Airlift has one of Akshay Kumar’s best performances – along with other sterling acts. Rich Indian-origin businessman Ranjit Katyal (Akshay) loves profits and dislikes the idea of India. But Ranjit’s golden life in the desert crumbles when Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. Suddenly, people are savagely shot in the streets, houses looted, buildings blown up, tanks taking over, chop-pers hovering maliciously amidst minarets.
Iraqi Major Halaf (Inaam-ulhaq) offers Ranjit and his wife Amrita (Nimrat) buy million-dollar tickets to leave with their child. But Ranjit’s also looking after thousands of Indians, desperate as the Embassy exits Kuwait.
What happens when Ranjit takes responsibility for getting 1,70,000 Indians home?
Airlift features Akshay at his best – based on real-life characters, there’s little khiladi-wala swag in Akshay’s performance and more mature control. As Ranjit, who goes from protecting his kin to his countrymen, Akshay does a polished, restrained, powerful job. Nimrat conveys brittle edginess – she asks Ranjit, “Ye Indian-Indian khelna, kya drama ho raha hai?” – but grows into a woman who loves her husband’s humanitarian heart.
Certain cameos are outstanding. Prakash Belawadi brings alive surly, suspicious George, Kumud Mishra deeply impresses as a quietly determined MEA babu and Inaamulhuq oozes smooth menace as he quotes ‘Amitabh Bachhan’ to Ranjit – before showing him his business partner, hanging from a crane outside a palace full of bloodied marble and broken glass.
Airlift’s scale is impressive and editing (Hemanti Sarkar) deft. Some sequences – Iraqi soldiers brutally molesting an Indian girl, looting even onions, cheerily singing ‘Ek Do Teen’, dragging out a young mother, so “the boys can have some fun with her” – are intense.
But the movie could’ve increased this intensity, the horror and taut, time-ticking dread that typify unforgettable siege/rescue films like Hotel Rwanda (2004), where you vividly felt humanity running out each second. Airlift depicts desperation but with more sound and light than darkness, more broad strokes than fine detail.
Yet, Airlift works because it conveys a time when armies will attack civilians – you’re struck by how IS was born from the Iraqi army’s core – and raises Bollywood’s generic bar. Plus, it movingly celebrates the most beautiful flag in the world.
STORY: Teachers Vidya Sawant (Shabana Azmi) and Jyoti Thakur (Juhi Chawla) impart knowledge and values to students in a middle-class school. However, when an ambitious shrew becomes the principal, they are forced to wage a ‘war’ to safeguard their legacy.
REVIEW:‘Chalk N Duster’ has its heart in the right place.
Made with an intention of showcasing the worms in the current education system, where money often gets merit over capability; this film can be lauded to some degree. However, it flounders in the first half due to its tacky narrative approach. Told like a TV serial, it takes the oft-taken path of following the underprivileged on local train rides to the Mumbai chawl. Okay so the point of a teacher’s life being hard is made. Yet, it’s predictable to see Shabana dabbing sweat with her sari pallav as she gets off an over-crowded Virar local, buying vada pav and keeping the positive spirit at home that has a handicapped husband (Girish Karnad) and their about-to-be chartered accountant daughter. The revered teacher also coaches the neighbourhood children for free!
Then, there is Juhi who is slightly more privileged than her didi, Shabana. She can buy a car on installments. These two teachers also have hardworking colleagues, who become sisters in misery when Kamini Gupta(Divya Dutta) a devil wearing designer sarees is appointed as the principal. Divya is more unreasonable than Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters put together. The shock of having to bear her nastiness gives Shabana a heart condition. Juhi exits the school and vows to get back the ‘honour’ of her didi and herself. So, they reach out to a media person, Richa Chadha, an IAS officer, a Minister, conscientious past students from the world over and even win Rs 5 crore in a KBC-styled contest, with Rishi Kapoor in a cameo as the quiz master!
The execution for the most part is clumsy. Yet somewhere in the second half, Gilatar redeems himself and the film. He touches on the importance of teachers in our lives and shows the apathy of the powers-that-are towards providing equal education opportunities. It also gives us a proud India moment as we watch two teachers pass a GQ contest with flying colours. Life, after all, whether in a cinema hall or on the outside is about minor triumphs (staged or otherwise), isn’t it?
Shabana and Juhi are irritatingly saccharine initially; but get firmly in the saddle soon. They’re from the dependable lot of actresses after all.
NEW DELHI (TIP): Noting that he has been maintaining a daily diary for years, President Pranab Mukherjee Thursday underlined the complexities a politician faces when he decides to bring out facts related to governance in public domain. Speaking at the release of the second volume of his memoirs, The Turbulent Years: 1980-96, he said “some facts are to be buried with me”.
The book was released by Vice-President Hamid Ansari.
Talking about his daily diary, he said: “I have advised my daughter, who is the custodian of this diary, to never release this… digitise this but never release it. If you digitise it, as and when the government finds it necessary, they will release.”
On Rajiv Gandhi
While Mukherjee clarifies he never made a claim for the PM’s post after Indira Gandhi’s death, he cannot but conceal the complex bond he shared with Rajiv Gandhi, especially the hurt when Rajiv, immediately after becoming PM, dropped him from the cabinet. Mukherjee was the finance minister then.
Mukherjee recalls, “…I was shell-shocked and flabbergasted… But I composed myself, and sat alongside my wife as she watched the swearing-in ceremony on television.” He says: “I made no special effort to reach out to Rajiv or ask why I was dropped…”
Rajiv gave him a second “shock” soon. At the centenary session of the Congress in 1985 in Mumbai, Mukherjee writes, “After being asked to move the main centenary declaration, to my utter shock and dismay, I was dropped from the CWC when it was reconstituted in January 1986. This was a blow which hurt me even more than being dropped from the cabinet.”
In April 1986, Mukherjee gave an interview to The Illustrated Weekly, which Rajiv believed “went beyond the limits of party discipline”. “…all I can say is that he made mistakes and so did I,” says Mukherjee.
The bond changed after the 1989 election. “Rajiv’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections of 1989 brought us close together again…”
He points at Rajiv’s failures and says “Rajiv’s actions on Shah Bano judgement and Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill drew criticism and eroded his modern image”. “The opening of Ram Janmabhoomi temple site was perhaps another error of judgement,” he writes.
On Manmohan Singh
“There has been some discussion regarding differences between RBI Governor Dr Manmohan Singh, and me…I never saw
my differences with Dr Singh…as anything other than legitimate exchanges of opinion over professional matters…I had absolutely no role in Dr Manmohan Singh’s departure from the RBI.”
NEW DELHI (TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 23 unveiled 100 declassified documents on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the National Archives of India. The documents are still not available in the public domain, but the NAI is expected to release around 25 digitised copies every month. The timing of the release assumes political significance as West Bengal goes to polls later this year. The Mamata Banerjee government has already made 64 documents public last year and requested the Centre to do the same. These 64 documents, running into more than 12,000 pages, revealed that Subhash Chandra Bose’s family was snooped for nearly a decade by the Nehru government after his disappearance. The documents also show that the British suspected Bose was still alive after his plane crashed in Taipei.
Netaji Bose’s cremation records appear online
A UK website has released the evidence given by a Taiwanese official who claimed to have prepared Netaji’s body for cremation after his death in a plane crash in 1945. The testimony, contained in UK Foreign Office file No FC1852/6 and dating back to 1956, is among the last few documents to be released by http://www.bosefiles.info set up to establish that the Indian freedom fighter died in the crash on the outskirts of an airfield in Taipei on August 18, 1945.
British believed Netaji was alive
The British intelligence were skeptical over reports of Netaji’s death in Taipei. They believed that he was still alive and living in either China or Russia. The British arrived at this conclusion after no strong evidence had emerged of his death after his plane had crashed.
West Bengal probed if Subhas Chandra Bose missed the flight In 1969, Member of Parliament Samar Guha wrote to the then West Bengal chief secretary M M Basu about a “sensational report” of Netaji’s survival. Based on the letter, Basu had directed the state government’s home secretary to conduct a probe into the claims. The report Guha refers to an article that appeared in Jugantar which claims that a police officer had seen Netaji board a submarine in Singapore, not a plane, along with two Japanese officers. The officer went on to say that Netaji left his sword with him before leaving Singapore.
Netaji files reveal snooping on Subhas Chandra Bose’s family, doubts over death
The West Bengal state intelligence has regularly intercepted letters reaching members of Netaji’s family after he went missing in 1945. Documents released last year show the contents of a letter from a Swiss journalist Dr Lilly Abegg to Netaji’s brother Sarat Chandra Bose. Abegg wrote: “I heard in 1946 from Japanese sources that your brother is still living.”
Netaji’s wife kept in touch with his family even after disappearance
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose saw his daughter Anita only once, when she was four weeks old. He was about to pay another visit to her in Vienna in 1943, but his “sudden departure” prevented this. The 64 files made public by the West Bengal government on Friday showed that while Bose never returned to Europe to his daughter and wife Emilie Schenkl, they continued to write to Netaji’s family after his disappearance.
NEW DELHI (TIP): Lutyens’ zone, already considered among the most pampered areas in India, has made it to the list of 20 cities to be turned into Smart Cities as part of the Modi government’s ambitious urban modernisation programme.
For the capital, initially, the scheme will be focused on “retrofitting” (redesigning existing infrastructure) 550 acres in and around Connaught Place in what will mark a big push to the historical shopping district which has just overcome decades of decay to re-emerge as a hot spot.
The list released on Thursday had Bhubaneswar at the top, with a Rs 4,500-crore plan to retrofit and redevelop 985 acres around the railway station with modern amenities.
The race for inclusion in the Smart City league – a concept centered on provision of basic amenities such as 24X7 power and drinking water supply as well as contemporary attributes like e-governance and IT infrastructure -saw Madhya Pradesh bagging the maximum three spots, while populous states such as UP, Bengal and Bihar failed to make it in the first round.
The 20 cities which feature in the first list are expected to spend almost Rs 51,000 crore to upgrade the quality of life – a generous step-up of allocation of funds for upgrade of a significant urban swathe even if some of the projects would have possibly been taken up in normal course. The concept of Smart City marks a big departure from the traditional municipal body-led model of urban development to one marked by corporate features such as a CEO who can even be drafted from the private sector and will have job security, special purpose vehicle route for raising funds and execution of the development plan.
Unlike in the past, when the burden of development was on the states and the Centre, this time over 60% of the resources are proposed to be generated by the cities concerned. The selection of cities has been influenced by their capacity to deliver as determined on the basis of their past performance and financial strength.
Importantly, only one of the 20 selected cities, Kochi, will focus on taking up a green project. This might mean the revival of the localities which are groaning under burgeoning population and are hamstrung by woefully inadequate infrastructure for current and future requirements.
The selected cities will get central funding of Rs 500 crore each in the next five years and states will put up an equal amount to kickstart the project. Almost 60% of the investment will come in the form of private investment and innovative mechanisms that the cities will adopt. To begin with, only selected areas in the cities proposed by municipal bodies will be developed or redeveloped within two to five years.
“These will work as catalysts and will become lighthouse to expand similar projects or work to make cities better,” minister of urban development Venkaiah Naidu said.
NEW DELHI (TIP): Going tough on non-performers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out a stern message to government officials who have not corrected their professional conduct despite repeated warnings.
During his monthly interaction with central government secretaries and chief secretaries of states through Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI), PM Modi directed secretaries to identify and asses such employees and recommend disciplinary action, that include dismissal from service and withholding of pension.
The Prime Minister urged all secretaries whose departments have extensive public dealing, to set up a system for top-level monitoring of grievances immediately.
Reviewing the complaints and grievances from people related to the customs and excise sector, Modi asked for strict action against concerned officials.
Modi also held a meeting of his council of ministers to review progress on schemes related to some ministries and laid thrust on faster delivery of government initiatives.
According to the sources, the meeting reviewed schemes and government initiatives related to ministries such as agriculture, chemical and fertilizer and water resources.
The Modi government completed 20 months in office on Tuesday.
Calls for strict action on grievances related to customs, excise
Modi took strong exception at complaints and grievances from people related to the customs and excise sector and asked for strict action against concerned officials.
Modi, who chaired his ninth interaction through PRAGATI – Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation – urged all secretaries whose departments have extensive public dealing, to set up a system for top-level monitoring of grievances immediately.Later in the day, Modi held a meeting of his council of ministers to review progress on schemes related to some ministries and laid thrust on faster delivery of government initiatives.
According to the sources, the meeting reviewed schemes and government initiatives related to ministries such as agriculture, chemical and fertilizer and water resources.
SRINAGAR (TIP): Quietly and without fuss, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and her mother Gulshah Mufti, widow of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, vacated the Jammu & Kashmir CM’s official residence last week, a senior government official said.
Deputy director, estates, Satish Kumar, said the watchman at the bungalow reported the Mufti family landed at the Wazarat Road house last week and emptied it, which amounts to vacating the official CM house in the winter capital. PDP later issued a statement that the Mufti family’s belongings were taken out to maintain the highest standards of dignified political conduct practised by late Sayeed.
“There’s no politics involved,” senior PDP official Naeem Akhtar said.
But, exiting the official house, coupled with Mehbooba’s lengthening silence over government formation, has made many observers contend that this could be yet another way of telling BJP about her unhappiness over their differences. Among several points of departure between PDP and BJP, Mehbooba is particularly miffed with the Centre’s rejection of the transfer of two power projects, Dulhasti at Kishtwar and Uri in Baramulla.
MELBOURNE (TIP): A teenage suspect discussed with a British accomplice packing a kangaroo with explosives before setting it loose on Australian police officers, prosecutors alleged on Thursday.
Sevdet Ramadan Besim was ordered in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday to stand trial in the Victoria state Supreme Court on charges that he planned an Islamic State group-inspired terrorist attack at a Veterans’ Day ceremony that included targeting police officers in April last year.
Besim, 19, pleaded not guilty to four charges relating to a plot to attack commemorative services in Melbourne or the neighboring city of Dandenong to mark ANZAC Day, the annual April 25 commemoration of the 1915 Gallipoli landings in Turkey. The campaign was the first major military action fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I and hundreds of thousands attend commemoration services around Australia. Besim faces a potential life sentence in prison if convicted. (AP)
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President Barack Obama directed his national security advisers on Thursday to counter efforts by Islamic State to expand into Libya and other countries, the White House said.
Islamic State militants have taken advantage of chaos in Libya to establish themselves in the city of Sirte, and they have carried out several attacks on oil installations this month.
“The President directed his national security team to continue efforts to strengthen governance and support ongoing counterterrorism efforts in Libya and other countries where ISIL has sought to establish a presence,” the White House statement said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
Earlier on Thursday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a news conference that Islamic State was establishing training sites in Libya and welcoming foreign fighters the way it had done in Iraq and Syria in years past.
“And we don’t want to be on a glide slope to a situation like Syria and Iraq. That’s the reason why we’re watching it that closely. That’s the reason why we develop options for what we might do in the future.”
On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the Unied States had already sent “a small number of military personnel” into Libya to try to “to engage in conversations with local forces to get a clearer picture of exactly what’s happening there.”
“We’re looking at military options,” Cook said, according to a transcript of his news conference on the Department of Defense website.
The political chaos in Libya has slowed the international community’s ability to partner with the loose alliances of armed brigades of rebels who once fought veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011. (Reuters)
BEIRUT (TIP): The powerful Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its local allies have drawn up plans for a major attack to seize the final stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border held by Islamic State jihadists, a YPG source familiar with the plan said on Thursday.
Such an offensive could deprive Islamic State jihadists of a logistical route that has been used by the group to bring in supplies and foreign recruits.
But it could lead to confrontation with Turkey, which is fighting against its own Kurdish insurgents and sees the Syrian Kurds as an enemy.
After a year of military gains aided by US-led air strikes, the Kurds and their allies already control the entire length of Syria’s northeastern Turkish frontier from Iraq to the banks of the Euphrates river, which crosses the border west of the town of Kobani.
Other Syrian insurgent groups control the frontier further west, leaving only around 100km (60 miles) of border in the hands of Islamic State jihadists, running from the town of Jarablus on the bank of the Euphrates west to near the town of Azaz.
But Turkey says it will not allow the Syrian Kurds to move west of the Euphrates.
The source confirmed a report on Kurdish news website Xeber24 which cited a senior YPG leader saying the plan includes crossing the Euphrates to attack the Islamic State-held towns of Jarablus and Manbij, in addition to Azaz, which is held by other insurgent groups.
The source did not give a planned date, but said a January 29 date mentioned in the Xeber24 report might not be accurate.
The YPG has been the most important partner on the ground of a US-led air campaign against Islamic State, and is a major component of an alliance formed last year called the Syria Democratic Forces, which also includes Arab and other armed groups. The alliance is quietly backed by Washington, even as its Nato ally in the region, Turkey, is hostile.
The political party affiliated with the YPG, the PYD, has been excluded from Syria peace talks the United Nations plans to hold in Geneva on Friday. The PYD and its allies say their exclusion undermines the process and have blamed Turkey.
Ankara fears further expansion by the YPG will fuel separatist sentiment among its own Kurdish minority. It views the Syrian Kurdish PYD as a terrorist group because of its affiliation to Turkish Kurdish militants.
The United States and Turkey have for months been discussing a joint military plan to drive Islamic State from the border, but there has been little sign of it on the ground.
PARIS (TIP): A French police official says a man found to be carrying two handguns has been arrested at a hotel at Disneyland Paris.
The official said no one was injured during the arrest on Thursday, but couldn’t provide further details. The official wasn’t authorized to be publicly named according to police policy.
There are several hotels around Disneyland Paris, which is east of the French capital and is among Europe’s most-visited tourist attractions.
France remains under a state of emergency since Islamic extremist attacks around Paris killed 130 people in November.
MUMBAI (TIP): Eyebrows were raised when actress and BJP MP Hema Malini was alloted land in Andheri for setting up a dance academy. Now in what could add fuel to the fire it transpires that the 2,000 square metre plot in Oshiwara in Andheri was given to her for a pittance, just Rs 70,000. The value of the plot is at least around Rs 40 crores.
It has come to light that the actress was alloted another plot of land in 1997 which she could not develop because it came under CRZ, however she did not hand over the plot back to the state government.
The details were revealed in reply to a query by RTI activist Anil Galgali who filed a query before the Mumbai suburban collector seeking details of the land being handed over to the actress and the correspondence with her in that regard.
“First of all the government hands over a prime plot at dirt cheap rates to an organization run by a party MP, which it self is questionable. Secondly the earlier plot of land given to Hema should have been taken back before handing over this plot of land. Maharashtra is not a cash rich state, we have farmers committing suicides and have a debt burden of Rs 3, lakh crore. How is it public interest giving land to her at such rates.” questioned Galgali.
RTI documents show that the Mumbai Suburban collector has now written to Hema to hand over the old plot of land and has imposed a few conditions before she could be handed the new plot.
UDHAMPUR (TIP): Nine Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) cadres were on Wedenesday named in a charge sheet filed by National Investigation Agency in last year’s terror attack case in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur.
Two Pakistani terrorists of LeT had on August 5 attacked a BSF convoy in Udhampur. The attack resulted in the death of two BSF personnel while 13 others were injured. The case was subsequently transferred to NIA for investigation.
The charge sheet has been filed against the accused Mohammed Naveed alias Usman, Khursheed Ahmed Bhat alias Khursheed Alam Bhat, Showkat Ahmed Bhat, Shabzar Ahmed Bhat, Fayaz Ahmed Ittoo alias Fayaz Khar, Khursheed Ahmed Ittu, Fayaz Ahmed Ashwar alias Setha, Ashiq Hussain Bhat alias Ubaida and Abu Noman, a press release issued by the NIA said.
Of the accused, Abu Noman was killed in retaliatory action by the security forces upon the commencement of the instant terrorist attack, while Fayaz Ahmed Ashwar and Ashiq Hussain Bhat are absconding, it said.
“The investigation has not only unearthed the specific conspiracy behind the terrorist attack in Udhampur but also the larger conspiracy of the LeT through which Mohammed Naveed alias Usman and his associates were infiltrated and sheltered in Indian territory for committing terrorist acts,” the release said.
NEW DELHI (TIP): The Centre on January 28 formed a one-man judicial commission headed by former Allahabad High Court judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal to probe the suicide of PhD student Rohith Vemula in the University of Hyderabad.
“The constitution of one-man judicial commission was approved by the HRD Ministry today (Thursday),” official sources said.
The retired high court judge, who has been a practicing lawyer for the last few years and designated as a senior advocate of the Supreme Court in 2013, will investigate into the sequence of events that led Rohith Vemula to commit suicide, a Ministry official said, referring to the terms and reference of the judicial commission.
“He will probe into the entire sequence of events and circumstances that led to the incident and fix the responsibility for it,” he said.
The judicial commission will investigate if the university followed the procedures, laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in its regulations notified in 2012, to check “harassment and victimisation” of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students at the hands of their teachers and peers, he said.
“The one man judicial commission will submit its report within three months,” he added.
The constitution of judicial commission to probe into Vemula’s suicide within a week after the HRD Ministry made an announcement in its regard, amid students intensifying their protest against HRD Minister Smriti Irani in Hyderabad, Delhi and other states, demanding her resignation along with that of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.
Students under the banner of Left-backed unions and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan have been staging protests every day at various locations in Delhi since Vemula’s suicide on January 17, holding two Union ministers responsible for it. On January 25, the Congress-backed National Students Union Of India (NSUI) gave a call for “Dilli Chalo” (march to Delhi) in Hyderabad.
As the HRD Ministry remained under pressure, the UGC wrote to vice-chancellors of all universities affiliated to it, reminding them of its guidelines issued last year to ensure safety of students on and off the their respective campuses.
The higher education regulator asked all varsity heads to set up students counselling centres at their respective campus, as suggested by it in its guidelines issued on in April 2015.
“All the higher educational institutions should mandatorily put in place a broad-based students counseling system for the effective redressal of problems and challenges faced by students. You are requested to kindly create the students counselling centre in your esteemed university and the colleges affiliated to your university,” the commission said in its letter to vice-chancellors on January 27.
NEW YORK CITY (TIP): Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced, January 27, an expansion of New York City’s outreach and engagement with community and ethnic media outlets across the five boroughs. Today’s announcement includes the launch of an online directory of ethnic and community media for City employees to use in outreach and informational and paid campaign efforts, and a system to ensure accountability with the aim of having equitable communications across diverse ethnic, racial and geographic communities. The Mayor and Speaker will convene community-based journalists in the coming weeks to discuss these efforts.
“Today we are ensuring that the City speaks the language of our people,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is seen in the front.
Many New Yorkers turn to neighborhood, youth and ethnic media to get their news, frequently in languages other than English, and the de Blasio Administration is committed to providing equal access to information. Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has advocated for proactive and consistent engagement of community media, and has dedicated resources and expertise in working with the Administration to ensure inclusion of diverse outlets.
“In the city of immigrants, no person should be denied access to vital services or information due to their language. Half of all New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home. Almost one-sixth of all NYC households – 1.8 million people – are proficient in languages that are not English. Today we are ensuring that the City speaks the language of our people,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Government has a responsibility to engage diverse media equitably so that we can communicate with a wide range of constituents,” said Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. “I am pleased that we are raising the bar for the way agencies plan and execute their outreach, public service announcements and paid campaigns. By doing so, we move towards being a more inclusive city at all levels.”
“The de Blasio Administration is committed to speaking the language of multilingual New Yorkers, and as part of this outreach we must also reach them in the media outlets that are an integral part of their day-to-day lives,” said Nisha Agarwal, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “The Administration has also deepened its commitment to language access to ensure that information is made available to all New Yorkers by hiring an Executive Director at MOIA who works to implement citywide tools, training, and reporting mechanisms. 311 now also accepts complaints from New Yorkers who have experienced language barriers at City Agencies.”
“The Ethnic and Community Media Directory will strengthen the effectiveness of communications efforts throughout the city,” said Mindy Tarlow, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations. “Now communications teams have a guide that will further ensure their message is heard across the five boroughs.”
“The responsibility of ensuring that our communities have access to relevant news is shared by press and by government. This Council is interested in engaging community press sources in a real way and this commitment is memorialized in part by today’s announcement. Without a doubt, we need to remain engaged about how we strengthen our relationships with community press and by extension, with the communities that they serve. I am proud to be witness to this important first step,” said Council Member Carlos Menchaca, Chair of the Committee on Immigration.
“The ethnic and community press plays a crucial role in our city’s diverse neighborhoods – especially to public school families who collectively speak more than 200 languages,” said Maite Junco, NYC Department of Education Senior Advisor for External Communications. “These media outlets spread out across our city are vital vehicles to reach our families and I thank the Administration for providing communication professionals in city government with an online tool to help us reach every New Yorker regardless of their zip code or language they speak.”
Historically, City Agencies’ media outreach has focused primarily on English-language outlets, in spite of the fact that New York City is the ethnic media capital of the country -with hundreds of community and ethnic media outlets speaking dozens of languages. This trend has shifted under the de Blasio Administration, with the development of campaigns to inform all New Yorkers about IDNYC, Paid Sick Leave, and Pre-K For All, among other initiatives. Ethnic and community media were central to the outreach strategy, and the engagement and enrollment results clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of multilingual media outreach.
To ensure that engagement of community and ethnic media becomes standard citywide practice, MOIA has worked with the Mayor’s Office of Operations, the City Hall Press Office, the City Council Speaker’s Office and the CUNY School of Journalism to create an online directory of ethnic and community media. The directory is a database of more than 200 TV, radio, print and digital news outlets covering more than 30 languages. This directory will help City Agency communications staff identify the most effective ways of reaching their intended audiences through media outreach as well as public service announcements and paid media campaigns. For City Agencies, this resource will strengthen the Administration’s communications reach to all corners of the five boroughs. In addition, City Agencies will report on an annual basis their advertising budgets alongside the budget spent on ethnic media outreach. This process will ensure that agencies are accountable and will measure communications efforts against metrics that gauge if outreach is equitable amongst different ethnic/racial and/or limited English proficient (LEP) communities.
“A significant portion of New Yorkers depend on ethnic and community media as a source of news and information. By providing City Agencies with this media resource, the City will better connect with immigrant communities across the five boroughs,” said Jehangir Khattak, Co-Director of the Center for Community and Ethnic Media at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
“Ethnic and community media play a critical role in reaching dozens of immigrant communities. As an organization, we work closely with a broad range of ethnic media, recognizing that they are lifelines for immigrants who learn about programs and policies that impact them in their own languages first,” said Steve Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, composed of over 200 community-based and immigrant direct service organizations, representing constituencies across New York State. “The Ethnic and Community Media Directory released by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the City Council Speaker will be a vital tool for city government, agencies, and community organizations to strengthen their connections to the reporters and journalists who are at the frontlines of immigrant issues and who will ensure that our communities are fully informed.”
History, despite Francis Fukuyama’s prediction of it having ended, was made on Saturday, January 16th 2016 inthe “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu”, aka Chinese Taipei, aka Republic of China or the de facto Republic of Taiwan. Tsai Ing-Wen of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected President with 56% of the vote defeating Kuomintang’s Eric Chu. Besides, electing its first ever female president from the Democratic Progressive Party, the citizens of this island nation thoroughly defeated the President Ma Ying-Jeau’s Kuomintang Party for excessively placatory and deferential postures towards Beijing. The people of the Republic of Taiwan democratically slapped the Communist China on the face despite its repeated catastrophic warnings. History was also made because per analysts, “A new Taiwanese identity won” in the elections. A new generation with pro-independence mind gave a resounding defeat to the status quoist KMT. The 59 years old Tsai, a former law Professor is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge. She made the history as being elected the first female leader of an Asian nation without having any prior family connections or following the path of dynastic succession.
It was the 6th direct election for the President of Taiwan since 1988 when Taiwan became a de facto and de jure democracy. The Democratic Progressive Party, also secured a majority in the legislature, marking the first time that the DPP can govern alone with over a 50%majority. Results on the Central Election Commission’s website showed Ms. Tsai receiving 6.9 million votes, around 56% of the total, with her main rival, KMT candidate Eric Chu, getting 3.8 million, or 31%. A third-party candidate took the remainder. It is the first time the ruling KMT and its allies have lost control of the legislature since Chiang Kai-shek moved his Nationalist government across the Taiwan Strait after its defeat on the mainland by Communist forces in 1949.
Government of India should send a large official delegation for inauguration of the President-elect Tsai on May 20th 2016. India needs to exploit this democratic opportunity of government transition in Taiwan to engage it strategically besides deepening the economic and mercantile ties. Over the years, this analyst has made case for deeper economic, mercantile and strategic engagement with Taiwan in an effort to balance Communist China (1, 2). India’s civil society and the hyperactive NGOs need to make their presence felt in the Republic of Taiwan. There are several levels at which Indian civil society should engage the Taiwanese people. Since our ruling party the BJP has party to party relations with the Communist Party of China and has sent several party delegations to China, it should seriously consider sending an official party delegation for the inaugural of President Tsai.
From a more pragmatic perspective, the BJP delegation should consist of former heavy weight cabinet ministers like Yashwant Sinha, Dr. Subramanian Swami and Dr. Arun Shourie. Building party to party relations with the Democratic Progressive Party will serve India’s long-term strategic interests.
The easy way forward would be for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to send large delegations to drum up more business, investments and joint ventures with their Taiwanese counter-parts. Indian business houses must invest in the tourism and hospitality sector in Taiwan especially in the strategically important island of Penghu in the Taiwan Straits. Newer business entities like Patanjali Yoga Trust should consider exporting their organic consumer items in Taiwan.
Besides the business leaders, Indian Think-tanks, civil society, cultural and religious organizations should step up to the plate to foster people to people relations. Dharmic organizations should foster the Buddhist-Hindu brotherhood using Dharma-Dhamma paradigm. Since the time of Asoka, the great, India has exercised cultural and Dharmic diplomacy. Perhaps, His Holiness Dalai Lama should grace the occasion of inaugural function of the President-elect Tsai with his divine presence and blessings. In the same analogy, one of the Shankaracharyas should be persuaded to travel to Taiwan for blessing the new woman president of that nation! Organizations like Dharmacharya Sabha, Art of Living and Bharat Swabhiman have a role to play in promoting Yoga, meditation and other instruments of India’s soft power in Taiwan. Even ex-servicemen organizations should be encouraged to send delegations to Taiwan for the presidential inaugural.
India needs to focus on developing religious tourist facilities in the islands of Matsu and Penghu especially shrines to the Mazu (Matsu) Guardian Goddess of the sea whom Taiwanese revere. Because Taiwan is an island and relies on the sea for sustenance, the “sea goddess” Mazu (Matsu) is very important for the seafaring Taiwanese people. Taiwanese and Chinese Goddess Guanyin (Kuanyin) began her divine existence and origin in India as the male bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara, but is usually described in Chinese communities as the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Worshipped by people of Chinese origin – including many who don’t explicitly identify themselves as Buddhist – since the 12th century, her full name is translated as, ‘she who hears all of mankind’s cries’. Reciprocally, India should hard-sell the Buddhist circuit for the Taiwanese tourists to India. Owing to historical Indian cultural influences in the East Asia, we need to remember and reinforce our soft power diplomacy while engaging Taiwan.
We both nations are the legitimate trading partners in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Chinese Taipei has been a member of the WTO since 1 January 2002. Taiwan is also a member of the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) where India’s application is pending for membership for the last twenty years (3). Taiwan is an aspiring candidate country for membership of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Officially, since we have trade and commerce going on with the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei), the official Indian delegation should be headed by the Commerce Minister or by the Finance Minister. Communist China has intense trade and investment relations with Taiwan, so it can’t possibly object if India adopts the same course (2). India must deepen economic engagement with Taiwan on a war footing. Taiwanese investments should be sought aggressively and tapped voraciously for the #Make-In-India Campaign. Cash-rich Taiwan is sitting on foreign exchange reserves of $425 billion as of December 31st 2015. Instead of letting this money be invested across the straits in the Communist China, India should raise the economic costs for China by providing an attractive alternative destination for the Taiwanese surplus capital for investment in India’s infrastructure.
The only country that currently exports arms to the Republic of Taiwan is the US. Taiwan is desperately trying to modernize its armed forces in view of continued military threat from the Communist China. India is trying to enter the lucrative arms export market. India has 3-4 defense items/armament systems ready in its inventory that can be exported to Taiwan in the near future. These armaments include the Tejas fighter aircrafts, Dhruva attacks helicopters, Arjun battle tanks and Brahmos hypersonic missiles. Taiwan would be delighted to buy Indian hardware for its defense. India should also take future orders from Taiwan for supply of frigates and submarines. Since Communist China is exporting and supplying arms to Pakistan and building its capacity continuously, we should do the same with Taiwan.
India’s strategic establishment must adopt diplomatic and strategic pragmatism and must learn to strike when the iron is hot! Our soft power and hard power must be complimentary to each other for sake of furthering our strategic interests.
The author (Dr. Adityanjee) is President, The Council For Strategic Affairs, New Delhi. He can be reached at adityancsa@gmail.com ; twitter@DrThinkTank
LONG ISLAND, NY (TIP): For the first time in the history of India Association of Long Island (IALI), the oath & inauguration ceremony was organized in Suffolk County where IALI was born 37 years ago. The ceremony on January 22 at H. Lee Dennison Building, Hauppauge revived memories of old times.
The new executive of IALI is sworn in by the Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone
The County Executive Steve Bellone & Grace Ioannidis of minority Affairs/community service of the Suffolk County Executive graced the occasion with their presence Several past presidents of IALI, many organization leaders, community leaders and dignitaries were present. The event was well attended by over 250 people; some came all the way from the east and west end of Long Island, in spite of freezing weather on a weekday and the impending severe snowstorm.
Hosted by the entire IALI 2016 Team, the event started off with a warm welcome to all attendees. The pledge of Allegiance was recited by all and was followed by American and Indian National Anthem, melodiously sung by the ladies of IALI. The Invocation ceremony with enchanting ancient Indian prayers and shlokas infused some fresh spiritual air into the atmosphere.
The President Beena Kothari (seated) with IALI family
County Executive Steve Bellone warmly welcomed and congratulated the new Executive Council and sworn them into the office: Beena Kothari (President), Gunjan Rastogi (Vice President), Lalit Aery (Secretary), Vimal Goyal (Treasurer), 8 Members-at-large, 3 Standing Committee Chairs.
The County Executive was thrilled and appreciated in his remarks the commendable work done by the organization. Further, he also expressed his faith & confidence in the new Executive Council -the 2016 Team, under the leadership of the president, Mrs. Beena Kothari, to continue the community work to take it to a higher level.
The County Executive was honored with a special award for his extraordinary public service, exemplary dedication and outstanding service to Indian community on Long Island.
Then ceremony was followed with the Oath and swearing in of over 30 Ad-Hoc Committee Chairs and Co-Chairs by Grace Ioannidis of the county executive office. All Attendees applauded and welcomed the entire IALI Team 2016 wishing them good luck on their forthcoming endeavors.
IALI President, Mrs. Beena Kothari, addressed the audience and thanked everyone for their utmost confidence and faith, giving her the opportunity to be the President of India Association of Long Island, an organization that represents people of all diverse faiths, values and culture. She pointed out that we are in the process of creating new programs & key strategic initiatives to fulfill our commitments and objectives. She emphasized that we strongly believe in “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” which means “Whole World is ONE Family”. One of my goals would be to focus on promoting “Unity and Harmony among Diversity.” said President, Mrs. Beena Kothari. The organization in the truest sense will create collaborative programs and
increase ties with county governments, many local organizations to benefit all communities on Long Island for betterment of one and all.
Grace Ioannidis also honored and recognized the hard work by the outgoing Executive Council of 2015 by honoring them with Certificate of Appreciation. Outgoing President Mr. Satnam S. Parhar was called out for his 2-year term service as well as his dedication and persistent efforts for fulfilling the dream of IALI India Center, a proud achievement of this prestigious organization. He congratulated all Past and Present team and supporters for the ongoing success of the organization and expressed confidence in the leadership of new incoming President, Mrs. Beena Kothari that they will take it to the new heights. There were beautiful dance performances by the kids and the youngsters specially choreographed for the occasion.
A view of the gathering
The venue was elegantly decorated with Indian traditional décor and on-going slide shows in the background, portraying the history of the organization as well as the glimpses of the historic election were displayed. From Registration to photography, to seating arrangements to emcee to food to music, etc all services were handled voluntarily by the wonderful members of IALI Executive Council and the Volunteers. Attendees enjoyed the refreshing hot tea, snacks & exotic Indian Dinner served by Curry Club which was sponsored by the incoming Executive Council of 2016.
The entire event was covered by various prominent media -newspapers and TV Channels. Incoming officers of 2016 thanked various community leaders, media, sponsors and supporters of IALI India center, IALI 2016 Team, Supporters, Volunteers and everyone for their tireless dedication to the betterment of the organization.
The event promoted and encouraged participation of new members through their website www.ialinewyork.org. India Association of Long Island is the oldest and the largest, non-profit, non-political & non-religious, 37 years old community based organization with over 1700 members. Throughout the year, IALI organization conducts various multi-cultural events like Valentine’s Day, Holi (Festival of Colors), Vaishakhi, Family Picnic, Annual Dinner, India Fest (showcasing the Indian heritage, values & the diverse cultures & festivals of Indian subcontinent to the larger community of Long Island), Diwali (Festival of Lights), Food Drive on Thanksgivings etc. Additionally, the organization conducts many monthly activities, educational & networking forums for the benefits of the kids and youngsters, adults, seniors men & women, including professionals and businessmen.
WASHINGTON (TIP): Mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey is “not a nice person.” The golf swing of actor Samuel L. Jackson is “not athletic.” A lectern in the Oval Office “looks odd” and the mobile carrier T-Mobile’s service “is terrible.”
These comments are not private thoughts, nor are they the result of an embarrassing hidden camera, off-the-record comment or a document release. They are public statements made by Donald Trump to his 5.9 million Twitter followers.
We know this because we’ve read, tagged and quoted them all.
The end result is “Donald Trump’s Twitter Insults: The Complete List (So Far).” It’s not a sample of some insults, or just those about his political rivals -though plenty of those exist. It’s the full count — a 100 percent sample, in polling terms — representing our best effort to categorize more than 4,000 tweets Trump has made since he declared his candidacy in June.
Of those, we found that 1 in every 8 tweets from Trump was a personal insult of some kind.
Perhaps most predictable is his propensity to insult other presidential candidates, both Republicans and Democrats. (In Trump’s words, John Kasich is a “dummy” and Rick Perry “should be forced to take an IQ test.”)
But what is particularly fascinating is just how personal these jabs are. Yes, Bernie Sanders attacks bankers and George H.W. Bush accused Michael Dukakis of being unpatriotic. But there’s something different about Trump’s style and sheer volume of insult-throwing.
“American politics has never been much of a genteel affair,” said David Greenberg, a Rutgers University professor and author of a new book on crafting the image of a president, “Republic of Spin.” At the same time, “I certainly can’t think of anyone who did this to this extent,” Greenberg said.
“The closest we can come is Harry S. Truman in the 1948 campaign comparing Thomas E. Dewey and his little mustache to Hitler,” said Mark Summers, a professor of history at the University of Kentucky.
Our list also includes insults that don’t fit easily into a neat pile. (We’re calling these “other.”) After Neil Young requested Trump not play his song “Rockin’ in the Free World” at campaign events, he tweeted that he “didn’t love” the song anyway. Trump called Karl Rove’s book about President William McKinley “terrible (and boring).” He even criticized an Oregon golf resort, Bandon Dunes — “a toy” compared with some Scottish clubs.
He has insulted more than two dozen media organizations, including The New York Times, in recent weeks. Lately, he has been focused on Fox News and his withdrawal from the pre-Iowa caucus debate it is sponsoring. “Pathetic,” he tweeted. “Without me they’d have no ratings.” Even his official campaign statement on the debate disparages “very stupid, highly incompetent people running our country into the ground” and “all talk, no action politicians.”
Win or lose, it’s a safe bet that the insults will keep coming.
LONDON (TIP): A senior US treasury official has directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of corruption. The US government imposed sanctions against a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, but did not accuse Putin of direct involvement in corruption. However, during a Panorama investigation into Putin’s “secret riches”, Adam Szubin, the acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US treasury in a BBC programme that aired on Monday said Putin was a “picture of corruption”.
“We’ve seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn’t view as friends using state assets,” Szubin, who oversees US treasury sanctions, told the Panorama programme, in an unusually strong statement from the government on Putin’s personal finances. “Whether that’s Russia’s energy wealth, whether it’s other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don’t. To me, that is a picture of corruption.” The US government has known about this for “many, many years”, he added. The programme cited a secret CIA report from 2007 stating that Putin’s wealth stood at around $40 billion. “He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year,” said Szubin. The programme also featured an interview with Dimitry Skarga, who used to run state shipping company Sovcomflot. (AP)
WASHINGTON (TIP): A new advanced version of ‘The Beast’, the heavily armoured bomb-proof limousine of the US President, has been spotted undergoing secret tests so that it is ready for Barack Obama’s successor.
The Department of Homeland Security began the process of commissioning a new presidential limousine in 2013, and now a camouflaged prototype of the next generation machine has been spotted for the first time.
Although the current vehicle is designed to look like a Cadillac sedan, it is understood to be a heavily armoured machine built on a medium duty diesel-powered truck chassis, but its detailed specifications remain a national secret, the Fox News reported.
The vehicle, seen in a spy photo published by Autoblog, is dressed unmistakably like a Cadillac. It appears to be the same size and shape as Obama’s car, while featuring the brand’s latest grille and headlight design.
Public records indicate that General Motors (GM) has been awarded three contracts for the project.
President Obama, talking about his car, recently told comedian Jerry Seinfeld that it is “a Caddy, basically on a tank frame”. Its nickname is ‘The Beast’.
The US Secret Service reportedly maintains a fleet of 12 identical limousines that are used in Washington DC, and transported around the world to support the President’s activities.
The specific cost for each vehicle is undisclosed, but has been estimated to be USD 1-1.5 million. So far, the total paid to GM for work on the 2017 model is USD 15,800,765, the report said.
The new car will likely make its public debut on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017.
Sonakshi Sinha was compelled to come out of her Twitter hiatus to clear the air surrounding her project ‘Haseena’ hitting a roadblock. The actress says she is trying to squeeze out time and dates to shoot for the film.
The ‘Lootera’ star, who also has Abhinay Deo’s ‘Force 2’ up her sleeve, took to the micro-blogging site to share the update on the film, which is based on the life of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar. “Just an update on ‘Haseena’, am trying to work out the dates. This film is very special to me and I’m trying my best to clear the date clash. Back on break,” shared Sonakshi, who is essaying the titular character in the Apoorva Lakhia directorial.
Several reports suggested that the biopic is facing production issues with a producer and financier yet to come on board. The film will bring alive 40 years of Haseena’s life and is said to be an emotional saga of a woman and what it meant to be Dawood Ibrahim’s sister. Haseena Parkar, the elder sister of Dawood, died in July last year. She shot to fame after some rival gangsters led by Arun Gawli gunned down her husband Ismail Parkar in a gang war in 1991 which led to a spate of brutal retaliatory killings from the Dawood gang at that time. Subsequently, Haseena was reportedly acting as the don’s Mumbai business head. Though officially she was not directly implicated in any underworld activities, it is believed that in parts of south Mumbai, nothing moved without her nod.
After making heads turn with her all new svelte and sexy avatar, Parineeti Chopra has once again managed to grab eyeballs. According to a report on Filmfare, Parineeti has been cast as the female lead in Yash Raj Films’ hit franchise, Dhoom 4. Reports had been doing the rounds that Parineeti was offered Salman Khan starrer Sultan, which is also being produced by YRF. But allegedly Salman was not too keen on Parineeti being a part of the project, reported Spotboye.com. The report further added that Aditya, head honcho of YRF, had reportedly promised Pari a major role in one of his upcoming productions. So, is Dhoom 4 the “major role” he was talking about? Well, only time will tell.
While we wait for the Dhoom 4 cast to be finalised, clicking the next slide to take a look at another hit franchise that has begun shooting its fourth installment.
STORY: In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter, John Ruth (Kurt Russell) is escorting his prisoner, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock to collect a 10-thousand dollar reward. The blizzard forces them to take shelter in a haberdashery along with other strangers. On getting acquainted, each of them wants to outsmart the other either with a bullet or pure wit.
CAST: Samuel Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Channing Tatum DIRECTION: Quentin Tarantino GENRE: Mystery DURATION: 2 hours 50 minutes
REVIEW: Tarantino knows how to tell you a great story with picture-perfect visuals. The snow-white Wyoming landscape is compelling. As a stagecoach struggles to keep itself from getting buried in the snow because of the blizzard, your eyes start to focus on the characters riding in it. The inhabitants of the coach– John Ruth and Daisy Domergue, a fugitive, who are cuffed together, along with another bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel Jackson) are forced to make a pit stop at a cabin. They also bring with them Chris Mannix(Walton Goggins), who has introduced himself to the people who gave him a ride, as the new sheriff of Red Rock.
Once inside, these strange bedfellows realise they already have a crowd for company. Minnie, the owner of the joint is MIA (missing in action) but there is Bob, who claims to be the new caretaker. Also present are Oswaldo Mowbray(Tim Roth) who introduces himself as the hangman assigned for Daisy’s hanging and Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) who claims to be visiting his grandma for Christmas. Seated afar is Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) a General who is looking for a burial spot for his dead son. And of course there is one missing piece (or person) in the puzzle that is a mystery.
Though these are hardened men you find yourself invested emotionally in each of them because of Tarantino’s terrific characterisation.
What ensues is a night of unrest. Even more chilling than the storm outside are the equations between the humans inside. As they go around introducing themselves, sharing cups of steaming coffee, downing alcohol or eating stew at the same table, they also indulge in a game of insult and injury because some of them discover that inadvertently their paths have crossed earlier! Turn by turn, they lay bare their `black and white’ feelings. The narrative that plays out in six chapters is verbose and slow in the first hour. But once the dialogue ebbs, bullets fly thick and fast. There’s enough bloodshed here to fill a small rivulet.
Actress Liv Tyler, who is expecting her third child, finds the experience “fun”. Although she was “tired” because she had a “little cold”, the actress recently beamed on the arrivals carpet at an awards ceremony here, reports eonline.com. She said: “It’s amazing. It’s so fun. I feel very grateful.” The third child will be her second with fiance Dave Gardner.
She has already seen how wonderful son Milo (whose father is the actress’ ex-husband Spacehog rocker Royston Langdon) is with his little brother Sailor, who turns one next month. “They’re so sweet. It’s so fun,” Tyler said. “My older boy is 11 and it’s so sweet to see him with Sailor because there’s a big age difference and he just absolutely adores him so much.”
Tyler hinted that they already know the sex of the baby, but she laughed and said she was keeping it a “surprise” for the public. She announced the pregnancy on Instagram on January 8 with a black and white photograph that shows her holding her belly.
Golden Globe-winner Jennifer Lawrence is set to play Marita Lorenz, the German woman who had an affair with Cuban politician Fidel Castro, in an upcoming Sony Pictures film. Penned by Eric Warren Singer, who was co-writer on Lawrence’s ‘American Hustle’, “Marita” will be produced by Matt Tolmach with the 25-year-old actress and Scott Mednick. Andre Rouleau is also producing, said The Hollywood Reporter. The romantic spy drama centres on Lorenz and how she met and began dating with Castro when she was 19 years old. She was reportedly approached by the CIA to kill the Cuban leader.
This is the second time Lawrence would be tackling a real-life personality on screen after playing housewife-turned-inventor Joy Mangano in David O Russell’s ‘Joy’. The actress has won a Golden Globe for her performance in the movie and also earned a nomination for the upcoming Academy Awards. Sony won a bidding war for the Lorenz rights against Universal, Warner Bros, Fox, Paramount and Lionsgate. The actress, who received her fourth Oscar nomination last week Singer spent months developing the project, working with Mednick, before bringing it to Lawrence.
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Iraqi Major Halaf (Inaam-ulhaq) offers Ranjit and his wife Amrita (Nimrat) buy million-dollar tickets to leave with their child. But Ranjit’s also looking after thousands of Indians, desperate as the Embassy exits Kuwait.
