Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Zhao facing controversy at home
Chloe Zhao’s success — she’s the first Asian woman and the second woman ever to win a Golden Globe for best director for her film “Nomadland” — has not been met with universal applause in her country of birth.
The Beijing-born filmmaker, now a leading
Oscar contender, instead finds the news of her success overshadowed by a nationalist backlash regarding her citizenship and her identity. Censors have removed some social media posts about the film, which has raised questions about whether it will still be released in China.
Over the past week, Chinese web users questioned whether Zhao, who was educated in the U.K. and the U.S., was still a Chinese citizen and if she could be counted as Chinese given a critical comment she made about the country in 2013. Even as some celebrated her win, others dug up two interviews where Zhao said things that they considered an “insult to China.”
Publicity about the film has been removed from social media, and at least two hashtags related to it have been disabled.
The film was slated to be released April 23, according to Chinese media.
Wilson ‘grateful’ for health:
As the world marks one year of the COVID19 pandemic, Rita Wilson is celebrating that she’s still alive. The actor, who tested positive along with husband Tom Hanks, reflected on the past year Sunday, a day before the one-year anniversary of starting to feel symptoms in Australia.
“I want to take a moment to say how grateful we are for our health, how thankful we are for the medical care we got in Queensland, and that we share in the sorrow of each person who lost a loved one to this virus,” Wilson, 64, wrote on Instagram.
Hanks and Wilson tested positive on March 11. The actors had been in Australia working.
HFPA plans reforms:
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced that it is committing to “transformational change.”
In a statement issued on social media, the group that votes on the Golden Globes announced a number of reforms aimed at addressing criticisms that have long bedeviled the group but were given renewed focus as a result of a Los Angeles Times investigation. “We at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are committed to transformational change,” the group said. “Effective immediately, the Board — in consultation with outside advisors — will oversee reforms and be accountable for that change.
“Among other important tasks, this (diversity) expert will audit our bylaws and membership requirements to help us guard against any exclusionary practices and achieve a more diverse membership,” the statement said. The group also pledged to increase its support of internship, mentorship and scholarship programs for Black and other underrepresented students interested in international journalism.
March 9 birthdays:
Singer Lloyd Price is 88. Actor Trish Van Devere is 80. TV anchor Charles Gibson is 78. Singer Jeffrey Osborne is 73. Actor Tom Amandes is 62. Actor Juliette Binoche is 57. Actor Oscar Isaac is 42. Actor Brittany Snow is 35. Rapper Bow Wow is 34. Actor Cierra Ramirez is 26.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A journalist went on trial Monday on charges stemming from her coverage of a protest against racial injustice in Des Moines last year, after Iowa prosecutors defied international pressure to drop a rare effort to punish a working reporter.
Des Moines Register news reporter Andrea Sahouri, who was pepper-sprayed and jailed while reporting on a clash between protesters and police in May, is charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts.
If convicted on the simple misdemeanor charges, the 25-year-old Sahouri would be fined hundreds of dollars and have a criminal record. A judge could also sentence her up to 30 days in jail on each count, although that would be unusual.
Advocates for journalism and human rights in the U.S. and abroad have pressed Iowa authorities to drop the charges, arguing that Sahouri was simply doing her job by documenting the event. But prosecutors in the office of Polk County Attorney John Sarcone have pressed forward with the case against Sahouri and her former boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, who faces the same charges.
The pair are standing trial in a courtroom at Drake University in Des Moines as part of a program for law students. The university is broadcasting the proceedings, which are expected to last two days.
Lawyers selected a six-member jury Monday morning, and prosecutors began their case in the afternoon.
Rights suit revived:
The U.S. Supreme Court is reviving a lawsuit brought by a Georgia college student who sued school officials after being prevented from distributing Christian literature on campus.
The high court sided 8-1 with the student, Chike Uzuegbunam, and against Georgia Gwinnett College.
Uzuegbunam has since graduated, and the public school in Lawrenceville, Georgia, has changed its policies. Lower courts said the case was moot, but the Supreme Court disagreed.
Groups across the political spectrum including the American Civil Liberties Union had said that the case is important to ensuring that people whose constitutional rights were violated can continue their cases even when governments reverse the policies they were challenging.
At issue was whether Uzuegbunam’s case could continue because he was only seeking so-called nominal damages of $1.
“This case asks whether an award of nominal damages by itself can redress a past injury. We hold that it can,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a majority of the court.
Writing only for himself, Chief Justice John Roberts disagreed.
Roberts argued that the case brought by Uzuegbunam and another student, Joseph Bradford, is moot since the two are no longer students at the college, the restrictions no longer exist and they “have not alleged actual damages.”
No reelection bid:
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said Monday that he will not seek reelection, making him the fifth Republican in the Senate to bow out rather than seek another term in a party searching for direction after President Donald Trump.
Blunt, who turned 71 in January, was expected to seek a third term in 2022. Before election to the Senate, he served seven terms in the U.S. House. He also served two terms as Missouri’s secretary of state from 1985 to 1993.
“In every job Missourians have allowed me to have, I’ve tried to do my best,” Blunt said in his announcement made via video. “In almost 12,000 votes in the Congress, I’m sure I wasn’t right every time, but you really make that decision based on the information you have at the time.”
Blunt is the No. 4 in Senate Republican leadership.
The five Senate Republicans not seeking reelection could set up contested primaries highlighting divisions between far-right, Trump-aligned Republicans and the old guard of the party.
The others are Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Lebanon economic crisis:
Lebanon’s army chief warned Monday that soldiers are hurting from the severe economic crisis engulfing the country, voicing rare criticism from the military of a ruling class that has done little to try and resolve a monthslong political deadlock.
Gen. Joseph Aoun’s comments came as protesters, angry with Lebanon’s political class, blocked major roads leading to the capital for the seventh consecutive day.
The protests come against the backdrop of a crash in the local currency, an increase of consumer goods prices and political bickering between rival groups that has delayed the formation of a new government.
Lebanon’s currency has lost 85% of its value in the past year and a half.
In a rare statement, Aoun said the financial and
economic crisis is hurting soldiers whose salaries have lost value, adding that “members of the military are suffering and getting hungry like the rest of the people.”
Positive tests in Syria:
President Bashar Assad and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus, the president’s office said Monday, with both having only mild symptoms of the illness.
In a statement, Assad’s office said the first couple did PCR tests after they experienced minor symptoms consistent with the COVID-19 illness.
It said Assad, 55, and his wife Asma, 45, who announced her recovery from breast cancer in 2019, will continue to work from home, where they will isolate for two or three weeks.
Syria, which marks 10 years of war next week, has recorded nearly 16,000 virus cases in government-held parts of the country, including 1,063 deaths. But the numbers are believed to be much higher.
Colorado party violence:
Authorities have fielded hundreds of tips involving a massive weekend gathering near the University of Colorado at Boulder in which participants damaged cars, set off fireworks, and tossed bottles and rocks at police, slightly injuring three officers, officials said Monday.
Boulder County health authorities, meanwhile, warned of a possible surge in coronavirus cases because of the Saturday night melee in which as many as 800 people — few wearing masks — flooded streets in a neighborhood known as University Hill, home to many university students as well as residents.
No arrests had been made, but Boulder police and other police agencies had received more than 700 tips, including photos and cellphone video of the violence, police spokeswoman Dionne Waugh said.