Month: January 2019

Each January, the city of Harbin in northern China becomes an icy wonderland as it hosts the largest ice and snow festival in the world. In Harbin, temperatures can drop as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius. The annual festival, in its 35th year, draws millions of visitors to activities like hockey, a photography contest and an ice and snow painting exhibition. VOAs Deborah Block tells us about the ice sculpting competition, which features fantastic carvings by artisans from around the world.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda reprised his lead role in the hit musical “Hamilton” Friday night to start a two-week run in Puerto Rico expected to raise thousands of dollars for artists and cultural groups struggling in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

The audience giggled, hooted, clapped and tapped their feet throughout the performance as Miranda took the stage for the first time since his last appearance in the Broadway version in July 2016, when he played the role of U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton.

“I have never felt anything like that,” he said of the crowd’s energy, adding that singing the song “Hurricane” was a challenge.

“It was very hard to sing that here in Puerto Rico because you know better than I what it is to survive a hurricane. I feel like I’m going back to Maria a little bit every time I sing it,” he said.

​Diverting hurricane funds

After the two-hour show, Miranda spoke with reporters, who peppered him with questions about how the White House was exploring diverting money for border wall construction from a range of accounts, including using some of the $13.9 billion allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers after last year’s deadly hurricanes and floods.

“I think that’s absolutely monstrous,” Miranda said as he apologized that he didn’t have further comment. “It’s the first time I’m hearing that. I’ve been a little busy.”

It’s the first time in nine years that Miranda has performed in Puerto Rico. Opening night drew more than 1,000 people who bought tickets ranging from $10 to $5,000.

The crowd gave Miranda a standing ovation before the show even started, and during the curtain call he wiped away tears and wrapped himself in a large Puerto Rican flag as he briefly addressed the crowd in Spanish and English.

​Audience members transfixed

During the show’s intermission, accountant Zoraida Alvira sat absorbed as she read the three-page synopsis since she struggles a bit with English. It was the first time she had seen a musical and was transfixed.

“Here in Puerto Rico we are not too exposed to theater, let alone musicals,” she said as she praised the performance. “I didn’t move, and I’m a fidgety person.”

Alvira, like several other Puerto Ricans who attended opening night, snapped up her ticket thanks to a lottery launched by “Hamilton” organizers who are selling 275 tickets for every performance at $10 each.

Among those expected to attend the show in upcoming days are several federal lawmakers visiting the U.S. territory for the weekend to learn more about reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Maria, which caused more than $100 billion in damage when it hit Sept. 20, 2017.

Even people who didn’t have tickets showed up at the venue.

“This is a very important moment for Puerto Rico right now,” said Vivian Rodriguez, a student who lives in Puerto Rico but is from New York. She noted that Friday is Hamilton’s birthday, and she said Puerto Rico has suffered from what she described as its “colonial” status.

Change of venue

“Hamilton” was initially going to be staged at the University of Puerto Rico from Jan. 8 to 27, but producers announced in December that it was moving to the Centro de Bellas Artes following the threat of protests by university employees upset over enrollment changes at the island’s largest public university.

The change forced some people on the U.S. mainland to forgo their Hamilton tickets because they were unable or could not afford to change their airline tickets to accommodate the show’s new dates. Others were upset when they did not hear back from the agency responsible for reassigning new dates for previously purchased tickets.

“It has been such a nightmare for me,” said Myla Ruiz, who lives in the northern coastal town of Toa Baja and had gotten tickets for the original opening night.

Her husband is now unable to go because he will be on a work trip, and then she struggled to get a response from the agency selling the tickets. She is now reluctantly attending the show’s last night.

“I’m originally from New York, so I’m a huge fan of Broadway,” she said. “This to me is huge. There’s nothing like Broadway here. When they said this was coming, it’s all I’ve been talking about.”

The show also drew the attention of Jimmy Fallon, whose “Tonight Show” will air its Jan. 15 episode from Puerto Rico with Miranda and the new touring cast.

Miranda, composer and creator of “Hamilton,” won a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for the musical.
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NBC News announced its professional divorce agreement with Megyn Kelly late Friday, ending an association with the former Fox News Channel star whose attempt to become a network morning television star as part of the “Today” show floundered.

Terms were not disclosed. Kelly was in the second of a three-year contract that reportedly paid her more than $20 million a year.

She’s been off the air since October after creating a furor by suggesting that it was OK for white people to wear blackface on Halloween, and exit negotiations had dragged for two months over the holidays. Even before the controversial commentary, her future was considered limited at NBC News.

“The parties have resolved their differences, and Megyn Kelly is no longer an employee of NBC,” the network said in a statement Friday night.

NBC says she’ll be replaced in the third hour of the “Today” show by anchors Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones.

Her tenure was also a failure for NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack, who lured her from Fox News Channel with the type of big-money contract that was once standard in television news but now is less so with financial constrictions and less viewership.

#MeToo media leader

In a sense, Kelly was caught in a no-woman’s land: some at NBC were suspicious of her because of the Fox News background, while her former audience at Fox resented her for tough questioning of Donald Trump on the presidential campaign trail.

While at Fox, her accusations of unwanted sexual advances by the network’s late chief executive, Roger Ailes, helped lead to his firing.

She made news at NBC when interviewing women who accused Trump of inappropriate behavior and spoke with accusers of Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Roy Moore and others, as well as women who say they were harassed on Capitol Hill. The episode with Trump accusers had more than 2.9 million viewers, one of her biggest audiences on the network.

Time magazine, which honored “The Silence Breakers” as its Person of the Year in 2017, cited Kelly as the group’s leader in the entertainment field.

But tough segments on accusations against former NBC anchor Matt Lauer didn’t win her friends internally, as did her public call for Lack to appoint outside investigators to look into why the network didn’t air Ronan Farrow’s stories about Harvey Weinstein and allowed Farrow to take his story to The New Yorker.

Unclear what’s next

When those stories began to fade, Kelly had trouble attracting an audience in the soft-focus world of morning television. She also briefly hosted an evening newsmagazine that didn’t catch on with viewers.

It’s not immediately clear what’s next for Kelly. NBC would not comment Friday on whether the separation agreement allows her to write about her experiences at the network.

There’s no non-compete clause, meaning Kelly is free to seek other television work if she wants to.
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In the latest blow to the International Olympic Committee’s efforts to rid itself of scandal, marketing head Tsunekazu Takeda is being investigated for alleged corruption related to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Takeda, who is also the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, was placed under formal investigation for “active corruption” on Dec. 10, France’s financial crimes office said Friday. 

French investigators are in the midst of a years-long and wide-ranging probe into sports corruption that is looking, among other things, at the bidding contests for the 2020 Olympics and other major sports events. 

Takeda’s career in Olympic circles has ticked almost every box, starting with representing Japan in equestrian competition at the 1972 Munich Games and 1976 Montreal Games. 

As the head of the IOC’s marketing commission since 2014, Takeda has overseen the signing of sponsorship deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including new partnerships with Alibaba, Intel and Allianz. 

In a statement issued Friday by the Japanese Olympic Committee, Takeda denied any wrongdoing. The JOC said he was in Tokyo but gave no further details. 

“The case is causing tremendous concern among the people who are supporting the Tokyo Games, but I will continue to cooperate in the investigation in order to clear any suspicion of me,” Takeda said. 

The IOC ethics commission was scheduled to meet later Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Takeda could be provisionally suspended from Olympic duty, or offer to step aside during the investigation. 

“The IOC ethics commission has opened a file and will continue to monitor the situation,” the IOC said in a statement. “Mr. Takeda continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence.” 

The preliminary charge of active corruption against Takeda announced by the National Financial Prosecutors office was first reported on Friday by French newspaper Le Monde. The preliminary charge means the investigating magistrate has determined there are serious grounds for suspicion but has not yet ruled on whether to pursue a prosecution. 

Secret deals suspected

Le Monde said the magistrate overseeing the probe, Renaud Van Ruymbeke, suspects the IOC vote for Tokyo in 2013 was swayed by secret deals that secured the backing of IOC members from Africa for the Japanese capital over Istanbul and Madrid. 

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told Japan’s NHK television she was “very surprised and puzzled” but declined to speculate how it might affect the Tokyo Olympics. 

“I just got the initial report on this, so I don’t have sufficient information,” she said. 

Le Monde reported French investigators suspect Takeda of authorizing the payment of bribes. French financial prosecutors are looking at two payments, totaling 1.8 million euros ($2 million), made on either side of the IOC vote in September 2013 to a Singapore company, Black Tidings, Le Monde said.  

French prosecutors have linked Black Tidings to Papa Massata Diack, one of the sons of Lamine Diack, who presided over the IAAF from 1999 to 2015. 

Lamine Diack, who had huge influence on African voters in Olympic contests, is also under investigation in France on corruption-related charges and allegations that he, his son and others were involved in blackmailing athletes and covering up failed drug tests. The 85-year-old Diack has had to turn in his passport and is not allowed to leave the country. 

His son is believed to be in Senegal. France has issued a wanted notice for him via Interpol.  

‘No such illegal activity’

Takeda, who is a distant relative of the Japanese imperial family but does not have royal status, said he was cooperating with French investigators. He said the money paid by the bid committee is a legitimate cost for the service provided by the Black Tidings under the consultancy contract between the two sides. He also said he did not know Lamine Diack. 

“I have explained [to the French authorities] that there was no such illegal activity tantamount to bribery,” Takeda said. 

Takeda was leading Tokyo’s second straight bid for the Summer Games, after losing in the 2016 Olympics race to Rio de Janeiro. French prosecutors are also investigating Rio officials and IOC members for alleged financial wrongdoing in 2009 linked to Papa Massata Diack.  

The Japanese Olympic Committee said it has conducted its own internal investigation and found no illegality involved in all payments made by the Japanese bid committee at the time. 

The organizers of the 2020 Olympics referred questions to the JOC. 

In Takeda’s Olympic career, he has led a national Olympic committee, been a vice president of an Olympic sport’s governing body (equestrian), a chef de mission for Olympic teams, a sports director for a Winter Olympics (Nagano in 1998), a Summer Games bid leader, an IOC member since 2012, and now chair of one of the most financially significant IOC panels. 

Takeda also works closely with Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait, the influential IOC member who has stepped aside from the IOC while awaiting trial in Geneva this year in a fraud case unrelated to Olympic business. Takeda is a board member of the global group of Olympic committees, known as ANOC, and the Olympic Council of Asia, both led by the Kuwaiti sheikh. 
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A rare 1943 bronze Lincoln penny has sold for more than $200,000 at a Florida auction.

Heritage Auctions says more than 30 people bid on the rare coin Thursday night. Only 10 to 15 of these pennies, mistakenly minted in bronze instead of steel, are believed to exist. They were made at a time when bronze and copper were being saved to fill metal shortages during World War II.

The auction house says Don Lutes found the penny in his pocket as a teenager in 1947 after getting some change at his high school cafeteria, and held onto it ever since.

Lutes died in September. He directed all proceeds from the sale to be donated to the Berkshire Athenaeum at the public library in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
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Cristiano Ronaldo is “very calm” amid the latest developments in an alleged rape case involving an American woman, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said Friday.Ronaldo is being asked by police to provide a DNA sample in an investigation of the allegation by Kathryn Mayorga, a former model and schoolteacher, that he raped her in his Las Vegas hotel penthouse in 2009 and paid her to keep quiet.

“It’s a private matter so I can only talk about soccer. So I’ll respond to how I’ve seen Ronaldo. He’s very calm. He has trained very well and rested like everyone else — which was needed after four intense months,” Allegri said at a pre-match news conference. “Now he needs to prepare well for the second half and most important part of the season.

“I see Cristiano very serene and calm and that’s what I’m basing this on,” Allegri said when asked if the alleged rape case might affect Ronaldo’s performance in the long run. “For the rest of it, it’s not my job to respond because they are private matters and it’s only right that I don’t respond.”

Allegri added that Ronaldo will play in an Italian Cup match at Bologna on Saturday.

“He’ll play tomorrow. We’ll see about when and how,” Allegri said.

Ronaldo’s lawyer, Peter S. Christiansen, downplayed the DNA development, denied the rape allegation and called evidence collection common in any investigation. He added Thursday that “what occurred in Las Vegas in 2009 was consensual in nature so it is not surprising that DNA would be present, nor that the police would make this very standard request.”

Las Vegas police said in a statement that an official request has been submitted to Italian authorities for a DNA sample from the player. Police spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said the request involved a warrant.

The Italian justice ministry, Turin police and the U.S. embassy in Rome had no immediate comment.

After the Bologna game, Ronaldo and Juventus are scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia for the Italian Super Cup against AC Milan.
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