FILE PHOTO: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters at an event to promote the start of London Tech Week, in London, Britain, June 10, 2019. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump once again criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Saturday, saying he is a “disaster” and will “only get worse” after three people were slain in the city in less than 20 hours.
Trump retweeted a tweet by the right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins who called London “stab city” and said “this is Khan’s Londonistan,” a phrase used to describe the city’s failure to tackle Muslim extremists.
“LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster - will only get worse!” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump called Khan, a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, a “stone-cold loser” earlier this month after the mayor criticized the British government for inviting Trump for a state visit and compared him to 20th century fascists.
Trump’s feud with Khan dates back several years. Khan has criticized Trump’s effort to ban travelers from Muslim countries, while the president has castigated the mayor for his handling of a 2017 terrorist attack on the London bridge that killed 11 people.
Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Bill Trott
PARIS (Reuters) - A small congregation in white hard hats attended mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Saturday, the first service since fire devastated the Gothic landmark two months ago.
The Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit leads the first mass in a side chapel two months to the day after a devastating fire engulfed the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, in Paris, France June 15, 2019. Karine Perret/Pool via REUTERS
Church leaders are keen to show life goes on at the cathedral as donations for rebuilding trickle in.
Less than 10% of the 850 million euros ($953 million) pledged by billionaires, business leaders and others has been received so far, the French government said.
The mass, which commemorates the cathedral’s consecration as a place of worship, was held in a side-chapel left undamaged by the April 15 fire, with attendance limited to about 30 people wearing protective headgear.
Priests in ceremonial garb of white robes and yellow stoles briefly parted with their hard hats during the communion.
“It is with much emotion that we are here to celebrate the consecration of the cathedral,” said Paris’s archbishop Michel Aupetit, who led the service.
“It is a message of hope and thanks to all those who were moved by what happened to this cathedral,” he added, acknowledging afterwards it was “a bit strange” to celebrate mass with a helmet.
The service was broadcast live on a religious TV channel that showed poignant images of the blue sky through the collapsed roof and the black rubble still clogging the building.
On Friday, France’s Culture Minister Franck Riester said the cathedral was still in a fragile state, especially the vault.
The blaze caused the roof and spire of the architectural masterpiece to collapse, triggering worldwide sadness.
Among those who promised to donate to the rebuilding effort were luxury goods tycoons Bernard Arnault and François-Henri Pinault.
“There could be people who promised to donate then in the end did not,” Riester told France 2 television, without giving further details. “But more importantly, and this is normal, the donations will be paid as restoration work progresses.”
President Emmanuel Macron has set a target of five years for restoring the cathedral, though Riester was more cautious.
“The president was right to give a target, an ambition,” he said. “But obviously what matters in the end is the quality of the work. So it does not mean that work will be totally finished in exactly five years.”
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Leaked personal messages published on Saturday by a news website show the judge who led the corruption trial that jailed former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva advised prosecutors to influence public opinion against the leftist leader.
FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Justice Minister Sergio Moro speaks during a session of the Public Security commission at the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo
The Intercept posted what it said were social media chats from then judge Sergio Moro to the prosecution team, suggesting prosecutors make a public statement playing up what Moro said were contradictions in Lula’s testimony to undermine his claim to be a victim of political persecution.
The exchange occurred after Lula’s May 10, 2017 deposition against charges that he took a beachside luxury apartment as a bribe. Lula left the court room to tell supporters that he was being “massacred” and was preparing to run for president again.
Moro, who is now Brazil’s justice minister, questioned the authenticity of the messages and said he would not comment on texts obtained by hackers.
“The supposed material, obtained in a criminal way, must be presented to an independent authority so that its integrity can be certified,” he said in a statement.
The texts copied off the Telegram messaging app appear to show Moro suggesting to prosecutors that they mount a public campaign against the man he was judging, and The Intercept said they raised doubts about Moro’s impartiality in the trial that led to a 12-year prison sentence for Lula.
“Maybe tomorrow you should write a statement clarifying the contradictions between (Lula’s) deposition and the rest of the proof and his previous statement,” the judge wrote to prosecutor Carlos dos Santos Lima on the corruption investigation.
Lula’s lawyers have long argued that Moro was a politically motivated judge who wanted to jail their client to block him from running for the presidency last year, when opinion polls showed him easily leading the race, even after he had been jailed.
In an interview published on Friday, Moro told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that he was not worried that the corruption conviction against Lula would be overturned, which legal experts including the Brazilian Bar Association and some Supreme Court Justices have said could happen.
The Intercept has published stories based on what it said was an “enormous trove” of messages received from an anonymous source containing exchanges between prosecutors, Moro and others involved in the investigation and prosecution of the “Car Wash” corruption probe.
Considered the world’s largest graft investigation, it has uncovered billions of dollars of bribes paid in schemes mostly involving sweetheart contracts at state-run firms. It has brought down hundreds of members of the business and political elite in Brazil and across Latin America.
Moro told the newspaper he did not think there was anything illegal in his chats with prosecutors and insisted that Lula’s case “was decided with absolute impartiality based on proof without any type of influence.”
Moro was picked for justice minister by right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who won the presidency after Lula was barred from running because of his conviction.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Daniel Wallis
PARIS (Reuters) - A small congregation wearing hard hats will attend mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Saturday, the first service to be held since fire devastated the Gothic landmark two months ago.
FILE PHOTO: A picture shows bells gathered during preliminary work at the Notre-Dame Cathedral one month after it sustained major fire damage in Paris, France May 15, 2019. Philippe Lopez/Pool via REUTERS
Church leaders are keen to show life goes on at the cathedral as donations to help rebuild it trickle in. Less than 10% of the 850 million euros pledged by billionaires, business leaders and others has been received so far, the French government said.
Saturday’s mass, which commemorates the cathedral’s consecration as a place of worship, is due to be held at 1600 GMT in a side-chapel, with attendance limited to about 30 people who will wear the protective headgear for safety reasons.
“It is a nice symbol. A very small group of people will attend and one can understand why as there are still major safety issues,” Culture Minister Franck Riester told Europe 1 radio.
He told France 2 television on Friday the cathedral was still “in a fragile state, namely the vault, which has not yet been secured. It can still collapse”.
The April 15 blaze caused the roof and spire of the architectural masterpiece to collapse, triggering a worldwide outpouring of sadness as well as the multi-million-euro pledges for reconstruction work.
Among the high-profile people who promised to donate to the rebuilding effort were luxury goods tycoons Bernard Arnault and François-Henri Pinault.
“There could be people who promised to donate then in the end did not,” Riester said, without giving further details. “But more importantly, and this is normal, the donations will be paid as restoration work progresses.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has set a target of five years for restoring the cathedral, though Riester was more cautious.
“The president was right to give a target, an ambition. But obviously what matters in the end is the quality of the work,” he said. “So it does not mean that work will be totally finished in exactly five years.”
The archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit will lead Saturday’s service, which will be broadcast live on a religious TV channel.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Two weeks after an avalanche swept up and probably killed a group of climbers in the Himalayas, Indian authorities mounted efforts to pluck their bodies from an exposed mountain face, braving harsh weather and treacherous terrain.
FILE PHOTO: Snow-covered Nanda Devi mountain is seen from Auli town, in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India February 25, 2014. Picture taken February 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer
The peaks in the 2,400-km (1,500-mile) -long range are among some of the world’s tallest and most dangerous, drawing thousands of adventurers who risk their lives scaling them each year.
This year alone, more than two dozen climbers have been killed on peaks in India, Nepal and Pakistan.
“It could be very frightening up there and it’s definitely going to snow,” said Purmal Dharmshaktu, 61, who has climbed Himalayan peaks for 35 years.
“It’s summer and the crevasses would have widened. This is an incredibly tough task.”
The retrieval could take days, if not weeks, said officials who have been forced to abort aerial recovery bids because of the rugged terrain.
(Graphic link: tmsnrt.rs/2X594cE)
The Indian air force, border police and state and national disaster officials have been drafted into the recovery plans. A team of 32 launched a fresh ground and aerial effort on Tuesday that is expected to run 25 days.
“It is difficult for a helicopter to hover for long in that area,” said Vijay Kumar Jogdande, a government official in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, adding that a three-sided bowl-shaped geographic configuration complicated the task.
The eight feared killed in the avalanche had targeted Nanda Devi East, a sister mountain of the Nanda Devi peak that is 7,816 m (25,643 ft) tall. Both rank among the world’s most challenging peaks, conquered by only a handful of people.
In an effort to acclimatize before that bid, however, the group, led by expert Martin Moran, set out to scale an unclimbed 6,477-m (21,250-ft) -high peak, said deputy leader Mark Thomas.
Thomas, and three others on the expedition, survived because they did not attempt that climb.
Moran and his companions did not return to their base camp on May 29 as planned, with five bodies being spotted by a helicopter on June 3, at a height of about 5,000 m (16,404 ft).
Climbing regulator the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) is sending a separate expedition of 12 on Wednesday. It will take an alternate route to reach the bodies by June 19, IMF spokesman Amit Chowdhury told Reuters.
The eight missing climbers have been identified as Moran, John Mclaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne, all from Great Britain; Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States; Ruth McCance from Australia; and Chetan Pandey, an Indian, who was the IMF’s liaison officer.
Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Euan Rocha and Clarence Fernandez
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss drugmaker Roche is seen at its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland February 1, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
(This June 10 story deletes paragraph 9 to clarify that retreatment with Polivy has not been studied.)
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday granted earlier-than-expected approval to Roche Holding AG’s antibody- Polivy for treatment of patients with advanced lymphoma.
Polivy was approved in combination with Roche’s older drug Rituxan and a chemotherapy agent for adult patients with advanced diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) whose cancer has worsened despite at least two previous lines of therapy.
Antibody-drug conjugates are designed to deliver a toxic chemotherapy directly to tumors. Roche said the average U.S. list price for a four-month course of Polivy would be $90,000. Rituxan is priced at $39,500 for four months.
Wall Street analysts estimate Polivy sales at nearly $1 billion by 2024, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Side effects seen in studies of Polivy included low blood cell counts, nerve damage, fatigue and pneumonia, the FDA said in a statement.
Cell therapies Yescarta, from Gilead Sciences Inc and Kymriah, sold by Novartis AG, are also approved for patients with advanced DLBCL.
Dr. Matthew Matasar, a hematologist at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who was involved in the development of Polivy, said the drug could be an option for some patients to try before determining whether they need to move on to CAR-T treatments.
Roche estimates that nearly 25,000 new cases of DLBCL, a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), will be diagnosed in the United States this year. NHL, which is one of the most common cancers, accounts for about 4% of all types of cancers in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Continued approval for the treatment may depend on data from a confirmatory trial, Roche said. The FDA’s accelerated approval program allows conditional approval of a medicine that fills an unmet medical need for a serious condition.
Reporting by Aakash Jagadeesh Babu in Bengaluru and Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; Editing by James Emmanuel and Lisa Shumaker
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s economy minister and lower house speaker exchanged harsh words on Friday over progress on pension reform, creating another drag on Brazilian financial assets already feeling the heat from global market weakness.
Brazil's Economy Minister Paulo Guedes attends a news conference in Brasilia, Brazil June 12, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
Economy Minister Paulo Guedes kicked off the spat, spurning a congressional committee report for what he called excessive changes to the government’s pension reform bill such as scrapping a plan to launch private savings accounts.
Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the lower house of Congress, hit back at the criticism, saying the collective will had prevailed as it should in a democracy. “We’re not going to pay attention to Minister Paulo Guedes and his recent aggressions against the parliament,” Maia said in a TV interview.
The complaints from Guedes, coming a day after President Jair Bolsonaro’s chief of staff had touted the congressional pension reform report as a “huge victory,” raised concerns about more tension between the government and Congress.
After clashes with lawmakers in recent months, Guedes had struck a more conciliatory tone, contributing to investors’ hopes for a swift approval of the landmark reform to boost public finances. But his disdain on Friday was striking.
Speaking in Rio de Janeiro, Guedes said only a bill generating around 1 trillion reais ($256 billion) of savings over the next decade would represent real reform of the country’s bloated social security system, but around 860 billion meant the issue would need revisiting in five or six years time.
On Thursday, the special committee on pension reform’s long-awaited report recommended changes to the original draft, reducing the government’s planned 1.237 trillion reais of savings to 913 billion reais.
Analysts expect that to be watered down further, but the consensus still appears to be that anything above 800 billion reais would be regarded as a major stepping stone toward putting the country on a more stable financial footing.
Brazilian markets rallied on Thursday, but the political noise soured the taste on Friday, and Guedes came under fire.
“He said what everyone thought, but he shouldn’t have said it,” said a fund manager in Sao Paulo who was not authorized to speak with the press.
The real fell around 1.2% to 3.90 per dollar, its worst day since the end of April, and the benchmark Bovespa stock market fell 0.74%.
Guedes criticized the committee’s report for excluding a transition to private savings accounts, reforms of state and municipal government pensions and changes to how older, disabled and rural workers are treated.
Maia said the special committee will vote on the bill around June 25-26, then present it to the plenary for final lower house approval before a congressional recess in late July.
Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Will Dunham
GENEVA/ZURICH (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of women across Switzerland held a strike on Friday to highlight their wealthy nation’s poor record on female rights, recreating the passion of the last such walkout 28 years ago.
In Zurich, the financial capital and the country’s biggest city, tens of thousands of protesters clogged the streets, blowing whistles and banging pots and pans. “Men, go do the ironing,” one sign read.
“It’s not just about wages. The equal opportunity is not there. At least for the next generation it needs to be there,” Zurich city councilwoman Karin Rykart said as hundreds of municipal workers and police officers demonstrated.
Despite its high quality of life, Switzerland lags other developed economies in female pay and workplace gender equality.
Friday’s event echoed a strike in 1991, five years before the Gender Equality Act came into force. That banned workplace discrimination and sexual harassment and protected women from bias or dismissal over pregnancy, marital status, or gender.
But more than 20 years later, women still earn less than men, face routine questioning of their competence, and encounter condescension on the job, they say.
Organisers say the strike draws attention to wages, violence against women, and the need for greater representation in positions of power and more equitable family policy.
Christine Lagarde, the first woman to lead the International Monetary Fund, joined in while addressing an event in Geneva.
Protesters carry banners and placards at a demonstration during a women's strike (Frauenstreik) in Zurich, Switzerland June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
“At this point in time if I were true to my colors I would actually turn my back to you and express in that way the fact that I am actually on strike - but you might be disappointed,” she said.
“So instead of this I am actually wearing this (lapel pin) out of solidarity with the Swiss women who claim equality in terms of salaries and a few other things.”
The SGB labor union federation estimated 100,000 people joined the strike by midday, with more participating from 3:24 p.m., when women technically work for free given wage discrimination.
“THINGS DIDN’T CHANGE”
Swiss women earn roughly 20% less than men. While that is an improvement from about a third less in 1991, the discrimination gap — meaning differences that cannot be explained by rank or role — has actually worsened since 2000, government data show.
On June 14, 1991, women blocked trams during a sit-in in the heart of Zurich’s financial district and gathered outside schools, hospitals and across cities with purple balloons and banners to demand equal pay for equal work.
That came a decade after basic gender equality was enshrined in the Swiss constitution and less than three months after women for the first time were allowed to participate in a regional vote in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden.
“We have realized that even after this first strike in 1991, things didn’t really change. Equality is enshrined in the constitution, but real, material, effective equality doesn’t exist for all women,” said organizer Tamara Knezevic, 24.
Slideshow (32 Images)
The World Economic Forum found Switzerland ranked 34th for economic participation and opportunity and 44th for wage equality in a 2018 study of 149 countries.
See Factbox on 9 leading Swiss women
Additional reporting by Denis Balibouse in Lausanne and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Raissa Kasolowsky
KOLKATA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A leading Indian doctors’ association called for a nationwide strike on Monday, stepping up protests by medical staff demanding better security at hospitals after an attack on doctors in Kolkata.
A doctor holds a placard at a government hospital during a strike demanding security after the recent assaults on doctors by the patients' relatives, in Kolkata, India, June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
The move could paralyze hundreds of government-run health facilities across India. Thousands of doctors across the country went on a strike on Friday.
The state of West Bengal, of which Kolkata is capital, has been the worst hit by the strike with at least 13 big government hospitals affected.
The protests were launched in response to an attack at the NRS Medical College in Kolkata on Monday that left three junior doctors seriously injured after a dispute with a family whose relative had died.
Doctors demanding better security began a strike but their action was confined to the state. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned them on Thursday, saying police did not strike when one of their colleagues was killed.
Banerjee’s remarks, which included a warning that junior doctors would be evicted from their hostels if they did not go back to work, triggered a nationwide reaction.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) said the “barbaric” attack at the NRS reflected a national problem and called for a countrywide protest. It also demanded legislation to safeguard doctors.
Nearly 30,000 doctors were on a one-day strike on Friday, most in West Bengal, New Delhi and the western state of Maharashtra, according to figures proved by medical associations.
The IMA had previously called for a protest on Friday, but later in the day asked for the protests to continue over the weekend, and a nationwide withdrawal of non-essential services in all health care institutions on June 17.
All emergency and casualty services will continue to function, IMA, which represents nearly 350,000 doctors in the country, said.
The federal health minister, Harsh Vardhan, tried to calm the furor, promising better security at hospitals and calling on Banerjee to withdraw her ultimatum.
“I urge doctors to end their strike in the larger interest of society. I will take all possible measures to ensure a safe environment for them at hospitals across the country,” Vardhan said on Twitter.
India spent an estimated 1.4% of its gross domestic product on healthcare in 2017/18, among the lowest proportions in the world. Many millions of Indians depend on the cheap but inadequate public health system.
Saradamani Ray, whose 77-year old father is a patient at the NRS Medical College, said she would have to move him because of the strike.
“I will have to take my father somewhere else for his dialysis, maybe a private hospital,” she told Reuters.
“It will cause a lot of financial strain, but there’s nothing I can do. I will have to pay.”
Reporting by Rupak De Chowdhuri in KOLKATA and Shounak Dasgupta in NEW DELHI; Additional reporting by Subrata Nag Choudhury, Rajendra Jadhav and Devjyot Ghoshal; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Euan Rocha and Angus MacSwan
FILE PHOTO: Kenny Rogers poses backstage after accepting the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement award at the 47th Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee Nov . 6, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Henderson/File Photo
(This May 31 story corrects date in penultimate paragraph to 1983 from 1982)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country singer Kenny Rogers on Friday dismissed “wild misinformation and speculation” about his health and said he planned on “sticking around” for years to come.
A statement issued on his behalf by his representatives was published after a U.S. tabloid report claimed the “Lucille” singer had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and was dying.
Friday’s statement said Rogers, 80, was recently admitted to a hospital in Georgia and treated for dehydration.
“He will remain there to complete some physical therapy to get his strength back prior to discharge ... and can assure everyone he plans on sticking around through the years to come,” it added.
Rogers embarked on a world farewell tour in 2016 but in April 2018 he canceled the last few shows citing “a series of health challenges.”
Rogers, a three-time Grammy winner and a Country Music Hall of Famer, is best known for songs like “The Gambler” and his 1983 duet with Dolly Parton “Islands in the Stream.”
After beginning his career in the 1950s with a jazz group, Rogers went solo in the 1970s and released his break-through single “Lucille” in 1977.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by James Dalgleish
PARIS (Reuters) - France and Italy forged a military shipbuilding alliance on Friday, as state-controlled Naval Group and Fincantieri signed off on a 50-50 joint venture that will bid for Franco-Italian warship projects and sell to the world market.
FILE PHOTO: A sub-scale sized model of a Corvette by Fincantieri is displayed at Euronaval, the world naval defence exhibition in Le Bourget near Paris, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
The alliance reflects the two countries’ desire to fend off competition in naval shipbuilding from the likes of China, the United States and Russia.
It is targeting orders worth up to 5 billion euros ($5.63 billion) over the next decade. Naval Group said the joint venture aims to build 10-15 warships in that period, with synergies estimated at 10-15%.
“It is the product of a shared industrial ambition,” Herve Guillou, chief executive of Naval Group told reporters on a call.
“We are by far the two biggest naval shipbuilders in Europe, but we cannot remain competitive and maximize our resources if we rely only on our domestic markets.”
The joint venture does not entail a share swap between the two groups.
France and Italy first outlined plans to deepen naval shipbuilding cooperation in September 2017.
However, political and business relations between the two euro zone powerhouses have become increasingly fraught since then and uncertainty hangs over other deals.
Earlier this month, Fiat Chrysler withdrew its proposal for a 35 billion euro merger with Renault, with both the Italian-American carmaker and Rome blaming French government interference for the deal’s collapse.
Meanwhile, at France’s request, the European Union’s antitrust chief is examining Fincantieri’s purchase of a 50% stake in French shipbuilder Chantiers de l’Atlantique, formerly STX, a move which irritated Fincantieri and Rome.
Fincantieri top executives recently said they were confident of winning approval from Brussels, but that it could take some months.
The joint venture between Fincantieri and Naval Group, in which French defense company Thales has a 35% stake, seeks to balance power within the alliance.
That has been a stumbling block for other Franco-Italian mergers such as the troubled Essilor-Luxottica tie-up.
The new enterprise will be headquartered in Genoa, with its engineering center based in France’s southern Var region.
Its chief executive Claude Centofanti is a Frenchman and its chairman, Giuseppe Bono, an Italian who is also CEO of Fincantieri.
The two companies have said they will look for efficiencies by taking advantage of their bigger scale, jointly conducting some research and sharing test facilities.
Guillou said the market for mid-size to large frigates was growing 5-7% a year. “It’s also where the emerging competition is attacking us the hardest,” he added.
He said there was potential for Naval Group and the new JV to derive synergies too from the Fincantieri-Chantiers de l’Atlantique tie-up, but a go-ahead from Brussels would be needed before they can be more deeply explored.
But he added that the setting up of the venture and the merger between Fincantieri and Chantier were separate issues, downplaying analysts’ hopes the JV could make it easier to win the go-ahead for Fincantieri-Chantier.
Naval Group holds a minority stake in Chantiers de l’Atlantique.
“We could imagine buying steel benefitting from scale of volume,” Guillou said. “When you think about what vessels of the future might look like, and cleaner energies, it’s not something that will only interest military shipbuilders.”
(Reuters) - Flesh-eating zombies terrorize a small town in Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die”, a comedy horror in which polar fracking sets off strange reactions and raises the dead.
72nd Cannes Film Festival - Photocall for the film "The Dead Don't Die" in competition - Cannes, France, May 15, 2019. Cast members Bill Murray, Chloe Sevigny, Selena Gomez and Tilda Swinton pose. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Reuters spoke with Bill Murray and Chloe Sevigny, who portray police, and Tilda Swinton, who plays a mysterious funeral parlor worker, about the film’s albeit lighthearted environmentalism.
Below are edited excerpts.
TILDA SWINTON
Q: Why is environmentalism such a key theme here?
A: “It’s the landscape of the film, it very often is in zombie films ... (they) are a very useful kind of Trojan Horse to talk about society’s relationship with itself and the environment. But I would say it’s whatever anybody sees in it and this is a landscape that really concerns Jim and all of us.”
Q: What do you do personally to be environmentally friendly?
A: “I would like to fly a great deal less. I think we should all fly less anyway for about a million different reasons and not only to do with the effect of it on our planet but also on our bodies.”
BILL MURRAY
Q: What do you do to be environmentally friendly?
A: “I’m no hero but I tried to give up plastic bottles about three or four years ago. I think I’ve had about four since the situation arose, I either had to take medicine or something like that ... I realized I was drinking probably 100 plastic bottles of water a month. I thought, well, that’s 1,200 a year, at least. And that’s one person. So I gave up and stopped it and I find that glass bottle water tastes better.”
CHLOE SEVIGNY
Q: As someone associated with fashion, what do you do for the environment?
A: “I try not to use any single-use plastic and not use the dryer, take quick showers. It’s all the little things that one can do one hopes will accumulate in some way.
“Flying is always one of the worst and that’s unfortunately unavoidable in my line of work but I do compost in Manhattan and buy mostly recycled clothes. I’m trying to just not consume as much as maybe I have in the past and just try and spread that word to especially young girls. I’m somewhat of a fashion icon and I try encourage people to buy vintage or buy slightly used.”
Reporting by Hanna Rantala; writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by Jason Neely
(Reuters) - Michigan prosecutors on Thursday dropped all criminal charges over the deadly contamination of the city of Flint’s water, saying a more thorough investigation was needed before they could proceed with the case.
FILE PHOTO: Volunteers distribute bottled water to help combat the effects of the crisis when the city's drinking water became contaminated with dangerously high levels of lead in Flint, Michigan, March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo
The charges were brought by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal prosecutorial agency, and were based on an investigation that state prosecutors described as “flawed.”
“Dismissing these cases allows us to move forward according to the non-negotiable requirements of a thorough, methodical and ethical investigation,” Michigan’s Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.
Eight former state and city officials, including Michigan’s chief medical officer Eden Wells, faced criminal charges for their roles in the water crisis which killed 12 people and sickened over 70, one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history.
According to the prosecutors, the OSC made agreements that gave law firms representing state agencies and officials a role in deciding what information would be turned over to law enforcement during their investigation. As a result, not all evidence was pursued, they said.
Additional investigation by the prosecution team has already identified more individuals of interest in the case, they said.
Flint’s troubles began in 2014 after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River from Lake Huron to cut costs. Corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes, contaminating the drinking water and causing an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
Prosecutors said they dropped charges “without prejudice,” meaning they could be brought again once a new investigation is completed.
“Justice delayed is not always justice denied,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.
But Michigan Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, a Democrat who represents Flint, expressed his disappointment.
“Months of investigation have turned into years, and the only thing to show for it is a bunch of lawyers who have gotten rich off the taxpayers’ dime,” he said in a statement. “The people of Flint believe that they will never see justice, and sadly, so far they’ve been proven right.”
The U.S. Supreme Court in March allowed two class-action lawsuits filed by Flint residents, who are pursuing civil rights claims against local and state officials.
Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Bill Tarrant and James Dalgleish
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged on Thursday with groping a woman at a Manhattan bar last weekend, New York City police said.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor faces one misdemeanor account of forcible touching in an incident on Sunday when an unidentified woman said Gooding touched her breasts.
Gooding, who denies the accusation, emerged in handcuffs after being charged at a New York police facility. He did not speak to reporters.
He was the latest Hollywood figure to be swept up in a sexual misconduct scandal that has roiled the entertainment industry in the last two years.
Gooding’s attorney, Mark J. Heller, said he was “completely confident that (Gooding) will be totally exonerated.” He told reporters that Gooding will enter a not guilty plea at an initial court appearance.
“There is not a scintilla of criminal culpability that can be attributed to Cuba Gooding Jr.,” Heller told reporters.
Heller said he was “shocked and horrified” that the case was being prosecuted after he presented police with security video from the bar that the attorney said showed no criminal behavior by Gooding.
Gooding, 51, won a supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for “Jerry Maguire” and had roles in “A Few Good Men,” “The Butler” and the television miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
The actor, who is divorced, is one of dozens of men in politics, entertainment, sports and the business world who have been accused of sexual misconduct since allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein triggered the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein is to stand trial in New York later this year on charges of rape and forced oral sex involving two women. He has denied any non-consensual sex.
Former “House of Cards” actor Kevin Spacey in January pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man at a Massachusetts bar two years ago, while singer R. Kelly was charged in Chicago with sexually assaulting three teens and a woman.
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Heller accused the woman who lodged the complaint against Gooding last weekend of seeking “simply to get their 15 minutes of fame” and said he hoped she would herself be prosecuted once Gooding’s case is resolved.
New York media reported on Thursday that another woman had come forward this week alleging inappropriate touching by Gooding in 2008.
Heller said Gooding had “no knowledge” of the alleged 2008 incident, which falls outside the statute of limitations for any potential charges.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Leslie Adler, Susan Thomas and Richard Chang
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. arrives at New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Special Victims Division (SVU) in the Harlem neighbourhood in New York, U.S., June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
(Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged on Thursday with forcible touching after a woman accused him of groping her at a Manhattan bar last weekend, New York City police said.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor was charged after reporting to police on Thursday, the New York Police Department public affairs office said.
He faces one misdemeanor account of forcible touching in an incident that occurred on Sunday when an unidentified woman said Gooding touched her breasts at the bar.
Gooding’s attorney, Mark J. Heller, said he was “completely confident that (Gooding) will be totally exonerated.” He told reporters that Gooding will enter a not guilty plea at an initial court appearance.
“There is not a scintilla of criminal culpability that can be attributed to Cuba Gooding Jr.,” Heller said after the actor was charged.
Heller said he was “shocked and horrified” that the case was being prosecuted after he presented police with security video from the bar that the attorney said showed no criminal behavior by Gooding.
Gooding won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1997 for his portrayal of an athlete in the film “Jerry Maguire.” In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
New York media reported on Thursday that another woman had come forward this week alleging inappropriate behavior by the actor in 2008.
Heller said Gooding had “no knowledge” of the alleged 2008 incident, which falls outside the statute of limitations for any potential charges.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Leslie Adler and Susan Thomas
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. arrives at New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Special Victims Division (SVU) in the Harlem neighbourhood in New York, U.S., June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
(Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged on Thursday with forcible touching after a woman accused him of groping her at a Manhattan bar last weekend, New York City police said.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor was charged after reporting to police on Thursday, the New York Police Department public affairs office said.
He faces one misdemeanor account of forcible touching in an incident that occurred on Sunday.
Gooding has denied the accusation, which was made by an unidentified woman who said Gooding touched her breasts at the bar on Sunday night.
Gooding’s attorney said on Thursday, before the actor was charged, that security video from the bar showed no criminal conduct by Gooding.
Gooding won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1997 for his portrayal of an athlete in the film “Jerry Maguire.” In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Leslie Adler and Susan Thomas
LONDON (Reuters) - Pop singer Robbie Williams, a judge on Britain’s “The X Factor” television show last year, is taking a stake in a performing arts college as he looks to mentor more “jazz hand people” like him.
The singer of “Angels” and “Let Me Entertain You” will have a 20% stake in Liverpool’s LMA, which offers degrees in music, performing arts and games design.
Williams, who hails from Stoke-on-Trent, a city 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Liverpool, mentored a choir from LMA on “The X Factor” last year and said he really enjoyed the experience.
“I was looking into the eyes of all the students and I was like ‘They are me. That’s who I was and who I am’, you know, we sort of ‘jazz hand people’,” the 45-year-old singer told a news conference.
“It’s just that energy that I wanted more of and also I don’t mind saying I was surprised I was actually quite good at mentoring. It’s something that I want to carry on, in whatever capacity that is. I loved it.”
LMA’s plans include opening a new London campus next year.
Williams, a member of popular 1990s boyband Take That, will help drive LMA’s expansion in Britain and abroad.
“I’ll find out more as we go along. But I want to mentor. I want to be there. I want to find out how to teach ... I have a bit of experience in the business.”
Williams, whose wife Ayda Field was also a judge on “The X Factor” alongside series creator Simon Cowell, is working on an album and will not return to the show this year.
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“I’m going to be all over the place promoting that. We wanted it desperately to work with ‘The X Factor’ but it just wasn’t (to be),” he said.
“It’s a to-be-continued because myself and Simon are good friends, our family are good friends, the kids hang out all of the time and I think it’s just a pause on the relationship,” Williams said.
“This year I’ve got to go and promote my album to death. So that’s what I’ll be doing.”
Reporting by Hanna Rantala; writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by Jason Neely
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s government said on Thursday it has lifted a suspension of beef exports to China after dealing with an atypical case of mad cow disease, sending shares of Marfrig Global Foods, Minerva SA and other Brazilian meatpackers soaring.
The suspension had been in effect since June 3 after a case was reported in a 17-year-old cow in the state of Mato Grosso. Cases can arise spontaneously in cattle herds, usually in animals 8 years old or older.
Tereza Cristina Dias, the agriculture minister, said on her Twitter account that Brazil would resume issuance of international health certificates to allow for beef exports to China.
Marfrig, whose shares jumped 5% after the announcement of the end of the suspension, said in a securities filing that the government’s issuance of these certificates had been normalized on Thursday.
Shares of rival Minerva also rose 3% in São Paulo.
China is the only country among Brazilian importers that enforces a health protocol requiring suspension of beef imports when an atypical case of mad cow disease is reported, Brazil’s agriculture ministry said in a statement.
The ministry reiterated the Brazilian government’s intention to negotiate a new health protocol with Chinese authorities to address the issue.
Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Dan Grebler and Paul Simao
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch health technology company Philips expects sales at its digital care business to grow this year as patients see the benefits of sharing more medical data with doctors, Chief Executive Frans van Houten told Reuters.
FILE PHOTO: CEO Frans van Houten from the Dutch health technology company Philips presents the company's financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2018, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, January 29, 2019. REUTERS/Eva Plevier
Philips’ connected care division offers platforms to remotely monitor patients and for doctors to share patient data.
“We expect to see a positive trend in connected care this year, with sales growth picking up,” Van Houten said in an interview.
Its sales have lagged those of the company’s bigger divisions, which sell large medical equipment and personal care devices, stagnating in 2018 and falling 1% in the first quarter of 2019.
But Philips, which has spun off its lighting and consumer electronics divisions and now focuses purely on healthcare, expects rising life expectancy and associated chronic diseases to lead to growing demand for devices that allow patients to stay at home, while being monitored.
That view was supported by an international study, published this week, which showed patients with access to their digital health records are more satisfied with the care they receive and are very willing to share that data with doctors.
The study, which involved 15,000 patients and 3,100 doctors across 15 countries and was commissioned by Philips, also showed that two thirds of people who don’t have access to their own records want doctors and other health professionals to have access to their data.
Some 70% of the doctors interviewed with access to digital records said it improved their work.
“Data is the new gold”, Van Houten said. “We are absolutely convinced that sharing more data leads to better diagnosis, better treatment and better outcomes, improving the productivity of doctors.”
Increasing use of digital records could help Philips, as it sells software tools for doctors to gather data from records and devices that allow patients to collect health data, such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels, at home and immediately share them with doctors.
“People want their data to be used”, Van Houten said. “Although the general perception seems to be of an aversion towards data sharing, we actually see the opposite when it comes to health care.”
Reporting by Bart Meijer. Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 1965 Aston Martin DB5 outfitted with special gadgets for James Bond, such as tire slashers, machine guns and a bulletproof shield, will go up for auction in August, the auction house announced on Wednesday.
The vehicle painted gray is expected to fetch between $4 million and $6 million, according to a statement from RM Sotheby’s.
The car was never seen in Bond films, but matches the one that “007” - the code number by which Bond was often known - drove in the movies “Goldfinger,” and “Thunderball.”
The vehicle was commissioned by filmmaker Eon Productions and used at promotional events for “Thunderball” in the United States, the auction house said.
It includes 13 modifications created for Bond, including a Browning .30 caliber machine gun in each fender, tire slashers mounted on its wheel hubs and a bulletproof rear screen that can be raised and lowered.
RM Sotheby’s said the Bond modifications had been “properly refurbished to function as originally built,” and has had three private owners over 50 years.
The auction will take place on Aug. 15 in Monterey, California.
