Malawi is the latest African country to look at legalizing cannabis – the plant that produces hemp and marijuana – after similar moves in Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. As Malawi’s tobacco industry – the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner – has dwindled due to anti-tobacco campaigns, farmers are now looking to grow cannabis. Lameck Masina reports from Lilongwe.
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Blockchain technology – a high-tech way to securely manage and protect data – is best-known as the driver of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Now, a U.S. coffee importer is using it to improve the lives of coffee farmers and some of the poorest communities in Central America. Faith Lapidus reports.
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“Black Panther” took the top award at Sunday’s 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards, giving Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation its most significant awards-season honor yet and potentially setting up Wakanda for a major role at next month’s Academy Awards.
The two leading Oscar nominees – “Roma” and “The Favorite” – were bypassed by the actors guild for a best ensemble field that also included “BlacKkKlansman,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star Is Born.” Although “Black Panther” wasn’t nominated for any individual SAG Awards, it took home the final award at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Before a stage full of actors, Chadwick Boseman tried to put into context the moment for the trailblazing “Black Panther,” which also won for its stunt performer ensemble. “To be young, gifted and black,” he said, quoting the Nina Simone song.
“We know what it’s like to be told there isn’t a screen for you to be featured on, a stage for you to be featured on. … We know what’s like to be beneath and not above. And that is what we went to work with every day,” said Boseman. “We knew that we could create a world that exemplified a world we wanted to see. We knew that we had something to give.”
The win puts “Black Panther” squarely in contention for best picture at the Academy Awards where it’s nominated for seven honors including best picture. Actors make up the largest percentage of the academy, so their preferences can have an especially large impact on the Oscar race. In the last decade the SAG ensemble winner has gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards half of the time.
In the lead acting categories, Glenn Close and Rami Malek solidified themselves as front-runners with wins that followed their triumphs at the Golden Globes. The 71-year-old Close, a seven-time nominee but never an Oscar winner, won best actress for her performance in “The Wife.” In her speech, she spoke about the power of film in a multiscreen world.
“One of the most powerful things we have as human beings are two eyes looking into two eyes,” said Close. “Film is the only art form that allows us the close-up.”
Malek, wining best actor over Christian Bale (“Vice”) and Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”) for his performance in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” seemingly sealed the Oscar many are predicting for him. Malek’s awards are mounting even as the director of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Bryan Singer, is facing multiple accusations of sexual assault with minors. Singer has denied the claims.
As he did at the Globes, Malek dedicated his award to Mercury.
“I get some power from him that’s about stepping up and living your best life, being exactly who you want to be and accomplishing everything you so desire,” said Malek.
More surprising was Emily Blunt’s best supporting actress win for her performance in the horror thriller “A Quiet Place.” Blunt, also nominated by the guild for her lead performance in “Mary Poppins Returns,” was visibly shocked. She wasn’t among Tuesday’s Oscar nominees for either film.
“Guys. That truly has blown my slicked hair back,” said Blunt, who praised her husband and “A Quiet Place” director John Krasinski as a “stunning filmmaker.” “Thank you for giving me the part. You would have been in major trouble if you hadn’t.”
Best supporting actor in a film went more as expected. Mahershala Ali, who won two years ago for “Moonlight,” won for his performance in Peter Farrelly’s interracial road trip “Green Book.”
The Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won the first three awards handed out Sunday, sweeping the comedy series awards. It won best ensemble in a comedy series, as well as individual honors for Rachel Brosnahan and Tony Shalhoub, whose win was a surprise in a category that included Bill Hader (“Barry”) and Michael Douglas (“The Kominsky Method”).
”We cannot thank you enough,” said Shalhoub, speaking for the cast. “Stay with us.”
Tom Hanks presented the lifetime achievement award to Alan Alda , who in July revealed that he had been living with Parkinson’s disease for more than three years. The 83-year-old actor took the stage to a standing ovation while the theme to “M.A.S.H” played. He said the award came at a reflective moment for him.
“I see more than ever now how proud I am to be a part of our brotherhood and sisterhood of actors,” said Alda. “It may never have been more urgent to see the world through another person’s eyes. When a culture is divided so sharply, actors can help – a least a little – just by doing what we do. And the nice part is it’s fun to do it. So my wish for all of us is: Let’s stay playful.”
For the second time, the cast of “This Is Us” won best ensemble in a drama series. Other TV winners included Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”), Darren Criss for “Assassination of Gianni Versace”, Jason Bateman (“Ozark”) and Patricia Arquette (“Escape at Dannemora”). Arquette thanked Special Counsel investigator Robert Mueller “and everyone working to make sure we have sovereignty for the United States of America.”
The SAG Awards had one thing the Oscars don’t: a host. Emcee Megan Mullally kicked off the awards by tweaking their role among the many honors leading up to next month’s Oscars. She called the SAGs “the greatest honor an actor can receive this weekend.”
The show did not boost the chances of other Oscar hopefuls, “A Star Is Born,” “The Favorite” and “BlacKkKlansman,” which were all shut out Sunday night.
Among the attendees Sunday was Geoffrey Owens, the “Cosby Show” actor who caused a stir when he was photographed working at a New Jersey Trader Joe’s. He was among the performers who began the show with the SAG Awards’ typical “I am an actor” testimony. The SAGs also made time for one reunion: “Fatal Attraction” stars Michael Douglas and Glenn Close joined each other on stage as presenters.
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Entering or exiting Cochin International airport in India’s southern Kochi city, it is hard to miss the sea of solar panels glinting under the sun on a vast stretch of land on one side of the road and on top of a massive car park. Close by, a huge billboard proclaims the airport’s status as the world’s first airport fully powered by solar energy.
The journey to that title began with a pilot project five years ago as airport authorities searched for ways to minimize ever-growing power bills.
“We put solar panels on the rooftop of Terminal One, we observed it for a year and we found it is quite good and can be safely scaled up,” said the airport’s managing director, V.J.Kurian.
Now, the energy being produced by the sun-drenched airport’s solar plant meets its needs round the clock. The excess power harnessed by tens of thousands of solar panels during the day is stored in the city’s energy grid.
“We will produce the entire energy during these morning 10 hours and directly we will use some part of energy,” explained project manager Jerrin John Parakkal. “Excess energy we will bank to grid and then during nighttime we will take it back.”
UN award
In 2018 Cochin airport won one of the United Nations top environmental awards: Champions of the Earth Award for Entrepreneurial Vision. The project is a testament to India’s ambitions of rapidly scaling up the use of solar power to reduce its carbon emissions and has prompted other airports and infrastructure projects to explore the potential of solar energy.
Kurian, who led the project, recalls that initially there were doubts about the project’s financial viability — the cost of producing one megawatt of power was pegged at $1 million. But the falling price of solar panels in recent years brought down costs and helped make the ambitious project a reality.
“We get back our investment in less than six years time, which I thought was an excellent investment opportunity and next 25 years is meant for all profit,” Kurian said.
Expanding capacity
To retain the title it received in 2015 as the world’s first fully solar powered airport, the facility has steadily expanded capacity. The more than 29 megawatts currently produced will soon be scaled up to nearly 40 megawatts to meet the needs of ever-growing passenger traffic in a city that is Kerala’s commercial capital and a gateway to tourist destinations.
The solar panels had been placed on a large tract of unused land set aside for future cargo, but because usable land is the biggest challenge for solar projects, airport authorities have searched for alternatives. They found available space on top of the airport’s car park and a 2-kilometer canal.
Airport authorities estimate that the elimination of carbon emissions over 25 years would be equal to planting 3 million trees. And to make the green project even greener, organic vegetables are being grown under the solar panels and on spare land on the side. About 60 tons were produced last year and were sold to airport staff.
Interest in solar grows
The project has prompted interest from other airports in India and in some African countries, which are also eyeing the potential of solar power.
“We have signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the government of Ghana. We have had a team from Liberia who were interested in us helping them to put up solar panels specially in the airport sector,” Kurian said.
The Cochin airport is being seen as a model of how from household rooftops to big infrastructure projects, sunny India is increasingly turning to solar power.
“They have a demonstration effect also. So many people walk through the airport. If they get to know that solar energy is being utilized on such a scale, that means it is a viable solution,” said Amit Kumar, a solar energy expert with the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi.
India’s massive rail sector is also turning to solar energy. Solar panels are being placed on top of some train coaches. A rail station in the northeastern city of Guwahati has begun generating enough solar power to meet its needs. The government is also exploring how highways could be lighted with solar lights.
India’s target of increasing its solar capacity to 100,000 megawatts by 2022 has attracted big investments in the sector. Japan’s SoftBank has promised to invest $20 billion in Indian solar projects, and some of the world’s largest solar parks are being built in the country. That has raised hopes that India will be able to meet its commitment of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions about 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
However experts warn that the imposition of import duties last year on solar panels from China and Malaysia amid a push to increase indigenous manufacturing has affected the momentum of growth.
“It is moving fast, but in recent times there have been some hiccups (disruptions). I would say it is moving towards its target, at the moment a bit slowly,” Kumar said.
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India’s southern Kochi city in Kerala state is among the world’s most innovative airports, completely powered by solar energy. Winner of the United Nations Champions of the Earth Award for Entrepreneurial Vision in 2018, the project is testimony to India’s ambitions of rapidly scaling up the use of solar power to reduce its carbon emissions. Anjana Pasricha has this report.
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Called the “greenest office building in the world,” the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington, generates its own electricity and its own water, collected from rain falling on the roof. Opened on Earth Day in 2013, the Bullitt Center has been nicknamed a “Living Building.” Natasha Mozgovaya visited the green building to see for herself what makes it so unusual. Anna Rice narrates her report.
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A New York disc jockey wearing a policeman’s uniform. The outfit is not a costume, it’s the work uniform of New York City Police officer who takes his hobby as a DJ seriously. Lieutenant Acu Rhodes says it started as a casual pastime, but quickly became a serious devotion. So serious that Rhodes, or DJ Ace, turned it into part of the NYPD’s community policing outreach. Evgeny Maslv reports from New York City, in this story narrated by Anna Rice.
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The World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, that wrapped up Friday, had some notable absentees, including U.S. President Donald Trump.
With a backlash against a perceived ruling elite gaining ground in many countries, analysts say some leaders steered clear of a gathering often seen as an inaccessible club for the world’s super-rich. Others argue it is vital they get together to discuss urgent issues like climate change and world trade.
On the surface, though, it was business as usual: On a sealed off, snowbound mountaintop, world leaders rubbed shoulders with global executives, lobbyists and pressure groups. It remains a vital gathering of global decision-makers, said Leslie Vinjamuri, head of the U.S. and the Americas Program at policy group Chatham House.
“They’re there to do business, they’re there to engage in an exchange of ideas. And so I think it’s still tremendously important.”
President Trump stayed away because of the partial U.S. government shutdown, which ended Friday. China’s President Xi Jinping wasn’t there, neither was Britain’s Theresa May, nor France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
“They’re tremendously preoccupied with the troubles they face at home, which isn’t a good sign for globalism. The criticism and the critique that surrounds Davos is extraordinary. People say, ‘You know, it’s where all those people go to have dinner with each other, it has nothing to do with the rest of us.’ And, of course, it’s about a lot more than that, but the optics are tremendously negative at this point in time,” Vinjamuri said.
Behind the heavily guarded security perimeter, delegates were well aware of a growing global backlash beyond.
David Gergen of the Harvard Kennedy School echoed the concerns of many at Davos during a debate at the summit.
“It’s worth remembering we’ve just had the longest bull run in our stock market in history. We’ve had good economic times. Incomes have gone up in a number of countries and yet the discontent is deep and it’s threatening our democracies. And there’s something that’s not working here that we need to figure out,” Gergen told an audience Wednesday.
The absence of many big players means others have stolen the limelight. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has been widely praised for making peace with Eritrea. Speaking at the forum, he said African countries must deepen their ties.
“We believe integration must be viewed not just as an economic project but also as crucial to securing peace and reconciliation in the Horn of Africa,” Ali said.
Other issues also rose up the Davos agenda, notably climate change. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged action.
“This is about being on the right side of history. Do you want to be a leader that you look back in time and say that you were on the wrong side of the argument when the world was crying out for a solution? And it’s as simple as that I think,” Ardern said.
The Davos 2019 will likely be remembered, however, for the lack of global leadership, according to Vinjamuri of Chatham House.
“That space has been vacated and nobody necessarily even wants to take things forward at the level of providing a vision,” Vinjamuri said.
The lack of such a vision at a time of profound global change sent a chill far beyond the confines of this winter resort.
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A government-appointed commission laid out a plan Saturday for Germany to phase out coal use by 2038.
The commission — made up of politicians, climate experts, union representatives and industry figures from coal regions — developed the plan under mounting pressure on Europe’s top economy to step up efforts to combat climate change.
“This is a historic day,” the commission’s head, Ronald Pofalla, said after 20 hours of negotiations.
The recommendations, which involve at least $45.6 billion in aid to coal-mining states affected by the move, must be reviewed by the German government and 16 regional states.
While some government officials lauded the report, energy provider RWE, which runs several coal-fired plants, said the 2038 cutoff date would be “way too early.”
Despite its reputation as a green country, Germany relies heavily on coal for its power needs, partly because of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to phase out nuclear power plants by 2022 in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Coal accounted for more than 30 percent of Germany’s energy mix in 2018 — significantly higher than the figures in most other European countries.
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Prolific French composer Michel Legrand, who won three Oscars and five Grammys during a career spanning more than half a century, died Saturday aged 86, his spokesman said.
Legrand lived in a musical whirlwind, with the same appetite for popular music to jazz, from conducting to film.
“Since I was a child, my ambition has been to live completely surrounded by music, my dream was to not miss anything, which is why I have never focused on a single musical discipline,” he said.
He first won an Academy Award in 1969 for the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from the film “The Thomas Crown Affair”.
He followed that with Oscars for his music for “Summer of ’42” in 1972 and for “Yentl” in 1984.
Legrand, who had been scheduled to stage concerts in Paris in April, died early Saturday with his wife, the actress Macha Meril, his spokesman told AFP.
During his long career, he worked with some of the music world’s biggest stars such as Miles Davies, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Edith Piaf.
He also won five Grammys from 17 nominations, including one for the theme from “Summer of ’42”.
“For me, he is immortal, through his music and his personality”, French composer and conductor Vladimir Cosma told AFP on hearing of Legrand’s passing.
“He was such an optimistic personality, with a kind of naivety in optimism, he saw everything in rosy colours!”
‘A magical world’
Born in Paris on February 24, 1932, Legrand belonged to a family of musicians.
His father, who left the family home when Legrand was just three, was a composer and conductor.
“The world of childhood, mine, was a lonely world, I did not like going to school, I did not like the world of children and adults, I hated to hear ‘eat your soup, go bed’,” he remembered.
At just 10 years old, he entered the Paris Conservatory of music.
“For me, who hated life, when I first came to the Conservatory I crossed the threshold into a magical world where the only question was music”, he said.
He began composing film music in the 1960s with the emergence of French New Wave directors such as Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy.
He composed the scores for Demy’s “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) in 1964 and “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (“The Young Ladies of Rochefort”) in 1967, for both of which Legrand received Academy Award nominations.
He moved to the United States in the 1960s.
“It was a real risk to leave France, landing in Hollywood without real commitment,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography, describing this step as “part of Russian roulette”.
The father of three children, he married his third wife, Macha Meril, in 2014.
Prolific French composer Michel Legrand, who won three Oscars and five Grammys during a career spanning more than half a century, died Saturday aged 86, his spokesman said.
Legrand lived in a musical whirlwind, with the same appetite for popular music to jazz, from conducting to film.
“Since I was a child, my ambition has been to live completely surrounded by music, my dream was to not miss anything, which is why I have never focused on a single musical discipline,” he said.
He first won an Academy Award in 1969 for the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from the film “The Thomas Crown Affair”.
He followed that with Oscars for his music for “Summer of ’42” in 1972 and for “Yentl” in 1984.
Legrand, who had been scheduled to stage concerts in Paris in April, died early Saturday with his wife, the actress Macha Meril, his spokesman told AFP.
During his long career, he worked with some of the music world’s biggest stars such as Miles Davies, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Edith Piaf.
He also won five Grammys from 17 nominations, including one for the theme from “Summer of ’42”.
“For me, he is immortal, through his music and his personality”, French composer and conductor Vladimir Cosma told AFP on hearing of Legrand’s passing.
“He was such an optimistic personality, with a kind of naivety in optimism, he saw everything in rosy colours!”
‘A magical world’
Born in Paris on February 24, 1932, Legrand belonged to a family of musicians.
His father, who left the family home when Legrand was just three, was a composer and conductor.
“The world of childhood, mine, was a lonely world, I did not like going to school, I did not like the world of children and adults, I hated to hear ‘eat your soup, go bed’,” he remembered.
At just 10 years old, he entered the Paris Conservatory of music.
“For me, who hated life, when I first came to the Conservatory I crossed the threshold into a magical world where the only question was music”, he said.
He began composing film music in the 1960s with the emergence of French New Wave directors such as Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy.
He composed the scores for Demy’s “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) in 1964 and “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (“The Young Ladies of Rochefort”) in 1967, for both of which Legrand received Academy Award nominations.
He moved to the United States in the 1960s.
“It was a real risk to leave France, landing in Hollywood without real commitment,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography, describing this step as “part of Russian roulette”.
The father of three children, he married his third wife, Macha Meril, in 2014.
Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Saturday in the centuries-old colonial Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria la Antigua, telling Panama’s priests and nuns to try to find joy in their work despite what he called “wounds of the church’s own sin.”
He did not specify what he meant by that, but in his message, titled “The Weariness of Hope,” he encouraged members of the clergy to remain faithful despite the frustrations and anxieties of serving the church in today’s world.
“The Lord knew what it was to be tired, and in his weariness so many struggles of our nations and peoples, our communities, and all who are weary and heavily burdened can find a place,” he said.
The pope noted that the cathedral in which he spoke had recently reopened its doors after a long renovation. “This restoration has sought to preserve the beauty of the past while making room for all the newness of the present,” he said. “That is how the Lord works.”
The pope made his address as part of World Youth Day, the Catholic Church’s international youth rally held every two to three years. Several hundred people were estimated to have turned out for the pope’s Way of the Cross procession in Panama City on Friday evening, according to the Associated Press.
Student priests
On the fourth day of his visit to Panama, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church was also to meet with student priests at the seminary of San Jose. He was expected to talk with the young men about the dwindling number of men entering the priesthood and the reasons for the declining numbers. Francis has admitted in other locations that sex scandals and cover-ups have contributed to a drop in the number of men seeking religious vocations.
On Friday, the pope went to a youth detention center, enabling the inmates to participate in World Youth Day. Francis also heard the confessions of five of the detainees.
In an emotional homily at the detention center, Francis said he deplored society’s tendency to label people as good or bad, the righteous or sinners. Instead, he said, society should focus on creating opportunities that enable people to change.
In a veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump and his insistence on a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the Argentina-born pope said of the tendency to label: “This attitude spoils everything, because it erects an invisible wall that makes people think that, if we marginalize, separate and isolate others, all our problems will magically be solved.”
Francis added, “When a society or community allows this, and does nothing more than complain and backbite, it enters into a vicious circle of division, blame and condemnation.”
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Pope Francis celebrates Mass Saturday in the centuries-old colonial Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria la Antigua, Panama’s patron saint, as part of World Youth Day festivities.
On the fourth day of his visit to Panama, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church is also to meet with student priests at the seminary of San Jose. He is expected to talk with the young men about the dwindling number of men entering the priesthood and the reasons for the declining numbers.
Francis has admitted elsewhere that the sex scandals and cover-ups have contributed to fewer men seeking religious vocations.
Later Saturday, Francis and the Archbishop of Panama, Cardinal Jose Domingo Ulloa, are hosting a lunch for 10 young people attending the WYD celebrations.
On Friday, the pope went to a youth detention center, enabling the inmates to participate in WYD. Francis also heard the confessions of the five of the detainees.
In an emotional homily at the center, Francis said he deplored society’s tendency to label people as good or bad, the righteous or sinners. Instead, he said, society should focus on creating opportunities that enable people to change.
In a veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump and his insistence on a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the Argentinean-born pope said of the tendency to label: “This attitude spoils everything, because it erects an invisible wall that makes people think that, if we marginalize, separate and isolate others, all our problems will magically be solved.” Francis added, “When a society or community allows this, and does nothing more than complain and backbite, it enters into a vicious circle of division, blame and condemnation.”
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The world of work is going through a major transformation. Technological advances are creating new jobs and at the same time leaving many people behind as their skills are no longer needed. A new study by the International Labor Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work addresses the many uncertainties arising from this new reality.
The International Labor Organization agrees artificial intelligence, automation and robotics will lead to job losses, as people’s skills become obsolete. But it says these same technological advances, along with the greening of economies also will create millions of new jobs.
Change is coming
The co-chair of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, says these advances offer many opportunities. But he warns people must harness the new technologies for the world of work and not be allowed to control the future shape of work.
“In the 20th century, we established that labor is not a commodity. In the 21st century, we must also ensure that labor is not a robot. We propose a human in command type of approach ensuring that technology frees workers and improves work rather than reducing their control,” he said.
Ramaphosa says change is inevitable and will happen whether people like it or not.
“We believe that we would rather be ahead of the curve rather than behind it and get the developments that are unfolding to shape us and to lead us. We need to be ahead so that we can shape the type of world of work that we want to see,” he said.
Human-centered conversation
In its study, the 27-member commission has adopted a human-centered approach. At this time of unprecedented change, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder says having people at the heart of this debate is critical for achieving a decent future of work.
“I think people, families, countries around the world are indeed grappling with the challenges and the opportunities of transformative change at work and the ambition of our commission … is, in a very concise and a very clear, and I think above all an action oriented way to try to set out a road map of how we can indeed seize the opportunities and deal satisfactorily with those challenges,” Ryder said.
Ten recommendations
After 15 months of work, the commission has come up with 10 recommendations for attaining decent and sustainable work. They include a call for a universal labor guarantee to protect workers’ rights, an adequate living wage and a safe workplace.
The commission proposes social protection measures from birth to old age. It says technological change must be managed to boost decent work. It says the gender gap should be closed and equality achieved in the workplace.
Ryder says the report puts a heavy emphasis on life-long learning and the renewal of skills throughout one’s working life.
“With the rapidity of change being what it is at work today,” he said, “it is simply not realistic to believe that the skills that we acquire at the beginning of our lives in our education, what we tend to think of as a period of our education will serve us throughout a working life. I mean, the shelf life of skills acquired at the beginning is a lot shorter than working life is going to be.”
Ryder notes the future number of jobs or the future of employment will not be determined alone by the autonomous forward march of technology. He says that will depend on the choices of policymakers.
The commission study indicates it is reasonable to assume that humans and robots will be able to live in harmony with one another — if humans are put in control of the forward application of technology.
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When thinking about people with cancer, the images that first come to mind are usually dark, sad and depressing. But that’s not what photographer Linda McCarthy sees. With her “Survivors” project, her goal was to put a face on breast cancer, photographing women who survived or are being treated for the disease.
“I wanted to photograph them as whole women not the parts that they see of themselves,” she explained. “So, I didn’t want scars, I didn’t want anything like that. I wanted them to see how beautiful they are. They are survivors, they change their outlook on life and say, ‘Yes, this is me, and I’m a survivor.’ So, you see the transformation going on while I photograph them.”
One of the survivors is Cheryl Listman. The single mother was diagnosed with stage 2-B breast cancer in 2013, and told she had a 40 percent chance of survival. Thinking about her two kids made her determined to not give up and to keep fighting the disease.
The Survivors photography project fit nicely with her attitude.
“I work with women, I help educate women who are going through the journey and just help them navigate through the medical side of it,” Listman said. “When she (Linda McCarthy) asked me, I thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s just another impact that I could have on women.’ And then also I would be able to look back and see how far I came.”
Focusing on the whole woman
The idea of featuring breast cancer survivors came to McCarthy when she was searching for a ballerina to photograph for her portfolio.
“I was introduced to Maggie, who is known as the Bald Ballerina,” she recalled. “She was diagnosed at the age of 23 with stage-4 metastatic breast cancer. So, I met her and asked if I could photograph her, not as a ballerina, but as a beautiful girl who happens to have breast cancer.”
Through the lens of her camera, McCarthy says she has always sought to capture the spirit and essence of her subjects.
To do that, McCarthy offered each of the participants a consultation session. During that time, they opened up and talked about themselves, giving her a chance to get to know them.
The women were also given a makeover. By the end of the session with makeup artist Victoria Ronan, many were surprised — and delighted.
“In some cases, it’s been a very long time since they had makeup on, it’s been a very long time since they had done something for themselves,” Ronan said. “I had a lot of women look in the mirror and just start tearing up. They couldn’t believe how beautiful I’ve made them look.”
When fighting breast cancer, Listman said, it’s helpful to feel beautiful.
“It’s very important because when you go through a horrific journey and treatment, you don’t feel beautiful,” Listman explained. “There is a lot of things done to your body physically, there is a lot of things done to you emotionally, mentally, things that you will never forget that are not pretty. So, when you get to that point in your journey, you feel like a woman again, you feel beautiful, you feel like you’ve accomplished the mission.”
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For director Bart Freundlich and Julianne Moore, having their film “After the Wedding” premiere opening at the Sundance Film Festival holds a special significance. Moore and Freundlich came to the festival 22 years ago with another film, “The Myth of Fingerprints,” before marriage, children and everything else.
“In between there have been a ton of movies, mainly by her, but some by me,” Freundlich said. “This is something that is really special to me.”
The family drama “After the Wedding” kicked off the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Thursday night in the Eccles Theater. The film is a remake of an Oscar-nominated Danish film from Susanne Bier, and stars Moore as a wealthy businesswoman looking to donate money to an Indian orphanage run by Michelle Williams’ character, while also planning her daughter’s wedding with her husband, played by Billy Crudup.
Things get a little more complicated than that, but the developments are better left seen for oneself.
There was at least one significant change, however. In the original Danish film, Moore’s character was a man, but she gave her husband the idea to flip the gender.
Moore said the switch “deepened” the story for her.
Sundance founder Robert Redford started off the evening reflecting on the origins of the festival, 34 years ago. He recalled a quainter Park City, with only one theater, the Egyptian and just a few restaurants and a library. In the early years, he remembered standing outside the theater, “Trying to hustle people in.”
“People were just wondering why I was there,” Redford laughed. “But finally, slowly things developed.”
Indeed, Redford hardly has to hustle people into theaters anymore at Sundance. Every one of the half dozen opening night films were sold out Thursday.
“Without you there’s nothing,” Redford told the audience. “Thank you for being part of the equation.”
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The Screen Actors Guild turns 25 years old Sunday, and executive producer Kathy Connell has shaped every one.
And while the milestone anniversary offers a chance to reflect on the show’s growth and impact, Connell says not to expect too many flashbacks on the telecast, which will be broadcast on TNT and TBS beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern.
“We’re going to have some lookbacks but we only have two hours, our show is very tight,” Connell said.
Connell has produced every SAG Awards, which honors the top performances in film and television each year. Tom Hanks and Jodie Foster were the top film actor winners in 1995, while this year the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga-led A Star Is Born is the top film nominee.
Cooper and Gaga, along with actors Chadwick Boseman from Black Panther and Constance Wu from Crazy Rich Asians will be among the presenters Sunday.
Unlike other awards ceremonies that also honor directors, writers and other artists, the SAG Awards are solely focused on actors and the craft of acting.
“It’s really a peer award and it’s very meaningful because to become a union member is one milestone and then to be nominated and awarded by your peers is another major milestone I think for actors,” Connell said during a recent interview. “It’s very personal. The room has fun. Our show is different because the room has fun. We consider it the actors’ party at the actors’ house.”
‘Wonderful moments’
The ceremony also showcases the guild’s Life Achievement Award, which predates the awards show and has been bestowed since 1962.
This year’s recipient is Alan Alda, whom Connell calls a “true TV icon and a wonderful man.”
Previous recipients include Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Betty White, Elizabeth Taylor, Sidney Poitier and George Burns.
Connell’s hands-on approach — she and her team meticulously craft the seating chart — has led to many special memories, including one with 2014 honoree Debbie Reynolds.
The actress wasn’t feeling well, so her daughter Carrie Fisher took her place during rehearsals. Fisher and Connell shared a few moments together.
“My parents had just passed, so I knew what it was like and the concern that she had for Debbie’s health, and so she and I had a couple of wonderful moments together,” Connell said. “Then Carrie and Debbie had a great time onstage, and I think it was the last time they were both onstage together.”
Evolution of SAG awards
Connell has presided over numerous changes to the awards over the years. The inaugural ceremony, for instance, did not include the outstanding film ensemble, added in the second year. The category has become a key bellwether for whether a film will be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.
Last year, Kristen Bell served as the show’s first ever host. Megan Mullally, a three-time TV comedy actress SAG winner for Will & Grace, will host this year’s show.
Connell said there’s still at least one awards show mainstay the SAGs hasn’t used: “They still haven’t let me do a song and dance, I don’t know why.”
Above all, she says she tries to keep the show fun.
“It’s a work day for these actors. People don’t understand it. It is really a workday for them,” she said. “Just like any contest, some people are going to go home without a statue. So how do I make it as enjoyable as I can possibly make it for people? That’s my job.”
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A judge signed off Friday on changes to the legal team representing Harvey Weinstein in his rape and sexual assault case, allowing the film producer to swap out his bulldog New York City defense attorney for a four-person team that’s full of courtroom star power.
The disgraced Hollywood mogul was in court in Manhattan —along with new lawyers Jose Baez, Ronald Sullivan and Duncan Levin, and former lawyer Benjamin Brafman — as Judge James Burke approved the switch.
“Welcome to the New York State Supreme Court,” Burke told Weinstein’s new lawyers.
Weinstein, 66, and Brafman, 70, announced last week that they had “agreed to part ways amicably.” The move came a month after they lost a hard-fought bid to get the case thrown out.
Weinstein’s trial is tentatively scheduled for May.
He is charged with raping a woman in 2013 and performing a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. He denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
Weinstein’s other new lawyer, Pamela Robillard Mackey, didn’t attend Friday’s hearing because she was out of the country.
Baez is perhaps the best-known name of the four. He first gained fame for representing Casey Anthony, the Florida mom whose televised trial in 2011 ended in an acquittal on charges of killing her young daughter.
Baez and Sullivan, a 52-year-old Harvard law professor, teamed up to successfully defend New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez against murder charges in 2017. Hernandez, in prison for a 2015 murder conviction, killed himself five days later.
Mackey, who’s based in Denver, represented Kobe Bryant when the former basketball star was accused of raping a 19-year-old at a Colorado resort in 2003. The charges were dismissed when prosecutors said the accuser was no longer interested in testifying.
Levin is a former top deputy under Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
Weinstein announced the new legal team on Wednesday.
Actress Rose McGowan, one of the first of dozens of women to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, blasted Baez and Sullivan for agreeing to represent Weinstein after they defended her in a drug case last year. She called it a “major conflict of interest.”
Baez and Sullivan said in a statement that McGowan’s case had nothing to do with Weinstein and that they were certain there was no conflict.
Impatient with the lack of World Trade Organization rules to cover the explosive growth of e-commerce, 76 countries and regions agreed on Friday to start negotiating this year on a set of open and predictable regulations.
The WTO’s 164 members were unable to consolidate some 25 separate e-commerce proposals at the body’s biennial conference at Buenos Aires in December, including a call to set up a central e-commerce negotiating forum.
In a gathering on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, ministers from a smaller group of countries including the United States, the European Union and Japan, agreed to work out an agenda for negotiations they hope to kick off this year on setting new e-commerce rules.
“The current WTO rules don’t match the needs of the 21st century. You can tell that from the fact there are no solid rules on e-commerce,” Japan’s trade minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters in Davos.
Asked whether China could join the negotiations, Seko said: “What’s very important is to first set high-standard rules. If China could join, we would welcome that.”
The WTO failed to reach any new agreements at a ministerial conference in December, which ended in discord in the face of stinging U.S. criticism of the group. The stalemate dashed hopes for new deals on regulating the widening presence of e-commerce.
The emergence of the coalition willing to press ahead with new e-commerce rules, despite others’ reservations, reinforces a trend toward the fragmentation of WTO negotiations and away from global “rounds” of talks that have run out of steam.
“We will seek to achieve a high-standard outcome that builds on existing WTO agreements and frameworks with the participation of as many WTO members as possible,” members of the coalition said in a joint statement issued on Friday.
“We continue to encourage all WTO members to participate in order to further enhance the benefits of electronic commerce for businesses, consumers and the global economy.”
E-commerce, which developed largely after the WTO’s creation in 1995, was not part of the Doha round of talks that began in 2001 and eventually collapsed more than a decade later.
Many countries insist that Doha-round development issues must be dealt with before new issues can be tackled. But other countries say the WTO needs to move with the times, and note that 70 regional trade agreements already include provisions or chapters on e-commerce, according to a recent study.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration says the WTO is dysfunctional because it has failed to hold China to account for not opening up its economy as envisaged when Beijing joined in 2001.
To force reform at the WTO, Trump’s team has refused to allow new appointments to the Appellate Body, the world’s top trade court, a process which requires consensus among member states. As a result, the court is running out of judges, and will be unable to issue binding rulings in disputes.
Chinese internet users lost access to Microsoft’s Bing search engine for two days, setting off grumbling about the ruling Communist Party’s increasingly tight online censorship.
Microsoft Corp. said Friday that access had been restored. A brief statement gave no reason for the disruption or other details.
Comments on social media had accused regulators of choking off access to information. Others complained they were forced to use Chinese search engines they say deliver poor results.
“Why can’t we choose what we want to use?” said a comment signed Aurelito on the Sina Weibo microblog service.
Government censorship
Bing complied with government censorship rules by excluding foreign websites that are blocked by Chinese filters from search results. But President Xi Jinping’s government has steadily tightened control over online activity.
The agency that enforces online censorship, the Cyberspace Administration of China, didn’t respond to questions sent by fax.
China has by far the biggest population of internet users, with some 800 million people online, according to government data.
Foreign sites blocked
The Communist Party encourages internet use for business and education but blocks access to foreign websites run by news organizations, human rights and Tibet activists and others deemed subversive.
Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has promoted the notion of “internet sovereignty,” or the right of Beijing and other governments to dictate what their publics can do and see online.
Chinese filters block access to global social media including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Officials argue such services operating beyond their control pose a threat to national security.
Xi’s government also has tightened controls on use of virtual private network technology that can evade its filters.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit operated a search engine in China until 2010 that excluded blocked sites from results. The company closed that after hacking attacks aimed at stealing Google’s source code and breaking into email accounts were traced to China.
That has helped Chinese competitors such as search engine Baidu.com to flourish. But Baidu has been hit by repeated complaints that too many search results are irrelevant or are paid advertising.
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