Month: June 2021

Categories
Politics

Apple Says It Turned Over Information on Donald McGahn in 2018

Apple Says It Turned Over Data on Donald McGahn in 2018

The Mueller report — and Mr. McGahn in private testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this month — described Mr. Trump’s anger at Mr. McGahn after the Times article and how he had tried to persuade Mr. McGahn to make a statement falsely denying it. Mr. Trump told aides that Mr. McGahn was a “liar” and a “leaker,” according to former Trump administration officials. In his testimony, Mr. McGahn said that he had been a source for The Post’s follow-up to clarify a nuance — to whom he had conveyed his intentions to resign — but he had not been a source for the original Times article.

There are reasons to doubt that Mr. McGahn was the target of any Justice Department leak investigation stemming from that episode, however. Information about Mr. Trump’s orders to dismiss Mr. Mueller, for example, would not appear to be a classified national-security secret of the sort that it can be a crime to disclose.

Yet another roughly concurrent event is that the subpoena to Apple that swept up Mr. McGahn’s information came shortly after another that the Justice Department had sent to Apple on Feb. 6, 2018, for a leak investigation related to unauthorized disclosures of information about the Russia inquiry, ensnaring data on congressional staff members, their families and at least two members of Congress.

Among those whose data was secretly seized under a gag order, and who were only recently notified, were two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee: Representatives Eric Swalwell and Adam B. Schiff, both of California. Mr. Schiff, a sharp political adversary of Mr. Trump, is now the panel’s chairman. The Times first reported on that subpoena last week.

Many questions remain unanswered about the events leading up to the subpoenas, including how high they were authorized in the Trump Justice Department and whether investigators anticipated or hoped that they were going to sweep in data on the politically prominent lawmakers. The subpoena sought data on 109 email addresses and phone numbers.

In that case, the leak investigation appeared to have been primarily focused on Michael Bahar, then a staff member on the House Intelligence Committee. People close to Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein, the top two Justice Department officials at the time, have said that neither knew that prosecutors had sought data about the accounts of lawmakers for that investigation.

It remains unclear whether agents were pursuing a theory that Mr. Bahar had leaked on his own or whether they suspected him of talking to reporters with the approval of lawmakers. Either way, it appears they were unable to prove their suspicions that he was the source of any unauthorized disclosures; the case has been closed, and no charges were brought.

Categories
Entertainment

Milton Moses Ginsberg, 85, Unconventional Filmmaker, Dies

Milton Moses Ginsberg, 85, Unconventional Filmmaker, Dies

Milton Moses Ginsberg, who directed two remarkably ambitious and eccentric films before being forgotten, one about the breakdown of a psychiatrist and the other about a press assistant in a Nixon-like government turned into a murderous werewolf, died on May 23rd in his Manhattan apartment. He was 85.

The cause was cancer, said his wife Nina Ginsberg.

Mr. Ginsberg, a film editor determined to make his own films, wrote and directed Coming Apart (1969), a raw black and white film that uses a single, almost entirely static camera to capture the loveless encounters and psychological disintegration to document a psychiatrist, played by Rip Torn, who secretly records his encounters with a camera in a mirror box.

“Coming Apart” received mixed reviews. Richard Schickel from Life magazine praised it. But the one that devastated Mr Ginsberg came from Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice, who wrote: “If everyone in the cast had refused to undress for action or inaction, Coming Apart would have collapsed commercially into a half-baked amateur film who was incapable “. sell enough tickets to fill a phone booth. “

Mr. Ginsberg blamed this criticism for the failure of the film.

“That was it,” he told the New York Times in 1998, adding, “I did everything I wanted to do. And nothing happened. “

“Coming Apart” was followed in 1973 by another low-budget film: “The Werewolf of Washington”, a bellicose political parody inspired by the classic horror film “The Wolf Man” (1941), which terrified Mr. Ginsberg as a boy. and by President Richard M. Nixon, who terrified him as a man.

In Mr. Ginsberg’s film, released more than a year after the Watergate scandal, Dean Stockwell plays a White House deputy press secretary who turns into a werewolf at inopportune moments and murders characters based on Katharine Graham, the editor of the Washington Post, and Martha. based Mitchell, the outspoken wife of Attorney General John N. Mitchell.

“It’s not being advertised as a documentary,” wrote syndicated columnist Nicholas von Hoffman, “but when you think about what’s going on in this town, you couldn’t tell from the plot.”

In 1975, after Mr. Ginsberg was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, he fell into a depression that only disappeared after meeting the painter Nina Posnansky in 1983. You and his brother Arthur survive.

After the commercial failure of his feature films, Mr. Ginsberg returned to film editing. He has worked on a variety of projects including the 1986 Oscar-winning documentaries, Down and Out in America, about the unemployed and the homeless who remain in the economy, directed by actress Lee Grant, and The Personals ( 1998), about a group of older people in a theater group.

He was in limbo, he wrote in Film Comment in 1999, for doing “Coming Apart”, which he ironically called “Murder of an Audience”.

“So if you long to be forgotten, both for yourself and for your film, follow me!” he added.

Mr. Ginsberg has never made another film, but in recent years he has completed several short video essays, including “Kron: Along the Avenue of Time” (2011), a phantasmagoric exploration of his life that led through a microscopic journey into intricate clockwork becomes.

Milton Moses Ginsberg was born in the Bronx on September 22, 1935. His father Elias was a tailor in the textile district and his mother Fannie (Weis) Ginsberg was a housewife.

After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Mr. Ginsberg received a bachelor’s degree in literature from Columbia University. Italian films like Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960) inspired him to filmmaking, but in the 1960s he worked instead as a film editor for NBC News, had a production job with documentaries Albert and David Maysles and was an assistant on “Candid Camera”, the popular television series that uses covert cameras to capture people in various situations. He said the show influenced the secret inclusion of the psychiatrist’s guests in “Coming Apart.”

Mr. Ginsberg’s disappointment with the reaction to his facial features was somewhat mitigated when the Museum of Modern Art showed “Coming Apart” in 1998. he did not enter the theater until it was over, when he was talking to the audience. MoMA has shown it a few times since then.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen,” said Laurence Kardish, the former longtime chief curator of MoMA’s film division who saw “Coming Apart” during the original release, over the phone. “It was very explicit and very raw, and it struck me as an essential New York film that shows a New Yorker’s enthusiasm for self-examination.”

When Coming Apart was released on video in 2000, an article in the Chicago Tribune called it “stylistically daring.” And in 2011 the Brooklyn Academy of Music showed both of Mr. Ginsberg’s films. After the deputy curator Jacob Perlin moved to Metrograph, the repertoire theater on the Lower East Side, where he is now artistic and programmatic director, he held a screening in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of “Coming Apart”. Restorations of both Mr. Ginsberg’s films were completed by the film company Kino Lorber.

The belated acceptance of his films offered Mr Ginsberg a relief.

“In 2011, Milton said he had two afterlife,” said Mr. Perlin, who befriended Mr. Ginsberg, over the phone. “When MoMA showed ‘Coming Apart’ and in 2011 when I showed his two films.”

Categories
Health

Outbreak of Toxic Browntail Moth Caterpillars Plagues Maine

Outbreak of Poisonous Browntail Moth Caterpillars Plagues Maine

While parts of the country are battling swarms of cicadas this summer, Maine is battling an invasive species of caterpillar infestation with poisonous hair that can cause painful rashes and even breathing problems.

The caterpillars, known as brown-tailed moths, are about 1.5 inches long with white streaks on the sides and two red dots on the back.

Brown-tailed moths are most common on the Maine coast and Cape Cod, but they have been spotted in all 16 Maine counties this year, said Jim Britt, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

“People find them everywhere: on the floor, on the picnic table, at the electrical box, on the corner – whatever,” said Mr Britt. “You have a strong presence. People will see them everywhere. “

“We are in the middle of an outbreak,” he said.

The caterpillars have tiny poisonous hairs that can remain poisonous for up to three years, the Maine Department of Health warned.

After people come into contact with the caterpillar’s hair, they can develop a red and bumpy rash that resembles a reaction to poison ivy that can last for a few hours to several weeks, the department said. When the hair is inhaled, some people can develop breathing problems.

Other people, like Mr Britt who said he recently came across the caterpillars in a park, don’t develop symptoms.

“They were everywhere and I had absolutely no reaction to them,” he said.

There is no specific treatment for the rash other than remedies like calamine lotion, the department said.

In Waterville, Maine, a town about 20 miles north of Augusta, the caterpillar infestation has gotten so out of control that the mayor has called an emergency council meeting to declare a public health emergency and order insecticides.

“After a year of pandemic, while we can finally get out and socialize, this is the last thing we want to deal with,” Mayor Jay Coelho said at the meeting, adding that he has received several emails from. received Waterville residents with pictures of painful rashes.

The caterpillars spend the winter in oaks and other deciduous trees and hatch in the spring, said Mr Britt.

Brown-tailed moths aren’t new to Maine, as it has been for a century. The caterpillars originally came from Massachusetts, but ended up in Maine “because they are experienced hitchhikers,” said Britt.

Although it is unclear exactly what caused this recent infestation, Mr Britt said that dry conditions are “absolutely ideal” for brown-tailed moths to expand their range.

During the emergency meeting in Waterville, a city council member, Thomas Klepach, raised concerns that climate change could worsen the infestation in years to come.

“It is wise for the city to get the outbreak under control as much as possible now,” said Klepach, “and to realize that this may be an ongoing problem.”

The Maine Department of Health recommends showering and changing after visiting brown-tailed moth areas, wearing a mask and goggles for outdoor activities such as raking leaves and gardening on wet days.

Categories
World News

Israel Parliament votes in new authorities, ending Netanyahu rule

Israel Parliament votes in new government, ending Netanyahu rule

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

ABIR SULTAN | AFP | Getty Images

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, approved its new government – and for the first time in 12 years a new prime minister – with a wafer-thin 60:59 votes on Sunday.

The vote that ushered in the leadership of a very diverse and cobbled together coalition of right, left, centrist and Islamist parties ousted Israel’s longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. It also saves Israel the prospect of a fifth election in less than two years.

Now, after fighting back and trying several policy options to stay in power, Netanyahu will step aside and Israeli tech millionaire and lawmaker Naftali Bennett, whom many consider more right-wing predecessor, to take over as prime minister.

Sunday’s Knesset vote was shrouded in chaos and derision as some right-wing lawmakers, including those of Netanyahu’s Likud party, insulted Bennett, calling him a “traitor” and “liar” for the alliance with left and Arab parties. At least four politicians were kicked out of the meeting by spokesman Yariv Levin.

Bennett, a former Netanyahu adviser, continued his pre-vote speech amid the heckling heckling, praising Netanyahu as “working hard and faithfully for the State of Israel”. But he also pushed for the need for new leadership.

“We stopped the train at the edge,” said Mr. Bennett. “It is time for various leaders from all parts of the people to stop trying to stop this madness.”

In a statement, US President Joe Biden congratulated Bennett and other leaders of the new administration and cabinet.

“I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and lasting relationship between our two nations. Israel has no better friend than the United States working closely together, and as we continue to strengthen our partnership, the United States remains steadfast in its support for Israel’s security. “

‘We’ll be back soon’

The 71-year-old right-wing leader is a lightning rod in its twelfth year and has long been a dividing line in Israeli society. An Israeli expert told CNBC that the country’s last elections in March – the fourth in less than two years due to the complex and polarized nature of Israeli politics – really came down to whether the country wanted “Bibi or no Bibi”. where the outgoing Prime was used became the minister’s popular nickname.

Speaking to the Knesset in English, Netanyahu said: “We’ll be back soon.”

“If we have to be in the opposition, we will keep this up – until we overthrow this dangerous government and return to run the state,” he said in a defiant address, saying he spoke for millions of Israelis who are for him have voted.

A combination of file photos shows Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett giving a speech in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, and Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid giving a speech in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 24, 2021.

Ammar Awad; Amir Cohen | Reuters

He also slammed a bill proposed by the new government that would limit a prime minister’s term to eight years, four years less than his term in office.

Netanyahu himself faces several allegations of corruption, which he denies. He had been looking for ways to avoid prosecution, which would have been a lot easier if he had stayed in power. Meanwhile, he can still remain the leader of the Likud party.

The outgoing prime minister attracted international criticism and attention for his persistent military action against Gaza in May, in which Israeli air strikes killed more than 250 Palestinians, including 66 children, in response to rocket volleys by Hamas that killed Israel during course 12 of the fighting .

Future challenges

The new coalition that is now taking power is led by centrist lawmaker Yair Lapid, a former television presenter and former finance minister and head of the Yesh Atid party, and his unlikely government partner, Naftali Bennett, who leads the minority Yamina party.

It is very unusual for a minority party leader to become prime minister, but that was what it took Bennett to join Lapid’s coalition – and his alliance with Lapid was the only way the coalition could get enough Knesset seats to hold one To have majority.

So the deal for Lapid and Bennett is based on the agreement that Bennett will become Prime Minister by 2023, with centrist Lapid as Secretary of State. At this point, if the party alliance survives, Lapid will assume the office of prime minister.

It is also the first time in Israeli history that its government includes an Arab party that aims to represent the country’s 21% Arab minority.

The government is expected to focus on social and economic issues that foster consensus among its disparate members rather than divisive ones such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian statehood.

But there are serious challenges ahead. The fragile coalition between Lapid and Bennett and the parties whose support they had to win to achieve the magic number of a majority of 61 seats in the Knesset is a risk to itself, analysts say. The only thing that seems to hold them together is a shared desire to take Netanyahu off the bench. But because of the incredibly narrow majority of 61 seats in the 120-member parliament, it would only take one move for the government to collapse.

And in view of the sometimes extreme differences of opinion between the parties, especially between right-wing and Islamist politicians in Israel, this danger of standstill and collapse remains a constant threat.

Categories
Health

contemporary calls to analyze the origins of covid

fresh calls to investigate the origins of covid

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of members of Congress.

Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON — The European Union and the United States are expected to call for more progress on an investigation into the origins of Covid-19, according to a draft EU document.

The draft document, seen by CNBC, is the foundation for the outcome of an upcoming summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and European leaders which is due on Tuesday. Its wording could change right up until the end of the meeting. 

Speaking Thursday, European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs European summits, said: “The world has the right to know exactly what happened, in order to be able to learn the lessons.”

We have to know where it did come from.

Ursula von der Leyen

European Commission president

At the same news conference on Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “It is of utmost importance that we learn about the origin of the coronavirus.”

“There is this horrible pandemic, a global pandemic we have to know where it did come from in order to draw the right lessons and to develop the right tools to make sure that this will never happen again and, therefore, the investigators need complete access to whatever is necessary to really find the source of this pandemic,” she added.

These statements follow Biden’s call last month for the World Health Organization to carry out a second phase of a probe into the origins of the virus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

A WHO report said earlier this year that the most likely cause of the virus was natural, and dismissed a lab leak theory. But it suggested that further studies would need to be carried out.

The U.S. intelligence community said last month that it “does not know exactly where, when, or how the Covid-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios: either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident.”

The discussion on the origins of the coronavirus comes at a time when the U.S. and the EU also intend to talk about their broader relationship with China.

While on the one hand, the U.S. and the EU want to criticize what they describe as human rights violations in China; on the other hand, they want Beijing to engage constructively on climate change policies and to open up certain parts of its economy.

Biden is hoping that the EU will be a partner when it deals with China over the coming years.

“Biden believes that with a broad coalition, you may be able to push China down a more constructive path. International pressure, that is pressure not coming from Washington only, could prove useful on any of these topics,” Jeremy Ghez, associate professor at H.E.C. Business School in Paris, told CNBC last week.

The EU decided in March to put on hold the ratification of an investment agreement with Beijing — a deal that had been presented back in December, just weeks before the inauguration of Biden.

This investment partnership is now frozen following a diplomatic row between Brussels and Beijing. In March, the EU decided to impose sanctions against China for its treatment of the ethnic minority Uyghurs and Beijing retaliated by announcing counter-sanctions against members of the European Parliament.

The ethnic Uyghurs, who live mostly in China’s west, have been identified by the United Nations, United States, United Kingdom and others as a repressed group. China’s Foreign Ministry in March characterized such claims as “malicious lies” designed to “smear China” and “frustrate China’s development.”

Categories
Politics

Firefighters put together for extreme wildfires in West after document season

Firefighters prepare for severe wildfires in West after record season

Firefighters work to stop the Loma fire from spreading outside Via del Cielo in Santa Barbara, California, USA. This image was published on May 21, 2021.

Mike Eliason | Santa Barbara County Fire Department | Reuters

From igniting controlled burns to removing vegetation, U.S. firefighters are undergoing massive preparations for a wildfire year they expect to be even worse than last year’s record season.

Fires broke out earlier this year, scorching the West as it grapples with the worst drought in the recorded history of the US Drought Monitor. Hot and dry temperatures in the preseason due to climate change, along with a high supply of dry scrub, have prepared the states for more severe and more frequent fires each year.

Firefighters in Arizona are already fighting two massive fires fueled by hot temperatures and gusty winds. Conditions are so dry that officials said firefighters fighting the fire accidentally started new fires that were started by their equipment.

California, suffering from drought and depleted water reservoirs, also had an early start to its season. A fire in May forced the evacuation of hundreds of people in western Los Angeles. Five of the six largest fires in the state’s history occurred last year and burned more than 4 million acres.

“The fire season has been extended to a full year of fire in many parts of the country,” said Bill Avey, USDA Forest Service’s National Fire and Aviation Director.

“Managing a year-long season is becoming increasingly difficult for the USDA and the entire forest fire management community,” said Avey.

Clouds of smoke rise from a flame as wildfire rages in Arizona, United States on June 7, 2021, in this image from social media.

Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management | Reuters

As the fire season becomes longer, states face the growing challenge of adequately preparing for and responding to a year-on-year increase in the number of climate change-fueled disasters.

California will have its largest fire department ever this year and has already completed dozens of fuel reduction projects such as controlled burns. The state’s largest utility company, PG&E, has also announced it could turn off electricity more often this year to help curb fire hazards in Northern California.

And earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom called for a record $ 2 billion budget for forest fire preparation and an expansion of the aircraft fleet to fight the fires.

California has responded to more than 2,875 forest fires that burned more than 16,800 acres since early 2021, according to Alisha Herring, a communications officer for the state fire department Cal Fire.

“This is a significant increase in both fires and hectares compared to 2020,” said Herring.

A sign will be posted next to an empty space on May 27, 2021 in Chowchilla, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

This year, the Forest Service has 15,000 firefighters and personnel ready to put out fires, as well as up to 34 air tankers, more than 200 helicopters and 900 engines for an unprecedented season, Avey said.

Last month, President Joe Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will double the funds available to prepare cities and states for climate disasters such as fires and hurricanes from $ 500 million in 2020 to $ 1 billion this year.

But the increase in FEMA funding was less than what some disaster management experts argue to prepare for weather events. Last year, the United States had 22 disasters, each with more than $ 1 billion in record losses, according to the White House.

“Now is the time to prepare for the busiest time of year for disasters in America,” said the president after a briefing at FEMA headquarters.

Hilary Franz, Washington state commissioner for public land, said the state is preparing for a particularly heavy fire season by securing additional air resources through treaties and regional and national agreements.

Almost 85% of forest fires are due to human activity, including unsupervised debris fires, cigarettes, power tools, and arson. The risk is increased as more and more people build in wilderness areas at risk of fire. Experts have urged federal officials to better manage forests and city or state building codes that require fire-resistant materials to build homes.

“The vast majority of forest fires are caused by human activity,” said Franz. “The more people practice fire protection and avoid starting fires outdoors, the better our chances of avoiding a devastating forest fire season.”

Categories
Health

C.D.C. Requires Up to date Childhood Vaccinations After Decline Final 12 months

C.D.C. Calls for Updated Childhood Vaccinations After Decline Last Year

Pediatricians urge U.S. parents to get their children given routine vaccinations after vaccinations for diseases such as measles declined last year as the pandemic imposed restrictions, including the arrangement of homes.

New data from 10 jurisdictions that closely monitor vaccinations confirms that the number of vaccine doses administered fell between March and May last year, particularly in older children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Although vaccinations recovered between June 2020 and September 2020 and were approaching pre-pandemic levels, the increase was insufficient to offset the earlier decline, the study found.

Vaccination is required to attend most schools, camps and daycare, but the CDC study authors warned that the delay could nonetheless pose “a serious public health threat that would lead to vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.”

They expressed concern that the move to distance learning during the pandemic may have hampered enforcement of vaccination regulations, noting that even a temporary drop in vaccination can affect herd immunity.

A measles outbreak occurred in Rockland County, NY and surrounding counties in 2018-2019 after the measles vaccination rate in schools in the area dropped to 77 percent, among the 93 to 95 percent required to maintain herd immunity are. “Pediatric outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases can undo efforts to reopen schools this fall,” the researchers added.

Parents should plan ahead now and make appointments so their children can be protected, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, Chair of the Infectious Diseases Committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“We should start thinking about it,” said Dr. Maldonado in a telephone interview. “People forget. We have whooping cough outbreaks regularly every four or five years and are just waiting to see another. “

“We’ll likely see more infections because the kids will get back together and there will be less masking and social distancing,” she added.

The CDC analyzed data from nine states and New York City. In eight of the jurisdictions, a stay at home order was issued last spring.

The number of doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines (DTaP) administered decreased by 15.7 percent in children under 2 years of age and in children aged from in the spring of last year compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019 2 to 6 years back by 60 percent.

The vaccine doses against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) fell by 22.4 percent in 1-year-olds and by 63 percent in 2 to 8-year-olds.

HPV vaccine administration decreased more than 63 percent in adolescents aged 9-17 years compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019; and doses of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough) decreased by over 60 percent.

Categories
Entertainment

Overview: Christopher Wheeldon Creates a Memorable Realm

Review: Christopher Wheeldon Creates a Memorable Realm

Christopher Wheeldon’s new work for the Pacific Northwest Ballet is called “Curious Kingdom”. Since the music is exclusively French, the title could refer to France, although it has been a long time since that country had a king. Or maybe the alliterative phrase and its adjective “Alice in Wonderland” allude to contemporary ballet.

Whatever the title means, what’s important is that Wheeldon created a distinctive and memorable realm. This does not apply to the other premiere of Pacific Northwest’s latest digital programming (available through Monday on the company’s website): Edwaard Liang’s “The Veil Between Worlds”.

“Curious Kingdom” is accordingly chic. The tops of Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme’s unitards are cleverly shaded to appear like the bodices of strapless dresses. While the music changes from piano pieces by Satie and Ravel to songs by Edith Piaf, the dancers decorate with mesh overlays, short or elbow-length gloves, tulle skirts and large bows in pink. In the lighting design by Reed Nakayama, the stage floor shines like a reflecting pool, underlaid by a sequence of individual colors: gold, green, blue, purple.

Smartly dressed, Wheeldon’s choreography, mainly solos and duets, retains a glamorous languor and achieves moments of exquisite beauty. Satie’s “Gnossiennes” combine the work with the poetic purity of Frederick Ashton’s “Monotones”, a connection that deserves long lines that suddenly break. A duet is a miracle of interlocking flamingo shapes. Others are more mirror-like and are based on the music, some of which come from Ravel’s “Miroirs” suite. To all of this, the piaf sections add a bit of color and cabaret. The excellent Lucien Postlewaite, a kind of faun in his opening solo, ends with a stylish hint of drag.

Liang’s “Veil”, on the other hand, is characterless. The music, a new composition by Oliver Davis, sounds like a contemporary ballet score with paint by numbers, and Liang’s neoclassical choreography looks like something any skilled dance maker could have created in the past few decades. There is a literal veil – a large piece of silk thrown like a parachute or the handkerchief of a giant magician. But nothing about the light and harmless choreography seems magical.

Nevertheless, the dancers – especially Dylan Wald, who also shines in Wheeldon, and Jerome and Laura Tisserand, who are about to leave – look good and happy in it. And that’s important too.

Among American troops, Pacific Northwest has been one of the most successful in switching to digital programs to keep their dancers active and engage their audiences. Its latest offer is characteristic: beautifully filmed and packed with extra features, including a pure selection of music by the company’s first-class musicians. Aside from “Curious Kingdom”, the new works of the season aren’t extraordinary for me, but as someone who lives far from Seattle, I’m grateful for the chance to see and get to know these dancers.

In a program note, Peter Boal, the artistic director, boasts that the digital season has attracted subscribers in 50 states and 36 countries. “We won’t turn our backs on you,” he writes, promising not only that the company will go live on stage again in the fall, but also that the digital programming will continue. Both parts are good news.

Pacific Northwest Ballet, Program 6

See you Monday, pnb.org

Categories
World News

Explosion at Produce Market Kills at Least 12 in China

Hong Kong Website Doxxing Police Gets Blocked, Raising Censorship Fears

A gas explosion at a produce market killed at least 12 people and injured 138 others, 37 of them severely, in central China on Sunday, the local authorities said.

The cause of the blast, which took place at around 6:40 a.m. in the city of Shiyan, in Hubei Province, was still under investigation, according to the local government.

Photographs published by official media showed bricks and debris strewn in the street and extensive damage to nearby buildings. Rescue workers in helmets and orange suits worked to free people trapped in the rubble.

Local news reports said that when the explosion took place, people had been buying and selling produce and eating breakfast at the market, which is in a residential area in the city’s Zhangwan District. City officials said 913 households and merchants had been evacuated from the scene.

The governor of Hubei, Wang Zhonglin, rushed to Shiyan to direct rescue efforts, the authorities said. The provincial Communist Party secretary, Ying Yong, called for gas pipelines, chemical factories, power plants and older residential neighborhoods across Hubei to be inspected for safety risks.

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, said there were “profound” lessons to be learned from the incident, according a readout that was published Sunday evening by the Xinhua state news agency.

Taking stock of “hidden dangers” and being on the lookout for major emergencies would help create a “favorable atmosphere,” Mr. Xi said, ahead of the July 1 centenary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding. The government is using the anniversary to hammer home the message that only by following the party can China fortify its status in the world.

In recent years, deadly blasts in industrial zones have led the Chinese authorities to become stricter about enforcing safety rules. In 2015, explosions at a chemical storage facility in Tianjin, a northern port city, killed more than 170 people.

Categories
Politics

Historical past-Making Vote on Israel Coalition Comes With a Skinny Margin

History-Making Vote on Israel Coalition Comes With a Thin Margin

The political fate of Israel’s longest serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to be decided on Sunday afternoon, when Parliament will hold a vote of confidence in a new government that would topple Mr. Netanyahu from power for the first time in 12 years.

Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents hope that the vote, if it passes, will ease a political stalemate that has produced four elections since 2019 and left Israel without a state budget for more than a year. It will also end, at least for now, the dominance of a politician who has shaped 21st-century Israel more than any other, shifted its politics to the right and overseen the fizzling of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Mr. Netanyahu is set to be replaced by his former chief of staff and now political rival, Naftali Bennett. A former high-tech entrepreneur and settler leader, Mr. Bennett opposes a Palestinian state and believes Israel should annex much of the occupied West Bank.

If confirmed by Parliament, Mr. Bennett would lead an ideologically diffuse coalition that is united only by its antipathy toward Mr. Netanyahu. The bloc ranges from the far left to the hard right and includes — for the first time in Israeli history — an independent Arab party.

On Sunday, one hard-right lawmaker was considering whether to resign from his party, but still vote for the coalition. And an Arab lawmaker was debating whether to abstain in the vote.

If it holds, the coalition will control just 61 of Parliament’s 120 seats, and its fragility has prompted many commentators to wonder whether it can last a full term. Should it hold until 2023, Mr. Bennett will be replaced as prime minister by Yair Lapid, a centrist former television host, for the remaining two years of the term.

The parliamentary session to confirm the new government is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. local time. Mr. Bennett is expected to speak first, followed by Mr. Lapid and then Mr. Netanyahu.

Parliament is then expected to vote for a new speaker — likely to be Mickey Levy, from Mr. Lapid’s centrist party — and finally for the government itself. If the vote passes, the government will be sworn in immediately, formally replacing Mr. Netanyahu’s administration.