Why does Israel destroy hospitals?

by Paul Larudee / February 16th, 2024

Hospitals are prime strategic targets of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The Nasser hospital in Rafah is the only major one still standing, along with a handful of smaller ones. All the rest have been destroyed, along with many of the patients and medical staff. Many have been slaughtered, while the helpless have been left to die, like the premature babies in their incubators, simply abandoned to the inevitable. Doctors and other personnel have been taken captive for an unknown length of time. Even the Nasser hospital is no longer functioning, having been taken over by Israeli soldiers, and all its patients and medical staff expelled. Its existence as a structure is a mere technicality. It is no longer a hospital, and it wouldn’t be the first to be exploded into yet another pile of rubble.

These attacks are not random, nor are the ones against bakeries, schools, and infrastructure, including water, sewage and electricity. Although more than half of all the buildings in Gaza are now rubble or unusable, the ratio for hospitals is much higher. Why?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that his objective is to destroy Hamas, but he is in fact destroying everything but Hamas. He knows perfectly well that Hamas is not using the hospitals, nor any of the other places laid waste by the Israeli military, armed with inexhaustible US munitions. To the extent that he even bothers to use Hamas as an excuse, few believe him anymore.

If he wants to find Hamas, he knows where they are: deep underground, in hundreds of miles of their armored and fortified hi-tech tunnels. The 10,000 tons of bombs dropped on Gaza thus far have not even been aimed at Hamas or the tunnels. Israel is casualty averse, and they know that fighting Hamas leads to casualties that will hurt Netanyahu’s popularity, already in the cellar. This is why their target has been the entire population of Gaza. Massive killing of Palestinian civilians, more than 2/3 of them women and children, make it look like he is accomplishing something.

This helps to explain the hospitals. If there is no place to treat the wounded and the sick, more Palestinians die. If your real target is the entire Palestinian population, this is an effective way to do it. Destroying hospitals has a multiplier effect upon the death toll. Furthermore, it is mainly the hospitals that compile the statistics of Palestinian dead and wounded for the Gaza Ministry of Health. If there are no hospitals, more people will die anonymously, reducing the evidence of genocide.

The multiplier effect of hospitals on the death toll also works for water, sewage, shelter, fuel, and of course food. The removal of such facilities and provisions causes deaths that tend not to be included as war dead. If Netanyahu’s objective is to decrease – or entirely eliminate – the inhabitants of Gaza, these are much more effective ways to do it. Granted, Zyklon-B might be even more effective, but there are limits to what even Netanyahu might be willing to use.

This is not speculation. Netanyahu and most of his government have publicly declared their intentions. Quotes and videos of their genocidal purpose have been used by South Africa’s attorneys to win an injunction from the International Court of Justice.  Netanyahu is running out of options. Hamas presented its ceasefire/peace proposal, which (as predicted) is unacceptable to Israel, because it fails to advance Israel’s plans for either territorial expansion or ethnic cleansing, or both.

Israel is losing the combat war in Gaza, thanks to the brilliant Hamas strategy of 1) making itself impervious to air bombardment, 2) an ability to manufacture its own weapons locally, designed specifically for Israeli systems, and 3) impeccable training of fighters capable of acting in small units, with intimate knowledge of both their enemy and Israeli weapons systems, as well as their own. Israel is not prepared to take significant casualties among its own population, and apparently its 5000-6000 mercenaries are not prepared to go on suicide missions.

That leads, once again, to genocide as the only strategy. That’s why Netanyahu is planning to up his game by destroying Rafah city, the tiny pen into which he has herded most of the population, swelling its numbers some 400%, most of them in tents or under tarpaulins providing flimsy protection from the rain and cold.

An Israeli attack will probably yield a lot more casualties per day than heretofore, to which Netanyahu can point with pride among his dwindling followers. But the US can’t appear to condone such actions, so its humanitarian-minded president has asked his Israeli counterpart to provide an evacuation plan for the civilians. Netanyahu has agreed, and when asked where they can go, he points to newly bombed out expanses in what used to be the neighboring city of Khan Younis. Now his friend, Genocide Joe, can rest easy. ICJ? No problem. Israel still has time to submit its progress report to the Court on ending its “plausibly genocidal” actions.

Paul Larudee is a retired academic and current administrator of a nonprofit human rights and humanitarian aid organization. Read other articles by Paul.

Space surgery: Doctors on ground operate robot on ISS for first time

Agence France-Presse
February 15, 2024 

Students from the University of Nebraska work on a small surgical robot called spaceMIRA, before its test on the ISS (Craig Chandler/AFP)

Earth-bound surgeons remotely controlled a small robot aboard the International Space Station over the weekend, conducting the first-ever such surgery in orbit -- albeit on rubber bands.

The experiment, deemed a "huge success" by the participants, represents a new step in the development of space surgery, which could become necessary to treat medical emergencies during multi-year manned voyages, such as to Mars.

The technology could also be used to develop remote-control surgery techniques on Earth, to serve isolated areas.

The robot, developed by Virtual Incision (VIC) and the University of Nebraska, is called spaceMIRA.

It took off for the International Space Station at the end of January, aboard a payload carried by a SpaceX rocket.

Stored inside a compact box the size of a microwave oven, the robot was installed last Thursday by NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, who has been in space since last September.

The experiment then took place on Saturday, conducted from Virtual Incision's headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska.

It lasted around two hours, with six surgeons taking a go at operating the robot, which is equipped with a camera and two arms.

"The experiment tested standard surgical techniques like grasping, manipulating and cutting tissue. The simulated tissue is made up of rubber bands," Virtual Incision said in a statement.

In a video shared by the company, one arm equipped with pincers can be seen gripping the band and stretching it, while the other arm equipped with scissors makes a cut -- mimicking a dissection.

A key difficulty is the time lag -- about 0.85 seconds -- between the operation center on Earth and the ISS.

For a control experiment, the same process will take place with the same equipment, but on Earth.

"The experiment was deemed a huge success by all surgeons and researchers, and there were little to no hiccups," Virtual Incision said in a statement, claiming it will "change the future of surgery."

NASA, which provided some financial support for the project, said that with longer space missions, "the potential need for emergency care increases, including surgical procedures from simple stitching of lacerations to more complex activities."

Florida coral reef still struggling after 2023 heat wave

Agence France-Presse
February 16, 2024 

When the water is too warm, coral expel their algae and turn white, an effect called "bleaching" that leaves them exposed to disease and at risk of dying off (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

Coral reefs off the Florida Keys islands are struggling to recover from last summer's record-breaking heat wave, new data showed Thursday, in another sign of the devastating impacts of human-caused climate change.

The state's southern waters experienced hot tub-like conditions with temperatures in July briefly topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8C) in Manatee Bay.

Coral, marine invertebrates made up of individual animals called polyps, have a symbiotic relationship with the algae that live inside their tissue and provide their primary source of food.

When the water is too warm, coral expel their algae and turn white, an effect called "bleaching" that leaves them exposed to disease and at risk of dying off.

A team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers carried out a scientific mission to assess the heat wave's impacts, surveying 64 locations at five of the major reefs that make up most of the state's 255-mile- (410 kilometer-) long barrier reef, which is home to sea turtles, stingrays, sharks, dolphins, grouper and many more species of fish.

They found less than 22 percent of approximately 1,500 staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) -- a species that is listed as a candidate for endangered species protections -- remained alive.

Among the five reefs surveyed, living elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), which is listed as threatened throughout its range, was found only at three sites.

"The findings from this assessment are critical to understanding the impacts to corals throughout the Florida Keys following the unprecedented marine heat wave," said NOAA's Sarah Fangman.

"They also offer a glimpse into coral's future in a warming world," she continued, adding the work would inform ongoing restoration efforts.

NOAA is leading an initiative to restore nearly 3 million square feet (280,000 square meters) of coral reef, the equivalent of more than 50 American football fields -- through growing and transplanating corals.

Florida's coral reefs are vital not just to their wider ecosystem but also for the state's tourism and recreation industries. But their health has been declining since the 1970s due to the impact of human activities, hurricanes, heat-induced bleaching and disease.

Rescued Gulf of Mexico coral in a Galveston aquarium could help the species’ survival

Texas Tribune
February 15, 2024 

Coral Reef and Tropical Fish (Shutterstock www.shutterstock.com)

By Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune

"Rescued Gulf of Mexico coral in a Galveston aquarium could help the species’ survival" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

This story is part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines.

GALVESTON — Biologist Brooke Zurita lowered a turkey baster into a tank’s still water. She squeezed a stinky, chocolate-milk-colored mixture with plankton, algae and fish eggs over a piece of rescued, wild coral. The food swirled like a wispy cloud.
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Zurita and her team at Moody Gardens feed 150 coral fragments from five species at least once a week, in addition to giving daily doses of amino acids.

The coral need to stay alive because they could change the future. Scientists took them from a federally-protected area some 100 miles off the Texas coast called Flower Garden Banks to create a reserve population in case the Gulf’s wild coral die.

Threats against coral are mounting. Climate change is warming seawater, increasing ocean acidification and feeding stronger storms. Coral diseases are spreading. Invasive species are pressuring the ecosystem.

A new report found that by 2040 Flower Garden coral could bleach, meaning they expel the symbiotic algae that give them color and nourishment, and start to die rather than recover.


Coral, taken from the Gulf of Mexico, rest in a tank at Moody Gardens Aquarium's Coral Rescue Lab in Galveston. Credit: Hope Mora for The Texas Tribune

Zurita, 29, refilled her turkey baster from a pitcher. She could see the mouths of a fluorescent yellow colony opening up to eat. New tissue grew around some coral edges.

The rescue effort is one way scientists can act in the face of a big problem, says Michelle Johnston, the Flower Garden sanctuary’s superintendent. Biologists alone can’t stop climate change, but they don’t want to stand idle, especially not Johnston, who has loved the ocean since she took childhood trips to SeaWorld in Ohio. She begged her mom for a pet dolphin and still wears a necklace with a dolphin charm.

What scientists can do is organize trips so experienced hunters can try to spear invasive lionfish, keep buoys in place near the coral reefs so ships don’t drop anchors on them and monitor the reefs’ health.

And they can maintain and grow the coral collection, which Moody Gardens houses and pays for using both its own money and federal grants.

Coral genetic banking is happening around the world, including in Puerto Rico and Australia. Some 25 facilities now house 2,283 Florida coral rescued from 172 sites after disease spread throughout that state’s reef.

In Texas, scientists hope to study which types of coral are most resistant to heat and disease. They might breed the strongest ones and plant them in the sanctuary to test how they grow.

Johnston has applied for a $13 million federal grant to expand the Moody Gardens work and house more coral at Texas A&M Galveston and NOAA’s campus in Galveston.

“We have less than 20 years to figure something out to manage differently, to bank more corals,” Johnston said, adding, “We have to do something.”


Michelle Johnston, the Flower Garden sanctuary’s superintendent, at a beach in Galveston. Johnston specializes in coral reef ecology and invasive species management. Credit: Hope Mora for The Texas Tribune

“Putting bubble gum on a crack in a dam”

The tank water grew murky as Zurita kept squeezing food above each coral. Her hand used to cramp when she fed them, distributing the mixture here and there in the tank. It doesn’t anymore because she’s been doing this for years.

The inspiration for rescuing coral from the wild grew out of an emergency. Scientists saw the deadly Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease take hold a decade ago in Florida reefs that stretch around the state’s southern and eastern coasts. By 2019, panicked scientists pleaded with facilities across the country to take in coral from their damaged reefs as the disease spread.

Beth Firchau, coordinator of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project, called the requests for help a “remarkable Hail Mary.” Numerous facilities made room, including the Texas State Aquarium, the Fort Worth Zoo and Moody Gardens, which transformed an art gallery into the lab where Zurita now works.

An image of a rainbow-colored coral decorated Zurita’s black sweatshirt. Her curly hair was pulled into a low, side ponytail. Tattoos depicting four life stages of jellyfish ran down her right forearm.

Zurita, too, loved the ocean as a kid who spent much of her childhood in Central Texas. She felt humbled by its vastness. Animal Planet was her favorite TV channel. When her parents let her buy a book, she picked an animal encyclopedia.

From Florida, Moody Gardens took around 100 coral representing 13 species that weren’t typically held in captivity. Zurita got to know them as she cared for them, mixing their artificial seawater and cleaning around them with tweezers.

Zurita remembers the week that she was put in charge of the coral lab. She got a big scare because one coral in her care suddenly bleached. She coaxed the coral back to health.

Rowdy children now pressed their faces against the glass to see Zurita work, then ran along.

What started as a three-year ask for banking Florida coral grew into a long-term project. The ecosystem threats weren’t disappearing. Scientists in some facilities started propagating the coral to go back to the reef.

“Our work is great,” Firchau said, “but unless we are addressing … those conditions that are creating this immune response, this distress in our reefs, we’re basically putting bubble gum on a crack in a dam.”

Moody Gardens General Curator Greg Whittaker in 2022 assessed what his staff could do. They lacked time, space and equipment to spawn the coral. So he planned to send the coral back to Florida to spawn and take in baby ones to grow. He thought they might also start collecting Flower Garden coral, knowing that the disease that was ravaging Florida’s coral could spread closer to Texas.

A scare came fast. That fall, lesions appeared on Flower Garden coral. Scientists feared the worst: Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease. They told Whittaker they wanted to act, so Moody Gardens readied a tank that previously held stingray pups. Divers brought them 14 large coral colonies that they pried from the Gulf banks.

Luckily, the disease — which scientists are still trying to positively identify — spread more slowly than expected.


Moody Gardens General Curator Greg Whittaker stands beside tanks at Moody Gardens Coral Rescue Lab. Credit: Hope Mora for The Texas Tribune

Months later, in April, the Florida coral left in shipping containers for Hobby Airport, bound for SeaWorld Orlando. They had grown from the size of softballs to the size of frisbees.
Learning to care for Flower Garden coral

Zurita worked through how to care for the Flower Garden coral. Some were better eaters than others. They preferred bluer light than the Florida coral because they’d come from deeper in the ocean.

Sanctuary staff, advisors and researchers meanwhile worked away at an assessment of how climate change could impact the sanctuary. The idea was to identify which parts of national marine sanctuaries are most vulnerable to climate change and why in order to help managers figure out how to make them more resilient, said Zachary Cannizzo, climate coordinator for the sanctuaries.

Climate change packed a “one-two-punch” following the disease that damaged the Florida reef, said Lisa Gregg, program and policy coordinator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commision. Last summer, months of hotter-than-usual ocean temperatures caused the worst coral bleaching ever recorded there.


Zurita observes coral's response to feeding. Her forearm tattoos depict four life stages of jellyfish. Credit: Hope Mora for The Texas Tribune

In Texas, Flower Garden has generally been considered relatively safe from climate impacts because it’s in deep water, but the assessment work showed that even that protection won’t last as climate change continues to alter the ecosystem.

In addition to damage from warmer water, stronger hurricanes could topple or smother the coral with sediment. Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that human activities emit in vast quantities, could continue to enter seawater, cause ocean acidification and make it harder for coral to grow.

Zurita finished feeding the rescued coral in about 25 minutes. The threat of climate change can feel bleak, she said. Talking with kids at the museum and maybe inspiring them to change a habit helped.

“It’s what we can do now,” Zurita said. “We can protect these corals, we can control the environment, we have enough of the genetic profile of the reef … If we have this protection, this backup plan, it allows us to have opportunities in the future for more restoration.”

Disclosure: Seaworld has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/15/texas-gulf-coral-rescue-climate-change/.

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‘Wind of revolt’ sweeps French cinema in belated #MeToo reckoning

Agence France-Presse
February 16, 2024 

French actor Judith Godrèche, pictured here at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, has accused arthouse film director Benoît Jacquot of grooming her when she was 14 and he was 39. © Petros Giannakouris, AP

French cinema has been rocked by a new wave of allegations of child rape and sexual assault targeting household names in the industry, bolstering talk of a long-awaited breakthrough for the #MeToo movement in France following a nationwide controversy over Gérard Depardieu. The latest accusations shine a stark light on the culture of impunity that prevailed in a country where auteur worship has long served as a cover for abuse.

French cinema’s #MeToo breakthrough has been heralded, and pushed back, often enough to warrant caution – but there are signs the ground is finally shifting, more than six years after cinema’s feminist revolution kicked off across the Atlantic.

In 2017, at the dawn of the #MeToo era, French actor Judith Godrèche was among the first to speak out against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, telling the New York Times that the film producer assaulted her in a hotel at the Cannes Film Festival two decades earlier, when she was 24.

Years later, the actor-turned-filmmaker is at the heart of bombshell allegations that are writing a new chapter in France’s troubled reckoning with sex abuse in the film industry.

French prosecutors opened an investigation last week after Godrèche, now 51, said she was groomed and raped by filmmaker Benoît Jacquot during a “predatory” relationship that started when she was 14 and he was 39.

Godrèche, who recently delivered the semi-autobiographical series “Icon of French cinema”, was a child actor when she met Jacquot at a casting call for his movie “Les Mendiants” (The Beggars). She told French daily Le Monde she remained “in his grip” for the following six years, in full sight of the film industry and the media.

“It’s a story similar to those of children who are kidnapped and grow up without seeing the world, and who cannot think ill of their captor,” Godrèche wrote in a statement for the police juvenile protection unit, quoted by the newspaper.

Judith Godrèche pictured in 1992, the year she broke off her six-year relationship with Benoît Jacquot. © Bertrand Guay, AFP

Paris prosecutors said they were investigating several potential offenses including rape of a minor committed by a person in authority, domestic violence and sexual assault. They said they would also investigate a complaint she filed against another prominent filmmaker, Jacques Doillon, whom she accused of sexually abusing her when she was 15.

Jacquot, one of France’s best known independent directors, told Le Monde he denied all allegations. The 77-year-old said: “It was me, without irony, who was under her spell for six years.”

Doillon, whose partner at the time of the alleged abuse was the late Jane Birkin, also denied the accusations against him – including claims of sexual assault voiced in the media by actors Isild Le Besco and Anna Mouglalis in the wake of Godrèche’s allegations. “That Judith Godrèche and other women through her have wish to denounce a system, an era, a society, is courageous, commendable and necessary,” Doillon, 79, wrote in a statement to AFP. He added: “But the justness of the cause does not authorize arbitrary denunciations, false accusations and lies.”

The allegations leveled at two household names in French film have further rattled an industry already under fire for having shrugged off sexism and sexual abuse for decades. Godrèche’s accusations relate to the period 1986-1992, meaning they are unlikely to lead to prosecution because the statute of limitations has expired. The authorities’ decision to investigate them nonetheless suggests a new willingness to shed light on sexual abuse in the arts.

Two days after Godrèche filed her complaints, prosecutors said they had requested a trial for 59-year-old film director Christophe Ruggia, who has been charged with sexually assaulting actor Adèle Haenel when she was a minor. It will be up to magistrates to decide whether to press ahead with a trial.

Haenel, now 34, lodged a complaint against Ruggia in 2020, accusing him of subjecting her to “constant sexual harassment” from the age of 12 to 15. Later that year, she stormed out of the César Awards ceremony, the French equivalent of the Oscars, when the Best Director award was handed to veteran filmmaker Roman Polanski, the target of multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

The walkout made her an early champion of the #MeToo movement in France. But her decision three years later, at the height of her fame, to quit the industry over its enduring “complacency” towards sex abuse was seen by many feminist campaigners as evidence of French resistance to change.

A ‘cover’ for abuse

French cinema’s troubled relationship with the #MeToo movement stems from traits specific to the film industry and to France itself, said Bérénice Hamidi, a sociologist of gender and the arts at the Université Lumière in Lyon.

“The arts, and film in particular, are overexposed to sexist and sexual violence, because they are professions that feel apart from society and its rules, in which selection and seduction are very closely intertwined, and in which job insecurity puts many young women in a position of vulnerability,” she said.

“But there is also a culture that is very French in its veneration of artists and the creative process, which excuses all behaviour,” Hamidi added. “There’s this idea that in order to create you have to be in a transgressive relationship with social norms. In this scale of values, women’s lives count for nothing compared to genius and talent. Excusing the behaviour of aggressive artists is specific to France.”

French critics of the #MeToo movement have often come from cinema itself, inspired by an entrenched suspicion of American puritanical campaigns and witch-hunts. Some have accused the movement of being fueled by a contempt for men and the art of seduction.

In 2018, film icon Catherine Deneuve was among 100 French women who signed a newspaper column accusing the #MeToo campaign of going too far. “We defend a right to pester, which is vital to sexual freedom,” they said.


It’s a theme Jacquot picked up in his defence last week, lamenting the importation from the US of a “frightening neo-Puritanism". He suggested his relationship with Godrèche carried an interest for both parties, telling Le Monde: “She wanted to be an actress, she had a filmmaker on hand."

The newspaper has exhumed a host of past quotes by Jacquot that, in hindsight, appear to capture much of what the #MeToo movement has denounced.

In a 2006 interview with arts weekly Les Inrockuptibles, he spoke of a tacit “pact” underpinning his collaboration with Godrèche in his 1990 movie “La Désenchantée” (The Disenchanted), saying: “If I give her the film, she gives herself completely in return. Which can be understood in any sense you like.”

Nine years later, he told the left-leaning newspaper Libération: “My work as a filmmaker consists of pushing an actress to cross a threshold. Meeting her, talking to her, directing her, separating from her and then finding her again: the best way to do all that is to be in the same bed.”

In an Instagram post in early January, Godrèche said she decided to name Jacquot after coming across a 2011 documentary in which he described cinema as a “sort of cover” for illicit behaviour. He spoke of his relationship with the then child actress as a form of “transgression” that brought him “a degree of admiration” in the “small world of cinema”.

Jacquot told Le Monde last week he regretted those words, describing them as arrogant banter.

French actor Judith Godrèche has accused director Benoît Jacquot of raping her when she was 14. He says theirs was a "loving relationship". 

© FRANCE 24 screengrab

Godrèche recently moved back to France after a 10-year stint in New York, motivated in part by her desire to get away from the “small world” of French film. Her hit series “Icon of French cinema” tells the story of a French film star’s return to Paris after a decade in Hollywood. Through flashbacks, it revisits the abuse she endured as a 14-year-old child actress groomed by a leading French director.

Its streaming release in late December came on the heels of the hugely successful theatrical launch of Vanessa Filho’s “Le Consentement”, based on the eponymous 2019 book by Vanessa Springora, a memoir of having been sexually abused from the age of 14 by a celebrated writer who was more than three times her age. Gabriel Matzneff, the accused writer who made no secret of his preference for minors, including preteens, is being investigated for rape, now aged 87.

In an interview with the Guardian last month, Godrèche stressed the importance of speaking out about the grooming of teenagers by older men in positions of authority.

“These people usually come to you as protectors. They become a parental figure,” she said, noting that the French film industry was still protecting powerful men and that a form of omerta remained prevalent. She added: “I’m not here to carry out a witch-hunt, but you might expect a little compassion.”

Fall of the Ogre

Talk of powerful men turning a blind eye to allegations of abuse, or even siding with purported aggressors, became the subject of a nationwide controversy in late December when French President Emmanuel Macron condemned a “manhunt” targeting French film icon Gérard Depardieu.

The world-famous actor has been under formal investigation for rape since 2020 and has been accused of rape or sexual assault by a dozen other women – allegations he denies. His reputation took a further hit in December when public broadcaster France Télévision ran a documentary detailing his history of sexual abuse allegations and featuring interviews with several of his accusers. Entitled “Fall of the Ogre”, the documentary featured a segment filmed in North Korea in which the 75-year-old actor is seen making crude, sexual and misogynistic jokes, including one referring to a child riding a pony.

In the weeks that followed, Depardieu’s wax statue was removed from the Musée Grevin in Paris, Canada’s Quebec region stripped him of its top honor, and Swiss public broadcaster RTS said it was halting the broadcast of films in which he plays a leading role. The backlash sparked concern in France that the star of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and some 200 other titles was being cancelled outright.

Appearing on a television talk show on December 20, Macron rebuked his then Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak – who has since been fired – for suggesting Depardieu might be stripped of his Légion d’honneur, France’s highest decoration.

“He’s an immense actor, a genius of his art,” Macron said in defence of Depardieu, stressing that the Légion d’honneur was not a “moral” order. He added: “I say it as president and as a citizen, he makes France proud.”

In his remarks, Macron also suggested the documentary’s North Korea segment might have been edited in a misleading way, though France Télévisions later said it was authenticated by a bailiff who viewed the raw footage.

The president’s words drew outrage from film workers, rights groups and opposition politicians. Generation.s Feministe, a feminist collective, said they were “an insult” to all women who had suffered sexual violence. Macron’s remarks were “not just scandalous but also dangerous”, added the #NousToutes feminist group.

Stepping into the fray, his predecessor François Hollande said he was “not proud of Gérard Depardieu”. He also berated the president over his failure to spare a word for the film star’s alleged victims.

Cult of the auteur

According to Geneviève Sellier, a professor of film studies at the Université Montaigne in Bordeaux, Macron’s words were indicative of a French “cult of the auteur” that has long been used to excuse or cover up reprehensible behaviour.

“The cult of the auteur places artistic genius – regarded as necessarily male – above the law,” she explains. “This French tradition explains in part why the country remains largely blind to the realities of male domination and abuse.”

Sellier said auteur veneration underpinned a controversial petition that was published on Christmas Day in the right-wing daily Le Figaro, denouncing a “lynching of Depardieu”, signed by dozens of friends and colleagues of the actor. They included former French first lady and singer Carla Bruni, British actor Charlotte Rampling and Depardieu's former partner, actor Carole Bouquet.

“When Gérard Depardieu is targeted this way, it is the art (of cinema) that is being attacked,” read the text, warning against a campaign to “erase” Depardieu. “Depriving ourselves of this immense actor would be a tragedy, a defeat. The death of the art. Our art.”

Hamidi said the petition reflected a “form of blurring between reality and fiction” that is used to shield artists from scrutiny of their behaviour. “There’s a form of transfiguration at play,” she said. “It’s as if punishing Depardieu meant depriving us of the Cyrano he played.” She added: “You often hear people say of Depardieu that he is larger than life, in the sense that he is also too big for the rules that apply to common mortals, and that those rules therefore should not apply to him.”

French actor Gérard Depardieu, pictured at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival, has faced a string of allegations of rape and sexual assault in recent years. 

© Axel Schmidt, AP

The text in support of Depardieu swiftly triggered a flurry of counter-petitions, whose signatories were markedly younger of age.

The Figaro petition “is a sinister and perfect illustration of an old world that refuses to let things change”, read an open letter signed by more than 600 artists, arguing that the text in support of Depardieu “spat in the face” of his accusers.

“Art is not a totem of impunity,” read another letter published by Libération. “We are not attacking the art we hold dear: on the contrary, we want to protect it, firmly refusing to use it as a pretext for abuse of power, harassment or sexual violence.”

As the backlash intensified, several signatories of the original petition scrambled to distance themselves from the text, particularly once it emerged it had been written by a little-known actor and writer for the ultra-conservative magazine Causeur, described as close to far-right pundit and former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour.

Patrice Leconte, who directed Depardieu in the recent “Maigret” (2022), said he had been a “fool” to sign the petition without checking who wrote it, while reiterating his dismay at the “media lynching” the film star was being subjected to. Roberto Alagna, the operatic tenor, suggested in an Instagram post that he had been “tricked” into signing a petition he “hadn’t even read”.

Others, like actor and stage director Jacques Weber, expressed greater contrition.

“Yes, I did sign, forgetting the victims and the fate of thousands of women around the world who are suffering from a state of affairs that has been accepted for too long,” Weber wrote in an article published by Mediapart, under the headline, “Guilty”. He added: “My signature was another rape.”

France’s rayonnement

The age gap exposed by the competing petitions has revived talk of a generational divide in attitudes towards sexual misconduct in the arts – a divide previously highlighted by the controversial open letter published in 2018 by Deneuve and her peers.

“There’s a generation that still doesn’t understand this societal evolution,” Muriel Reus, vice president of #MeTooMedia, which campaigns against sexism and sexual misconduct in the media, told France Info radio at the height of the Depardieu controversy.

This generational divide conceals mechanisms of social domination that are particularly pervasive in the arts, argued Sellier.

“In film, powerful men tend to be older, while female victims are younger, poorer and in more vulnerable jobs,” she said. Those women who did speak out, including among older generations, were simply ignored in the past, she added.

Sophie Marceau, one of France's best-known actors, told Paris Match weekly magazine in December that Depardieu was “rude and inappropriate” when they worked together on the set of “Police” in 1985. Marceau, 57, said she publicly denounced his behavior at the time, which she described as “unbearable”, adding: “many people turned on me, trying to make it look like I was being a nuisance”.

Marceau said part of the reason he got away with it was that he targeted women with low-level jobs on set, not the stars.

Days later, fellow actress Isabelle Carré denounced a culture of impunity in French cinema and of sexualising young girls in an op-ed piece in women’s magazine Elle. A prominent actress with dozens of films to her name, Carré, 52, said she had been the object of unwanted sexual attention since she was 11. Regarding Depardieu, she wrote: “Isn’t it astounding that it took 50 years to point out to an actor that his behaviour towards female assistants, dressers and co-actors is not acceptable?”

Protesters hold a placard reading "No producers for rapists" during a demonstration outside a theatre in Bordeaux where Gérard Depardieu is due to perform on May 24, 2023. © Romain Perrocheau, AFP

On Monday, members of the Société des réalisatrices et réalisateurs de films (SRF), an organisation representing French filmmakers, issued a statement in support of Godrèche and others who have spoken out in recent days – and expressing dismay at the industry’s habit of turning a blind eye to abuse.

“We firmly denounce the confusion between creative desire and sexual enslavement, which has been ideologically encouraged by a large part of our professional environment for decades,” they wrote. “We are also struck by the silence of those who witnessed it then and now.”

The next day, the writer and film critic Hélène Frappat hailed a “wind of revolt blowing across France”, praising Godrèche for having “broken the spell” that holds young girls in silence. In an op-ed in Le Monde, Frappat wrote: “The girls are rising up! It seems our culturally reactionary country, this time, will not be able to muzzle them.”

Welcoming the onset of a “French #MeToo” in an interview with France Inter radio last month, actor Laure Calamy praised her colleagues who dared to take on powerful men. She said their courage contrasted with Macron’s support for Depardieu, which she likened to a “slap in their face”.

At stake in this tussle is the very credibility of France and its film industry, Hamidi argued, highlighting a French “backwardness” on the issue. She said: “Statements such as Macron’s project a catastrophic image abroad, giving the impression that we are still in Ancien Régime France, in which the powerful can take advantage of women.”

Far from preserving France’s cherished cultural rayonnement (influence), the president’s words achieved the very opposite, Sellier added: “It is precisely this blindness to sexist violence that is undermining France’s cultural influence.”

French actor Depardieu faces new sex assault complaint

Agence France-Presse
February 16, 2024

Gerard Depardieu (Tiziana FABI AFP)

A woman has accused French screen legend Gerard Depardieu of allegedly sexually assaulting her during a 2014 film shoot, according to the police complaint and a newspaper report.

Depardieu, 75, has been charged with rape in another case and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women. He denies the allegations.

The woman registered a complaint on January 9 accusing Depardieu of "sexual assault on a vulnerable person by someone abusing the authority of their function", according to the document seen by AFP late Thursday.

She told regional newspaper Le Courrier de l'Ouest that he groped her "all over" and made "inappropriate" remarks while she was a 24-year-old assistant on the set in western France of 2015 film "Le magician et le Siamiois" ("The Magician and the Siamese").

The statute of limitations for an alleged sexual assault on an adult in France is six years.

Depardieu was in 2020 charged with rape and sexual assault after actor Charlotte Arnould filed her own complaint over allegations dating to 2018.

Another sexual assault complaint filed last year by actor Helene Darras, who said Depardieu groped and propositioned her during a 2007 film shoot, has been dropped for being past the statute of limitations.

Spanish journalist and author Ruth Baza said that she had filed a criminal complaint in Spain against Depardieu last month, claiming he raped her in 1995 in Paris.

The complaint has little hope of leading to charges due to the statute of limitations in France, which is 20 years for the alleged rape of an adult.

But Baza said she decided to go ahead anyway in the hope that it would "help other people" to do the same.

Repeated allegations against Depardieu have become a culture-war frontline in France, dividing the world of cinema and pitting feminist groups against the actor's defenders -- including President Emmanuel Macron.

The French leader in December said Depardieu should enjoy the presumption of innocence, calling him an "immense actor" and insinuating he was the victim of a "man hunt".

Macron more recently allowed that he had not "said enough how important the words of women who are victims of this violence are".

Robert Badinter: The French minister who fought against a 'killer justice system'

Issued on: 14/02/2024 - 

02:24

Former French justice minister Robert Badinter, who was honoured at a ceremony in Paris Wednesday following his death age 95, saved many lives by dedicating his own to the fight against capital punishment, playing a pivotal role in banning the dreaded guillotine in 1981. The soft-spoken attorney, who said he could not abide by a "killer justice system", was widely vilified for pushing through legislation banning the death penalty at a time when most French people still supported the practice.

 

REPLAY: France pays tribute to Badinter, ex-justice minister who fought to abolish death penalty

Issued on: 14/02/2024 - 

Video by: FRANCE 24

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday led a national tribute to former French justice minister Robert Badinter, who dedicated his life to the fight against capital punishment, playing a pivotal role in banning the dreaded guillotine in 1981. Watch our special edition in full:

Fluffy nuisance: Paris sends Invalides rabbits into exile

Paris (AFP) – Tourists and Parisians have long been accustomed to the sight of wild rabbits frolicking around the lawns of the historic Invalides memorial complex, one of the French capital's great landmarks.

Issued on: 14/02/2024 - 

The rabbits enjoyed munching the grass outside the Invalides complex in Paris

 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

But efforts are underway to relocate the fluffy animals, accused of damaging the gardens and drains around the giant edifice that houses Napoleon's tomb, authorities said.

Police said that several dozen bunnies had been captured since late January and relocated to the private estate of Breau in the Seine-et-Marne region outside Paris, a move that has prompted an outcry from animal rights activists.

"Two operations have taken place since 25 January," the police prefecture told AFP on Tuesday.

"Twenty-four healthy rabbits were captured on each occasion and released after vaccination" in Seine-et-Marne, the prefecture said.

Six more operations are scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.

Around 300 wild rabbits live around Les Invalides, according to police estimates.

"The overpopulation on the site is leading to deteriorating living conditions and health risks," the prefecture said.

Authorities estimate the cost of restoring the site, which has been damaged by the proliferation of underground galleries and the deterioration of gardens, pipes and flora, at 366,000 euros ($391,000).

Animal rights groups denounced the operation.

The Paris Animaux Zoopolis group said the rabbits were being subjected to "intense stress" or could be killed "under the guise of relocation".

"A number of rabbits will die during capture and potentially during transport," said the group, accusing authorities of being "opaque" about their methods.

The animal rights group also noted that Breau was home to the headquarters of the Seine-et-Marne hunting federation.

The police prefecture insisted that the animals would not be hunted.

In 2021, authorities classified the rabbits living in Paris as a nuisance but the order was reversed following an outcry from animal groups who have been pushing for a peaceful cohabitation with the animals.

tll-pyv-alh-as/sjw/imm

© 2024 AFP

Thousands commemorate 2005 killing of Lebanon ex-PM Hariri

Beirut (AFP) – Thousands of people gathered in the Lebanese capital Wednesday to commemorate the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri and urge his son Saad to make a political comeback.


Issued on: 14/02/2024 - 

Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri greets supporters after performing anniversary prayers at the grave of his father Rafic, assassinated in a 2005 truck bombing © ANWAR AMRO / AFP

Waving the blue flags of Saad Hariri's political party the Future Movement, the crowd clapped and cheered as he paid his respects at his father's tomb in central Beirut.

"We want Saad Hariri to return to Lebanon, so that security and stability return," said Dina Hleihel, 55, a supporter who attended the rally.

Hariri was thrust into the political limelight following the February 14, 2005 assassination of his father.

A reluctant politician, he resigned as prime minister after unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon's political class.

In 2022, he announced he was leaving politics and boycotted a parliamentary election that year.

Mahmud Hammud, 32, also at the rally, told AFP that "today, all of Lebanon wants Saad Hariri to return to politics, because he can save Lebanon and garner international support".

Despite now living in the United Arab Emirates, Hariri, who returned to Beirut on Sunday ahead of the anniversary, is still considered the country's main Sunni Muslim leader.

Once enjoying strong support from Saudi Arabia, Hariri's relationship with the regional heavyweight deteriorated over the years as the kingdom accused him of being too accommodating to the pro-Iran Hezbollah movement.
'Not the time'

Hariri said on Wednesday that when he left politics, "the international community was demanding change in Lebanon, and I volunteered to leave".

He said he was sticking by his decision for now and was "not thinking about" a comeback.

Hariri supporters braved driving rain to urge the ex-premier to make a political comeback after he withdrew in 2022 and moved to the United Arab Emirates 

© ANWAR AMRO / AFP

"Now is not the time," Hariri said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television.

The Sunni community -- long a major political force which under Lebanon's delicate sectarian power-sharing system conventionally holds the post of prime minister -- has been sidelined and beset by divisions since Hariri's self-imposed exile.

Political life in Lebanon as a whole has been paralysed for months, with deep divisions between the powerful pro-Iran camp centred around the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, and its adversaries.

The country has been without a president for more than a year, while a caretaker government is at the helm as Lebanon navigates a crushing four-year economic crisis.

Rafic Hariri, a towering figure, was killed in a suicide bombing targeting his armoured convoy.

The attack killed 22 people and injured 226.

In 2022, a United Nations-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment over the huge 2005 truck bombing.

© 2024 AFP

British skating legends Torvill and Dean back in Sarajevo 40 years since Olympics

Sarajevo (AFP) – Forty years since their impeccable performance at the Sarajevo Olympics left the world breathless, British skating greats Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean on Wednesday returned to the Bosnian capital to mark the anniversary.


Issued on: 14/02/2024 

Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill began their gold-winning Bolero routine in 1984 on their knees © GEORGES BENDRIHEM / AFP/File
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On February 14, 1984, the legendary figure skating pair had captivated 8,000 spectators at the Zetra sports hall, which was heavily shelled eight years later during the wartime siege of the city.

To the rousing music of Maurice Ravel's 'Bolero' they beautifully interpreted the eternal drama of impossible love.

"Since that time, we have scattered so many times around the world, performing Bolero and everybody comes up to us and says: 'I remember where I was when I watched Bolero when you were performing in Sarajevo'," Dean told a press conference.

Torvill and Dean became the first pair to receive top marks from all nine judges at the Olympics finals in Sarajevo.

Their performance, which saw the music chopped down from 15 minutes to just over four, had a major impact on both the history of figure skating and their lives.

The pair was welcomed by the Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karic before they will put on their skates later on Wednesday to take part in a show with young skaters.

"Today we are reviving only the most beautiful emotions, and we are truly honoured that our Torvill and Dean are in Sarajevo, in their Sarajevo, in their city," Karic said.

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean returned to the Olympics in 1994 taking bronze in Lillehammer © VINCENT AMALVY / AFP/File

The medal was won on Valentine's Day and the two mark it in their own way.

"Jayne and I always say to each other: 'Happy Bolero Day!' 'Cause that's a day that we won the Olympics. And it was because of Bolero and that routine that has given us this longevity."

Torvill, 66, said it would be nice to return to Sarajevo in 10 years.

"Let's hope to celebrate, but we're just happy that we can be here today on the actual day that we won the Olympics," she said.

The two have known each other since childhood and in 2025 they will celebrate 50 years since they started skating together. In April they begin their 'Farewell' Tour as they bring down the curtain on an extraordinary career on the ice.

"And we're still the very best of friends," Dean said.

They returned to competition 10 years later in 1994, winning their fourth European Championship and the Olympic bronze in Lillehammer, Norway.

© 2024 AFP

Big firms with $7 tn exit climate investment pressure group


AFP
February 15, 2024

Smog is pictured over Lake Geneva in Switzerland in February 2017

 - Copyright AFP/File FABRICE COFFRINI

A pair of large investment companies with nearly $7 trillion in assets, said Thursday they exited a climate change investor initiative that aims to pressure companies to quickly cut carbon emissions.

JPMorgan Asset Management, which manages $3.1 trillion in assets, has not renewed its membership in Climate Action 100+, saying through a spokesperson that it will oversee its stewardship on climate change with companies with its bank staff.

A second large asset manager, State Street Global Advisors, with $3.7 trillion, also dropped out, saying Climate Action’s approach “will not be consistent with our independent approach to proxy voting and portfolio company engagement,” according to a statement.

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, is also scaling back its work with the group, a spokesperson confirmed.

Launched in 2017, Climate Action 100+ aims to work with companies to halve their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, through governance reforms, the elimination of emission through the value chain and enhanced disclosure. Its website boasts $68 trillion in assets under management.

The moves come as Republican officials in Washington and some state governments criticize financial companies for prioritizing climate change, in some cases blocking the firms from state contracts.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded the news, saying financial companies had undertaken an “unlawful” campaign to force environmental, social and corporate governance on customers.

“I’m pleased JPMorgan has exited the Climate Action 100+,” Paxton said on X, the former Twitter. “This is a critical step toward putting customers’ financial well-being first.”

JPMorgan said in light of its 40 “dedicated sustainable investing professionals” and other staff, the asset manager “has determined that it will no longer participate in Climate Action 100+ engagements,” according to a company statement.

“We believe that climate change continues to present material economic risks and opportunities to our clients, and our analysts will continue to factor this into engagement with companies around the world.”

Cuba boosts doctors’ wages in bid to halt mass exodus

By AFP
February 15, 2024

To try and halt an exodus, some 400,000 doctors, nurses and technicians have been given the incentive bonuses - 

Copyright AFP YAMIL LAGE

Leticia PINEDA

Cuban cardiologist Alexey Lopez, 59, is sleeping a bit better since his salary got a bump — part of government efforts to stop its renowned health care system from bleeding doctors amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

But Lopez fears the wage boost will not be enough to lure back his colleagues who are among some 40,000 Cuban medical staff that quit in 2022 and 2023, according to official figures.

He told AFP “we were losing sleep” making ends meet before incentive bonuses were introduced last month for night and weekend shifts, seniority, and work in specialized or risky services.

The communist island has been battling sky-high inflation and shortages since the pandemic plus a tightening of US sanctions in 2021, combined with structural weaknesses, sent the economy into a tailspin.

The bleak circumstances have pushed some five percent of the population to flee, mostly to the United States, in the biggest wave of emigration since Fidel Castro’s revolution.

Cuba’s famed medical system has also taken a blow, with some health care workers leaving the country while others have ditched their white coats for better-paid work elsewhere, like the tourism industry.

To try to halt the exodus, some 400,000 doctors, nurses and technicians have been given the incentive bonuses.

– ‘Not yet enough’ –

The cardiologist Lopez, who works at Havana’s Calixto Garcia Hospital, saw his salary more than double from 6,500 to 17,000 Cuban pesos with the bonuses, meaning he now earns $141 per month according to the official rate, but only $56 at the street rates which tend to govern prices.

“I know people who have quit and these measures are not yet enough to encourage them to come back,” he told AFP.

Physiotherapist Amanda, who preferred not to give her surname, said that despite her salary being increased by a third, she will “have to find other solutions to generate money” to survive.

Deputy health minister Luis Fernando Navarro told AFP the measure aimed to “improve the living conditions of staff,” even though he admits “this increase does not respond to the current cost of living in Cuba.”

Navarro said the doctor shortage was most being felt in specialized fields.

He said that while the country has general practitioners in all of its health centers, “this is not the case for specialized care” in hospitals or “hyper-specialized care” for complex illnesses.

– ‘White coat diplomacy’ –

The country’s universal health care system boasts 89 doctors for every 10,000 inhabitants, compared to 33 in France and 35 in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.

The export of skilled health care professionals in so-called “white coat diplomacy” has been a valuable source of foreign currency, and in some years — such as 2018 — was the country’s main earner, bringing in some six billion dollars.

At home, Cuban doctors often have to buy their own stethoscopes and equipment.

With old heart monitors beeping in the background, Dr Lopez said the economic crisis was being felt “in shortages of doctors, equipment, and medicine.”