of the Victorian Order by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 - Alamy
George Marwick, who has died aged 91, was a progressive farmer whose cheese, made on his family farm on the wind-battered northwesterly tip of the Orkney mainland and on the remote Kintyre Peninsula, fetched high prices, and was sold at Harrods; in the 1970s, as the first ever Convener of the newly instituted Orkney Island Council, he skilfully led negotiations with oil companies to get Orkney a good deal, resulting in the strategic Oil Reserve Fund, which is now worth over £200m.
He was born on February 27 1932, a scion of Orkney’s notable Marwick family; his relatives included the archaeologist Dr Hugh Marwick and the folklorist Ernest Walker Marwick, who anthologised Orkney verse. His father Robert Marwick was a civil engineer in charge of the construction of several wartime aerodromes, including Wick, and was later a director of George Wimpey Ltd; his mother Agnes (née Robson) was from Northumberland.
After graduating from Edinburgh School of Agriculture in 1953, George Marwick returned to manage the family farm of Swannay at Birsay. Hitherto cows on Orkney had been fed with neeps (turnips) and hay (which was difficult to make in the rainy climate); Marwick’s innovation was to use silage, which was a better option in Orkney’s damp and temperate conditions (typically 15C during the summer, with an annual rainfall of around 1 metre).
Growing better grass became his metier. He believed that only good grass would produce good milk, which in turn was essential for good cheese. He introduced chemical fertilisers, such as nitrogen, before his neighbours, who thought him iconoclastic, but soon he was able to sell Swannay Farm cheese at a premium.
By 2001, when the capital expenditure required by stricter EU regulations forced its closure, Swannay was making 280 tonnes of Cheddar annually, drawing on herd of 400 dairy cows, across 870 acres, and also buying in 900,000 litres of milk each year from the Orkney dairy farmers’ cooperative.
The cliffs of the Brough of Birsay, on the mainland of Orkney - Alamy
In 1968, he was asked by a couple of his farming neighbours to stand for Orkney County Council. He served for 10 years and, in 1975, became the first Convener of Orkney Island Council after Scottish local government reforms of the early 1970s.
The greatest challenge of his term as Convener was dealing with new opportunities presented by North Sea oil. His positive attitude – “If it is good for Orkney we should grasp it with both hands” – and entrepreneurial credentials made him the ideal figure to lead negotiations with the oil men.
The many well-paid jobs created at Occidental’s Flotta Oil Terminal and in OIC’s new Department of Harbours were a direct result of Orkney’s well-managed welcome to the oil industry under Marwick’s leadership. Most importantly, the oil money became the Oil Reserve Fund, now standing at about £200 million, which has cushioned for Orkney the recent Scottish Government funding cuts to local authorities.
In the mid-1970s, Marwick and Rupert Cooper took over and revamped the ailing Campbelltown Creamery, thus ensuring the continued viability of many dairy farms in the Kintyre Peninsula. Here they also produced high-quality cheese to complement that made at Swannay, and which was sold at a premium in the best outlets, including Harrods. George Marwick in 2007
He was also a Director of North Eastern Farmers, Orkney Islands Shipping Company and Chairman of the North of Scotland Water Board, a member of the Countryside Commission for Scotland and of the Council of the National Trust for Scotland, an Honorary Sheriff in Kirkwall Sheriff Court and a Justice of the Peace.
Marwick was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Orkney in 1976, Vice Lord-Lieutenant in 1995 and Lord-Lieutenant from 1997 to 2007. He said one of the most satisfying aspects of being Lord-Lieutenant was the ex-officio appointment as Chairman of The Society of The Friends of St Magnus Cathedral, which helps keep up the impressive medieval St Magnus Cathedral, which is – unusually – not owned by the Church, but was bestowed upon the people of Kirkwall by James III of Scotland in 1486. George Marwick was appointed CVO in 2007.
He was the first President of Orkney Rugby Football Club in 1966, and enjoyed motorsport and rough shooting.
George Marwick married, first, in 1958 Copenhagen-born Hanne Jensen, and they had three daughters, one of whom, Kareen, represented Britain in the rowing team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The marriage was dissolved in 1989 and he married, secondly, Norma Gerrard (née Helm) in 1990. He is survived by his second wife and three daughters from his first marriage.
George Marwick, born February 27 1932, died September 1 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon and Hollywood’s ‘red face’ shame
Tom Fordy Tue, 24 October 2023
Marilyn Monroe with extras on the set of her 1954 film River Of No Return - Moviepix
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon may have racked up five-star reviews across the board, but not everyone has been enthusiastic.
The film tells the story of the Osage Indian murders in 1920s Oklahoma. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, who – along with his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro) – conspires to poison Burkhart’s Native American wife, Mollie (Lily Gladstone), in a plot to seize Osage oil land headrights.
Christopher Cote, an Osage language consultant for Scorsese, attended the premiere and told The Hollywood Reporter he had “some strong opinions” about the finished film. “As an Osage, I really wanted this to be from the perspective of Mollie and what her family experienced,” said Cote, “but I think it would take an Osage to do that.”
The criticism comes despite efforts from Scorsese to not make this story about white people. Scorsese had dinners and meetings with members of the Osage Nation and – based on these meetings – decided to change the perspective of the script, to steer it away from a white saviour narrative about law enforcement investigating the case.
Scorsese worked with Osage Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, and local Osage people were also employed in behind-the-scenes and consultant roles. “But no Native American is credited as being involved in the movie’s screenwriting, production or directing creative processes,” wrote Angela Aleiss, a film historian and author of several books on Native Americans in films. “This is an ongoing problem.”
Native Americans and Hollywood have a long history together. Depictions of Indians go back to some of the very first moving pictures. Angela Aleiss explains that film representations of Native people have gone through cycles – from noble savage to savage warrior, from hostile to sympathetic portrayals. More positive portrayals – as well as significant contributions from Native American filmmakers and actors – have been lost to time, since overshadowed by the more popular, negative stereotype: untamed Indians in headdresses, firing arrows at cowboys and talking in what Indigenous Canadian critic Jesse Wente called “Tonto speak”.
Over the years, Native American actors have had to go along with it. Navajo actor and filmmaker Brian Young wrote about the issue for Time Magazine. He vowed to never wear war paint and feathers again. “At some point, every Native American actor comes to a career crossroads and has to answer the question: do I participate in stereotyping or maintain my cultural integrity?” That’s if Native American actors are cast at all. Hollywood has a history of casting white actors as Indians – playing “red face”. Higher status “Indian chief” roles have gone to non-Native actors, while Native actors make up the background (not to mention lower paid) roles.
As recently as 2013 there was controversy over Johnny Depp playing Tonto in the Disney reboot of The Lone Ranger – then Rooney Mara playing Tiger Lily in 2015’s Pan. The problem, perhaps, is that movies – including Killers of the Flower Moon – are made through white eyes. Hanay Geiogamah – a Native American playwright, producer, and UCLA professor – agrees. “It’s not that complicated,” he says. “The only way to tell the American Indian’s story is for American Indians to write it.”
Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in The Lone Ranger - Peter Mountain
Westerns – and Native Americans – became popular in the early days of silent cinema. By the time of the silent Westerns, Native people had been herded into reservations. “This part of American history, of course, was really still ongoing at the time cinema was really being born,” said Jesse Wente in the 2009 documentary, Reel Injun.
As noted by Angela Aleiss, early film studios pumped out one or two-reel pictures at a rate of around 12 to 15 per month (a reel amounted to around 10 minutes). Portrayals of Native people – sometimes sympathetic and romantic – were inspired by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West vaudeville show, dime novels, and classic literature, such as James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. “The silent films were a mixed bag,” says Aleiss. “You had the savage warrior, the noble Indian, the ‘half-breed’. Then you had movies that very much said Indians were loyal.”
Director DW Griffith – best known for the landmark, KKK-glorifying epic, The Birth of a Nation – made 30 Indian-themed films. Thomas H. Ince – a pioneering producer dubbed “the father of the Western” – moved families of Oglala Sioux to his mountainside production village in Santa Monica.
Hollywood’s first Native American filmmaker was James Young Deer, who managed the West Coast base of Pathé Frères. He oversaw production of over 150 silent one-reel Westerns and enjoyed significant creative freedom. His films were quirky satires that subverted the already-traditional Western stories. Young Deer was also embroiled in Hollywood’s first sex scandal. In 1913, he was accused of introducing an actress into a sex-trafficking ring and then the rape of a 15-year-old. He fled to England but returned to the US, by which time his accusers were long gone. His career never fully recovered, though he did make the first film about the Osage murders – Tragedies of the Osage Hills. The film premiered in May 1926, just four months after the arrests of the men portrayed by De Niro and DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon.
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter and Beulah Archuletta in The Searchers - Getty
By the early 1930s, Westerns fell out of favour and were reduced to B-movie status – formulaic, churned-out films that often starred John Wayne. The Hollywood Indian became a stereotyped savage – all war bonnets, teepees, and Tonto speak. These films would later fill up TV schedules, cementing negative stereotypes. “In the 1960s, those B-movies were sold to TV,” says Aleiss. “People saw this very superficial thing of cowboys and Indians. There’s so much more out there that wasn’t sold to TV.” Indeed, there were films about the Native American experience – such as The Silent Enemy and Laughing Boy – but they flopped. “The problem is, people didn’t want to see it,” says Aleiss. “They didn’t line up.”
In 1936, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Plainsman reinvigorated the Western, followed by the John Ford-directed Stagecoach. In that film, John Wayne and a rabble of white folk journey to New Mexico – under the threat of attack from Geronimo and his bloodthirsty Apache warriors. “Stagecoach is the iconic Western,” said Jesse Wente in Reel Injun. “It’s the Western that all others were really modelled after and it’s one of the most damaging movies of Native people in history. You have white society inside the stagecoach and they are besieged – and on all sides – by Native people. By the wild of America.”
Even now, the stereotypes of those Westerns hold firm. Hanay Geiogamah describes being “instantly exotified” as a Native American. “There’s almost no way you can respond to it,” he says. One age-old stereotype seen in movies is the “drunken Indian”. “Even somebody like myself would be suspected of being a drunken Indian behind the scenes,” says Geiogamah. “Or I have a herd of horses in my backyard that I jump on, or I have a big tepee and prefer to sit in that than my house. All of that is so firmly rooted in the non-Indian mind. I don’t think non-Indian people employ this thinking in a mean, negative way. I think it’s just there.”
Dewey Martin and Elizabeth Threatt in the 1952 film The Big Sky - Getty
During the Second World War, onscreen relations between white Americans and Native people softened. “Studios didn’t want to send movies abroad where white people are shooting down Indians,” says Aleiss. “We were supposed to be fighting fascists and genocide.” Aleiss points to 1941’s They Died with Their Boots On, a history-bending biopic of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer (Errol Flynn), leading to his death at the Battle of Little Bighorn. “What happens to Custer is they modify him,” says Aleiss. “He becomes a friend and ally to Crazy Horse [the infamous Lakota who fought against Custer’s cavalry at Little Bighorn]. Custer even calls Crazy Horse his brother.”
In the film, Crazy Horse is played by Anthony Quinn, an American actor of Mexican-Irish descent. Many non-Indian actors took Native roles – standard practice in Hollywood. The likes of Burt Lancaster, Elvis, Rock Hudson, Burt Reynolds, Boris Karloff, Chuck Connors, Audrey Hepburn, Debra Paget, and Charles Bronson all played Native Americans. “The reason they give Indians is because, ‘Y’all don’t know how to act,’” says Geiogamah. “That’s just absolutely not true. There are some really good Indian actors. I know, I’ve worked with them in the theatre! But there’s still that perception built into the system.”
The issue of authenticity goes back to the early days of cinema. As noted in Aleiss’s 2005 book, Making the White Man’s Indian, trade magazine Moving Picture World praised a film in 1910 for using real Native actors. “The public is no longer satisfied with white men who attempt to represent Indian life,” wrote the magazine. “The actors must be real Indians.” The following year, a delegation of Chippewa people protested against “a false representation of Indian life” in a film called The Curse of the Red Man.
The actor known as Iron Eyes Cody - who was actually Italian - with Roy Rogers - Reuters
In 1936, the actor, author, and activist Luther Standing Bear started the Indian Actors Association in response to non-Native actors being cast in Indian roles. Members slated Indian stereotypes who “talk and grunt like morons” and demanded equal pay. Non-Indian extras were paid almost double what the actual Indian actors were paid. And roles were few and far between (which Brian Young was still saying in 2015).
Native American athlete Jim Thorpe – the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the US, in fact – became a film bit-player and spoke out against casting non-Indian actors. “There are only a few pictures each year that we can work in and when they use white men it just means we can’t make a living,” he said. The decidedly white Burt Lancaster would play Thorpe in a 1951 film of his life, Jim Thorpe – All American.
There were other issues of authentic Indian-ness: Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance claimed Canadian Blackfoot ancestry. It was revealed he was of mixed African-American descent. He later shot himself. Iron Eyes Cody was famous for playing Native American roles – most famously as the crying Indian in the anti-pollution commercial. Cody claimed Native heritage, though he was actually of Sicilian descent. Even Sacheen Littlefeather – who declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar at 1973 Academy Awards – was revealed to be of Mexican descent following her death last year. (Which the Native community apparently knew for years.)
Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse - Getty
Brando had boycotted the event to protest Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans. Certainly, it was a bloody period for Native people on film. As detailed in Reel Injun, the American Indian became an allegorical tool amid anxieties over the Vietnam War. In 1970, Ralph Nelson’s Soldier Blue depicted the US cavalry carrying out a censor-troubling slaughter of a Cheyenne village – a nod to both the Sand Creek Massacre from 1864, in which US troops killed 230 people, and the My Lai Massacre, which happened in Vietnam barely two years before Soldier Blue.
There was more brutality in A Man Called Horse, also released in 1970, in which Richard Harris survives the savagery of the Sioux. The film provoked protests for its depiction of Sioux and for making a white man the hero. The director, Elliot Silverstein, clashed with the studio bosses over scenes of the Sioux laughing. The studio apparently thought that their Indians were too inhuman to laugh.
The controversial 1970 film Soldier Blue - Getty
The Brando-Littlefeather protest came at the time of more real-world activism. From 1968 to 1971, Native American protestors and supporters staged a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz. In 1972, 500 Native Americans marched on Washington DC over political sovereignty. And in 1973, the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee – the site of an 1890 massacre – in a two-month standoff with the FBI.
As the Hollywood legend goes, John Wayne was incensed at the Sacheen Littlefeather Oscars protest and had to be restrained. The story has been debunked in the years since. But Wayne’s Westerns created the kind of cultural damage that Brando was protesting against. The Searchers, released in 1956, contains awful stereotypes and has one of the most obscene assaults on Native Americans: Wayne’s hero – a bigoted cowboy – shoots out the eyes of an already-dead Comanche.
By the mid-1970s, Will Sampson – from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – became a new type of Indian hero. “He was trying to take the Indians out of the old cliches and put them into modern settings,” says Aleiss. “He was very successful at that.”
Sacheen Littlefeather, who declined Marlon Brando's Best Actor Oscar at the 1973 Academy Awards - Getty
After falling out of favour, the Western – and Hollywood Indian – was revived by the huge success of Dances with Wolves in 1990, which was credited for humanising its Indians. The film also earned an Oscar nomination for Native Canadian actor Graham Greene. Dances with Wolves, however, has since been criticised for telling the story from a white perspective.
Hanay Geiogamah found the same problem when working on a series of five TV movies in the mid-1990s. “I worked with five white writers – five,” he says. “They were talented but they had no idea about Indian life. Not at all. I offered thematic suggestions that would have been really effective – it just didn’t happen. They were following the standard. They grew up on decade-after-decade of the Hollywood Indian persona. It was burned in their minds, like the minds of millions of American citizens.”
For Geiogamah, the portrayal of Native Americans is like so much else in the US: a matter of economics. “The Hollywood system has so many things built into it,” he says. “There has to be a star – a big white hero – a Robert Redford or John Wayne. The distortion begins immediately with the economic factors that are attached to the process.” That’s likely the reason Hollywood doesn’t have white actors playing red face now: because The Lone Ranger was a dud.
Geiogamah credits Little Big Man – the 1970 Western starring Dustin Hoffman – as a rare success in depicting Native Americans. Also, Chris Eyre’s 1998 comedy Smoke Signals, a then-rare story about modern day Native Americans – actually starring, written, and directed by Native talent, no less. Other recent, contemporary stories include the TV series Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls.
While many Hollywood portrayals have been sympathetic to Native Americans, that is perhaps not the same as culturally sensitive – particularly in the context of our current awareness of representation and cultural appropriation. Which is easy for a white man in 2023 to say. The history of protest within the industry shows that depictions that it’s long been an issue for Native Americans actors and filmmakers. As recently as 2015, there were reports of Native actors walking off the set of the Adam Sandler spoof, The Ridiculous 6, for offensive portrayals. The reports were apparently overblown but the story tapped into still-present tensions. For Geiogamah, Hollywood’s attempts at telling Native stories is “by and large a failure”.
Angela Aleiss is keen to stress the achievements of Native actors and filmmakers. That’s the subject of Aleiss’s book, Hollywood’s Native Americans. Aleiss points back to Chickasaw filmmaker Edwin Carewe, who made around 60 movies; Will Rogers, a Cherokee actor and mega-star of his day; and Jay Silverheels – TV’s Tonto – who started the Indian Actors Workshop. “Native people don’t have the numbers of black Americans, Asians, or Latinos in American society,” says Aleiss. “I think that’s why it’s important to look back and give them the credit they deserve.”
HEALTH & SAFETY IN SPORTS
Every year of playing rugby increases risk of degenerative brain disease CTE by 14 per cent
Ben Rumsby Tue, 24 October 2023 Former England hooker Steve Thompson has early onset dementia and cannot remember 2003 World Cup final - Guzelian/Mark Pinder
Every year playing rugby union significantly increases the risk of serious brain damage, a landmark study has found.
Ahead of Saturday’s World Cup final, alarming research has been published identifying a link between the length of time participating in the sport and the danger of developing the degenerative condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Based on post-mortems of the brains of former players, the study led by consultant neuropathologist Professor Willie Stewart found each additional year in rugby added to their risk of CTE – long linked with repeated head impacts and injuries – by as much as 14 per cent.
CTE was also found in more than two thirds of the 31 brains examined of players with an average rugby-playing experience of 18 years.
Even more worryingly, the mean age of those whose brains were examined died over the age of 60.
That meant many of them were likely to have played the game prior to it turning professional in 1995, before which it is widely regarded to have been significantly less physical.
The study was conducted against the backdrop of a multi-million-pound lawsuit brought by former players, including England’s World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson, against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union.
Thompson and others diagnosed with early onset dementia have accused the governing bodies of an “abject failure” in their management of concussion protocols, something the organisations deny.
The new research, published in Acta Neuropathologica, was the result of a world-first collaboration between leading laboratories at Stewart’s University of Glasgow, the University of Sydney and Boston University.
Stewart, an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow, said: “In this study, we have combined the experience and expertise of three leading international brain banks to look at CTE in former rugby players.
“These results provide new evidence regarding the association between rugby union participation and CTE. Specifically, our data show risk is linked to length of rugby career, with every extra year of play increasing risk.
“Based on this it is imperative that the sport’s regulators reduce exposure to repeated head impacts in match play and in training to reduce risk of this otherwise preventable contact sport related neurodegenerative disease.”
A World Rugby spokesperson said: “World Rugby is aware of the findings from the University of Glasgow study and we are committed to always being informed by the latest science. Our Independent Concussion Working Group recently met with Boston University representatives, including Professor Ann McKee, alongside other world leading brain health experts, to continue our dialogue on how we can make the game safer for the whole rugby family.
“What all the experts told our Independent Concussion Working Group was, that we should continue to reduce the number of head impacts, and that is exactly what we will do. World Rugby will never stand still when it comes to protecting players’ brain health which is why community players around the globe are taking part in trials of a lower tackle height this season. It is also why we have rolled out the use of world leading smart mouthguard technology in WXV, our new elite women’s competition, and from 2024 all elite competitions using the Head Injury Assessment will use smart mouthguards, in addition to the current independent doctors and in-game video footage to ensure that players are receiving the best possible care.”
The RFU was approached for comment.
Richard Boardman of Rylands Garth solicitors, which represents Thompson and around 450 other players, said: “As great a spectacle as the World Cup has been, the brutal, chilling current reality for the sport is that many more rugby players will die prematurely or lead significantly impacted lives as a result of neurological impairment, including CTE, caused by playing the sport.
“Immediate, substantive changes are required to be made to the sport. Otherwise, many more players, both current and future, will be condemned to the same fate as earlier generations. This is not just about reducing concussions, but the accumulation of sub-concussive blows, too. Elite players, in particular, play far too much rugby.”
Risk of degenerative brain disease increases with longer rugby careers – study Jamie Gardner, PA Chief Sports Reporter Tue, 24 October 2023
A rugby player’s risk of developing an incurable brain disease uniquely associated with repeated head impacts is relative to the length of their career, a new study indicates.
Each additional year of playing was found to increase the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by 14%, in a study of the brains of 31 former players whose average career length was 18 years.
CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem, and to date the only recognised risk factor for CTE is traumatic brain injury and repeated head impact exposure.
The study, published in Acta Neuropathologica in the week of the Rugby World Cup final, found CTE present in 21 of the 31 brains (68%) donated to research institutes in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Cases with CTE averaged a career length of 21.5 years, while in those without CTE the average was 12.1 years.
The study’s lead author Professor Willie Stewart, of the University of Glasgow, said: “In this study, we have combined the experience and expertise of three leading international brain banks to look at CTE in former rugby players.
“These results provide new evidence regarding the association between rugby union participation and CTE.
“Specifically, our data shows risk is linked to length of rugby career, with every extra year of play increasing risk.
“Based on this it is imperative that the sport’s regulators reduce exposure to repeated head impacts in match play and in training to reduce risk of this otherwise preventable contact sport related neurodegenerative disease.”
Twenty-three of the players played at amateur level only, while eight also played at the elite level. The study found no correlation between the level the individual had played at and an increased risk of CTE, nor between whether they played as a forward or a back.
World Rugby is exploring ways to mitigate the risk of concussion and improve how diagnosed or suspected concussions are managed.
The governing body’s executive board has recommended that unions participate in an opt-in global trial of lowering the tackle height in the community game to below the sternum – also known as a “belly tackle”.
World Rugby also promotes a “recognise and remove” approach to dealing with concussion in the amateur game, while it has detailed return-to-play protocols at that level and in the elite game.
A group of former professional and amateur players diagnosed with early-onset dementia are involved in legal action against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union.
The players claim the governing bodies were negligent in that they failed to take reasonable action to protect them from permanent injury caused by repetitive concussive and sub-concussive blows.
A World Rugby spokesperson said: “World Rugby is aware of the findings from the University of Glasgow study and we are committed to always being informed by the latest science.
“Our Independent Concussion Working Group recently met with Boston University representatives, including Professor Ann McKee, alongside other world leading brain health experts, to continue our dialogue on how we can make the game safer for the whole rugby family.
“What all the experts told our Independent Concussion Working Group was that we should continue to reduce the number of head impacts, and that is exactly what we will do.
“World Rugby will never stand still when it comes to protecting players’ brain health, which is why community players around the globe are taking part in trials of a lower tackle height this season.
“It is also why we have rolled out the use of world leading smart mouthguard technology in WXV, our new elite women’s competition, and from 2024 all elite competitions using the Head Injury Assessment will use smart mouthguards, in addition to the current independent doctors and in-game video footage to ensure that players are receiving the best possible care.”
China raids iPhone maker Foxconn as founder runs to be Taiwan president
Hannah Boland Sun, 22 October 2023
Foxconn is headquartered in Taiwan but does most of its manufacturing in China - ANN WANG/REUTERS
Chinese officials have raided the offices of key Apple supplier Foxconn as the company’s founder prepares to run for the presidency of Taiwan.
Officials are investigating iPhone supplier Foxconn’s tax affairs and its use of land, Chinese state media reported on Sunday. Investigators have searched the company’s local offices as part of their inquiries.
The raids come as Foxconn’s founder and biggest shareholder, Terry Gou, prepares to mount a bid for the presidency of Taiwan. His candidacy has led to questions over whether Beijing could put pressure on Mr Gou through his business interests.
Foxconn is headquartered in Taiwan but does most of its manufacturing in China. The company, which had revenues of £168bn last year, is a key manufacturing partner for Apple and assembles the iPhone.
Two sources close to Foxconn said they believed the Chinese investigations may be political, Reuters reported. The disclosure about the inquiries comes less than three months before the Taiwanese election.
Premier Chen Chien-jen said Taiwan’s government had been in touch with Foxconn about the investigation and would help as necessary.
According to a report in the Chinese state-run Global Times, Foxconn’s offices in Guangdong and Jiangsu were searched by tax officials. Offices in the Henan and Hubei provinces have also faced inspections by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, the report said.
Taiwanese officials believe that China could be preparing to annex the country by 2027.
Mr Gou, who founded Foxconn in 1974, announced his intention to run for the president of Taiwan over summer. The 73-year-old billionaire, who is worth an estimated $6.6bn, stepped back from running the company in 2019 and left Foxconn’s board last month to focus on his campaign. However, he remains the company’s biggest shareholder with a stake of 12.5pc.
Mr Gou is seen as one of the most pro-Beijing candidates in the running for next year’s election. He has advocated for diplomacy with Beijing and has said the current ruling party in Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive party, is to blame for the growing threat of invasion. However, he said in August: “I will not bow to China’s threats.”
Scrutiny of Foxconn comes as Apple’s position in China also comes under pressure. Chinese government officials have reportedly discouraged the use of iPhones and sales of the company’s newest handsets have been weaker than expected.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, visited the country last week and met China’s vice premier Ding Xuexiang, and commerce minister Wang Wentao. He said Apple remained committed to growth in China.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said the investigations into Foxconn appeared to be a “shot across the bow from Beijing towards Foxconn and Apple in this ongoing geopolitical cage match.”
He said: “With a battle for AI and chips getting nastier, this is China pushing back and going after the golden goose Foxconn.”
Foxconn has been attempting to shield itself from geopolitical pressures by expanding manufacturing outside of China. Around three quarters of its factories are in China, according to estimates, but it has been opening facilities in Vietnam and India in a drive to diversify.
A spokesman for Foxconn said: “Legal compliance everywhere we operate around the world is a fundamental principle of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn). We will actively cooperate with the relevant units on the related work and operations.”
Rolls-Royce facing £350m class action lawsuit from investors
Luke Barr Sun, 22 October 2023
Rolls-Royce, the FTSE 100 engineering giant, is facing a potential legal claim from investors worth at least £350m after a bribery and corruption scandal wiped millions of pounds from the company’s value.
Shareholders are to claim that the company made misrepresentations to the market about the bribery scandal.
Rolls-Royce previously agreed to a £497m settlement with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in a bid to draw a line under the wrongdoing.
The SFO’s agreement with Rolls-Royce in 2017 covered “12 counts of conspiracy to corrupt, false accounting and failure to prevent bribery” across its aerospace and energy divisions.
It said the conduct spanned three decades and took place in countries including Indonesia, Thailand, India, Russia, Nigeria, China and Malaysia.
As part of its four-year inquiry into Rolls-Royce, investigators at the SFO examined claims that Rolls paid millions of pounds in bribes - or used middlemen to pay them - to win civil and military deals.
Allegations included Rolls paying a $20m (£13m) bribe in return for persuading Indonesia’s flag carrier, Garuda, to buy 700 engines.
It is understood Rolls has drafted in Slaughter and May to fend off the potential litigation, using the same set of lawyers that worked on the SFO agreement.
The company said it will “robustly defend” any class action, and stressed that it has not received any formal claim.
Proceedings are yet to be launched but it is understood allegations could be made against Rolls’ former chief executive John Rishton, as well as former board members including Michael Terrett, Sir Simon Robertson and Colin Smith.
Rolls was also found by the SFO to have falsified documents to conceal commissions in India and paid off an official working for Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, to win a contract.
Under the terms of the so-called Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), which at the time was the largest-ever fine of its kind in the UK, Rolls was able to account for its “conduct without suffering the full consequences of a criminal conviction”.
The company previously said it “apologised unreservedly” for the corruption, which also sparked investigations by regulators in Brazil and the United States.
Rolls warned in its last annual report that the DPA, which is a voluntary arrangement to avoid potentially tougher legal penalties, could spark potential claims “from current and former investors”.
Sir Brian Leveson, who oversaw the SFO investigation, said in 2017 that Rolls would have to “suffer the undeniably adverse publicity” from its DPA.
David Green, a former SFO director, said at the time that it allowed “Rolls-Royce to draw a line under conduct spanning seven countries, three decades and three sectors of its business”.
In Sir Brian Leveson’s 2017 judgment, he said Rolls’ conduct had “involved very senior” employees.
There has been a significant overhaul of the business in recent years, after the pandemic halted long-haul overseas travel, forcing Rolls to cut thousands of jobs and raise billions of pounds to survive.
The move was announced by new chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who took over at the start of the year and said soon after that the company was a “burning platform”.
The engineer posted profits of £524m for the first half of the year, compared to a £111m loss for the same period in 2022.
The company also managed to slash its debt by £500m to £2.8bn.
A Rolls spokesman said: “Rolls-Royce today is a fundamentally different business. Rolls-Royce has zero tolerance for business misconduct. We have transformed our internal ethics and compliance procedures, that is why in January last year the Serious Fraud Office filed a notice releasing us from the UK Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA).”
Barclays bankers fear cost-cutting job losses after profits fall
Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent Tue, 24 October 2023 Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Barclays bankers are steeling themselves for potential job losses after executives warned of a fresh wave of cost cuts intended to boost payouts for their shareholders.
The lender reported a slight drop in pre-tax profits on Tuesday, which fell 4% to £1.9bn in the third quarter amid concerns over a potential rise in customer defaults and a slowdown in corporate dealmaking that hit returns at its investment bank.
Barclays also suffered a larger-than-expected drop in deposits and warned that its net interest margin – the difference between what it charges for mortgages and what it pays out to savers – would probably fall in the fourth quarter, putting a further squeeze on its income.
Executives are now planning a wave of “structural” cost cuts that they said would boost dividends for investors.
When asked whether the cost-cutting plans would involve job losses, including for UK staff, the chief executive, CS Venkatakrishnan, told journalists: “We always modulate the size of our workforce everywhere in the world in which we are, and that’s what we will continue to do.”
He said Barclays bosses would “look for efficiencies in different parts of the bank … We are trying to make, and create, and run, a more efficient organisation … and you should expect us to look in all those places where we think we can increase productivity”.
Venkatakrishnan refused to give further details but said the bank would provide an update for investors after the release of Barclays’ full-year results in the new year, “which will include setting out our capital allocation priorities, as well as revised financial targets”. The news sent Barclays shares down 7% on Tuesday morning.
Profits from the lender’s corporate and investment bank tumbled 11% in the third quarter. While the bank recently took part in Arm’s $65bn (£53bn) stock market debut, bosses said the division’s woes reflected “lower client activity” more broadly.
There was also a 14% rise in the amount of money put aside for potential defaults, to £433m compared with £381m a year earlier. However, the cash put aside for defaults at its UK business fell by 27% in the third quarter, suggesting confidence about the prospect of mortgage borrowers keeping up with payments, despite rising interest rates.
“We continue to see limited signs of credit stress,” Barclays’ group finance director, Anna Cross, said.
Meanwhile, net interest income at the UK bank rose just 1%, to £1.6bn in the quarter. The figure is likely to be cheered by campaigners who claimed banks were failing to pass on higher interest rates to savers while raising charges for home loan customers.
“We have been very disciplined and prudent and pass through interest rates to customers,” Venkatakrishnan said.
Cross said customers, particularly Barclays’ wealthy, private banking clients, were moving cash into savings accounts that offered higher interest rates. The trend is expected to contribute to a drop in net interest margins in the fourth quarter.
The lender’s finance chief said it had suffered a 6% drop in deposits, which was “a little higher than we anticipated”. That was partly due to price inflation that had forced customers to pay more for everyday goods, as well as competition in the savings market that had seen clients park their cash with rival banks offering higher interest rates.
“I’m really not going to add commentary to this topic,” Venkatakrishnan said. “The FCA has made extensive disclosures, the bank has issued an RNS [market statement] in response, including the action of the board’s remuneration committee. I have told you since the day I took this job that I’m recused from all of this.”
When asked whether the matter could lead to the resignation of other Barclays bosses, including the chair, Nigel Higgins, Venkatakrishnan said he would not comment further.
.jpg)
