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)
Friday, December 10, 2021
Oil-covered snowy owl rescued from recycling plant in Wisconsin
Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Animal rescuers in Wisconsin said a snowy owl is recovering after being found covered in diesel and an oil-based substance at a recycling plant.
The Wisconsin Humane Society said its Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was contacted about a large bird at the recycling center in Milwaukee on Friday, and a photo sent to staff identified the avian as a snowy owl.
A rescue volunteer captured the owl and brought it to the center, where staff determined it was covered in diesel and an oil-based substance.
"The contaminants had rendered her hypothermic, she had been ingesting the oily mix in a desperate attempt to clean herself, and she was in respiratory distress," the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center said in a Facebook post.
The owl was given a deep cleaning by rescuers.
"Snowy owls have a tremendous amount of insulative feathers, and hers required meticulous cleaning -- even all the way down her legs, feet, and toes," the post said.
The center said the bird is now being treated for "additional injuries and abrasions."
The post said the owl is now recovering and "beginning to show appropriate wild animal sass and attitude toward us." ADVERTISEMENT
The AP Interview: 'We want justice' on climate, Nakate says
By CARA ANNA2
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The capital of Uganda coughs itself awake on weekdays under a soft blanket of smog. Kampala’s hills come into sharper focus as the morning rush of minibuses and motorbikes fades. It is this East African city that one of the world’s most well-known climate activists, Vanessa Nakate, calls home.
The 25-year-old’s rise in profile has been quick. Not even three years have passed since she set out with relatives in Kampala to stage her first, modest protest over how the world is treating its only planet.
In an interview this week with The Associated Press — which last year drew international attention and Nakate’s dismay by cropping her from a photo — she reflected on the whirlwind. She spoke of her disappointment in the outcome of the U.N. climate talks in Scotland and what she and other young activists plan for the year to come.
“We expected the leaders to rise up for the people, to rise up for the planet” at the talks known as COP26, she said. Instead, the world could be on a pathway to warm 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.
That’s well above the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C — and would be “a death sentence for so many communities on the front lines of the climate crisis,” Nakate said.
But many of the most-affected communities are in Africa, whose 1.3 billion people contribute the least to global emissions, less than 4%, but stand to suffer from it most.
That suffering, in some cases, has already begun: Deadly drought fells wildlife and livestock in parts of East Africa, water scarcity hits areas in West and Southern Africa, and hunger affects many millions of people, from Madagascar to Somalia, as a result.
And yet the $100 billion in financing per year promised by richer nations to help developing countries deal with the coming catastrophe has not appeared.
“We cannot to adapt to starvation,” Nakate said, her voice soft but firm as the introvert in her gives way to the convictions that have brought her this far. “We cannot adapt to extinction, we cannot adapt to lost cultures, lost traditions, to lost histories, and the climate crisis is taking all of these things away.”
The next big climate conference will be in Africa, in Egypt, a chance for the spotlight to fall squarely on the continent.
It will be a test for activists and negotiators from Africa’s 54 countries who have long jostled for space at global climate events.
“Many times, activists in Africa have been called missing voices. But we are not missing,” Nakate said. “We are present, we are available, we are just unheard.”
She watched as some activists from African countries faced the challenges of securing funding, accreditation or access to COVID-19 vaccinations as they sought to attend COP26. She has spoken of feeling erased herself when she was cropped out of an AP photo of climate activists last year at the World Economic Forum. The AP apologized for its error in judgment and the pain it caused her.
But it is not enough to simply listen to Africa’s climate activists, Nakate said this week. People with power must act on those demands.
“We don’t want to just hear sweet phrases from them, sweet commitments,” she said. “Commitments will not change the planet, pledges will not stop the suffering of people.”
Specifically, Nakate said, drastic action is needed by the leaders in government and business that continue to fund the extraction of fossil fuels, like coal and oil.
She chose not to call out anyone by name, but when asked whether Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, had replied to a letter she wrote about a controversial oil pipeline project to ship crude from Uganda to neighboring Tanzania, she said no.
In fact, the 77-year-old leader has never been in contact with Nakate, who became one of the world’s most well-known Ugandans not long after graduating from university with a business degree and becoming inspired by climate activism.
In her recent book “A Bigger Picture,” Nakate reflects on how leaders’ decisions on climate have real-life consequences far beyond the data that often dominate the conversation.
She worries about how farmers who lose their crops to climate shocks will feed their families, and how lost income can force children out of school and young women into early marriage.
“This isn’t just about us wanting a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” Nakate said. “We want justice that centers the protection of the planet and the protection of the people because the climate crisis exacerbates poverty first of all. We cannot eradicate poverty if climate change is pushing millions of people into extreme poverty and keeping them in poverty traps.” Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate splashes the water as she explains the changing water levels of Lake Victoria, on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Asked how young climate activists can make sure that they are central to decision-making worldwide, Nakate expressed confidence that they are making themselves heard, creating their own platforms on social media and elsewhere.
“If the table is not given to you, you make one for yourself,” she said — a message she could well tweet to her 230,000-plus followers.
In 2022, Nakate’s work will be closer to home as she pursues a project to provide schools in Uganda with solar panels and eco-friendly cookstoves to reduce the amount of firewood consumed.
“I can’t believe how fast this journey has been,” she said as she realized that within weeks it will be the third anniversary of her first climate protest in Kampala. “Activism can be very hard, a lot of work, but it takes love and grace to continue to speak.”
It also takes a certain hope, she said, and as a born-again Christian she finds that hope in God. It helps her believe that “the future you’re fighting for is actually possible and you can achieve it.”
Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate walks along the shore of Lake Victoria on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Footprints show some two-legged dinosaurs were agile
By EMMA H. TOBIN In this October 2020 photo provided by Alberto Labrador, a researcher measures a 120 million year-old fossilized dinosaur footprint the in the La Rioja region in northern Spain, while doing research about dinosaur running speeds. Scientists discovered one of the quickest sets of theropod tracks in the world through this research. (Alberto Labrador via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Not all two-legged dinosaurs were like the lumbering Tyrannosaurus rex.
An analysis of dinosaur tracks from 120 million years ago unearthed in Spain adds to growing evidence that these meat-eating prehistoric beasts belonging to the same group as T.rex could be highly agile.
The findings, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, reveal one of the fastest known sets of fossilized dinosaur footprints.
These tracks join the ranks of other speedy sets found in Utah and Texas, one of which shows dinosaurs running at speeds over 30 mph. The Spanish footprints showed speeds of nearly 28 mph.
To calculate the running speed, scientists measured the length of the footprint and took into account the dinosaur’s hip height and stride length — the distance between two consecutive footprints of the same foot.
All of the fastest known sets of prints come from a family of dinosaurs called theropods. These carnivorous dinosaurs stood on two legs and could not fly, like the famed velociraptor. The animals that created the most recent impressions were probably 5 to 6 1/2 feet tall and 13 to 16 feet long from mouth to tail, the researchers estimated.
Scientists think there may be other faster dinosaurs, but the tracks of theropods have been easier to track down.
“Behavior is something very difficult to study in dinosaurs,” said lead author Pablo Navarro-Lorbés of the University of La Rioja. “These kind of findings are very important, I think, for improving that kind of knowledge.”
Scientists typically predict dinosaur behavior through computer modeling of the creatures’ movement. Physical examination of fossilized footprints confirm the results.
These are “clearly active, agile animals,” said Smithsonian paleontologist Hans Sues, who had no role in the study.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Neil Young rebuilds a Rockies barn and reunites Crazy Horse By ANDREW DALTON Neil Young poses for a portrait at Lost Planet Editorial in Santa Monica, Calif. on Sept. 9, 2019. Young had a barn rebuilt in the Rockies and used it to reunite with his old backing band Crazy Horse. The little log structure from the 1850s lends its name to the album that resulted, just called “Barn.” It will be released Friday along with a documentary of the same name directed by Young's wife Daryl Hannah. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP, File)
A horse needs a barn.
Neil Young didn’t rebuild a log barn from the 1850s that was falling into the ground in the Colorado Rockies just so he could make an album in it with Crazy Horse, his frequent collaborators for more than 50 years, but that was a big part of the inspiration.
“We got some people to restore it back to the original greatness, with ponderosa pines, it’s just beautiful, just a beautiful building,” Young told The Associated Press via Zoom from the property there that he shares with wife Daryl Hannah. “I felt like it was going to be a great place to make music.”
The space was so significant to the process that “Barn” became the name of both the album and a companion documentary, directed by Hannah, being released Friday.
It was also an ideal spot for Young to cautiously reunite with drummer Ralph Molina, bassist Billy Talbot and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren.
“It’s remote,” Young said. “With the pandemic and everything we felt like we could get everybody there safely and have everybody vaccinated and pure.”
Crazy Horse has always taken Young, now 76, to remote places musically too. He says they still provide the same “cosmic vibe” they did on 1969′s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” 1975′s “Zuma,” 1979′s “Rust Never Sleeps” and 1990′s “Ragged Glory.”
“It’s just a place where we get to that I don’t get with anybody else, with Crazy Horse’s ability to jam and the ability to carry on and keep going with not a care in the world,” Young said. “They are as happy to play a song for 20 minutes as they are for three minutes.”
This cover image released by Reprise Records shows "Barn," the latest release by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. (Reprise Records via AP)
A “barn” is normally musicians’ shorthand for a cold, cavernous room. But this one brought only audial warmth.
“It sounds like God because there’s no square to it, it has no standing waves, because it’s all the insides of these big logs one on top of another,” Young said. “It’s a bunch of round surfaces. From an acoustic standpoint, it’s flawless.”
They built a stage inside and played in their live-and-loose style to a recording truck known as Le Mobile, where engineer Guy Charbonneau and producer Niko Bolas sat parked outside.
“It had just been converted to digital. We took all the digital stuff out and put the analog back in,” he said with a smile.
Beyond barn-raising, Young stayed busy during the coronavirus pandemic, writing all nine songs for the album and assembling the next wave of recordings for release through his archives website.
“There were no distractions,” he said. “And we didn’t have any superfluous jobs to do, none of the trappings of keeping everything going and keeping touring, all that all went away. It was fine with me. I have so much to do.”
Volume three of the career-spanning archives, covering a period in the mid-1970s, was collected with an assist from fans who write in with their memories of his music, at times pointing him to things he didn’t remember existed.
“It’s really a beautiful piece of work, all of the songs that made me feel so good to hear, and things that I’ve never heard in my life that we’ve uncovered,” Young said. “There’s a Crazy Horse record, a live Crazy Horse performance that opens up volume three, which I think is the best thing ever recorded with Crazy Horse.”
Hannah’s film patiently lets the album process play out, with slow gazes of the barn at sunset, a pair of dogs lazing outside, and long shots of the band’s jams unfolding.
“I’m very lucky,” Young said of Hannah. “She’s the other side of everything. We create it and turn around and we see what she saw when we were creating.”
The album has songs celebrating love, memory, and old friends, but it’s darkened by the state of a world that stokes Young’s sadness and anger.
The pandemic feels present on the long signature song, “Welcome Back.”
“For the world has closed us in but we must allow for changes to be made,” Young sings. “Welcome back, welcome back, it’s not the same. The shade is just you blinking.”
His anger over lethargic global action on climate change is felt on “Human Race,” in which he sings of “children of the fires and floods today’s people have left behind.”
“It pisses me off that we’re not doing as much and that we’re so distracted,” he said. “We’re losing track of what we’re supposed to be doing. I guess, you know, the Earth is challenged if we want to have a place for our children, for our grandchildren, we better get our stuff together.”
He sighed and said “the best thing I can do is create art or music or something that gives people a place to go.”
Interfaith coalition urges Louis Vuitton to shed fur items BOSTON (AP) — A group of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish leaders is urging luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton to stop using animal fur in its clothing and other products.
In a joint statement, Orthodox Christian priest Stephen Karcher, Hindu activist Rajan Zed, Jewish rabbi ElizaBeth Webb Beyer and Buddhist priest Matthew Fisher said selling items trimmed with fur is inconsistent with the ethics and values of parent company Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
“Louis Vuitton should explore new boundaries of fur-free creative design and discontinue selling all products made from animal fur,” the clerics said Thursday, calling the trend “cruel, outdated and unnecessary.”
“Animals should not be made to suffer and killed to make fashion and glamorize bodies when there are other valid fashion alternatives at our disposition. Cruelty should never become fashionable,” they said.
Paris-based Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Zed, who is president of the Nevada-based Universal Society of Hinduism, urged LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and other executives — as well as the fashion industry as a whole — to review the practice.
San Francisco and Los Angeles are among U.S. cities with vibrant fashion sectors that have banned the sale of fur products.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, has banned the import and sale of fur since 2015, and fur farming has been outlawed in the United Kingdom for more than two decades.
DANISH FARMED MINK KILLED DUE TO COVID INFECTIONS
Metropolitan Museum of Art cuts Sackler name amid opioid ire
A sign with the Sackler name is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is dropping the Sackler name from seven exhibition spaces amid growing outrage over the role the family may have played in the opioid crisis.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art is dropping the Sackler name from seven exhibition spaces amid growing outrage over the role the family may have played in the opioid crisis.
The New York museum and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the institution and their once-deep-pocketed benefactors would part ways, removing the Sackler name from the iconic building, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur. The wing is named after brothers Arthur, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, who donated $3.5 million for it in the 1970s.
“Our families have always strongly supported The Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the Museum and the important mission that it serves,” Sackler descendants said in a statement.
Arthur, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler have all died, but descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler currently are principal owners of Purdue Pharma, the company that developed OxyContin, a widely prescribed and widely abused painkiller.
Foundations run by members of the Sackler family have given tens of millions of dollars to museums, including the Guggenheim in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and funded work at Oxford and Yale.
In recent years, the Guggenheim, the Louvre in Paris, the Tate in London and the Jewish Museum in Berlin have all distanced themselves from the family. In 2019, the Met itself announced it would stop taking monetary gifts from Sacklers connected to Purdue Pharma.
UPDATED
Rights Groups Warn Extradition of Assange Would Have 'Dangerous Implications for Future of Journalism'
The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders called on the U.S. and U.K. governments to "stop to this more than decade-long persecution once and for all."
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a press conference at Park Plaza Hotel onOctober 23, 2010 in London. A series of leaks of American military documents, nearly 400,000 in total, were released by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. The files detail torture and the abuse of Iraqi detainees. (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
A chorus of international human rights and press freedom groups roundly condemned a British court's Friday ruling that WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States where he could face torturous conditions and life in prison.
"Julian Assange should be immediately released, and steps taken to ensure no journalist, publisher, or source can ever be targeted in this way again."
"This is a travesty of justice," said Nils Muižnieks, Europe director for Amnesty International.
Muižnieks was part of a chorus of condemnation that swiftly followed the High Court decision, which blocks a lower court's January ruling rejecting the U.S. government's attempt at extradition because it would be "oppressive by reason of Assange's mental health" and create "substantial" risk of him dying by suicide.
The new ruling marks in a win for the U.S. government—which has charged Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act related to his publication of classified documents exposing American war crimes. Critics like Reporters Without Borders (RSF), however, say the ruling represents a far-reaching and alarming attack on journalistic freedoms.
"We condemn today's decision, which will prove historic for all the wrong reasons," said RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire.
"We fully believe that Julian Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, and we defend this case because of its dangerous implications for the future of journalism and press freedom around the world," Deloire said. He also called for "a stop to this more than decade-long persecution once and for all."
The Committee to Protect Journalists drew attention to ruling coinciding with the close of President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy and the awarding of Nobel prizes to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov.
Robert Mahoney, the group's deputy executive director said, "The U.S. Justice Department's dogged pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder has set a harmful legal precedent for prosecuting reporters simply for interacting with their sources."
"The Biden administration pledged at its Summit for Democracy this week to support journalism," said Mahoney. It could begin "by removing the threat of prosecution under the Espionage Act now hanging over the heads of investigative journalists everywhere."
RSF director of international campaigns Rebecca Vincent similarly said the ruling represents "a bleak moment for journalists and journalism around the world, on the very day when we should be celebrating the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists and urging states to uphold the commitments to media freedom they have just reaffirmed at the U.S.-led Summit for Democracy."
“The U.S. government's indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad."
The U.S., she added, should "truly lead by example and close this case now before further damage is done. Julian Assange should be immediately released, and steps taken to ensure no journalist, publisher, or source can ever be targeted in this way again."
Muižnieks—who rejected as "deeply flawed" U.S. assurances to the court that Assange wouldn't be held in solitary—likewise warned of wide reverberations of the attack on Assange.
“The U.S. government's indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad," he said. "If upheld, it would undermine the key role of journalists and publishers in scrutinizing governments and exposing their misdeeds would leave journalists everywhere looking over their shoulders."
The legal team for Assange, who's been jailed at the U.K. high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019, has vowed to appeal.
Warning of "deeply concerning implications for press freedom," Daniel Gorman, director of English PEN, said the decision "must be reviewed by the Supreme Court."
"The legal charges filed against Julian Assange contain activities that are central to the work of investigative journalists," he said, "and his extradition could therefore set a devastating precedent for journalists worldwide. We continue to call on U.S. authorities to drop these deeply problematic charges and call on the Home Secretary to block this extradition."
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Court ruling puts Julian Assange a step closer to US extradition
Stella Moris, partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks to media outside
the Royal Courts of Justice following the appeal against Assange's extradition in
London on Friday, December 10. Photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Tom Pilgrim
December 11 2021
British appellate court opened the door yesterday for Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States by overturning a lower court’s decision that the WikiLeaks founder’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the US criminal justice system.
The High Court in London ruled that US assurances were enough to guarantee Mr Assange would be treated humanely and directed a lower court judge to send the extradition request to Britain’s interior minister for review.
Home Secretary Priti Patel, who oversees law enforcement in the UK, will make the final decision.
“There is no reason why this court should not accept the assurances as meaning what they say,’’ the High Court ruling stated. “There is no basis for assuming that the USA has not given the assurances in good faith.”
Mr Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, called the decision a “grave miscarriage of justice” and said Mr Assange’s lawyers would seek to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.
“We will fight,” Ms Moris said outside court, where supporters gathered with banners demanding Mr Assange’s release.
“Every generation has an epic fight to fight and this is ours, because Julian represents the fundamentals of what it means to live in a free society,” she said.
Mr Assange (50) is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison. The High Court ordered that he remain in custody pending the outcome of the extradition case.
In January, a lower court judge refused the US request to extradite Mr Assange to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied extradition on health grounds, saying the Australian citizen was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions.
James Lewis, a lawyer for the US government, said Mr Assange “has no history of serious and enduring mental illness” and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.
US authorities have told British judges that if Mr Assange is extradited for prosecution, he would be eligible to serve any US prison sentence he receives in his native Australia. The authorities also said he wouldn’t be held at the supermax penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, the highest-security prison in the United States.
The US has indicted Mr Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, although Lewis said “the longest sentence ever imposed for this offense is 63 months.”
Human rights and press freedom groups have condemned a High Court ruling that Mr Assange can be extradited as a “travesty of justice” and “hammer-blow to free expression”.
Responding to the decision Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said: “We condemn today’s decision, which will prove historic for all the wrong reasons.
“We fully believe that Julian Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, and we defend this case because of its dangerous implications for the future of journalism and press freedom around the world.”
Nils Muiznieks, Amnesty International’s Europe director, said: “This is a travesty of justice. By allowing this appeal, the High Court has chosen to accept the deeply flawed diplomatic assurances given by the US that Assange would not be held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison.
“The fact that the US has reserved the right to change its mind at any time means that these assurances are not worth the paper they are written on.”
He added: “If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could not only face trial on charges under the Espionage Act but also a real risk of serious human rights violations due to detention conditions that could amount to torture or other ill-treatment.”
'We're different': Spielberg launches Latina stars in 'West Side Story' Andrew MARSZAL Fri, 10 December 2021 Ariana DeBose (L) portrays Anita in Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake of "West Side Story," a role that Rita Moreno (R) played to acclaim half a century earlier (AFP/Charley Gallay)More
It is every aspiring actor's dream: hand-picked by Steven Spielberg from 30,000 contenders for a starring role that launches her into Hollywood's A-list and Oscars contention.
But Rachel Zegler insists the process of her casting as Maria in the new film adaptation of "West Side Story," which hit US theaters on Friday, was anything but straightforward.
"It didn't feel like a fairy tale when it was happening. I was actually very stressed out!" Zegler, who was 16 when she submitted a video of herself singing "I Feel Pretty," told AFP.
Zegler, a New Jersey native, went through "eight or nine" rounds of auditions over nearly a year.
"I left every single round thinking if I don't get it, I can't wait to see this movie, and I've had today and I've met these cool people, and maybe they'll keep me in mind for the next thing.
"I had the greatest time -- and then I got to actually make the movie," Zegler added.
Due to pandemic delays, the Spielberg motion picture was kept under wraps for more than two years after filming finished, during which time she has been cast as Snow White in Disney's upcoming live-action remake.
Zegler, now 20, is being tipped as a contender for best actress at the Oscars held in March, with the film's campaign blitz launching her into the public eye.
"It's the most jarring, overwhelming experience," said Zegler, adding that "she doesn't know how to feel" about becoming a celebrity.
"Being known is fun, being known is cool too," she said. - 'We're different' -
Spielberg's decision to remake a beloved 1961 film which won 10 Oscars -- the most ever for a musical -- drew criticism from many fans who felt it could not be improved upon.
Reviews have been glowing, however, with Zegler and Ariana DeBose -- who plays the fiery Anita -- drawing particular praise. Additional controversy came from the 1950s Broadway musical's stereotyping of Puerto Rican immigrants as gang members, and its use of racial slurs.
But while the original film version was criticized for casting a white actress as Maria, and painting Rita Moreno's skin darker to play Anita, Spielberg cast his movie more authentically.
DeBose, who is Afro-Latina, said her real-life heritage helped her performance stand out from the legendary Moreno, who joined her on set for Spielberg's film as a new character.
"It wasn't intimidating because we're different. I mean, sure, she's 100 percent an icon, she's beloved," she told AFP.
"But by virtue of me being Afro-Latina, we are inherently different women, with different lived experiences and my lived experience informs this character fully," said DeBose.
"I walk through the world in a very different way. So I feel like when you know that you have something to offer a character you hold fast to that. And you don't focus on the pressures of someone else's legacy." Moreno, one of the elite club of entertainers to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award -- popularly known as an "EGOT" -- "showed us that there was possibility of success," said DeBose.
"For my character specifically, now young Afro-Latinas finally get to see themselves as a main character in the context of this story."
Zegler, who is of Colombian heritage, added: "As a Latina, I could not be more proud to be a part of a project that represents our people in such a beautiful way, and represents real-life experiences that we've all had, and that our ancestors had when they came here for the first time."
amz/hg/crs/mlm
West Side Story aims to improve on original's Latino representation
Fri., December 10, 2021 David Alvarez portrays Bernardo Vasquez. The Cuban-Canadian actor says there is 'so much pride' in the new adaptation of the 1961 classic. (20th Century Studios/AP - image credit)
When Rita Moreno starred as Anita in West Side Story, the 1961 movie in which half of the characters are Puerto Rican, she was the only Latino performer among the cast.
Still, she — and her white colleagues — were made to wear makeup that darkened their skin.
It was a common practice back then. But in the 60 years since, Moreno says Latino representation in film and television "hasn't changed anywhere near enough."
"In some respects it has gotten better," she told CBC News. "In some respects, it's pretty much the same … I think we're represented so poorly in films and television."
Director Steven Spielberg says he wanted to cast his version, in theatres now, more "authentically" — to make sure the actors playing the famed musical's Puerto Rican teens "were 100 per cent Latinx and young."
Like the original, his version is based on the 1957 stage musical by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, recounting the forbidden romance of Tony, an American boy, and Maria, a Puerto Rican girl, in 1950s New York City. Their affair is complicated by allegiances to rival teenage gangs: the Puerto Rican "Sharks" and the white American "Jets."
Moreno, now 89, takes on a new role as Valentina, a scene-stealing shopkeeper.
One expert says that Latino performers have been overlooked and stereotyped by Hollywood for years. The old West Side Story was no exception.
It "looks really weird to us today because we see that, and [we think], 'What is that?' and, 'Why does [Moreno] have so much makeup?'" said Charles Ramírez Berg, a professor of film studies at the University of Texas at Austin and an expert on Latinos in American cinema.
"Back in 1961, that was just the convention and that was just how movies were made."
A new generation of Latino triple threats — all actors, dancers and singers — emerge in Spielberg's adaptation. One is Canada's David Alvarez, who plays Shark leader Bernardo, a role originally portrayed by Greek actor George Chakiris.
Alvarez, who is of Cuban descent, says while he loves the original, it's not without its shortcomings.
"The only thing that I wish had been the case is that the old movie represented the Latin community a little better," Alvarez said. That's why there is "so much pride" behind this new film, he added.
"My parents struggled so much to try and give me a better life," said Alvarez, whose parents moved from Cuba to Canada during the 1990s.
"It makes me so happy that not only my parents get to see it, but just a whole entire community who understand the struggle that Bernardo, Anita and Maria go through."
Another change: Spielberg's West Side Story forgoes subtitles when characters are speaking Spanish.
"I felt that subtitling the Spanish would have been disrespectful to the second language in this country, and that it would immediately make English the dominant language," Spielberg said in an interview with Digital Spy, a British entertainment website.
"It was out of complete respect, and to give the dignity where dignity is earned and deserved to be given."
Alvarez says understanding Spanish-language scenes is a matter of context, not linguistics.
"All you've got to do is look at how it's being said. How am I saying it? Am I kissing Anita when I'm saying it? If I'm kissing Anita … maybe I'm saying something flirty."
Audiences have increasingly pushed back against film and television that, when casting within a particular ethnicity, favour light-skinned performers, shutting darker-skinned talent out of roles.
By contrast, 2021's West Side Story has been lauded for casting Afro-Latino performers, including breakout star Ariana DeBose, who portrays Anita — the same character Moreno was made to darken her skin for in 1961.
Ethnic representation on the screen is never perfect, says Ramírez Berg. But these days "it's much better."
"People are thinking and kind of expanding their cinematic view of stories that can be told, of characters that can hold our attention for a film, and actors who could play those characters." Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios/AP
DEFINE DEMOCRACY
Biden touts US as democracy champion, China scoffs
US President Joe Biden says he wants to champion democracy but the message faces criticism (AFP/SAUL LOEB) Sebastian Smith Fri, December 10, 2021
President Joe Biden said Friday that democracy "knows no borders" as he closed a two-day summit on democratic freedoms while fending off a storm of criticism from China and domestic critics alike.
Biden's presidency has focused on restoring America to what Ronald Reagan liked to call a "shining city on the hill," or a beacon for freedom that other nations look up to.
But the Washington summit, held by video link because of Covid-19, underlined difficulties facing the United States in resurrecting that traditional role.
In closing comments to leaders from scores of countries, as well as representatives of NGOs and philanthropical bodies, Biden said democracy "knows no borders. It speaks every language. It lives in anti-corruption activists, human rights defenders, journalists."
"We're committed to working with all those who share those values to shape the rules of the road," Biden vowed, saying the United States will stand by those "who give their people the ability to breathe free and not seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand."
Biden has spoken repeatedly about the world reaching an "inflection point" in a struggle between growing autocracies and increasingly under-fire democracies.
On the first day of the virtual summit, he pledged $424 million to support media freedom, fair elections and anti-corruption campaigns.
"Democracy needs champions," Biden said.
But as Biden hosted the summit on a wall of television screens in the White House, rival China was trolling the summit with mocking propaganda, including a rap song in English saying that Americans "sell democracy like they sell Coca-Cola!"
China and Russia, which Biden describes as the supreme leaders of the autocracies camp, were the highest profile names left off the invite list to the Washington summit.
Both countries have responded angrily, accusing Biden of stoking Cold War-style ideological divides.
China is especially upset because while it was not invited, Taiwan was.
As a democratically-run island that China considers a breakaway region, Taiwan is an increasingly sore spot in the wider battle between Beijing and Washington.
Beijing got a boost right in the middle of Biden's summit when Nicaragua dropped its previous diplomatic alliance with Taiwan, saying it only recognized China.
The announcement leaves Taiwan with only 14 diplomatic allies, just as the US State Department is calling on "all countries that value democratic institutions" to "expand engagement" with the island. - World skeptical on US -
Biden's democracy appeal also met a mixed reception at home.
On one side, Republican critics say he has not been tough enough on China or other adversaries.
"In Joe Biden's first 11 months in office, he has failed to stand up for freedom across the globe and caved to those who want to dismantle it, emboldening our enemies and undermining our standing abroad," the Republican National Committee said in a reaction to his remarks Friday.
On another end of the political spectrum, famed Vietnam War era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg lashed out at the Biden administration for pursuing extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Washington wants Assange to face trial for WikiLeaks' publication in 2010 of classified military documents relating to its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Friday, the US government won an appeal paving the way for the 50-year-old Australian to be sent from Britain.
"How dare Biden lecture a @StateDept #SummitForDemocracy today while refusing to pardon" Assange, Ellsberg tweeted Thursday.
He accused Biden of "killing freedom of the press for 'national security.'"
And looming over not just the democracy summit, but the entire US political scene, is the trauma of Donald Trump's refusal to accept he lost the 2020 presidential election, as well as an alleged coup attempt to reverse the results.
It's a complex situation that leaves Biden struggling to get his message across and his audience sometimes skeptical.
Only 17 percent of people surveyed in 16 advanced economies "consider American democracy a good model for other countries to follow," according to the Pew Research Center Spring 2021 Global Attitudes Survey.
Another 57 percent "think it used to be a good example but has not been in recent years."
AFP
Russia to ban capturing whales for aquariums
Russian activists on Friday welcomed a move by President Vladimir Putin to close a legal loophole that allowed sea creatures, particularly whales, to be captured to perform in aquariums and other venues.
Images of 100 whales cramped into a notorious facility dubbed the "whale jail" in Russia's far east sparked an international outcry in 2019.
The whales, which were destined for aquariums, were freed after an intense campaign by rights groups and earlier this month Russia said it had fully dismantled the secretive facility.
Greenpeace Russia director Sergei Tsyplyonkov had asked Putin to get rid of a legal loophole that allowed the capture of sea animals, most of them destined for aquariums in China.
"Are you suggesting a ban on catching (the animals) for entertainment? Yes, I agree, let's do it this way," Putin said during a meeting with the presidential rights council on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference the next day, Tsyplyonkov said closing the loophole was "very important".
"The attitude towards children, the elderly and animals says a lot about a society," said Tsyplyonkov, adding that he was "happy" that Putin agreed with him.
Environmental groups put huge efforts into closing the notorious whale facility in Srednyaya Bay near the far eastern town of Nakhodka and releasing the whales into the wild.
All of the animals -- many of them calves -- went through a rehabilitation programme before being released into the Sea of Okhotsk between Russia and Japan.
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AFP
Russia completes closure of secretive ‘whale jail’
7 Dec, 2021
An infamous “whale jail” discovered on Russia’s Pacific coast in 2018 has been dismantled, officials announced last week. It drew the ire of activists when dozens of sea mammals were found locked up there in tiny enclosures.
The collection of pools used to house the animals has now been completely taken apart, according to a statement on Thursday from the environmental prosecutor’s office of Amur, in Russia’s Far East.
“In order to prevent the illegal keeping of sea animals, the floating structures were dismantled,” officials said, adding that the jail’s components had been moved to a shipyard.
In 2018, environmental activists sounded the alarm after discovering 87 beluga whales, 11 so-called ‘killer whales,’ and five baby walruses were being held in poor conditions in the private facility in Primorsky Region. Their discovery sparked an international outcry, with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio tweeting a petition to free the animals that gathered nearly a million signatures.
The Kremlin responded by launching an investigation into the operators of the facility, the Center for the Adaptation of Marine Mammals. The organization maintained that its use of the animals did not breach national laws, but activists said the sea creatures were really intended for sale to aquariums and amusement parks in China.
At the time, Russian law did not forbid the capture of whales for “cultural and educational purposes,” and the process of freeing them dragged on for months. Eventually, a Russian court ruled that they had been obtained illegally, and, by late 2019, all of the mammals had been released into the ocean.
Commenting on the facility’s closure, Dmitry Lisitsyn, the head of the NGO Sakhalin Watch, said, “It should have been done a long time ago. We put huge efforts into closing it and freeing the whales.” He added that the process of freeing them had been “very difficult,” since most of them were very young and therefore not adapted to life in the wild.
In May this year, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced that Moscow was introducing new prohibitions on the capture of large sea mammals, intended to protect the species from extinction. In November, however, Russian ecologists warned that the proposed laws would still allow their capture for educational purposes, which had been the stated justification for the “whale jail” in the first place.
