The Associated Press
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Day: May 14, 2024
cannes, france — Film director Mohammad Rasoulof, who has secretly fled Iran for an undisclosed location in Europe, urged the world film community on Tuesday to provide “strong support” to his colleagues.
Rasoulof, who was sentenced to jail on national security charges, and whose latest movie will compete at this month’s Cannes film festival, said he fears for the “safety and well-being” of fellow filmmakers still in Iran.
“The global film community must provide strong support to the makers of these films,” Rasoulof said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.
Rasoulof announced on Monday he had escaped clandestinely from Iran, just days after it emerged that he had been sentenced to eight years in prison for “collusion against national security.”
Rasoulof had been under pressure from Iranian authorities to withdraw his latest film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” from Cannes, where it will compete for the prestigious event’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.
Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the festival was working with the French Foreign Ministry in the hope of ensuring that Rasoulof, 51, can attend his premiere next week.
Rasoulof’s statement said he did not yet know if he could attend the premiere.
“I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey,” said Rasoulof, who won the Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear in 2020 for “There Is No Evil.”
He said his latest movie set out to portray a version of Iran “that is far from the narrative dominated by censorship in the Islamic Republic and is closer to reality.”
After he and his filmmaking colleagues came under pressure from the authorities, Rasoulof learned that his “unfair” eight-year sentence would be enforced imminently, and he felt he had no choice but to flee.
“I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran,” he wrote. “With a heavy heart, I chose exile.”
While some colleagues involved in the film were also able to leave the country, others remain there.
“My thoughts go to every single one of them, and I fear for their safety and well-being,” he said.
Ukrainians pull back to new positions in parts of Kharkiv region; Putin to visit China. What we know on day 812
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday on his first visit to Ukraine since a major US aid package was passed last month. Blinken, who arrived by train from Poland in an unannounced visit, met with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “Some of it has already arrived and more of it will be arriving,” said Blinken of the US aid. “And that’s going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield.”
Zelenskiy described the US aid as crucial, and thanked Blinken, but also said Ukraine desperately needed two more air defence systems to protect the city of Kharkiv, which has been hit repeatedly by Russian strikes in recent weeks.
Blinken joined band 19.99 on stage at Barman Dictat, picking up a red guitar to play Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World. “Your soldiers, your citizens – particularly in the north-east, in Kharkiv – are suffering tremendously. But they need to know, you need to know, the United States is with you, so much of the world is with you and they’re fighting not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you, too,” Blinken said before playing the song.
Ukraine’s military said its forces pulled back to new positions in two areas of the north-eastern Kharkiv region where Moscow is pressing an offensive, and warned of a Russian force buildup to the north near the Sumy region.
Russia said on Tuesday it had taken a 10th border village, Buhruvatka, in Kharkiv region. The police chief in Vovchansk, a town 5km (three miles) from the border that has been the target of one of the main Russian thrusts, reported exchanges of fire in the north of the town.
Russian strikes on residential areas in the centre of Kharkiv city injured 20 people on Tuesday, officials said.
Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said on Tuesday that power shortages caused by damage from Russian strikes had prompted controlled countrywide cuts from 9pm to midnight. “The reason is a significant shortage of electricity in the system as a result of Russian shelling as well as increased consumption because of cold weather,” Ukrenergo said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will visit China on 16-17 May, Chinese state media reported.
Joe Biden has signed legislation broadly supported in Congress that prohibits any imports of Russian uranium into the US from 12 August. Russia provides about 20-30% percent of the enriched uranium used in the US and Europe and 44% globally, according to the US energy department. The legislation will release $2.72bn in funding for the energy department to invest in uranium enrichment inside the US.
Russia has put its Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile into service, the Tass state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the system’s chief designer.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — The dating app Bumble got stung after running billboard ads that appeared to sneer at celibacy as an alternative to meeting people online.
On Monday, the company backtracked and apologized for billboards that bore the message “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer” juxtaposed against an introduction to “the new Bumble.” The app launched a brand redesign in April in hopes of reviving user interest, which had been lagging.
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Women on social media castigated the company for suggesting celibacy isn’t a valid personal choice. Some online critics read the slogan as reflecting patriarchal notions that women should be willing to have sex with men even if they don’t want to.
In an apology posted on Instagram, Bumble said it is removing ads that it called a mistaken attempt to “lean into a community frustrated by modern dating.” It said the company has long stood up for women and their right to “fully exercise personal choice,” but admitted that the ad campaign didn’t live up to those values and apologized “for the harm it caused.”
The company also plans donations to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and other organizations to support global efforts to “support women, marginalized communities, and those impacted by abuse.” The company said it will also offer the billboard space to these same organizations for ads of their choice.
Bumble did not respond to inquiries seeking information on how many billboards were involved in the campaign and where they were located. It remains unclear whether the ads also ran in other media.
The dating app company has been going through a rough patch. Its shares have fallen steadily since last July, dropping roughly 45% over that time amid concerns over its ability to reach younger users. In February, it laid off 350 employees, roughly 30% of its workforce, in February when it announced plans to revamp its app in order to make it more attractive to Generation Z.
(NEW ORLEANS) — Storms that slammed several Southern states added to the region’s recent string of weather-related destruction and death, including that of a Louisiana woman who was nine months pregnant.
The woman was killed after Monday night’s storms knocked a tree into a home in West Baton Rouge Parish, officials said.
Kristin Browning, 31, was nine months pregnant, and her unborn child did not survive. Browning’s husband and her 5-year-old daughter were also injured but were expected to survive.
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Another death happened near the Louisiana town of Henderson, authorities said on social media. A tornado appeared to have struck the area, but officials gave no details on how the person died. Henderson is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of New Orleans.
In Mississippi, one person was killed in Wilkinson County during storms that hit the area Sunday and Monday, officials announced Tuesday. Details were not immediately available.
The storms tore through many areas previously hit during one of the most active periods for twisters on record. At least 267 tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service from April 25 through May 10.
Florida and parts of south Georgia were again under the threat of severe weather Tuesday, with tornadoes still possible, according to the national Storm Prediction Center. Another area at risk of storms Tuesday covered parts of Tennessee, north Georgia and north Alabama.
In Oklahoma, authorities said they found a man’s body in an area where they were searching for one missing since an EF4 tornado May 6. The Osage County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the man’s body was found in a creek Saturday afternoon. The statement did not identify the man.
Authorities previously said one person was killed in the twister, which the weather service reported had winds as fast as 175 mph (282 kph).
tehran, iran — Iran Tuesday condemned as “interfering” a French Foreign Ministry statement accusing it of “state hostage-taking” and “blackmail” in the detention of four French nationals.
“We strongly condemn such unprofessional, interfering and inappropriate positions while resorting to false references,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told state news agency IRNA.
“The people mentioned in the statement of the French Foreign Ministry were arrested based on solid evidence and witnesses, and the French government is well aware of their crimes.”
Teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, were detained in Iran in May 2022. They are accused of seeking to stir up labor unrest, accusations their families vehemently deny.
“France condemns this policy of state hostage-taking and this constant blackmail by the Iranian authorities,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on May 7, calling for the couple’s release.
Kanani called on the French “to avoid resorting to such statements and using words outside of diplomatic decency, which have negative consequences on relations between the two countries.”
Kohler and Paris both made televised confessions after their arrests that France described as “forced.”
Two other French citizens are held by Iran: a man identified only by his first name, Olivier, and Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant who was sentenced to five years in jail on national security charges last year.
The four are among at least a dozen European passport holders in Iranian custody, some of them dual nationals.
