This year, the Oscars will feature a best picture contender about a drummer with hearing loss, a nominated documentary exploring a hippie camp for disabled youths, and a nod for the first film ever to star a deafblind actor.
It’s a step forward for disability representation in Hollywood, nominated filmmakers said but one that must be built on to prevent progress slipping away from screens yet again.
Until now, Tinseltown producers “haven’t done a very good job — but they know that, we’re making them aware of that,” said “Sound of Metal” supporting actor nominee Paul Raci, who was raised by deaf parents.
“I’m one of the guys who has got to be in the forefront of not dropping the ball… keeping them aware of all the deaf artists that we have, all the disabled artists, all the genius that’s out there, all the untold stories,” Raci said in an interview.
The wariness is understandable. This is a road Hollywood has attempted to travel down before.
In 1948, Jane Wyman, a hearing actress, won an Oscar for playing a deaf-mute woman in “Johnny Belinda” — a miscasting Raci likens to “nails on a chalkboard.”
Director of the Oscar-nominated short film “Feeling Through”, Doug Roland is able-bodied, but his short film was inspired by a late-night encounter he had with a deafblind man who needed help crossing a New York street.
He cast first-time actor Robert Tarango, the first deafblind person with a leading role in any movie, according to filmmakers. The film is now on an Oscar shortlist of five.
“That conversation has really started to shift in a very significant way to the disability community, and there’s louder voices being heard,” said Roland.
Hong Kong has placed a 2-week ban on flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines include Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines, Vistara and Cebu Pacific.
This comes after the so-called N501Y mutant COVID-19 strain was detected in the Asian financial hub for the first time, according to a statement by authorities.
The government said the three countries would be classified as extremely high risk after there had been multiple imported cases carrying the strain into Hong Kong in the past 14 days.
There were earlier reports of 30 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, 29 of which were allegedly imported, marking the highest daily toll since March 15.
The government last week widened the city’s vaccine scheme to include those aged between 16 to 29 years old for the first time, as they aim to boost lacklustre demand for inoculations amongst residents.
Airlines impacted by Hong Kong’s ban on travellers from India, Pakistan and the Philippines include carriers such as Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines, Vistara and Cebu Pacific.
The historical drama Downton Abbey is set to return to the big screen this Christmas, it has been announced.
The original ITV series ran for six series before it was turned into a feature film in 2019, starring Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern.
It saw the central Crawley family and Downton staff receive a royal visit.
The film-makers said they were “thrilled” to welcome back the entire cast, plus fresh stars such as Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock and Dominic West.
Downton creator Julian Fellowes will return to write the screenplay for the film, which will be released in UK cinemas on 22 December.
Set on a fictional Yorkshire country estate in the early part of the 20th Century, Downton Abbey depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants.
The TV series was showered with awards from Bafta, the Emmys and the Golden Globes.
Russia has announced the expulsion of 20 Czech diplomats a day after Prague’s decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats identified as secret agents.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that the 20 employees of the Czech embassy had been declared persona non grata and must leave the country by the end of Monday.
The expulsions were unveiled after the Czech ambassador in Moscow, Vitezslav Pivonka, was been summoned by the Russian foreign ministry where he was informed of the action.
The Ministry called the Czech government’s decision to expel Russian diplomats a hostile act and added that the Czech employees were to leave Russia by the end of April 19, 2021.
On Saturday, Czech authorities said they would expel 18 Russian diplomats which local intelligence identified as secret agents of the Russian SVR and GRU security services that are suspected of involvement in a 2014 explosion.
Czech police also said they were seeking two Russians in connection with the blast that killed two people, and who carried passports used by suspects in the attempted poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018.
This week the United States announced sanctions and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what Washington said was the Kremlin’s US election interference, a massive cyber attack and other hostile activity.
University of Cape Town students were forced to evacuate on Sunday when A wildfire on the slopes of South Africa’s Table Mountain set several campus buildings ablaze.
Firefighters reportedly used helicopters to water-bomb the area and officials said one firefighter sustained burn wounds and was hospitalised for treatment.
The fire started early on Sunday near a memorial to politician Cecil Rhodes, located on Devil’s Peak, before spreading rapidly up the slopes with Heavy smoke which could be seen for kilometres away.
The university said in a statement that all UCT students have been evacuated from campus by emergency services support staff while some roads were closed with fire alerts being sent to mountain hikers.
Social media footage showed students milling around on the main road, amid billowing smoke fanned by strong winds.
Another video, tweeted by the local government, showed flames raging inside an old building lined with columns as smoke plumes rose from its roof.
City officials said they have not asked residents in the popular Rondesbosch suburb and surrounding area to evacuate but said the situation is being monitored and staff will go door-to-door in the event that evacuation is required.
The university, ranked among the best on the continent, is largely built on the slopes of Devil’s Peak and is situated close to where the fire started.
Cape Verde’s prime minister declared victory Sunday after near-complete results in legislative elections released overnight results showed his party on course to win.
In power since 2016, the 58-year-old head of government, Ulisses Correia e Silva had had claimed before the press his victory, stating it was a great victory, the victory of Cape Verde.
His party, the Movement for Democracy (MpD), won 36 of the 72 seats in the National Assembly, according to the results of the national electoral commission, which covered almost 98.2 percent of the polling stations.
The party, which had 40 elected members in the outgoing assembly, can expect to win at least 37 deputies, synonymous with an absolute majority, when the results of the last three diaspora seats still to be counted are known.
On the other hand, Janira Hopffer Almada’s PAICV (socialist), which has 29 seats, as in 2016, loses her bid to bring the historic left-wing formation back to power and become the first woman to head the government of the former Portuguese colony.
Acknowledging her defeat before her supporters, Hopffer Almada congratulated the outgoing prime minister and announced her forthcoming resignation from the leadership of her party, of which she had become the first woman to assume the presidency in 2014.
To boost the economy, both leading candidates have promised to provide vaccinations to a large part of the population and to diversify the country’s income.
Ulisses Correia e Silva, who has a modern, grassroots image, had the added advantage of more experience than his opponent.
Mourinho, 58, replaced Mauricio Pochettino in November 2019 but has now been dismissed after a dismal domestic campaign and failure in the Europa League.
The bombshell axing comes less than a week before Tottenham are set to take on Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
Jose Mourinho has been sacked as Tottenham manager just days before the Carabao Cup fina
A statement from the club read: ‘The Club can today announce that Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff Joao Sacramento, Nuno Santos, Carlos Lalin and Giovanni Cerra have been relieved of their duties.’
Chairman Daniel Levy said: ‘Jose and his coaching staff have been with us through some of our most challenging times as a Club.
‘Jose is a true professional who showed enormous resilience during the pandemic. On a personal level I have enjoyed working with him and regret that things have not worked out as we both had envisaged.
‘He will always be welcome here and we should like to thank him and his coaching staff for their contribution.”
The axe has been brought down on Mourinho with Tottenham set to miss out on the top four
It has been claimed that coaches Ryan Mason and Chris Powell are set to take the reins for the rest of the season.
The club confirmed that Mason, a former Tottenham midfielder, will take charge of first-team training today.
The search has now begun for a permanent successor to Mourinho, who came under heavy fire for limp displays this campaign, with an appointment likely this summer.
RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann has been identified as the favourite to take over.
Tottenham have been long-term admirers of Nagelsmann, who is widely deemed as one of the most talented young coaches in world football.
It is believed Naglesmann, 33, was under consideration for the Spurs hot seat after Pochettino’s departure in 2019, although Mourinho was later handed the job.
RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann has been named as the early favourite to replace Mourinho
Leipzig will not allow Nagelsmann to leave this summer, however, without receiving a compensation package worth £17million.
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid coach Mourinho’s last game in charge at Tottenham came in the 2-2 draw against Everton on Friday.
Despite Harry Kane’s late leveller at Goodison Park, the dropped points dealt a major blow to their hopes of securing a spot in the Champions League.
Tottenham are languishing in seventh place in the Premier League standings, five points adrift of fourth, and Levy has now pulled the trigger.
The cup final next weekend represents a chance for Spurs to lift silverware for the first time since their triumph in the same competition in 2008.
Daniel Levy took the decision to sack Mourinho with Tottenham struggling on multiple fronts
Mourinho will no longer be in charge for it, though, with little tangible progress made across over the last season and a half.
He could only guide Tottenham to a sixth-placed finish during his first campaign in charge, albeit after taking over half-way through.
This term has been a step back, with the north London outfit knocked out of Europe in humiliating fashion by Dinamo Zagreb and reeling from other poor results.
Mourinho’s final weeks at the helm were marred by swipes in the press and constant criticism of his own players.
France says it will impose a 10-day mandatory quarantine on those arriving from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and South Africa over concerns about variants of the coronavirus stemming from the region.
According to the office of Prime Minister Jean Castex, although flights from Argentina, Chile and South Africa will not be suspended, all arrivals from those countries will have to submit to the quarantine or face fines.
Addressing parliament as the decision was announced on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex said they had observed that the situation was worsening being the reason for suspension of all flights between Brazil and France until further notice.
The new quarantine measures which will also restrict arrivals, mainly to French citizens or residents of France and their families as well as other EU nationals, will be gradually introduced over the coming days until they are fully enforced by next Saturday.
Flights from Brazil were already suspended until at least next Friday over concerns about the so called P1 variant of the coronavirus, which is more contagious than the original strain.
Justifying the decision not to ban flights from the other three countries, officials said the other variants were not as dangerous as the one observed in Brazil.
The statement said Arrivals from French Guiana and the Antilles will also be subjected to tests before and after their flights.
Egypt’s health ministry says a train accident on Sunday which occurred north of Cairo, has killed at least 11 people and left 98 others injured, in the latest rail calamity.
In an updated toll, the ministry, said the train accident occurred in Toukh which is a small farming town in the fertile Nile Delta about 40 kilometres outside the capital.
In the meantime, dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the site, the health ministry added, and investigators have been sent to determine the accident’s cause.
In a statement Egypt’s cabinet said that four carriages of the train heading from Cairo to Mansoura, a Delta city, came off the tracks but authorities have not yet provided a reason for Sunday’s derailment.
The latest incident, comes on the heels of a deadly train crash which happened last month that left at least 20 people dead and President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has tasked the military’s engineering authority to investigate the accident.
According to security sources, the driver and other rail officials had been detained for questioning and the ministry said 14 people who sustained minor injuries have been released from a hospital close to the accident site.
At least 20 people died and 199 were injured last month in a train crash in the country’s south, according to the latest official toll, which authorities have revised several times.
Analysts say Egyptian rail disasters are generally attributed to poor infrastructure and maintenance.
Simon Richardson, the mayor of Byron Shire has joined the sea of dissenting voices, speaking against a proposed Netflix production centered on the lives of Byron Bay’s ‘influencers’.
Thousands of people have also signed a petition calling for the boycott of the Netflix show, set in the Australian beach town of Byron Bay, arguing that the town would be used as a “punch-line”for the show.
The streaming platform announced production of the the ‘docu-soap’ that will follow a feed of Instagrammers living their best lives in New South Wales’ North Coast town of Byron Bay.
The announcement gave rise to an immediate backlash among some members of the community, who called it “embarrassing” and “vacuous” including local comedian Mandy Nolan who labelled it “yuck” and said it could worsen the town’s housing affordability crisis.
Many businesses have refused to take part in the show, local media report.
The mayor says he will move a Mayoral Minute outlining the council’s opposition to the ‘Byron Baes’ production and seeking their support for production to be moved to a community that would love the exposure the show would create.
Mayor Richardson, In a post shared on Facebook recently said “I too share the concern and frustration that yet another entity from outside the shire seeks to profit from us whilst only providing more possibilities of damaging us: our reputation, our housing accessibility already on life support and our economic ‘brand’ that results in the employment of thousands of us,” .
The delightful town is known for its surf beaches and relaxed lifestyle. It has gained prominence in influencer culture and over the past year, has become a Jerusalem for visiting Hollywood celebrities.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
