Month: July 2021

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Entertainment

Britney Spears Conservatorship: Will She Ask to Finish It?

Britney Spears Conservatorship: Will She Ask to End It?

Three weeks after Britney Spears, in a passionate speech to a judge in Los Angeles, condemned the conservatories that have long controlled her life as abusive, the case will return to the courtroom on Wednesday.

There’s a lot to talk about.

Since the June 23 hearing, there has been a deluge of court records from those involved in the administration of the conservatory group that oversees both them and their estate. The singer’s father, James P. Spears, who has been in charge of his daughter’s finances since 2008, called for an investigation into Ms. Spears’ many allegations and tried, according to competing lawyers, to shift the blame for her complaints onto others. Jodi Montgomery, a professional restorer who took over the personal care of Ms. Spears from her father in 2019, immediately pushed the blame back.

And several actors, including Ms. Spears’ longtime court-appointed attorney, have expressed their desire to end their involvement in the case as she seeks to hire a world-class firm that could help her end the deal entirely.

The hearing is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles at 1:30 p.m. PDT.

Here are five problems that could be addressed.

Days after Ms. Spears told the court that she had been molested under her supervision – said she was forced to take mood-stabilizing medication and prevented from taking off her contraceptive, blaming her management team, the janitors, for her treatment and family – her father requested an investigation.

Mr. Spears was the main actor in the arrangement from the start. In 2008, he filed for control of the singer’s business and personal affairs due to concerns about her mental health and possible substance abuse. In her speech, Ms. Spears described her father as someone who consented to everything in her life and said, “He loved being in control.”

In the court filing, Mr. Spears’ attorneys requested evidence in his daughter’s account and wrote, “It is important that the court confirm whether or not Ms. Spears testimony was correct to determine what corrective action, if any, should be taken.”

They also tried to distance Mr. Spears from questions about her wellbeing, arguing that after late 2019 he “just wasn’t involved in decisions related to Ms. Spears’ personal hygiene or medical or reproductive problems” and had been cut off from communicate with her.

Ms. Montgomery’s attorneys, who cover Ms. Spears ‘psychiatric care, responded vigorously, citing Mr. Spears’ request as “procedural error” and “totally inappropriate” and a “thinly veiled attempt to clear his name.”

Britney Spears’ litigation star

The attorneys said any questions regarding Ms. Montgomery’s tenure as a conservator would be addressed in a “comprehensive care plan” that they worked out with the singer’s medical team, the “Ms. Spears would also provide a way of ending their conservatism for the person. as she so unequivocally wishes. “

But if there was an investigation, Ms. Montgomery asked that she wait until Ms. Spears had an attorney who would “fully represent her interests.”

In her speech, Ms. Spears questioned whether her 13-year court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, had done enough to educate and support her. In one particularly shocking claim, Ms. Spears said she did not know it would be possible for her to file a motion to terminate the conservatoires.

Last week, Mr Ingham asked the court to step down, a motion that requires the approval of Judge Brenda Penny, who is overseeing the case. A letter of resignation was also submitted by a law firm Loeb & Loeb, which Mr. Ingham had recently brought in to assist him.

In 2008, Mr. Ingham was appointed by the court after Ms. Spears, who was hospitalized at the time, was found by another judge to be unable to appoint her own lawyer. The court could make the same decision now or allow Ms. Spears to choose her own lawyer.

An attorney for the singer’s mother, Lynne Spears, who is an interested party at the Conservatory, has also asked the court to allow the singer to choose her own attorney, arguing that her daughter was not bound by a 2008 ruling Your capacity is certainly different today. ”The American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief Monday to support the court allowing Ms. Spears to choose her closest lawyer, possibly along with trustworthy, neutrals Consultants.

Mathew S. Rosengart, a prominent Hollywood attorney and former federal attorney, plans to attend the hearing to begin the process of becoming Ms. Spears’ attorney, according to one person who has been briefed on the matter. He would take a more aggressive approach and push for an end to the conservatories, the person said.

Ms. Montgomery filed her own motion to the court to appoint a curator ad litem solely to assist Ms. Spears in selecting a new attorney. The file stated that Ms. Spears had “repeatedly and consistently” sought Ms. Montgomery’s help in finding one.

Ms. Spears’ fortune, now valued at nearly $ 60 million, was controlled by her father (sometimes along with a co-restorer) for the entire duration of the Conservatory; an asset management firm, Bessemer Trust, was named a co-restorer last year after Ms. Spears petitioned to remove her father from the position.

About a week after the June 23 hearing, court documents said Bessemer Trust called for the agreement to be withdrawn, citing Ms. Spears’ criticism of the deal. When the law firm learned of Ms. Spears’ wish to end the Conservatory Council, the file said Bessemer no longer wanted to be involved.

The question for Judge Penny will be whether Mr. Spears will be allowed to remain the sole curator of Ms. Spears’ estate despite a formal request from her attorney and now an emotional request to remove it.

Since Ms. Spears’ speech, there has been a “significant increase in the number and severity of threatening posts” about Ms. Montgomery on social media and other communications threatening violence or death against her, she said in a court file.

As a result, Ms. Montgomery has asked the court to require Ms. Spears’ estate to pay her security if Mr. Spears agrees. A court file filed on her behalf stated that Ms. Montgomery had sent the threats to the security company Mr. Spears appointed, recommending that they remain under protection around the clock.

Mr. Spears has contradicted this agreement. In his own court record, attorneys alleged that Ms. Montgomery’s security services would indefinitely top $ 50,000 a month – an expense he described as inappropriate. He also argued that such payments would set a standard that would require Ms. Spears to cover security costs for anyone threatened as a result of the high profile case.

“MS. Montgomery isn’t the only person involved in this conservatory who has received threats and / or death threats,” wrote Mr. Spears’ attorneys.

The legal machinations that followed the June 23 hearing all lead to the same question: Will Ms. Spears formally appeal to dissolve the Conservatory?

The motion was possible within days of Ms. Spears addressing the court, but the resignation of her court-appointed attorney complicated matters.

If the judge believes the singer can choose her new lawyer, the petition could be filed shortly after that person is approved by the judge. Then it is possible that another Conservatory representative – most likely Mrs. Spears’ father – will object to the termination and initiate a lawsuit before the judge makes a final decision.

In her statements in court, Ms. Spears said repeatedly that she wanted to quit the Conservatory without additional psychological investigations, which she had found invasive over the years. But this can be an uphill battle, especially if one of Ms. Spears’ restorers is against ending the arrangement.

Chris Johnson, a California trust and estate attorney who has worked with conservatories and is not involved in the Spears case, said judges rely heavily on the opinions of medical experts in deciding whether to end a conservatory administration and that Ms. Spears doing this would likely need to be re-evaluated, possibly before being allowed to hire her own attorney.

“In many cases, getting rid of a conservatory can be more difficult than starting it at all,” said Johnson.

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Health

The Actual Toll From Jail Covid Circumstances Might Be Greater Than Reported

The Real Toll From Prison Covid Cases May Be Higher Than Reported

An increase in deaths across the country in the past year, past the well-known Covid-19 toll, has led health experts to suggest that some virus cases have gone undiagnosed or have been attributed to other causes. There have also been inconsistencies and changing guidelines on which deaths should be considered coronavirus deaths.

Public health officials say the prospect of missed deaths from viruses linked to the country’s prisons, jails and immigration prisons is particularly risky. It is a challenge, say the experts, to prepare prisons for future epidemics without knowing the full toll. Currently, most of the publicly known death tolls related to incarceration have come from the facilities themselves.

“You can’t make good public policy if you don’t know what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Sharon Dolovich, director of the Covid Behind Bars Data Project at the University of California at Los Angeles, which tracks coronavirus deaths in American prisons .

Prison and prison officials defended their methods of counting inmate deaths from coronavirus, saying they followed all state and local documentation requirements. Some noted that their role was to track deaths in “custody” and suggested that including the deaths of those recently in their care but no longer in their care is both complex and complex It would be impractical and possibly even overstate the number of virus cases related to the facilities.

“It is unfair to expect prisons to somehow take responsibility for what happens to people when they are released from our custody,” said Kathy Hieatt, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Sheriffs Office that held Mr. Melius. “We follow law and the Virginia Department of Corrections’s extensive standards for investigating and reporting those who die in custody. In no way is it necessary to report deaths of former inmates. ”She added,“ It is absurd to think that we could somehow keep an eye on these thousands of people and take responsibility for them. ”

Throughout the pandemic, prison systems have used different methods to publicly report Covid-19-related deaths. Nevada’s prisons say they notify state health officials of inmate deaths from Covid-19 but do not make them public. Mississippi prison authorities said no inmates had died from the coronavirus at their facilities before announcing in January that nearly two dozen prisoner deaths were related to Covid-19.

Updated

July 13, 2021 at 4:53 p.m. ET

And in Texas, a prison medical committee is re-examining any case where a coroner said Covid-19 was one of the causes of death and has sometimes overridden previous findings, according to Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the state prison system. Shelia Bradley, a 53-year-old prisoner, was reported to have died by a coroner as of “bacterial and possibly fungal pneumonia, a complication of Covid-19”, but the committee concluded that she died of “acute bacterial bronchopneumonia”. without listing Covid-19.

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Politics

Biden condemns Trump’s ‘Massive Lie’ in main voting rights speech in Philadelphia

Biden condemns Trump's 'Big Lie' in major voting rights speech in Philadelphia

President Joe Biden on Tuesday delivered a major speech on voting rights in Philadelphia, slamming his predecessor’s “Big Lie” claim that the 2020 election was stolen. 

“It’s clear, for those who challenge the results or question the integrity of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny or such high standards. The ‘Big Lie’ is just that: a big lie,” Biden said at the National Constitution Center, just steps away from Independence Hall.

The speech comes as his administration faces growing pressure from civil rights activists and other Democrats to do more to combat attacks on voting rights, an issue that Biden called “the most significant test” of American democracy since the Civil War. 

Biden blasted former President Donald Trump’s claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election, a claim that has pushed GOP leaders to enact a flurry of new voting laws in key states, including Florida and Georgia. Critics argue the new laws are discriminatory and restrict access to the ballot. 

The president directly denounced these efforts by GOP-controlled legislatures as a “Jim Crow assault” and compared them to behaviors seen in autocracies around the world. 

“To me, this is simple. This is election subversion. It’s the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history,” Biden said. “They want the ability to reject the final count and ignore the will of the people if their preferred candidate loses.”

Protecting voting rights

Biden pressed for the passage of federal voting rights legislation during his remarks, saying that the fight to protect voting rights begins with passing the For The People Act.  

“That bill would help end voter suppression in states, get dark money out of politics, give voice to people, create fair district maps and end partisan political gerrymandering,” Biden said. 

He criticized Republicans for opposing the sweeping Democratic voting rights and government ethics bill, which failed to pass in the Senate last month after Republicans deployed the filibuster.

Biden also underscored the importance of passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would “restore and expand voting protections and prevent voter suppression.” He pressured Republican lawmakers to support such Democratic legislation that would protect voting rights. 

“We’ll ask my Republican friends in Congress and states and cities and counties to stand up, for God’s sake, and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote,” Biden said. 

The president criticized the Supreme Court’s “harmful” decisions that weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965, noting that the court first gutted a key provision of the act in 2013 and on July 1 it upheld two Republican-backed Arizona voting laws that Democrats say violate the act. 

The court has also limited the ability to “prove intentional racial discrimination,” according to a White House memo sent before the speech, making it difficult for advocacy groups and the Department of Justice to combat restrictive voter laws.

Biden called on Congress to repair the “damage done” by passing voting rights legislation.

Preparing for the midterms

Biden warned that the U.S. will “face another test in 2022” during the midterm elections, adding that the nation needs to prepare for voter suppression and election subversion. 

“We have to prepare now. As I said time and again, no matter what, you can never stop the American people from voting. They will decide, and the power must always be with the people. That’s why just like we did in 2020, we have to prepare for 2022,” Biden said. 

As of mid-June, at least 17 states have enacted laws that restrict access to voting, with more being considered, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. 

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed a restrictive election bill into law in March after it was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. The law requires voters to provide identification for mail-in ballots and prohibits people from giving food and water to voters waiting in line, punitive steps that critics say could harm turnout in minority communities. 

Biden’s administration has turned to the courts in response. The Department of Justice sued the state of Georgia on June 25, arguing that the election bill infringed on the rights of Black Georgians. 

Passing new legislation in Congress to protect voting rights would likely require a change to filibuster rules, especially as Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the Senate. But Biden has backed reforming rather than eliminating the filibuster, making the future of new voting laws uncertain. 

Looking beyond Washington

Now, with Democrats’ legislative efforts stalled, the White House is beginning to look outside of Washington for ways to combat the wave of new voting restrictions. 

Biden has had several meetings at the White House with civil rights groups, who pushed the administration to keep fighting for voting rights despite resistance from Republicans. The groups have opposed the Republican-backed voting restrictions, which critics say are aimed at Hispanic, Black and younger voters. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been tasked to lead the administration’s efforts to protect voting rights, also recently announced a new $25 million investment by the Democratic National Committee to expand its program that will help boost voter engagement in the upcoming midterm elections. 

During the first few months of his presidency, Biden also signed an executive order directing agencies to promote voter access. This includes developing better methods of distributing voting information and increasing opportunities to participate in the electoral process, which includes voters with distinct needs, such as service members, people with disabilities and tribal communities, among others.

Categories
World News

JPMorgan strategist on one of the best time to purchase Asia shares

JPMorgan strategist on the best time to buy Asia stocks

SINGAPORE – The best time to buy Asian stocks could be now, a JPMorgan strategist said Wednesday.

Mixo Das, Asian equity strategist at the bank, said US markets had hit record highs while Europe and Japan were nearing all-time highs. However, the Asian markets have not seen the same trend.

“We’ve been down quite a bit in Asian stocks since the highs in February and the way we look at it, our framework tells us that now is probably the best time to take risk in Asia,” he told CNBC. Squawk Box Asia. “

That said, investor positioning in Asia is “extreme, extremely low” right now, while valuations have fallen to more normal levels. If macro dynamics in the region begin to stabilize, Asian stocks could rise significantly, he added.

The strategist said Asian corporate earnings could increase 60% to 70% year over year in the second quarter – largely in line with estimates.

Covid and vaccination effects

Parts of Asia like South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are grappling with spikes in Covid-19 infections at a time when vaccination advances are lagging behind countries like the US and UK

That said investors have become used to seeing new waves of Covid cases. He cited the example of India, where a “catastrophic wave of infections” earlier this year did not rock the stock market because investors understood that the country’s long-term fundamentals were likely to remain intact.

CNBC Pro Stock Pick and Investment Trends:

But the spread of a more transmissible Delta variant and relatively low vaccination rates across Asia could weigh on stocks that would benefit from an economic reopening, Das said. Those stocks include those in the hospitality, leisure and travel sectors, he said.

The strategist added that JPMorgan favors stocks that respond to changes in interest rates, such as banks. His comments come as the US Federal Reserve raised its inflation expectations and brought forward the timeframe for a rate hike.

Chinese technology stocks

Speaking of opportunities in China, Das said technology stocks are still a “buy” for investors with a long-term horizon. He said that Chinese tech companies still have growth prospects, even if the pace of growth may slow due to tighter regulatory scrutiny from Beijing.

Shares in major Chinese internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba were hit when Beijing curbed monopolized business practices and regulated the collection and use of data.

“If you look at the valuation of these names against benchmarks around the world, it’s ridiculously cheap right now,” Das said, without naming any specific Chinese technology stocks.

“We see incoming inquiries from long-term, patient investors looking at these names and thinking about whether this story will be played out in five, 10, 15 years. And most of the time the answer is yes.”

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Health

This is a map displaying the place low vaccination charges meet excessive case counts as infections surge

Here's a map showing where low vaccination rates meet high case counts as infections surge

In more and more US states with low vaccination rates, Covid cases are rising, exposing residents to the risk of “unnecessary” infections, hospitalizations and possibly death as the Delta variant rips across the country, according to US health officials.

“After several weeks of falling case numbers followed by a long plateau, we are now seeing an increase in the number of cases in many parts of the country,” said Dr. Jay Butler, CDC assistant director, infectious diseases, on a call hosted Tuesday by an industry group. Hospitalization rates, which tend to lag behind confirmed cases, are similarly starting to rise, he said.

A CNBC analysis of US vaccination rates and Covid cases shows that there are 463 counties in the United States with high rates of infection – which have reported at least 100 new cases per 100,000 residents in the last week – more than double the US rate . The majority of these counties, 80%, vaccinated less than 40% of their 23 million residents, analysis shows data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University.

More than half of the counties in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana have low vaccination rates and increased Covid cases, according to CNBC analysis. These three states had some of the highest cases per capita in the country in the past seven days as the spread of the Delta variant increased in southwest Missouri.

“There will continue to be an increase in cases among unvaccinated Americans and in communities with low vaccination rates, especially given the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant,” Jeff Zients, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, told a news conference last week . Virtually all Covid hospital admissions and deaths, 99.5%, occur in those who have not been vaccinated, US officials say.

In fact, nationwide cases are on the rise again as the highly transmissible delta variant asserts itself as the dominant strain in the US. The seven-day average of newly confirmed Covid cases has risen to about 23,300 per day, almost double the weekly average, according to data from Johns Hopkins before.

The rise of the Delta variant has spurred officials in some states like Mississippi to issue new calls for masking and social distancing, especially among older and more vulnerable residents.

“When the Delta strain emerged (in Utah) it quickly became the dominant strain, and by dominant I don’t mean 50%. For the last full week of data, more than 80% of the sequence viruses were Delta viruses and so far this week are it is 92% of all variants, “said Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, director of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine, in a call hosted Tuesday by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“If you think about what it means to have such a rapid virus takeover, it means that it is the most suitable virus, that it spreads more efficiently, that it spreads in unvaccinated pockets, and many diseases cause a lot of stress inside” , he added.

Mississippi has given at least one injection to just 37% of its population, making it last in the country. Officials there urged people over 65 and immunocompromised residents to avoid indoor mass gatherings in the next two weeks in the event of “significant transmission” of the Delta variant in the coming weeks.

“We don’t want anyone to die unnecessarily,” said Dr. Mississippi State Health Commissioner Thomas Dobbs during a news conference Friday.

According to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as successful in preventing serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths from the Delta variant.

Breakthrough infections are rare, and around 75% of people who die or are hospitalized after being vaccinated with Covid are over 65 years old, according to the CDC.

“Preliminary data for the past six months suggests that 99.5% of deaths from Covid-19 in the states have occurred in unvaccinated people … the suffering and loss we see now are almost entirely preventable,” Walensky said Earlier this month.

In addition to the risk of disease for Americans who have not yet received a vaccination, unvaccinated sections of the population could threaten the country’s ability to control the pandemic. Continued transmission of the virus means additional opportunities for new variants to emerge with the ability to bypass vaccine protection.

While 48% of Americans are fully vaccinated, the pace of daily vaccinations has slowed significantly in recent months. According to CDC data, an average of about 515,000 vaccinations were administered daily for the past week, after a steady decline from the peak of more than 3 million daily vaccinations.

President Joe Biden renewed his administration’s efforts to increase vaccination rates after failing to meet his July 4th goals, with a focus on youth and increasing availability in places like doctor’s offices and work environments.

Nearly 1,600 counties in 40 states with 72 million people have vaccinated less than 40% of their population, according to CNBC analysis. Six states where vaccination data were not available at the county level were excluded from the analysis.

Categories
Health

Biden to Nominate Rahul Gupta to Run Nationwide Workplace of Drug Management Coverage

Biden to Nominate Rahul Gupta to Run National Office of Drug Control Policy

Charleston’s program was nationally recognized, but it was criticized by the city’s mayor when Dr. Gupta was the health commissioner. Dr. Gupta’s department issued an audit that found fault with the program, including shoddy record keeping, which led to the program’s decertification after the city had already shut it down.

Public health experts said its closure had a chilling effect on other programs, and kept some from getting off the ground.

As a state health official, Dr. Gupta had no authority to stop the closure. In a 2018 interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting shortly before he left the health commissioner’s job, Dr. Gupta said that the closure was “not in the best interest of the community” and that needle exchange programs like Charleston’s should not be shut down “reactively.”

But critics faulted him for not using his platform forcefully enough to defend the program.

Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at Yale University and a longtime AIDS activist, on Tuesday called Dr. Gupta a “terrible choice” who “represents a return to the old ways of thinking about drug use in America, and is not the forward-thinking leader we need right now.”

Other experts said that Dr. Gupta was caught in a difficult situation with the battle over the syringe exchange. Mr. Raymond, while describing the closure of the Charleston program as “a tragedy,” called Dr. Gupta an “excellent choice.” That assessment was echoed by Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who worked with Dr. Gupta to address the opioid crisis in West Virginia.

“He knows the value of syringe service programs, he understands the evidence on harm reduction and he is very supportive,” Dr. Sharfstein said. “West Virginia is a very difficult environment for discussion of these topics, and he had to navigate under those constraints.”

The White House announced the selection of Dr. Gupta in a statement on Tuesday, along with 10 other nominations, including that of Jeff Flake, the former Republican senator from Arizona, to be the ambassador to Turkey and that of the writer Atul Gawande to a post at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Categories
Politics

Lawmakers Grapple Nagging Infrastructure Element: Tips on how to Pay for It

Lawmakers Grapple Nagging Infrastructure Detail: How to Pay for It

Beyond the questionable economics of the measure is politics: Conservative groups backed by money interests and grassroots activists hover an old specter of puffed up federal agents who persecute innocent taxpayers.

The campaign to end the commission is led by a well-known figure, Mr. Norquist, whose network of conservative activists has worked for decades to cut taxes and strangle the IRS. Mr Norquist said Tuesday that his weekly Conservative meeting in Washington – a center of power during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama – has grown when it went virtual during the pandemic.

The meeting has about 160 attendees, including members of Congress, and is complemented by 40 state-level activist meetings – all currently focused on the IRS.The pitch to Republican lawmakers is that increasing enforcement will not affect Fortune 100 companies that already have in-house tax auditors to ensure compliance, but small businesses in their states – such as restaurants, bars, hairdressers, nail salons, and food trucks – take cash for payment.

“We’re letting the elected officials know that this is how people will understand this in the future,” said Norquist.

Such threats have been well received.

“It bothers a lot of Republicans, and I want a lot of Republicans to vote for it,” said Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, of the IRS ruling, “so I hope it can be modified, narrowed – or otherwise.”

But Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and negotiator, said Tuesday night, “I don’t think we’ve lost anyone,” as she and her colleagues continued to work out details.

Limiting them or throwing them overboard could lead some Republicans to accept the argument that infrastructure investments are at least partially worthwhile through improving economic efficiency and competitiveness. Some lawmakers, Democrats in particular, have argued that spending on roads, bridges, tunnels, and transit is an investment in economic efficiency and does not need to be fully offset as it is partially self-paying, much like Republicans argue that tax cuts do pay off themselves .

Categories
Entertainment

Paul Huntley, Hair Grasp of Broadway and Hollywood, Is Lifeless at 88

Paul Huntley, Hair Master of Broadway and Hollywood, Is Dead at 88

For the show “Diana” – a version shot without an audience during the pandemic and due to premiere on Netflix on October 1st – he created four wigs for actress Jeanna de Waal to portray the style of the Princess of Wales has changed over time, from lousy naivete to windswept sophistication.

Paul Huntley was born on July 2, 1933 in Greater London, one of five children of a military man and a housewife. From an early age he was fascinated by his mother’s film magazines. After school, he tried to find an apprenticeship in the film industry, but the flooded job market after World War II did not offer a place for him, so he enrolled at an acting school in London.

He eventually helped design hair for school productions and in the 1950s, after two years of military service, became an apprentice at Wig Creations, a major London theater company. He became the main designer and worked with Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich and Laurence Olivier.

Mr. Huntley helped construct the signature braids that Elizabeth Taylor wore in the 1963 film “Cleopatra”. Ms. Taylor introduced him to director Mike Nichols, who a decade later hired Mr. Huntley to do hair for his Broadway production of “Uncle Vanya” in Circle in the Square. He eventually became a designer for plays and musicals, including “The Real Thing”, “The Heidi Chronicles” and “Crazy for You”.

Join The Times theater reporter Michael Paulson in conversation with Lin-Manuel Miranda, see a performance of Shakespeare in the Park, and more as we explore the signs of hope in a transformed city. For a year now, the “Offstage” series has accompanied the theater through a shutdown. Now let’s look at his recovery.

Mr. Huntley returned to a show on a regular basis to make sure standards were being met. He referred to himself as “the hair police”.

Tony Awards are not given for hair design, but Mr. Huntley was given a special Tony in 2003.

“Everyone says, ‘I want Paul Huntley,'” Broadway producer Emanuel Azenberg once told the Times. “He does the hair organically for the show. It’s not about him. “

Mr. Huntley saw hair not just as a decorative element, but as an expression of an era or a change in society and an integral part of character development. For “Thoroughly Modern Millie” he tried to remember New York City in 1922, his pony, his spit curls and finger waves were marked by a feeling of liberation after the First World War.

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World News

Italy’s Authorities to Ban Cruise Ships From Venice

Italy’s Government to Ban Cruise Ships From Venice

Italy announced on Tuesday that it was banning large cruise ships from entering Venice’s waters and was also declaring the city’s lagoon a national monument, in a move to protect a fragile ecosystem from the downsides of mass tourism.

The ban, demanded for decades by both Venice residents and environmentalists, will take effect on Aug. 1.

“The intervention could no longer be delayed,” Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said in a statement.

In recent weeks, as cruise ships returned to Venice after the pause imposed by the pandemic, protesters in the city rallied on small boats and on the waterfront with “No big boats” flags. Last Sunday, they demonstrated during the Group of 20 summit for economic ministers that took place in the city, attracting international media attention.

“My heartbeat is so fast I could be having a heart attack,” said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist and spokesman for the No Big Ship Committee, responding to Tuesday’s announcement. “We have been fighting for 10 years, and now this victory feels almost unbelievable.”

In April, the government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced that it was planning to ban large cruise ships from the San Marco basin, the San Marco canal and the Giudecca canal, but no date for the ban was set. Also, the prohibition was conditioned on the building of a new port where tourists could disembark to visit the city, a project that could take years.

Tuesday’s decision removed that condition, so the ban could be enforced in weeks, not years.

Mr. Franceschini explained that the government had drafted the urgent decree to avoid “the real risk of the city being put on the blacklist of “World Heritage in Danger” sites established by UNESCO, the United Nations culture body.

In 2019, UNESCO warned Venice about the “damage caused by a steady stream of cruise ships.” Before a UNESCO World Heritage Committee beginning later this week that could have seen Venice added to the blacklist, the Italian government approved the decree making Venice’s waterways a national monument, a status usually given to artworks and historical buildings that puts the lagoon under enhanced state protection.

Over the last 10 years, Venice has been caught up in a clash between those representing the economic interests of cruise traffic — which employs thousands of people in the area — and others who want to protect a delicate environment from gigantic boats that disgorge tourists en masse.

The ban applies to ships that are either heavier than 25,000 tons, longer than 180 meters (about 590 feet), taller than 35 meters (about 115 feet), or that employ more than a set amount of fuel in maneuvering. The ban is such that even large yachts could be affected.

The government also decided to give power to the regional port authority to determine how five temporary docks can be built in Marghera, a nearby industrial port, while respecting maritime safety and environmental laws.

The intention to divert the cruise ships to the port of Marghera has raised eyebrows. The port is built for cargo ships and is not nearly as picturesque as the city’s lagoon. Moreover, the port’s channel is not large and deep enough for most cruise ships and would require major construction work.

Among the many projects considered by governments over the years, one envisioned a permanent passenger terminal at the Lido entrance to the lagoon. Activists considered that the best solution for the city and for the cruise industry.

Mr. Draghi’s cabinet also moved on Tuesday to establish compensation for sailing companies that will be affected by the ban and for other businesses connected to the cruise traffic inside the lagoon.

“It is a positive decision and could be the beginning of a new era,” said Francesco Galietti, national director for the Cruise Lines International Association. He added that the association has been asking for the temporary docking sites in Marghera since 2012.

The cruise industry is hoping, Mr. Galietti said, that the new docking sites would be ready in 2022, when tourists are expected to return en masse to cruises. This year, only 20 liners were expected to arrive in Venice.

Categories
Health

Hospitalizations rising once more as delta variant spreads among the many unvaccinated, medical doctors say

A mobile Covid-19 vaccination center outside Bolton City Hall in Bolton, where the number of cases of the Delta variant identified for the first time in India was relatively high.

A mobile Covid-19 vaccination center outside Bolton City Hall in Bolton, where the number of cases of the Delta variant identified for the first time in India was relatively high.

Peter Byrne | PA pictures | Getty Images

Top infectious disease specialists say the spread of the Delta variant over unvaccinated parts of the country is causing flares and spikes in hospital admissions as cases rise.

The number of cases is on the rise again nationwide, as the highly transferable variant prevails as the dominant burden in the USA.The seven-day average of the newly confirmed Covid cases has risen to around 23,300 per day, almost twice as high as the average a week ago . according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Health officials and doctors have hoped that high vaccination rates among the most vulnerable and oldest Americans would also prevent hospitalizations, which are generally delayed by a few weeks. But that hasn’t happened before, doctors said in a call hosted Tuesday by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“Hospital admissions and ICU deaths are all lagging behind (new cases), so we expect these to get worse, much worse, over the next two to three weeks,” Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, director of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said on the call.

Hospital stays are on the rise again as the Delta variant spreads among the unvaccinated, doctors say doctors

After several weeks of declining infections, cases are rising again in many parts of the country, said Dr. Jay Butler, associate director of infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the conference call. “Unfortunately, this has also been accompanied by an increase in hospital admissions and emergency room reviews for people who have ultimately been confirmed to have Covid-19,” he said.

Since the Delta variant is spreading in the US, it hits states with low vaccination rates particularly hard. First discovered in India in October, the variant quickly spreads to more than 100 countries around the world and has established itself as the dominant variety in America in just a few weeks.

“When the Delta strain emerged, it quickly became the dominant strain … For the last full week of data, more than 80% of the viruses sequenced were Delta viruses, and this week 92% of all variants” (in Utah) said Pavia. “When you think about what it means for a virus to spread so quickly, it means that it is the most suitable virus that spreads more efficiently, that it spreads in unvaccinated pockets, causing a lot of disease and a lot of stress . “

In Missouri, Arkansas, Nevada, Utah, and Florida, cases have risen faster than any other state in the past few weeks. New infections and hospital admissions are highest in rural areas, where vaccination rates are low, Pavia said. “That’s what drives outbreak vulnerability.”

In Utah, infection rates are highest among young people ages 15 to 45, and hospital admissions are similarly higher in these younger age groups than they were earlier in the pandemic, he said.

About 80% of Americans over 65, the most vulnerable population group, are fully vaccinated, which helps reduce hospital costs. Scientists have yet to figure out whether or not the Delta variant makes people sicker than the original ancestral tribe.

US health officials and doctors still disagree on whether or not a booster vaccination will be required in the fall or winter.

“We don’t see any evidence at this point that people who were vaccinated last December or January have declining immunity and are at greater risk of breakthrough infections,” said Butler, of the CDC.

Based on statements made by World Health Organization officials Monday, Butler also said that breakthrough cases are often milder and that vaccines are extremely effective at reducing hospital stays and deaths.

“There’s even evidence that people with breakthrough infections who are fully immunized shed fewer viruses … this may reduce the risk of spreading it to others,” Butler said.

The WHO recently recommended that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people continue to wear masks and practice social distancing, citing the reduced effectiveness of the vaccine against the Delta variant and increased social mixing in countries with different vaccination rates.

“Everyone wants this to be over, and a lot of the behavior that I think is driving the spread of infection is people wanting it to be over, and pretending it’s over, and even really give up the more humble precautions like wearing masks. ” said Pavia.