STATUS UPDATES
A week in which Comey came out, the Kremlin weighed in on Weinstein and the Pope spoke for the masses
DEFENDED Harvey Weinstein, by a prominent Kremlin media personality. Dmitry Kiselyov criticized the outcry stemming from the scandal, the Washington Post reported. “I’m categorically against sexual harassment,” he said, “But this campaign . . . threatens to destroy the humour in people’s relationships . . . affecting impulsivity, spontaneity and passion.”
ACCUSED The Next Gen ATP Finals draw in Milan, of sexism. The fashion-themed event included a tennis player pulling off a female model’s glove with his teeth, the BBC reported. Another player learned his matchup when his chosen model pulled up a lace dress to reveal the letter “A” on her right thigh. Organizers of the under-21 tournament offered apologies.
TRASHED A restaurant in Venice, metaphorically. A British tourist complained after he and his parents were charged € 526 (about $776 Cdn.) for a seafood lunch in a restaurant near St. Mark’s Square, the Daily Telegraph reported. Luke Tang said much of the meal was not what they ordered. A restaurant manager defended the bill: “They didn’t send anything back.”
SENT BACK A valuable Camille Pissarro painting. That’s the order of a Paris court, which ruled a U.S. couple has to give the painting, looted in the Second World War, to descendants of the French owners. The Americans had loaned it to a Paris museum this year, The Associated Press reported. But it was placed in temporary escrow after a French heir sued to have it returned.
ATTACKED Former Romanian King Michael I, allegedly by his estranged grandson. The royal house complained to Swiss police that Nicholas Medforth-Mills tried to “violate the home of His Majesty” and “aggressed” three staff, The Associated Press reported. The 96-year-old Michael was forced to abdicate in 1947. He stripped Medforth-Mills of his royal title in 2015.
CONFESSED Former FBI director James Comey, to being on Twitter. Comey, who was fired by U.S. President Donald Trump in May, updated his account to put it under his name, with the handle @Comey. He had previously used the name Reinhold Niebuhr, a reference to the late theologian and intellectual. He has more than 200,000 followers.
CRASHED A new self-driving shuttle bus. On its debut in Las Vegas, the shuttle bus was in a collision with a delivery truck. The eight-seat bus is made by the French company Navya, and although it stopped, the delivery truck didn’t and got grazed, city officials said. Media reported there were no injuries.
PUSHED BACK Pope Francis, against a trend his medieval predecessors didn’t have to worry about. During a general audience at St. Peter’s Square, he chastised Catholics who use their phones during Mass, the New York Times reported. “At some point, the priest during the Mass says, ‘Lift up your hearts.’ He does not say, ‘Lift up your cellphones to take pictures.’ ”