Names and faces

An Australian government minister signaled Thursday that R& B singe r Chris Brown won’ t be allowed to to u r the country in December because of his criminal conviction for assaulting pop star Rihanna. Michaelia Cash, the country’s new minister for women, said she would recommend that Immigration Minister Peter Dutton refuse the 25-yearold American a visa on character grounds. “People need to understand if you are going to commit domestic violence and then you want to travel around the world, there are going to be countries that say to you: ‘You cannot come in because you are not of the character we expect in Australia,’” Cash told reporters. “This is a government that is not afraid to say no,” she said. She was backed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said Cash “has very brilliantly expressed the thoughts of the government.” Both spoke at the start of a $70 million government initiative to prevent domestic violence. Activists have been campaigning against Brown’s tour of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth because of his attack on his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, in 2009. He pleaded guilty to felony assault.

This time, the Kremlin said, it really happened. President Vladimir Putin of Russia telephoned the singer-songwriter Elton John, who had asked for a meeting with him to discuss the status of gay rights in Russia. Last week, it was John who announced on Instagram that Putin had called him. But as the story circulated on social media, it turned out to be a hoax: John had been the victim of a prank call by two satirists, Vladimir Krasnov and Alexey Stolyarov, who posed as Putin and an interpreter. Evidently, Putin decided making the call was a good idea after all. “Putin spoke with Elton John,” the president’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, told reporters Thursday after Putin held a meeting at Russia’s agro-industrial complex in Semikarakorsk. “Putin called and said: ‘I know that you were pranked by the telephone guys — don’t be upset with them, they’re harmless. Although that, without doubt, does not justify them.’” Peskov added: “Putin said that he knows what a popular performer Elton John is, and in the future, if their schedules coincide, he will be ready to meet with him and discuss any questions that are of interest.”

Brown

Rihanna