Harry Potter series author and millionaire left-wing social media activist J.K. Rowling called for a second referendum on British prime minister Theresa May’s plan to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union.
“If you truly want ‘the will of the British people’ to be implemented, you’ll be happy to have a second referendum to confirm what their will is,” Rowling tweeted. “If you’re afraid your lies won’t fly twice and that breaking electoral law might be much harder a 2nd time, not so much.”
The famed author failed to elaborate on her claims that British electoral laws were violated during the 2016 June vote.
Rowling’s remarks come as May announced the postponement of Parliament’s vote on the soft Brexit plans to avoid a shattering defeat — a decision that throws her arrangements into chaos.
All signs had pointed to a sizable defeat for the prime minister in the vote planned for Tuesday. However, postponing the vote is a fresh humiliation for May, who became prime minister after Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the E.U.
May has been battling on Brexit ever since — first to strike a divorce deal with the bloc, then to sell it to skeptical British lawmakers before the U.K. leaves the bloc on March 29.
Both Conservative and opposition Labour Party lawmakers have said they would not back the divorce deal that May and EU leaders agreed on last month. Conservative Party lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg sharply rejected May’s “undeliverable deal,” saying it risked paving the way for a Labour Party government led by Corbyn. Labour lawmakers shouted “Resign! Resign!” as May wrapped up her remarks Monday, adding further insult to the humiliation of failing to deliver on her signature piece of legislation, the Brexit divorce deal from the European Union.
The British people voted 52 percent in favor of the U.K. leaving the E.U., while 48 percent of voters supported the country remain in the bloc.
Rapper Cardi B exploded on President Trump Tuesday for serving McDonald’s to the Clemson football team, calling it “disrespectful” and saying the players shouldn’t have gone at all.
“If you gonna fly out a team that bust they ass practicing–you gonna fly them out to give them some cold motherfuckin’ french fries, that is disrespectful, and that’s like spitting in a nigga’s face,” Cardi B said.
“Like I swear to God, if I was there, I would have punched the motherfuckin’–I would have motherfuckin’ punched the wig out of Trump, bro,” the rapper, real name Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar said.
President Trump served fast food to the Clemson football team during their visit to the White House, due to the ongoing government shutdown.
In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said, “Because the Democrats refuse to negotiate on border security, much of the residence staff at the White House is furloughed–so the President is personally paying for the event to be catered with some of everyone’s favorite fast foods.”
The “Money” rapper attacked Trump during an interview in June, telling Rolling Stone, “He has made divisions in this country — he almost made a crazy civil war between the blacks and the whites.”
“He has proven himself to be a madman so many times, and proven himself to be disrespectful to women, and that still hasn’t gotten him impeached,” she said, also referring to Trump as a “dickhead.”
However, the 26-year-old apparently doesn’t like to talk politics too much. During an October interview with Jimmy Kimmel, she said, “I’ve always been interested in politics but, the thing is… now I gotta, like, be careful what I say you know.”
“You know, if I make certain points I be feeling like the government’s gonna say, like, ‘this girl be up to something, we might have to get rid of her.’”
Martin Scorsese calls Marvel movies “theme park rides,” Francis Ford Coppola labels them “despicable,” Ken Loach compares them to “hamburgers.”
Over the past few weeks, Marvel has taken a legitimate beating from some cinematic legends, and this is happening during a vulnerable time for a hit factory moving past the Avengers and into a more openly political and woke phase.
Oscar-winner Scorsese went first, saying of Marvel and comic book movies in general, “Theaters have become amusement parks. That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense,” he said. “That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that.”
Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola said, “When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration. I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again.”
Ken Loach sums it up this way, “”They’re made as commodities like hamburgers, and it’s not about communicating, and it’s not about sharing our imagination,” he said. “It’s about making a commodity which will make a profit for a big corporation – they’re a cynical exercise. They’re a market exercise, and it has nothing to do with the art of cinema.”
My knee-jerk reaction to attacks on genre movies is to cry “snob!,” but there’s some validity to this criticism, especially as it relates to Marvel, which basically reheats the same two plots over and over and over again: 1) We have to come together to save the world, uhm, again!, and 2) Please, for the love of all that is holy, not another origin movie.
I myself have given some of these movies a favorable reviews while comparing them to a theme park ride. And I am getting tired of them… Would I have enjoyed Shazam! In a vacuum, in a world that is not pummeled with a dozen or so comic movies a year, half of which are origin movies? Probably. Even its off-beat sense of humor, that ironic distance thing, is growing tiresome. It felt fresh ten years and a hundred movies ago in Iron Man; enough already.
Obviously, you can’t argue against success. These movies reliably make money and Marvel has done something never before seen: produced more than 20 box office smashes in a row. Eventually, though, audiences tire of the same old. We’ve seen it a million times… Westerns, disaster movies, musicals, biblical epics, space operas, buddy movies, slasher pics, romantic comedies, raunchy comedies… Eventually, we are going to tire of the superhero genre, and maybe Scorsese, Coppola, and Loach are not being snobs.
What I mean is, maybe as successful professionals who not only love movies, but watch and work in the industry, who make a living by eaching an audience, they sense a disturbance in the force, a change in the air, a shift in popular opinion….
Aren’t you a little tired of these movies?
Aren’t they starting to feel a little repetitive and empty?
Joker is a comic book movie, so this might sound counter-intuitive, but maybe it’s breaking all kinds of records (for an R-rated feature) because it feels so fresh, so different, like an anti-Marvel movie. There’s no pretty colors, no saving the world, no obvious CGI, no aliens, no third-act, computer-generated epic battle, and no humor (unless you count the miniature golf joke , which I laughed at).
Critics blasted Joke for aping other movies … that are more than 40-years-old! Meanwhile, every other comic book movie copies movies that are 40 days old.
Honestly, how much are you looking forward to this next Marvel phase, which is going to feature all the same ole-same ole, but fill it with woketardery — Feminism! Gays! Transsexuals! Lady Thor! It all feels a tad oppressive to me.
Maybe Scorsese and company really do dislike comic book movies, or maybe they’re just sick and tired of them. Maybe we all are. I kind of hope so. I’d like to move on to something else.
Guess we will find out soon enough.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
A Boeing aircraft takes off in Belgium | Philippe Huguen/AFP via Getty
EU claims ‘major win’ in Boeing subsidy case
Airbus and Boeing will need to co-operate to challenge subsidies in the Chinese aerospace industry.
The European Commission claimed a “major win” Monday, saying that the World Trade Organization ruled Boeing received $5.7 billion of illegal subsidies in the form of tax breaks from Washington State.
Airbus hailed the ruling as a “knockout blow” and a watershed moment for the 12-year-old battle between Airbus and Boeing over state support — the longest running trade dispute since the WTO was founded in 1995. The case now looks set to become an important test of commercial ties between the world’s biggest trade bloc and the administration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.
Boeing immediately disputed the sum cited by the Commission and retorted that Airbus had benefited from far greater subsidies.
The WTO ruled that some of the tax incentives provided by Washington State to Seattle-based Boeing were prohibited as they encouraged the company to manufacture parts — including the wings — of its new 777X aircraft within the state.
The EU said this was the first time in the Airbus/Boeing clash that one of the companies was found to have received direct subsidies that discriminated against foreign producers.
“Today’s WTO ruling is an important victory for the EU and its aircraft industry. The panel has found that the additional massive subsidies of $5.7 billion provided by Washington State to Boeing are strictly illegal. We expect the U.S. to respect the rules, uphold fair competition, and withdraw these subsidies without any delay,” said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.
Boeing rejected Malmström’s account of the case: “In total, the EU claimed that Boeing had received $8.7 billion in subsidies. This claim was rejected by the WTO, which found future incentives totaling no more than $50 million a year to be impermissible.”
J. Michael Luttig, Boeing’s general counsel, also suggested that Airbus was on the hook for far more.
“Today’s decision is a complete victory for the U.S., Washington State and Boeing,” he said. “The WTO found in September that Airbus has received $22 billion in illegal subsidies from the EU and that without these subsidies neither Airbus itself nor any of its airplanes would even exist today.”
In an example of the eternal claim and counter-claim that has come to epitomize the case, one industry source then poured cold water on Luttig’s $22 billion figure.
“The $22 billion Boeing claim is greatly exaggerated. They are the sum of all the loans Airbus has received from EU countries, but the WTO has ruled those loans legal except for minor tweaks, meaning the number doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Little faith
Today’s ruling requires Washington State and Boeing to remove the subsidies within 60 days or appeal the ruling.
“I have little faith in the U.S. compliance with the rulings. The 777X case shows total disrespect for the WTO,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus’s chief operating officer.
The options for the two chief rivals of the aerospace industry are stark: either to sit down and settle or enter into a damaging WTO-sanctioned trade war.
In September, a WTO compliance panel ruled that European governments had failed to adequately address illegal subsidies previously found by the WTO and that they further breached WTO rules by granting more than $4 billion in new subsidized financing for the Airbus A350 XWB. This caused tens of billions of dollars of damage to the U.S. industry, according to the United States Trade Representative.
The EU appealed the ruling in September and a final decision is expected in the spring of 2017.
Bigger problems to solve
Despite the acrimony of the subsidies’ cases, it is becoming increasingly clear that Airbus and Boeing need to worry about each other less, as their duopoly wanes.
Industry officials said Canada, Brazil, Russia and China are all entering the lucrative aerospace market and are using government subsidies to gain ground.
“Canada is a small player, but what happens when China starts subsidizing its aerospace agency?” one industry source asked.
Both Boeing and Airbus fear China’s track record with government subsidies.
From steel to aluminum and electricity prices, Beijing has never been shy about helping its industry grow and expand by undercutting competition with aggressively lower prices.
The problem is Boeing and Airbus do not want to sue Chinese aerospace companies and bring them to the WTO.
“If Boeing sues China, Beijing buys Airbus. If Airbus sues China, Beijing buys Boeing. There is no way out,” said an industry official before underlining how “China is 25 percent of the aerospace market, Boeing and Airbus need those markets.”
The message is clear: Without co-operation, Boeing and Airbus will find it impossible to counter Chinese aerospace subsidies at the WTO.
“The only way out of the ridiculous series of disputes is to agree on a set of globally applicable rules for the support of the civil aircraft industry, which would benefit both sides of the Atlantic,” said Tom Enders, Airbus’ chief executive.
“The duopoly is no longer the framework of reference in the future. Look at the huge subsidies the Canadian government has granted to Bombardier just recently, look at the upcoming competition from Russia and Asia,” he added.
EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni at the European Parliament in Strasbourg
Italy backs budget deficit cuts to placate EU
But Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s coalition will likely face bigger battles in the autumn.
ROME — Italy has approved plans to cut its budget deficit by an extra €3.4 billion in an effort to placate its EU partners and the European Commission.
Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s center-left cabinet agreed the measures only after heated debate — offering a foretaste of bigger difficulties to come in the autumn, when it will have to craft a new budget with very little room for growth-boosting policies. That battle will take place in the lead-up to a general election, due in early 2018.
“We are delivering a message of strong reassurance that our accounts are in order, and not because of higher taxes,” Gentiloni said at a press conference on Tuesday evening, following a two-hour cabinet meeting to approve the measures. “We are continuing to follow the path of reforms and growth.”
According to government figures also released on Tuesday, Italy’s budget deficit target for this year was lowered to 2.1 percent of GDP from a previous 2.3 percent, while it is projected to fall to 1.2 percent next year.
Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said the lower deficit would be funded through measures aimed at fighting tax evasion, greater efficiency in tax collection and only limited spending cuts. Padoan also said Italy would move forward with other reforms, including a new competition law and a planned overhaul of the civil justice system.
The lower deficit requested by Brussels has been a tough nut to crack for Gentiloni, who took over as premier last December after his predecessor Matteo Renzi was defeated in a referendum on proposed constitutional reforms.
The European Commission has threatened to open an excessive deficit procedure against Rome if it doesn’t move quickly to bring its deficit targets closer to EU requirements. The Commission can impose fines of up to 0.2 percent of gross domestic product on eurozone countries that repeatedly ignore recommendations to fix their budget problems.
The Italian economy is projected to expand by 1.1 percent this year, slowing down to 1 percent growth in 2018 and 2019. Padoan said the limited growth rates predicted for the next two years were due to “stringent fiscal policies,” which were part of the government’s EU commitments. However, he hinted that there could still be some room for negotiations with Italy’s European partners to find new ways of balancing fiscal rigor with investment-boosting policies.
‘Right direction’
Italy, which is burdened by the highest public debt in the eurozone after Greece, has often clashed with the Commission over its expansive budget policies. A new disagreement with the EU would have been an additional headache for the Gentiloni government.
“Certainly the commitment of the Italian government is going in the right direction,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica published on Wednesday, adding that he had yet to see the details of the new measures.
Juncker also said that Italy must “decisively” overhaul its public finances and cut debt in the medium to long term, but he ruled out Rome’s exit from the eurozone.
Gentiloni’s coalition faces the hard task of keeping Italy’s accounts in order while addressing urgent calls for social policy measures to fight widening poverty and record-high youth unemployment.
Despite adopting a more accommodating stance with the EU than its predecessor, the government could still end up making expensive vote-winning promises in the autumn as it prepares to do electoral battle with a strong Euroskeptic opposition. Leading the charge is the anti-establishment 5Star Movement, which has pledged to call a referendum on leaving the euro and currently enjoys a strong poll lead over the governing Democratic Party.
“This is a fragile government, which doesn’t have much negotiating power either with the markets or with the EU,” said Pierpaolo Benigno, economics professor at Rome’s LUISS university.
“These budget moves are pretty mild and they are not solving Italy’s main problem, which is the country’s heavy public debt and its sustainability. This government, due to its brief time horizon and its internal weakness, can’t do much to address that key issue,” Benigno added.
Italy’s debt, which reached a record high of 132.6 percent of GDP in 2016, will remain stable at 132.5 percent this year, while easing to 131 percent in 2018, according to government figures.
Trans actor MJ Rodriguez defended comedian Kevin Hart before he stepped down as host of the 2019 Oscars on Thursday over past jokes about gay people, describing him as a “wonderful host” and calling on people to forgive him.
After Hart was announced as the host of the upcoming 91st Academy Awards, social justice activists called for his removal because of the Night School star’s past jokes about homosexuality.
“That’s a hard topic for me because I’m a big fan of Kevin Hart and I know that he probably didn’t mean any malice by it but I mean I think an apology is due if it hasn’t been given before,” Rodriguez said in an interview with Variety about the controversy. “I think maybe it would be something nice. And if he doesn’t, I don’t think we should hold him accountable, I think we should just remember and forgive him.”
Before the event on Thursday, Hart posted a video on Instagram explaining he would not apologize for his previous remarks
“The reason why I passed is because I’ve addressed this several times,” he said. “This is not the first time this has come up. I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it. I’ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I’ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I’ve done it.”
Rodriguez, meanwhile, maintained that she would not hold his initial refusal to apologize against him.
“I’m not gonna hold that against him, I think he’s a wonderful host,” the Pose star said. “I don’t think he should be obligated or anything should be held against him for the past decisions he’s made. We have to all be open with our hearts you know?”
However, Hart eventually opted to apologize and step down from the event, arguing he did not want to serve as a “distraction” from the ceremony itself.
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s….this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” he tweeted. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
“I’m sorry that I hurt people. I am evolving and want to continue to do so,” he added. “My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy. I hope we can meet again.”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected].
The Blues welcome the German champions to London and will be eager to get the tie off to a positive start while keeping it tight at the back
Chelsea lock horns with Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Champions League, with the first leg taking place at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
Frank Lampard’s side come into the game on something of a high having beaten London rivals Tottenham in their last outing on Saturday and they will look to build on that result.
Bayern are on a seven-game unbeaten streak, winning six of those clashes, but they were made to sweat against Paderborn at the weekend, with Robert Lewandowski coming to the rescue late in the game.
More teams
The Poland international has already scored 10 goals in this season’s Champions League and will be determined to add to his tally with an away goal or two against the Premier League side.
Chelsea vs Bayern Munich on U.S. & UK TV
Game
Chelsea vs Bayern Munich
Date
Tuesday, February 25
Time
8pm GMT / 3pm ET
Channel (U.S.)
TUDN / TNT
Channel (UK)
BT Sport 2 / BT Sport Ultimate
Chelsea vs Bayern Munich live streaming in U.S., UK and Canada
In the United States (U.S.), Chelsea vs Bayern Munich can be watched live and on-demand with Watch TNT, TUDN en Vivo and B/R Live.
In the United Kingdom (UK), Chelsea vs Bayern Munich can be watched live and on-demand with BT Sport Live. UK readers can find out what football is on TV here.
In Canada, the game can be streamed live and on-demand with DAZN. New users can sign up for a free trial of the live sports streaming service, with an annual or monthly option.
European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager speaks during a news conference at the EU Delegation in Washington | Yuri Gripas/AFP via Getty Images
Call to publish commissioners’ travel expenses
Campaign group wants details of all official travel to be made public.
Campaigners are demanding that the European Commission release detailed travel costs of official trips taken by European commissioners.
Access Info Europe, a NGO, is urging citizens and activists to make systematic document requests for the 2016 travel expenses of the 28 European commissioners.
“We are mobilizing members of the public to help break the secrecy about how European citizens’ taxes are being used on official travel,” said executive director Helen Darbishire.
The watchdog has received some documents from the European Commission but says it denied many requests, citing commissioners’ privacy. The released documents show Jean-Claude Juncker’s expenses for a trip to the G20 in Turkey in November 2015 were €67,602 for three days. Juncker’s costs included daily allowances, plane travel and accommodation. That is “a reasonable price,” according to an accountant familiar with the travel expenses of leaders.
The European Commission on Friday said the plane journey taken by Jean-Claude Juncker and his team to the G20 in Turkey had to be booked at the last minute. They were supposed to travel with the Belgian Air Force but the flight was canceled because of a “security/safety incident.”
Requests for copies of Commission contracts with airlines were also denied by the Commission. An EU official said “the rule is quite simple: you have to take every time the cheapest travel option.”
A European Commission spokesperson insisted “We are very transparent. You will not find international public institutions as open and ready to provide documents.”
The last available full-year figures for commissioner travel expenses are from 2013 when they spent €3.3 million on travel.
While the Commission encourages commissioners to publish a public agenda, including where they will or have traveled to, there are many gaps in the information publicly available.
In addition to basic overall cost information withheld from the public, other missing information includes: which staff members travel with a commissioner; whether any security staff traveled in advance of the commissioner to official venues; whether or not a commissioner has extended their official trip to spend time at the destination privately; and what elements of the trip were offered cost-free to the commissioner by host government or organization.
Dix jours après sa naissance, George Alexander Louis vient enfin d’être inscrit au registre britannique des naissances. Un document signé par son père, le prince William, dans lequel on apprend le métier de Kate, princesse du Royaume-Uni. La classe.
La législation britannique prévoit que l’inscription d’un enfant au registre d’état civil est valable jusqu’à 42 jours après sa naissance. En attendant dix jours après celle de leur royal baby, le 22 juillet, Kate et William sont dans la norme. Mais ce qui ne l’est pas, c’est que les jeunes parents n’ont pas eu besoin, comme leurs sujets, de se rendre à la mairie. Comme le veut la tradition pour les têtes couronnées, c’est l’officier municipal qui s’est rendu dans la résidence londonienne du duc et de la duchesse de Cambridge, le palais de Kensington.
Et c’est le prince William qui s’est chargé d’effectuer les démarches administratives puisque seule sa signature apparaît sur le document. Le duc, qui a pris deux semaines de congé parental, était donc de retour à Londres, seul. La duchesse est vraisemblablement restée en vacances avec le petit George. Une photo du document a bien sûr été publié sur Twitter (et bientôt la première photo officielle du bébé sera dévoilée), et si la majorité des informations fournies étaient déjà connues des Britanniques, il en est une qui a fait sourire de nombreux observateurs: les cases concernant la profession des parents. Le duc, normalement pilote d’hélicoptère dans la Royal Air Force, et la duchesse de Cambridge, sont désormais prince et princesse du Royaume-Uni. Un job royal pour le couple star de la monarchie.
La vie nous offre souvent des deuxièmes chances. C’est en tout cas ce qui arrive à Laurene Powell, veuve de Steve Jobs, qui aurait retrouvé l’amour aux côtés d’Adrian Fenty.
A presque cinquante ans, Laurene Powell a vécu plusieurs vies, dont une grande partie auprès de son mari, Steve Jobs, homme d’affaires visionnaire. Quand il disparait en octobre 2011, Laurene Powell reprend les rênes d’Apple, devient l’une des plus importantes actionnaires de The Walt Disney Company, tente tant bien que mal de maintenir le cap choisit par son époux. Mais aujourd’hui, la douleur un brin dissipée, Laurene se consacre désormais à sa vie de femme dans les bras d’Adrian Fenty.
Ce bel homme de 42 ans affiche un pedigree sans fausse-note: sixième maire de Washington, avocat brillant, il est aussi un homme engagé et philanthrope. En février 2012, après une première rencontre lors d’une conférence en 2011, Laurene et Adrian se croisent à nouveau alors que le maire rejoint College Track, une œuvre de charité fondée par la veuve de Steve Jobs. A l’époque, Laurene Powell ne cache pas son admiration à l’égard de Fenty, qu’elle considère comme ‘l’un des meilleurs défenseurs des réformes éducatives’, avec ‘un sens de l’urgence et des devoirs sans pareil.’
Depuis janvier dernier, Adrian Fenty et Michelle, sa femme depuis quinze ans, ont annoncé leur séparation, permettant ainsi à l’ex-maire de Washington de vivre au grand jour son idylle avec Laurene Powell, heureuse de pouvoir à nouveau croquer la pomme.