Private Industry Leads America’s First Moon Landing Since Apollo
Cape Canaveral, Florida — The first American spacecraft to attempt to land on the Moon in more than half a century is poised to blast off early Monday — but this time, private industry is leading the charge.
A brand-new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, should lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:18 a.m. (7:18 GMT) for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander. The weather so far appears favorable.
If all goes to plan, Peregrine will touch down on a mid-latitude region of the Moon called Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, on February 23.
“Leading America back to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo is a momentous honor,” Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic’s CEO John Thornton said ahead of the launch.
Until now, a soft landing on Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor has only been accomplished by a handful of national space agencies: the Soviet Union was first, in 1966, followed by the United States, which is still the only country to put people on the Moon.
China has successfully landed three times over the past decade, while India was the most recent to achieve the feat on its second attempt, last year.
Now, the United States is turning to the commercial sector to stimulate a broader lunar economy and ship its own hardware at a fraction of the cost, under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
A challenging task
The space agency has paid Astrobotic more than $100 million for the task, while another contracted company, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is looking to launch in February and land near the south pole.
“We think that it’s going to allow… more cost effective and more rapidly accomplished trips to the lunar surface to prepare for Artemis,” said NASA’s Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration.
Artemis is the NASA-led program to return astronauts to the Moon later this decade, in preparation for future missions to Mars.
Controlled touchdown on the Moon is a challenging undertaking, with roughly half of all attempts ending in failure. Absent an atmosphere that would allow the use of parachutes, a spacecraft must navigate through treacherous terrain using only its thrusters to slow descent.
Private missions by Israel and Japan, as well as a recent attempt by the Russian space agency have all ended in failure — though the Japanese Space Agency is targeting mid-January for the touchdown of its SLIM lander launched last September.
Making matters more fraught is the fact it is the first launch for ULA’s Vulcan, although the company boasts it has a 100 percent success rate in its more than 150 prior launches.
ULA’s new rocket is planned to have reusable first stage booster engines, which the company, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, expects will help it achieve cost savings.
Science instruments, human remains
On board Peregrine are a suite of scientific instruments that will probe radiation and surface composition, helping to pave the way for the return of astronauts.
But it also contains more colorful cargo, including a shoebox-sized rover built by Carnegie Mellon University, a physical Bitcoin, and, somewhat controversially, cremated remains and DNA, including those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, legendary sci-fi author and scientist Arthur C. Clarke, and a dog.
The Navajo Nation, America’s largest Indigenous tribe, has said sending these to the Moon desecrates a body that is sacred to their culture and have pleaded for the cargo’s removal. Though they were granted a last-ditch meeting with the White House, NASA and other officials, their objections have been ignored.
The Vulcan rocket’s upper stage, which will circle the Sun after it deploys the lander, is meanwhile carrying more late cast members of Star Trek, as well as hair samples of presidents George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
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‘Wonka’ Is No. 1 at Box Office Again as 2024 Gets Off to Slower Start
LOS ANGELES — Timothee Chalamet and “Wonka” topped the box office charts for the third time in its four weekends in theaters. Warner Bros.’ family-oriented musical added $14.4 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its total domestic grosses to $164.7 million.
“‘Wonka’ is following in the tradition of a film like ‘The Greatest Showman,'” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. That Hugh Jackman musical opened under $9 million in December 2017 and went on to gross $435 million globally.
“‘Wonka’ is a perfect crowd pleaser released at the perfect time and it’s going to ride that wave into January,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s an opportune time for it to be in the marketplace.”
After finishing 2023 on a high note, 2024 is getting off to a slower start than last year, down around 16%, with the Universal/Blumhouse horror “Night Swim” as the only major new offering in theaters. The movie stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon as a couple with a sinister, supernatural swimming pool.
“Night Swim” drew in an estimated $12 million in its first weekend in 3,250 theaters in North America against a reported $15 million production budget. Including international showings in 36 markets, “Night Swim” is heading towards a $17.7 million global debut.
“Not only did it perform really well at the box office, but it’s going to make us look at every swimming pool with a little more trepidation,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution.
Horror movies are largely critic-proof, but with fairly negative reviews and a C CinemaScore rating, it’s unlikely to repeat the viral success of last year’s demon doll movie “M3GAN.”
“We don’t have ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ which totally dominated the box office a year ago, or ‘M3GAN,’ which made that a bigger weekend,” said Dergarabedian. “But it’s a bit early to call it in terms of how the year is going to turn out.”
Warner Bros. and Universal placed third and fourth on the charts as well. Warner Bros.’ DC superhero movie “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” earned $10.6 million in its third weekend, bumping its domestic tally just over the $100 million mark. Universal’s animated “Migration” added $10.3 million, bringing its running domestic total to $77.8 million.
Sony’s Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney romantic comedy “Anyone But You” landed in fifth place with $9.5 million, up 9% from last weekend. The movie has grossed $43.7 million to date.
Cineplexes are full of awards contenders, including “The Color Purple,” “The Iron Claw” and “Poor Things,” and the Golden Globes broadcast Sunday night might help spread awareness for those and other films.
“The Golden Globes are like a three-hour infomercial for the industry,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s no downside to having a very high profile telecast that puts a spotlight on the movies.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
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“Wonka,” $14.4 million.
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“Night Swim,” $12 million.
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“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” $10.6 million.
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“Migration,” $10.3 million.
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“Anyone But You,” $9.5 million.
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“The Boys in the Boat,” $6 million.
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“The Color Purple,” $4.8 million.
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“The Iron Claw,” $4.5 million.
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“Ferrari,” $2.5 million.
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“Poor Things,” $2 million.
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Hollywood Festivities Return as ‘Barbie’ Vies for Golden Globes
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Margot Robbie, Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo DiCaprio will mingle with other top stars on Sunday at the Golden Globe awards, Hollywood’s first big celebration since twin strikes shut down most of show business last year.
The red carpet, champagne-fueled awards ceremony will honor the best of film and television selected by a new group of 300 entertainment journalists from around the world, part of reforms made after a diversity and ethics scandal among voters.
“Barbie,” the summer blockbuster starring Robbie as the iconic doll, leads all nominees with nine nominations. Historical drama “Oppenheimer,” about the making of the atomic bomb, follows with eight nods.
The Globes kick off Hollywood’s annual awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on March 10, and will bring top stars together after six months of strikes by actors and writers in 2023. The ceremony will give celebrities the chance to shine a spotlight on their films and TV shows after months when promotion was prohibited.
“I’m a little biased, but this is the best awards show and we’re going to have fun,” said comedian Jo Koy, who will host his first major awards show starting at 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Monday).
The ceremony will be broadcast live on U.S. TV network CBS and streamed simultaneously for subscribers to Paramount+ with Showtime.
Acting nominees include Robbie and “Barbie” co-star Ryan Gosling, plus “Oppenheimer” stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, who starred in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” also are up for trophies.
Winfrey is among the night’s presenters. Pop superstar Taylor Swift also may join the A-list crowd as a nominee for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” her concert film that is in the running in a new category for cinematic and box office achievement.
In the television field, “Succession” is expected to win accolades for its final season about the high-stakes battle for control of a global media empire. It leads all nominees with nine nods, followed by restaurant dramedy “The Bear” with five.
There are 27 first-time nominees for this year’s Globes.
Known as a boozy celebration more relaxed than the Oscars, the Globes nearly became extinct. A 2021 Los Angeles Times report revealed ethical lapses and a lack of diversity among the roughly 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that previously voted on the Globes. The 2022 ceremony was scrapped while the organization made reforms.
Last year, the Globes were sold to new owners and the association was disbanded. Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions now operate the awards, with a voting body of 300 journalist members from 75 countries with 60% racial and ethnic diversity.
The changes appear to have persuaded Hollywood’s top talent to embrace the show and its new members.
“They’re trying to announce that they’re new and improved,” said Joyce Eng, senior editor at awards website Gold Derby. “I feel like people are more receptive to them.”
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India’s First Solar Observatory Reaches Destination
New Delhi — India has achieved another milestone in space exploration by successfully placing a spacecraft in an orbit from which it will study the sun for five years.
India joined a select group of nations already studying the sun four months after it became the first country to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon’s southern polar region, cementing its reputation as a nation that is emerging on the frontlines of space exploration.
The Indian Space Research Organization said that the space observatory, Aditya L-1, reached the position from which it can monitor the sun’s outer layer and send data back to Earth on Saturday. The spacecraft, which was launched September 2, took four months to reach its destination.
“The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km [kilometers] from earth,” according to an ISRO statement.
Aditya-L1 is named after the Hindu god of the sun, called Aditya in Sanskrit. “L1” refers to Lagrange point 1, the location in space between the sun and Earth, where the satellite has been parked.
“This demonstrates India’s capability to travel over a million kilometers away from the Earth’s orbit. It is a capability that very few countries have and India is the first in Asia to do so,” according to Chaitanya Giri, associate professor of environmental sciences at Flame University in Pune. “The ability to maintain deep space communication with a spacecraft that has traveled so far and sustain a mission for a long period is also significant.”
The Indian mission is scheduled to study the sun for five years. The “Lagrange 1” point, where the spacecraft has been positioned provides an uninterrupted view of the sun, even during eclipses.
The major focus of the mission is to gain a better understanding of space weather, variations in the environment in space between the Earth and the sun, which is crucial for protecting satellites and other spacecraft, according to space scientists.
“It is vital to understand space weather at a time when there are thousands of satellites in space,” Ajay Lele, space scientist and former senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, said.
“Space weather is about disturbances that happen on the sun such as solar winds, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These three components need to be studied,” he said.
Aditya-L1 is expected to be able to give warnings about space storms that can have an impact on Earth, occasionally affecting the operation of satellites and radio communications.
The spacecraft is equipped with seven scientific instruments to study solar wind particles and magnetic fields.
Solar observatory missions have been launched so far by the U.S. space agency NASA, the European space agency, Japan and China.
India’s space program, which began in the 1960s, has gained prominence under Prime Minister Narendra Modi — it is seen as part of his efforts to promote India’s global stature.
“India creates yet another landmark. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realizing among the most complex and intricate space missions,” Modi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.
Other major missions planned by the Indian space agency include a manned mission to space that is due to be launched this year and an interplanetary mission to Mars.
Besides scientific space explorations such as these, India is also looking to enhance its military capabilities in space, according to experts. The first signal that it is giving a military profile to its space program came in 2019 when it conducted an anti-satellite weapon test to demonstrate that it could shoot down satellites in space — a capability that only the United States, China and Russia have.
India has plans to develop 50 new satellites based on artificial intelligence technology in the next five years to beef up the country’s border surveillance and enhance its “geo-intelligence” capabilities, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman S. Somanath said last month.
Enhancing surveillance capabilities from space from a military perspective is key for India, according to experts. Its concerns center both on its Himalayan borders with China, where disputed borders between the two have sparked military tensions, and on the Indian Ocean region, where China has been increasing its influence.
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California Legalizes Most Lowrider Cruising
Customized cars that ride low and slow have been part of Mexican American culture since the 1940s. But in California, cruising in these modified vehicles was mostly illegal — until the new year. Genia Dulot has our story from Los Angeles.
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Asian Restaurant in US Battles Racist Stereotype of Dog-Eating
FRESNO, Calif. — David Rasavong’s cultural pride is evident all throughout his restaurant.
It’s on the wall of family portraits and where a stunning mural depicts his family’s journey from Laos to California. It’s on the menu filled with Lao and Thai dishes like the crispy coconut rice salad of Nam Khao and the stir-fried rice noodles of Pad See Ew.
And it’s in the fact that Love & Thai in Fresno, California, restaurant is open at all. A baseless accusation grounded in a racist stereotype about Asian food using dog meat brought a six-month barrage of harassment so heated that Rasavong, 41, closed down its previous location over fears for his family’s safety.
His earlier restaurant had itself only been open for seven months when a so-called animal welfare crusader in May implied on social media that a pitbull tied up at an unconnected home next door was going to be served on the menu.
A day after the initial commentary, vitriolic statements, voicemails and calls rained down. Rasavong’s body still tenses up when recounting, in particular, a call from an elderly woman.
“She was so disgusted by me and yelling and screaming, and the only thing I can remember hearing her say at the end was ‘Go back to the country you came from you dog-eating mother-effer,'” Rasavong recently told The Associated Press.
Within days, he closed that restaurant because it no longer felt safe between the harassment and people loitering in the parking lot outside of business hours.
The false accusation tapped into a longstanding slur against Asian cuisines and cultures that has persisted in the U.S. for over 150 years, dating back to the xenophobia that grew in the U.S. after Chinese immigrants started arriving in more visible numbers in the 1800s and other Asian communities followed. It’s also one that Asian American communities are fighting against.
It may be astonishing to some that a claim rooted in a racist stereotype took down a family’s restaurant three years after “Stop Asian Hate” became a rallying cry. But for many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, it’s something they’ve heard before as an insult or under the guise of a “joke,” along with other negative reactions to the actual foods of their cultures. In December, a comedian received some backlash for dressing like a UPS delivery driver and walking into an Asian restaurant with caged puppies for a social media video.
There is hope though that more people will learn to tell truth from trope. Since the pandemic first fueled anti-Asian hostilities, AAPI communities themselves have tried to take control of the narrative that Asian food is “dirty,” “weird” yet “exotic.” Furthermore, the appetite to learn about food from the Asian diaspora has only grown across traditional and new media.
Still, there were moments where Rasavong felt like nobody, even media, was on his side. He said a few reporters approached him assuming the claims were true.
But he soon received tons of community support, and the closure ended up being a new beginning.
A shopping center property manager offered him the chance to take over a suite vacated by another restaurant. Nkundwe P. van Wort-Kasyanju, a graphic designer in the Netherlands, and Los Angeles-based interior designer Danny Gonzales proffered their services for free. Hana Luna Her, a local artist, painted the mural. By the Nov. 3 grand opening of the new space, Love & Thai definitely felt the love. The place was bustling all day, Rasavong said, and the city presented a proclamation.
Rasavong is holding onto the belief that he went through this whole saga for a reason.
“There’s a journey that we’re supposed to go on,” said Rasavong, who declined to say if he’ll pursue legal action. “Don’t get me wrong. People need to realize this business is not easy … But you know, we believe in what we’re doing and so far so good.”
In actuality, consuming dog meat is something that has happened in various parts of the world for centuries, where they weren’t seen as domesticated family pets, said Robert Ku, author of Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA. Greeks and Romans referenced it. The French also ate dog meat during World War II.
But when Chinese immigrants came to the U.S., it was linked to them as part of “the myths that the Chinese were these bizarre people who had bizarre diets,” Ku said. “It was one of the attractions of actually going to Chinese restaurants back in the day because it came with ‘danger.'”
As other Asian immigrant groups came, the stereotype spread to include them.
“This is a real just blurring of the Asian identity where it doesn’t matter if you’re Thai or Korean or Vietnamese or Cambodian. You’re all the same,” Ku said.
Along with the false allegation of eating dog meat, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders over the generations have often faced disgust and worse from others when they’ve brought their cultures’ foods from home to public spaces like school or work.
They’re taking steps to fight back, like in 2021, when San Francisco-Bay Area-based writers Diann Leo-Omine. Anthony Shu and Shirley Huey self-published Lunchbox Moments, a compilation of over two dozen personal essays and illustrations that raised $6,000 for charity.
The project became “a powerful thing for all of us,” Leo-Omine said.
“We tried to show it’s not always about being in relation to being American or being white or assimilated,” she said. “You can have moments of joy, too…I hope that it opened people’s minds a little bit more — or made them want to try new foods.”
It’s actually been a big year in publishing and food media for Asian cuisine. Publishers Weekly dedicated a feature in August entirely to Chinese and Taiwanese food after observing nine new cookbooks on the subjects were coming out this year. Several of the authors grew up outside of Asia. The titles range from Vegan Chinese Food, to Kung Food and A Very Chinese Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. Also, children’s book author Grace Lin released Chinese Menu, which relays folklore behind favorite Chinese American dishes. They all share personal anecdotes and readers often seem drawn to “personality-driven” cookbooks, said Carolyn Juris, features editor.
“It’s not just about the recipes. It’s about the stories behind them and I think people respond to that,” Juris said.
Like any other culture, Asian cultures encompass many different regional cuisines and nuances. With the growing Asian diaspora, it’s not strange that so many cookbooks can be mined and “publishers are savvy enough to know that there is a market for these books,” Juris added.
Back at Love & Thai, Rasavong is busy filling online orders for a waiting third-party delivery driver. He is optimistic about keeping up business now that the initial hoopla around his restaurant renaissance has calmed down. Rasavong also hopes his situation will remind others to think before they speak.
“People say these jokes and they think it’s just fun and just light-hearted,” he said. “There are certain things that you shouldn’t say that really do cross a line.”
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Police Investigate UK Post Office after IT Problem Leads to Wrongful Theft Accusations
LONDON — U.K. police have opened a fraud investigation into Britain’s Post Office over a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully accused of stealing money when a faulty computer system was to blame.
The Metropolitan Police force said late Friday that it is investigating “potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions,” relating to money the Post Office received “as a result of prosecutions or civil actions” against accused postal workers.
Police also are investigating potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice over investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 post office branch managers were accused of theft or fraud because computers wrongly showed that money was missing. Many were financially ruined after being forced to pay large sums to the company, and some were convicted and sent to prison. Several killed themselves.
The real culprit was a defective computer accounting system called Horizon, supplied by the Japanese technology firm Fujitsu, that was installed in local Post Office branches in 1999.
The Post Office maintained for years that data from Horizon was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty when the system showed money was missing.
After years of campaigning by victims and their lawyers, the Court of Appeal quashed 39 of the convictions in 2021. A judge said the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability” of Horizon and had committed “egregious” failures of investigation and disclosure.
A total of 93 of the postal workers have now had their convictions overturned, according to the Post Office. But many others have yet to be exonerated, and only 30 have agreed to “full and final” compensation payments. A public inquiry into the scandal has been underway since 2022.
So far, no one from the publicly owned Post Office or other companies involved has been arrested or faced criminal charges.
Lee Castleton, a former branch manager who went bankrupt after being pursued by the Post Office for missing funds, said his family was ostracized in their hometown of Bridlington in northern England. He said his daughter was bullied because people thought “her father was a thief, and he’d take money from old people.”
He said victims wanted those responsible to be named.
“It’s about accountability,” Castleton told Times Radio on Saturday. “Let’s see who made those decisions and made this happen.”
The long-simmering scandal stirred new outrage with the broadcast this week of a TV docudrama, Mr. Bates vs the Post Office. It charted a two-decade battle by branch manager Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, to expose the truth and clear the wronged postal workers.
Post Office Chief Executive Nick Read, appointed after the scandal, welcomed the TV series and said he hoped it would “raise further awareness and encourage anyone affected who has not yet come forward to seek the redress and compensation they deserve.”
A lawyer for some of the postal workers said 50 new potential victims had approached lawyers since the show aired on the ITV network.
“The drama has elevated public awareness to a whole new level,” attorney Neil Hudgell said. “The British public and their overwhelming sympathy for the plight of these poor people has given some the strength to finally come forward. Those numbers increase by the day, but there are so many more out there.”
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Pope Francis Warns Against Ideological Splits in Catholic Church
VATICAN CITY — Amid resistance to some Vatican policy by more conservative factions of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis on Saturday cautioned the faithful against fracturing into groups “based on our own ideas.”
He issued the call to abandon “ecclesiastical ideologies” in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica during Epiphany Day Mass, the last major Christmas season holiday.
Francis also warned against “basking in some elegant religious theory” instead of finding God in the faces of the poor.
Last month, Francis gave permission for priests to bless couples outside of marriage, including same-sex relationships, if the blessing was pastoral and not liturgical or part of some religious rite.
Some bishops who view Francis as a dangerous progressive immediately rejected such blessings. That prompted the Vatican earlier this week to issue a statement stressing that the blessings don’t constitute heresy and there were no doctrinal grounds to reject the practice.
Francis in his Epiphany homily didn’t cite the pushback against his same-sex blessings policy. But he deviated from the written text of the homily to cite the “need to abandon ecclesiastical ideologies.”
Francis said the church needed to ensure that “our faith will not be reduced to an assemblage of religious devotions or mere outward appearance.”
“We find the God who comes down to visit us, not by basking in some elegant religious theory, but by setting out on a journey, seeking the signs of his presence in everyday life,” especially in the faces of the poor, the pontiff said.
The pontiff, who turned 87 last month and who battled health problems last year, held up well during the Epiphany ceremony, which included singing of Christmas hymns. At the end of the 90-minute service, an aide wheeled Francis down the basilica’s center aisle. The pope has a chronic knee problem and uses a wheelchair to navigate longer distances.
He has dedicated much of his nearly 11-year-old papacy to encouraging attention to marginalized people, including the poor. While the church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful, Francis has made efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics feel welcome.
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CES 2024: Consumer Electronics Show Highlighting Tech, Artificial Intelligence
The Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, is back in Las Vegas [January 9 – 12] with more than 3,500 companies from around the globe showcasing the latest developments in artificial intelligence, health care, transportation and much more. VOA’s Julie Taboh gives us a preview. Video edit: Adam Greenbaum. Tina Trinh contributed to this report
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Glynis Johns, ‘Mary Poppins’ Star, Dies at 100
NEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie Mary Poppins and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.
Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”
Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multifaceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”
Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song Send in the Clowns to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor.
“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told the AP in 1990. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater.”
Others who followed Johns in singing Sondheim’s most popular song include Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Olivia Newton-John. It also appeared in season two of Yellowjackets in 2023, sung by Elijah Wood.
Back when it was being conceived, A Little Night Music had gone into rehearsal with some of the book and score unfinished, including a solo song for Johns. Director Hal Prince suggested she and co-star Len Cariou improvise a scene or two to give book writer Hugh Wheeler some ideas.
“Hal said ‘Why don’t you just say what you feel,'” she recalled to the AP. “When Len and I did that, Hal got on the phone to Steve Sondheim and said, ‘I think you’d better get in a cab and get round here and watch what they’re doing because you are going to get the idea for Glynis’ solo.'”
Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn Johns, had a long career as a character actor, and her mother was a pianist. She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were visiting the area on tour at the time of her birth.
Johns was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title of the 1948 hit comedy Miranda.
“I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine; I swam like a porpoise,” she told Newsday in 1998. In 1960’s The Sundowners, with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. (She lost out to Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry.)
Other highlights include playing the mother in Mary Poppins, the movie that introduced Julie Andrews and where she sang the rousing tune Sister Suffragette. She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of The Circle, W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.
“I’ve retired many times. My personal life has come before my work. The theater is just part of my life. It probably uses my highest sense of intelligence, so therefore I have to come back to it, to realize that I’ve got the talent. I’m not as good doing anything else,” she told the AP.
To prepare for A Coffin in Egypt, Horton Foote’s 1998 play about a grand dame reminiscing about her life on and off a ranch on the Texas prairie, she asked the Texas-born Foote to record a short tape of himself reading some lines and used it as her coach.
In a 1991 revival of A Little Night Music in Los Angeles, she played Madame Armfeldt, the mother of Desiree, the part she had created. In 1963, she starred in her own TV sitcom, Glynis.
Johns lived all around the world and had four husbands. The first was the father of her only child, the late Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.
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South African Athlete Oscar Pistorius Released from Prison
PRETORIA, South Africa — Officials say South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole and is now at home.
The Department of Corrections gave no more details of Pistorius’ release.
The announcement came at around 8:30 a.m., indicating officials released the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner in the early hours. Pistorius has served nearly nine years for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He’d been sentenced to 13 years and five months.
He was approved for parole in November. Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence.
Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, said in a statement that she had accepted Pistorius’ parole as part of South African law.
“Has there been justice for Reeva? Has Oscar served enough time? There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back,” June Steenkamp said. “We who remain behind are the ones serving a life sentence.”
“With the release of Oscar Pistorius on parole, my only desire is that I will be allowed to live my last years in peace with my focus remaining on the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, to continue Reeva’s legacy.”
Pistorius will live under strict conditions until the remainder of his sentence expires in December 2029, the Department of Corrections said. It emphasized that the multiple Paralympic champion’s release — like every other offender on parole — does not mean that he has served his time.
Some of Pistorius’ parole conditions include restrictions on when he’s allowed to leave his home, a ban on consuming alcohol, and orders that he must attend programs on anger management and on violence against women. He will have to perform community service.
Pistorius will also have to regularly meet with parole officials at his home and at correctional services offices and will be subjected to unannounced visits by authorities. He is not allowed to leave the Waterkloof district without permission and is banned from speaking to the media until the end of his sentence. He could be sent back to jail if he is in breach of any of his parole conditions.
South Africa does not use tags or bracelets on paroled offenders, so Pistorius will not wear any monitoring device, Department of Corrections officials said. But he will be constantly monitored by a department official and will have to inform the official of any major changes in his life, such as if he wants to get a job or move to another house.
Pistorius has maintained that he shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate, by mistake. He testified that he believed Steenkamp was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom and shot through the door with his licensed 9 mm pistol in self-defense.
Prosecutors said he killed his girlfriend intentionally during a late-night argument.
Steenkamp’s family did not oppose his parole application in November, although June Steenkamp said in a victim statement submitted to the parole board that she didn’t believe Pistorius had been fully rehabilitated and was still lying about the killing.
Before the killing, Pistorius was held up as an inspiring role model after having had both of his legs amputated below the knee as a baby because of a congenital condition. He became a champion sprinter on his carbon-fiber running blades and made history by competing at the 2012 London Olympics.
But his murder trial destroyed his image. He was accused of being prone to angry outbursts and acting recklessly with guns, while witnesses testified about various altercations he had with others, including an argument in which he allegedly threatened to break a man’s legs.
Pistorius was first convicted of culpable homicide — a charge comparable to manslaughter — and sentenced to five years in prison for killing Steenkamp. After appeals by prosecutors, he was ultimately found guilty of murder and had his sentence increased, although that judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal still didn’t definitively rule that he knew it was Steenkamp behind the toilet door.
Pistorius was first sent to prison in 2014, was released on house arrest in 2015 during an appeal and was sent back to prison in 2016. He was initially incarcerated at the maximum security Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria but was moved to Atteridgeville early in his sentence because it is better suited to holding disabled prisoners.
Reaction to Pistorius’ parole has been muted in South Africa, a stark contrast to the first days and months after Steenkamp’s killing, which sparked angry protests outside of Pistorius’ court hearings calling for him to receive a long prison sentence. There is no death penalty in South Africa.
“He has ticked all the necessary boxes,” said Themba Masango, secretary general of Not In My Name International, a group that campaigns against violence against women. “And we can only wish and hope Oscar Pistorius will come out a better human being.”
“We tend to forget that there is a possibility where somebody can be rehabilitated.”
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Lancashire Heeler Newest Breed to Join American Kennel Club
NEW YORK — It’s small in stature, big on activity and known for a “smile,” and it’s ready to compete with 200 other dog breeds.
Say hello to the Lancashire heeler, the latest breed recognized by the American Kennel Club. The organization announced Wednesday that the rare herding breed is now eligible for thousands of U.S. dog shows, including the prominent Westminster Kennel Club show.
With long bodies and short coats that are often black and tan, the solidly built dogs are shaped a bit like a downsized corgi, standing around 30 centimeters at the shoulder and weighing up to about 7.7 kilograms. Historically, they were farm helpers that could both drive cattle and rout rats, and today they participate in an array of canine sports and pursuits.
“They’re gritty little dogs, and they’re very intelligent little dogs,” says Patricia Blankenship of Flora, Mississippi, who has bred them for over a decade. “It’s an enjoyable little breed to be around.”
Their official description — or breed standard, in dog-world parlance — calls for them to be “courageous, happy, affectionate to owner,” and owners say contented heelers sometimes pull back their lips in a “smile.”
They’re “extremely versatile,” participating in everything from scent work to dock diving contests, says United States Lancashire Heeler Club President Sheryl Bradbury. But she advises that a Lancashire heeler “has to have a job,” whether it’s an organized dog sport or simply walks and fetch with its owners.
The dogs benefit from meeting various different people and canines, added Bradbury, who breeds them in Plattsmouth, Nebraska.
Lancashire heelers go back centuries in the United Kingdom, where they’re now deemed a “vulnerable native breed” at risk of dying out in their homeland. Britain’s Kennel Club has added an average of just 121 Lancashire heelers annually to its registry in recent years, and the American Kennel Club says only about 5,000 exist worldwide.
Founded in 1884, the AKC is the United States’ oldest purebred dog registry and functions like a league for many canine competitions, including sports open to mixed-breeds and purebreds. But only the 201 recognized breeds vie for the traditional “best in show” trophies at Westminster and elsewhere.
To get recognized, a breed must count at least 300 pedigreed dogs, distributed through at least 20 states, and fanciers must agree on a breed standard. Recognition is voluntary, and some breeds’ aficionados approach other kennel clubs or none at all.
Adding breeds, or even perpetuating them, bothers animal rights activists. They argue that dog breeding powers puppy mills, reduces pet adoptions and accentuates canine health problems by compressing genetic diversity.
The AKC says it promotes responsibly “breeding for type and function” to produce dogs with special skills, such as tracking lost people, as well as pets with characteristics that owners can somewhat predict and prepare for. The club has given over $32 million since 1995 to a foundation that underwrites canine health research.
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Alzheimer’s Drugs Might Get Into the Brain Faster With New Ultrasound Tool
washington — Scientists have found a way to help Alzheimer’s drugs seep inside the brain faster — by temporarily breaching its protective shield.
The novel experiment was a first attempt in just three patients. But in spots in the brain where the new technology took aim, it enhanced removal of Alzheimer’s trademark brain-clogging plaque, researchers reported Wednesday.
“Our goal is to give patients a head start,” by boosting some new Alzheimer’s treatments that take a long time to work, said Dr. Ali Rezai of West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, who led the study.
At issue is what’s called the blood-brain barrier, a protective lining in blood vessels that prevents germs and other damaging substances from leaching into the brain from the bloodstream. But it also can block drugs for Alzheimer’s, tumors and other neurologic diseases, requiring higher doses for longer periods for enough to reach their target inside the brain.
Now scientists are using a technology called focused ultrasound to jiggle temporary openings in that shield. They inject microscopic bubbles into the bloodstream. Next, they beam sound waves through a helmetlike device to a precise brain area. The pulses of energy vibrate the microbubbles, which loosen gaps in the barrier enough for medications to slip in.
Prior small studies have found the technology can safely poke tiny holes that seal up in 48 hours. Now Rezai’s team has gone a step further — administering an Alzheimer’s drug at the same time.
Some new Alzheimer’s drugs, on the market or in the pipeline, promise to modestly slow worsening of the mind-robbing disease. They’re designed to clear away a sticky protein called beta-amyloid that builds up in certain brain regions. But they require IV infusions every few weeks for at least 18 months.
“Why not try to clear the plaques within a few months?” Rezai said, his rationale for the proof-of-concept study.
3 patients, 1 drug, 6 months
His team gave three patients with mild Alzheimer’s monthly doses of one such drug, Aduhelm, for six months. Right after each IV, researchers aimed the focused ultrasound on a specific amyloid-clogged part of each patient’s brain, opening the blood brain-barrier so more of that day’s dose might enter that spot.
PET scans show patients’ amyloid levels before and after the six months of medication. There was about 32% greater plaque reduction in spots where the blood-brain barrier was breached compared to the same region on the brain’s opposite side, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
This pilot study is elegant but too tiny to draw any conclusions, cautioned Dr. Eliezer Masliah of the National Institute on Aging.
Still, “it’s very exciting, compelling data,” added Masliah, who wasn’t involved with the research. “It opens the door for more extensive, larger studies, definitely.”
More testing on horizon
Rezai is about to begin another small test of a similar but better proven drug named Leqembi. Eventually, large studies would be needed to tell if combining focused ultrasound with Alzheimer’s drugs makes a real difference for patients.
Masliah said it’s also important to closely check whether speedier plaque reduction might increase the risk of a rare but worrisome side effect of these new drugs — bleeding and swelling in the brain.
Alzheimer’s isn’t the only target. Other researchers are testing if breaching the blood-brain barrier could allow more chemotherapy to reach brain tumors, and ways to target other diseases.
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California Rose Parade Features Float for Armenian Mothers
Armenian Americans in Southern California celebrated their culture with a flowered float in the annual Rose Parade, moving on from a turbulent year that included Armenians’ exodus from their former enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan’s borders. Genia Dulot has our story from Pasadena.
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