Month: October 2020

A former tech executive was sentenced Monday to one year of home confinement for paying $300,000 to bribe his son’s way into Georgetown University as a tennis recruit, even though the son did not play tennis.
Peter Dameris, of Pacific Palisades, California, appeared before a Boston federal court judge via video because of the coronavirus pandemic. He pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.  
His sentence also included a $95,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 21 months of home confinement along with a fine of $95,000. Dameris’ lawyers asked for probation only, saying he deserved leniency to help care for a son who has leukemia.  
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns said he took the medical considerations into account in the sentence, along with an “outpouring” of support from friends and family members who submitted letters to the court.
“I really feel for your family, and I understand your anguish,” Stearns told Dameris. “You have lived a good life, and I believe you deserve some reward for that.”
Speaking through tears, Dameris said he regrets his involvement in the scheme and takes full responsibility.
“I am enormously remorseful for the actions that have brought me before you today,” Dameris said. “My life’s sentence is, I am burdened with the memories of what I’ve done that has hurt my family and others.”
Dameris, the former CEO of technology services company ASGN Inc., joins dozens of parents and college coaches who have pleaded guilty in a sweeping nationwide college admissions scandal.
Prosecutors say Dameris agreed in 2015 to funnel the money through a sham charity set up by Rick Singer, the alleged ringleader of the scheme. Singer steered roughly half of the money to Georgetown’s former tennis coach, Gordon Ernst, who helped get Dameris’ son accepted as a tennis recruit, prosecutors say.
In court filings, Dameris apologized for influencing the admissions system but said he believed the money was going to Georgetown’s athletic programs. Prosecutors say there’s no evidence Dameris knew of any personal bribes to Ernst.
Singer pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government’s investigation into what authorities have dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, a series of indictments that have rocked the worlds of higher education, sports and entertainment.
Ernst, who is accused of accepting $2.7 million in bribes, has pleaded not guilty. He resigned from Georgetown in 2018.
Dameris acknowledged that he later considered the scheme for his other son but did not follow through with it. Neither son was involved, and his son at Georgetown was allowed to stay and graduate.
More than 50 parents, coaches and others have been charged since investigators revealed the scheme last year. The parents paid hefty bribes to get their children into top universities with bogus test scores or fake athletic credentials, authorities say.
Prosecutors have pushed for prison time for most parents accused in the scheme, but they said home confinement was warranted in Dameris’ case because of his “unusual and compelling personal circumstances.”  
Others who have pleaded guilty include “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli. Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison as part of plea a deal, and Giannulli was ordered to five months. The couple admitted to paying half a million dollars in bribes to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as rowing recruits.
“Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman, also pleaded guilty for paying $15,000 to have someone rig her daughter’s college entrance exam. Huffman was sentenced to two weeks in prison.
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Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who co-founded the influential rock band Van Halen, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer at the age of 65. “I can’t believe I’m having to write this but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning,” his son Wolfgang Van Halen said Tuesday on Twitter. “He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on and off stage was a gift.” Wolfgang Van Halen toured as the bass player in recent years in Van Halen, a band known for songs such as “Panama,” “Jump,” and “Ain’t Talking About Love.”  FILE – Eddie Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen attend a press conference announcing the dates of “Van Halen’s” North American concert tour, Aug. 13, 2007.Eddie Van Halen also played guitar on pop star Michael Jackson’s mega hit song “Beat It.” The Dutch-born Eddie Van Halen and his brother Alex, a drummer, founded Van Halen in the early 1970s. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1978. It featured the blistering instrumental “Eruption” which highlighted Eddie Van Halen’s use of two-handed tapping, and the band’s cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.”   Van Halen went on to become one of the best-selling rock bands of all-time, led by the self-taught guitarist who revolutionized the instrument with his memorable guitar riffs, solos and use of harmonics. The band’s original lineup featured singer David Lee Roth and bass player Michael Anthony.  They recorded several successful albums together including the multi-platinum “1984.”  FILE – David Lee Roth, left, and Eddie Van Halen perform during U.S. Festival in Devore, Calif., May 29, 1983.After that record, the band parted ways with their lead singer and brought in Sammy Hagar.  They also toured with singer Gary Cherone before reuniting with Roth and playing shows across the country in 2012 and 2015, with a lineup that featured 3 original Van Halen members as well as Eddie’s son, Wolfgang.  Eddie Van Halen struggled with alcoholism but had been sober since 2008. He lost one-third of his tongue to cancer that eventually spread to his esophagus. Reaction from musicians Van Halen’s death prompted an outpouring of tributes from fellow musicians on social media. Lenny Kravitz said “Legendary guitar and musical innovator Edward Van Halen. 1955-2020. Heaven will be electric tonight.” Legendary guitar and musical innovator Edward Van Halen. 1955-2020. Heaven will be electric tonight. pic.twitter.com/hdLd7atI74— Lenny Kravitz (@LennyKravitz) October 6, 2020Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx said “RIP Eddie Van Halen. You changed our world. You were the Mozart of rock guitar. Travel safe rockstar.” Country artist Kenny Chesney said, “I am devastated at the news of the passing of my friend Eddie Van Halen.” I am devastated at the news of the passing of my friend Eddie Van Halen. pic.twitter.com/hUyIdKXsdG— Kenny Chesney (@kennychesney) October 6, 2020Red Hot Chili Pepper bassist Flea said, “I love you Eddie Van Halen, an LA boy, a true rocker. I hope you jam with Jimi (Hendrix) tonight. Break through to the other side my brother.”Oh man, bless his beautiful creative heart. I love you Eddie Van Halen, an LA boy, a true rocker. I hope you jam with Jimi tonight. Break through to the other side my brother. ❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/XpcTlPJq9A— Flea (@flea333) October 6, 2020 
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Warner Bros. film studios said it will delay the release of its “Dune” and “The Batman” movies, setting back an entertainment industry already struggling to survive because of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and social distancing measures that have closed theaters worldwide.Two weeks ago, Disney postponed the release of “Black Widow” and a couple other films to 2021 drawing varied responses from fans across the U.S. on social media.This fresh announcement comes after Cineworld Group, the world’s second-biggest movie theater chain, said it would close its British and U.S. theaters, blaming the reluctance of studios to go ahead with major releases for the decision.AMC Entertainment, the world’s No.1 chain, said on Tuesday that most of its theaters in the United States and Europe would remain open as it looks forward to screening a number of upcoming releases, including this weekend’s new films “The War With Grandpa,” starring Robert De Niro, and “Yellow Rose.”Warner Bros. said late Monday that its sci-fi pic “Dune,” directed by Canadian Dennis Villeneuve, is now scheduled to open in October 2021, instead of December. The release of “The Batman,” starring Robert Pattinson, has been moved to the spring of 2022 from October of next year.Earlier, the filming of “The Batman” was shut down for two weeks after a member of the production staff tested positive for the new coronavirus. Filming resumed in Britain last month and Warner Bros. never confirmed or denied reports of Pattinson’s diagnosis.The studio also pushed back its “Matrix” sequel to Dec. 2021.Now, only a few big films are still set to open in 2020: Pixar’s “Soul,” on Nov. 20, Universal’s “The Croods: A New Age,” on Nov. 25, Disney’s “Death on the Nile,” on Dec. 18 and Warner Bros.’ “Wonder Woman 1984,” at Christmas. 
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British rock band Led Zeppelin on Monday effectively won a long-running legal battle over claims it stole the opening guitar riff from its signature 1971 song Stairway to Heaven. The band, one of the best-selling rock acts of all time, was handed victory after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case, meaning that a March 2020 decision by a U.S. appeals court in Led Zeppelin’s favor will stand. Lead singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had been accused in the six-year-long case of lifting the riff — one of the best-known openings in rock music — from a song called “Taurus,” written by the late Randy Wolfe of the U.S. band, Spirit. Wolfe, who performed as Randy California, drowned in 1997, and the case was brought by a trustee for his estate. It has been one of the music industry’s most closely watched copyright cases, potentially exposing Plant and Page to millions of dollars in damages. Led Zeppelin was the opening act for Spirit on a U.S. tour in 1968, but Page testified in a 2016 jury trial in Los Angeles that he had not heard Taurus until recently. The Los Angeles jury found the riff they were accused of stealing was not intrinsically similar to the opening chords of Stairway to Heaven. Francis Malofiy, who represented Wolfe’s estate, said on Monday that Led Zeppelin “won on a technicality” and said that the lawsuit had accomplished its goal. “Today, the world knows that 1. Randy California wrote the introduction to Stairway to Heaven; 2. Led Zeppelin are the greatest art thieves of all time; and 3. Courts are as imperfect as rock stars,” Malofiy said in a statement. Led Zeppelin has yet to comment on the conclusion of the case. 
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The new horror film “Antebellum,” by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, is the latest of several Black horror films addressing race relations in the United States. Filmmakers and critics weigh in on the film and on what defines the Black horror genre. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.   
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Kenya hosted (Oct 3-4) its first social-distance culture and music event where people enjoyed live bands while they could sit in their vehicles so there is less risk of spreading COVID-19.  The Kikwetu festival aims to bring Kenyans together, despite the pandemic, to celebrate the country’s cultural diversity.  Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi
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Kenzo Takada, the iconic Franco-Japanese fashion designer famed for his jungle-infused designs and free-spirited aesthetic that channeled global travel, has died. He was 81.The family said in a statement to French media Sunday that Takada died from complications from COVID-19 in a hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. A public relations officer for Kenzo’s brand confirmed that Takada died, but didn’t give a cause of death.”It is with immense sadness that KENZO has learned of the passing of our founder,” the fashion house said in a statement. “For half a century, Mr. Takada has been an emblematic personality in the fashion industry — always infusing creativity and color into the world.”Though Takada had been retired from his house since 1999 to pursue a career in art, Kenzo remains one of the most respected fixtures of the high Paris fashion. Since 1993, the brand Kenzo has been owned owned by the French luxury goods company LVMH. The current designer and artistic director, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, unveiled Kenzo’s spring-summer 2020 to fashion editors on Wednesday.”His amazing energy, kindness, talent and smile were contagious,” Oliveira Baptista said. “His kindred spirit will live forever.”Kenzo’s styles used bold color, clashing prints and were inspired by travels all over the world.”Kenzo Takada has, from the 1970s, infused into fashion a tone of poetic lightness and sweet freedom which inspired many designers after him,” said Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH.Takada was born on Feb. 27, 1939, in Himeji, in the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan to hoteliers, but after reading his sisters’ fashion magazines his love of fashion began.Studying at the Bunka College of Fashion in Tokyo, Kenzo Takada had a brief stint working in Japan, before relocating to Paris in 1965, to work as a freelance designer.In Paris, he took over a boutique in 1970 which served crystallized his future ready-to-wear aesthetic, and was inspired in its decoration by the jungle scenes of painter Henri Rousseau, which he merged with Asian styles. It became influential.  But it was lowly beginnings: Takada’s first collection at the store called was made entirely out of cotton because he had little money. But the clothes spoke for themselves and a model of his was put on the cover of Elle magazine. A short time after, pioneering shoulder forms, large armholes, dungarees, smock tent dresses, innovative shoulder shapes, and his store was featured in US Vogue. Kenzo showed collections in New York and Tokyo in 1971.Yves Saint Laurent was an important inspiration, in his work, Takada has said. Takada shared Saint Laurent’s penchant for theatrics. in 1978 and 1979, he showed in a circus tent, and it featured himself riding an elephant, and performers rode horses wearing see-through uniforms.Takada’s love of travel and use of ethnic influences were strong features in his three decades atop his house.His contribution to style was significant. He championed a youthful aesthetic and unstructured form, and did away with zippers to liberate silhouettes. His signatures were of wider sleeves and arm holes, that harked to historic styles in his home continent of Asia. 
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Leaders and activists warned Thursday of a global pushback against women’s rights, 25 years after a landmark conference in Beijing that set out an ambitious agenda for women’s equality.“We need to start now, with your excellencies’ commitments at this commemoration, to recapture and ‘fast forward’ from the modest gains made since 1995 that are now under threat,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women, told leaders joining the virtual conference. “We need big bold steps, not incremental ones.”She said that while the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action had led to major advances — including 274 legal and regulatory reforms in 131 countries — significant gaps remained, including in achieving gender parity in representation from the boardroom to the peace table, as well as in wages.“It’s time to bring an end to discriminatory laws, norms and homophobia, to end men’s violence against women and girls, and make a concerted effort to put women at the heart of climate justice,” she added.Twenty-five years after the Beijing conference, advocates noted that no country has achieved full gender equality.In 1995, when the declaration was signed in Beijing, there were 12 female heads of state of government. Today, there are only 22 among 193 countries.German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 19, 2020.“These days, the very states that are successful, economically and socially, as well as in terms of peaceful conflict resolution, are often those where women are among those shouldering responsibility,” said one of those leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.President Emmanuel Macron of France lamented that in the current global climate, the 1995 Beijing Declaration would not find the consensus to be adopted in 2020.“That is where we are collectively,” he said. “Everywhere, women’s rights are under attack, as are human rights, from which they are inseparable. Progress achieved by great efforts is being undermined even in our democracies, starting with the freedom for women to control their own bodies, and in particular, the right to abortion.”French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the closing press conference at the G5 Sahel summit on June 30, 2020, in Nouakchott.Data from the U.N. Population Fund show that only 55% of women worldwide are able to make their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and contraception.Women and girls also face inequalities in access to education. Twelve million girls under age 18 see their education end each year with forced marriage. Others are subjected to the harmful practice of female genital mutilation. One in three women will experience some form of violence in her lifetime.Women also have been particularly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.Ethiopia’s first female President Sahle-Work Zewde delivers a speech at the Parliament in Addis Ababa, Oct. 25, 2018.“While women are in the front lines fighting against this pandemic, they are also being pushed to the edges because of its multifaceted impacts,” said Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde. “In much of the developing world, we know women depend on the informal economy to earn their living, and they find themselves in extremely difficult condition to sustain the lives and well-being of their families.”The pandemic has also made women and girls more vulnerable to domestic violence. U.N. Women says only 48 countries treat violence against women and girls-related services as integral parts of their national and local COVID-19 response plans, with very few adequately funding these measures.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with Reuters at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Sept. 14, 2020.“Unless we act now, COVID-19 could wipe out a generation of fragile progress toward gender equality,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned. “COVID-19 is a catastrophe, but it is also an opportunity for transformative thinking that puts women front and center of the response and the recovery.”Participants called for a recommitment to the Beijing Declaration’s principles, and the necessary policy changes, partnerships and investments to realize the goals.
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Chrissy Teigen said she and John Legend are in “deep pain” following her miscarriage, which she announced in a heart wrenching social media post.
Teigen wrote that they were “driving home from the hospital with no baby. This is unreal.”
“We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before. We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough,” she wrote in a post late Wednesday, alongside a picture of herself in tears on a hospital bed. Another image showed her and Legend grieving together over a bundle cradled in her arms.
Revealing they had chosen the name Jack, the model and the musician wrote of their love for their lost son, who would have been their third child.
“To our Jack – I’m so sorry that the first few moments of your life were met with so many complications, that we couldn’t give you the home you needed to survive. We will always love you,” she wrote.
Legend retweeted her post, adding “We love you, Jack.”
Teigen announced she was pregnant with her third child in August. She had been been hospitalized with excessive bleeding earlier in the week.
Thanking those who have been sending “positive energy, thoughts and prayers,” Teigen concluded, “We are so grateful for the life we have, for our wonderful babies Luna and Miles, for all the amazing things we’ve been able to experience. But everyday can’t be full of sunshine. On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out. But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it.”
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Is dislodging African artwork from a European museum a political statement, or a criminal act? That’s the question a French court weighed Wednesday in an emotionally charged trial centered around a Congolese activist campaigning to take back art he says was plundered by colonizers.
“It belongs to us!” shouted a Black woman watching the trial, breaking down in tears and storming out after a lawyer for Paris’ Quai Branly Museum insisted that its holdings — including tens of thousands of artworks from former colonies — belong to the French state.
Congo-born Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza and four other activists went on trial on attempted theft charges for removing a 19th century African funeral pole from its perch in the museum in a June protest livestreamed on Facebook. Guards quickly stopped them; the activists argue that they never planned to steal the work but just wanted to call attention to its origins.
Lurking beneath nearly every exchange in the courtroom was the question of whether and how former empires should atone for colonial-era wrongs. The question took on new urgency after this year’s global protests against racial injustice unleashed by George Floyd’s death in the U.S. at the knee of a white policeman.
Diyabanza seized on that mood and has staged three livestreamed museum protests  in recent months — in Paris, Marseille and the Netherlands.
French officials denounced the Quai Branly incident, saying it threatens ongoing negotiations with African countries launched by President Emmanuel Macron in 2018 for legal, organized restitution efforts.
If convicted of attempted group theft of a historical object, Diyabanza could face up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000 euro fine ($173,000). However, the lawyer for the French state did not ask for prison time, demanding only modest fines. A verdict is scheduled Oct. 14.
Diyabanza defended what he called a “political act” and said it’s about time that Africans, Latin Americans and other colonized communities take back ill-gotten treasures. He accuses European museums of making millions on artworks taken from now-impoverished countries like Congo, and said the pole, which came from current-day Chad, should be among works returned to Africa.
“We are the legitimate heirs of these works,” he said. But he insisted that “appropriation wasn’t my goal. … The aim was to mark the symbolism of the liberation of these works.”
The presiding judge asked the activists why they thought they had the right to take the law into their own hands. He insisted that the trial should focus on the specific funeral pole incident and that his court wasn’t competent to judge France’s colonial era as a whole.
Quai Branly lawyer Yvon Goutal argued that because of the discussions underway between France and African governments, “there is no need for this political act.” The French state “is very committed to this, and serious” about following through, he said. The prosecutor said the activists should have made their point via more peaceful means.
Defense lawyer Hakim Chergui argued that it shouldn’t have taken this many decades after African countries’ independence to settle the issue. He choked up when talking about the skulls of Algerian 19th century resistance fighters long held as trophies in a French museum and returned to his native Algeria this year.
“There is a frustration in the population that is growing, growing, growing,” he said, calling Wednesday’s proceedings “a trial of the colonial continuum.”
Applause and boos periodically interrupted the proceedings. A crowd of supporters shouted in anger at not being able to enter the small, socially distanced courtroom, and judges sent Diyabanza to calm them down.
The Quai Branly Museum, on the banks of the Seine River near the Eiffel Tower, was built under former French President Jacques Chirac to showcase non-European art, notably from ex-French colonies.
A 2018 study commissioned by Macron recommended that French museums give back works that were taken without consent, if African countries request them. So far, France is preparing to give back 26 works of African art — out of some 90,000 works believed held in French museums, most in the Quai Branly.
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