Daily Archives: February 23, 2020

As the Democratic primary race gathers pace ahead of Novembers US presidential election, Extra.ie has everything you need to know about the frontrunning candidates to challenge the incumbent US President Donald Trump, continuing with Joe Biden.

As former Vice President to Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, Joe Biden was initially seen as a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination.

But his support has been sliding, and the 77-year-old put in disappointing performances in the Iowa caucus, coming fourth, and the New Hampshire primary, coming fifth.

At 77, Joe Biden joins Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren among the host of veteran candidates running for the Democratic ticket.

Born to a wealthy Catholic family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden has ancestral roots in Ireland and England. The financial situation of the family of four deteriorated during Bidens early life, with his fathers difficulty in finding work resulting in a move to Delaware.

Biden had a very successful high school career, serving as student president, captaining the school football team to victory and achieving high academic results. Biden graduated from the University of Delaware in 1956 with a degree in history and political science.

Biden subsequently went on to study law in the Syracuse University of Law, struggling through a degree he did not enjoy and ultimately gaining admission to the Delaware bar in 1969.

Although Biden allied himself with Republican principles in early life, his opposition to former US President Richard Nixon led him to register as an Independent. In 1969, while working with a Democratic public defender named Sid Balick, Biden was recruited to the Democratic Forum, a group attempting to revitalise the Democratic Party in Delaware.

Biden served as a Democratic county councillor until 1972, at which point he ran successfully for the Senate, despite heavily stacked odds.

Biden ran as a Democratic candidate in the 1988 US Presidential election, seeking to become the youngest US President since John F Kennedy, but withdrew from the race over controversy about an allegedly plagiarised speech. As it turned out, this withdrawal may have saved Bidens life, as he suffered multiple aneurysms in February 1988 that may have proved fatal if he was still on the campaign trail.

Biden remained a senator, serving on the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Biden declared his candidacy for the US Presidential race once more in 2007, losing out on the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama, who later appointed him Vice President in his administration, a role Biden retained until Trump took office in 2017.

Biden and his son Hunter played a major role in the impeachment charges brought against Trump, as it was alleged that the US President abused the powers of his office in an attempt to compel Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into Hunters role on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Biden has been married twice. His first wife, Neilia, and the couples one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident in 1972. The couple had two other sons, Hunter and Beau. Tragically, Beau also died from brain cancer in 2013. Biden married educator Jill Jacobs in 1977, and the couple have one daughter, Ashley. He remains a practising Roman Catholic.

Biden is generally seen as a moderate Democrat, and his distance from the radicalism of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders identified him for many as a favourable centrist candidate to oppose Trump.

Economically, Bidens proposals have not been as detailed as those of some of his rivals, but he has emphasised his commitment to revitalising and enlarging the middle class, and he has proposed increasing taxation on the wealthy and increasing social spending. Biden has supported raising corporate tax rates, albeit not to pre-2017 levels, and raising the national minimum wage.

Biden does not support Medicare for all, the universal, single-payer health insurance system championed by some of his rivals, but has pledged to build on the Affordable Care Act.

Socially, Biden is generally liberal, supporting abortion access albeit with some limits; increased gun control; the abolition of the death penalty; and the legalisation of marijuana in accordance with state preferences. When it comes to climate and immigration, Biden believes current statutes on illegal entry should remain in place, and supports taxing carbon emissions and paying farmers to adopt more climate friendly practices.

When it comes to foreign policy, Biden is harsh on Chinas abusive trade practices, but has criticised Trumps self-defeating broad tariffs and has called for more targeted measures.

Biden supports increasing defence spending, and supports the continued presence of US troops in Middle Eastern countries including Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Bidens stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is equivocal. He has criticised Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu for counterproductive and extreme right positions, but has also accused Palestinian leaders of fomenting conflict and baiting Jewish people. 3Biden referred to Bernie Sanders proposal to withdraw US military aid from Israel unless better treatment is afforded to Palestine as bizarre.

Read more from the original source:

Democratic Primary race Everything you need to know about Joe Biden - Extra.ie

Dirs. Marco Dutra, Caetano GotardoGotardo, who edited Brazilian filmmaker Dutras features Hard Labor (Cannes Un Certain Regard 2011) and Good Manners (Locarno 2017), now joins him as co-director of this late-19th-century drama set in Sao Paolo shortly after the abolition of slavery. The film revolves around three women from a family of once-wealthy coffee plantation owners. Sao Paolo-based Dezenove Som e Imogens produces alongside Paris-based Good Fortune Films.Contact:Indie Sales

Dirs.Damiano DInnocenzo, Fabio DInnocenzoItalys DInnocenzo twins return to Berlin two years after their feature debut Boys Cry premiered in Panorama. The self-taught pair now present an ensemble drama, set over the course of one summer, revealing the secrets and lies behind closed doors of a seemingly idyllic Rome suburb: American Beauty, without America or the beauty, as the brothers describe it. Like Boys Cry, Bad Tales (Favolacce) is produced by Rome-based Pepito Produzioni, in co-production with Rai Cinema and Switzerlands Amka Films. The DInnocenzos served as collaborating writers on Matteo Garrones 2018 Cannes hit Dogman.Contact:The Match Factory

Dir.Burhan QurbaniAlfred Dblins 1929 novel one of the key literary works of Germanys Weimar Republic era has been adapted twice before, as the 1931 Phil Jutzi film and a 1980 TV series. This modern-day reworking follows a refugee from Guinea-Bissau struggling to survive in Berlin after illegally crossing by boat from Africa to Europe. Last in Berlin with 2010 Competition entry Shahada, Germany-born Qurbani returns following a 2014 Rome bow for his We Are Young. We Are Strong. Jochen Laube and Fabian Maubach produce for Sommerhaus Filmproduktionen, alongside regular Qurbani collaborator Leif Alexis.Contact:Beta Cinema

Dirs.Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina OertelThe ultra-ambitious Dau art project has already yielded one epic, 330-minute screen work, simply titled Dau, which premiered in Paris in January 2019 as part of an immersive art installation, following a failed attempt to mount the project in Berlin in 2018. This latest exploitation of the material which is based on the life of Soviet scientist Lev Landau and filmed in Ukraine over a two-year period involving hundreds of participants is accompanied by DAU. Degeneration, playing in Berlinale Special.Contact:Coproduction Office

Dir.Tsai Ming-liangMalaysian-Taiwanese maverick Tsai, who has focused on documentaries and VR films in recent years, is back in Competition after an absence of 15 years. His new film, which was shot over four years, follows his regular actor Lee Kang-sheng and Cambodian newcomer Anong Houngheuangsy as they meet, strike up a relationship and share each others loneliness. Tsai won the Berlin Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution with The Wayward Cloud in 2005 and the Silver Bear special jury prize for The River in 1997.Contact:Homegreen Films

Dirs.Benoit Delpine, Gustave KervernKervern and Delpine return to the Berlinale having premiered comedy-dramasMammuth in Competition and Saint Amour out of competition in 2010 and 2016 respectively. Their new timely work stars Blanche Gardin, Denis Podalydes and Corinne Masiero as three neighbours who team with a hacker to tap into the servers of their social-media accounts and alter personally inconvenient data. Cult French writer Michel Houellebecq and the directors longtime collaborator Benoit Poelvoorde make special guest appearances. Kervern and Delpine produce the feature under their No Money Productions banner with Sylvie Pialats Les Films du Worso.Contact:Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch

Dir.Kelly ReichardtFollowing berths at the 2019 Telluride and New York film festivals, the latest from Reichardt (Certain Women) lands in Berlin. Adapted from the 1820s-set segment of Jon Raymonds twin-timeline 2004 novel The Half-Life, First Cow returns Reichardt to the pioneer western terrain of her 2010 film Meeks Cutoff. John Magaro stars as a cook who signs on to serve a party of fur trappers in the Pacific Northwest, forming a friendship with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee). Filmscience, A24 and IAC Films produce.Contact:A24

Dir.Giorgio DirittiDiritti, who moves between fiction and documentary, premiered his last narrative feature There Will Come A Day at Sundance in 2013. Hidden Away (Volevo Nascondermi) tells the story of Switzerland-born artist Antonio Ligabue (1899-1965), known for his wild animal paintings, who lived a lonely and often-mocked life by Italys River Po. Elio Germano, who is also in the DInnocenzo brothers Competition entry Bad Tales, stars as Ligabue. Palomar (Berlinale 2019 entry Piranhas) produces in collaboration with Rai Cinema.Contact:Cristina Cavaliere, Rai Com

Dir.Natalia MetaArguably the hit of the recent Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires, Metas thriller stars Erica Rivas from Wild Tales, Nahuel Prez Biscayart from 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) and Cecilia Roth from Pain And Glory in the tale of a traumatised woman who meets a seemingly perfect man, only for him to turn out to be quite the opposite. Argentinas Rei Cine (Zama) produces.Contact:Vicente Canales, Film Factory Entertainment

Dir.Rithy PanhFrench-Cambodian Panh, a survivor of the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide, makes his Competition debut with Irradiated. His latest documentary is about people who have survived the horrors of war. French producer Catherine Dussart of CDP previously collaborated with Panh on 2013s The Missing Picture, which won the Un Certain Regard award in Cannes and was nominated for the Academy Awards best foreign-language film; 2016s Exile, which premiered as a special screening in Cannes; and 2018s Graves Without A Name, which opened Venice Days.Contact:Playtime

Dirs. Stphanie Chuat, Vronique ReymondNearly a decade after their debut feature The Little Bedroom (2010) premiered at Locarno, and with TV and documentary work in the interim, Swiss writer/director duo Chuat and Reymond present their sophomore fiction feature My Little Sister (Schwesterlein). A Berlin playwright follows her husband to Switzerland, where he manages a private school, but when her twin brother develops leukaemia, she returns to be with him. The cast includes Christian Petzold regular Nina Hoss, alongside Lars Eidinger (TVs SS-GB). Zurich-based Vega Film produces.Contact:Beta Cinema

Dir.Eliza HittmanHaving played to acclaim in the US Dramatic Competition at Sundance, Hittmans third feature after It Felt Like Love and Beach Rats comes to Berlin. The drama follows a pregnant 17-year-old who, as a minor, is unable to have an abortion in her home state of Pennsylvania; she travels to New York City with a cousin, seeking a termination without her family finding out. Focus Features and BBC Films backed the Pastel production, made in association with Tango Entertainment, Mutressa Movies and Cinereach.Contact:Focus Features

Dir.Sally PotterPotter returns three years after The Party premiered in Berlins Competition. Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning star as a father and daughter dealing with the parents troubled mental state one hallucinatory day in New York City. Potters longtime collaborator Christopher Sheppard produces through Adventure Pictures. The film was co-developed by BBC Films and the BFI, which likewise funded alongside HanWay Films, Bleecker Street, Ingenious Media, Chimney Pot Sverige AB and Film i Vst. Bleecker Street has US rights. The cast also includes Salma Hayek and Laura Linney.Contact:HanWay Films

Dir.Philippe GarrelCannes and Venice habitu Garrel breaks his festival habits to premiere a film at the Berlinale for the first time in his 55-year career. The French director revisits the love-triangle dynamic at the heart of many of his previous works. Theatre actor Logan Antuofermo makes his big-screen debut opposite Oulaya Amamra (Divines) and Louise Chevillotte, as a young carpentry apprentice torn between two women, one in Paris, the other in his provincial hometown. In the backdrop, he is also desperate to please his father. The film is lead produced by Paris-based Rectangle Productions.Contact:Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch

Dir.Abel FerraraFollowing a Cannes special screening launch for Tommaso last May, the veteran US director is already back on the festival trail with his latest drama. Frequent Ferrara collaborator Willem Dafoe stars as a man who has retreated to a remote, wintry mountain cabin seeking serenity; he then begins a journey by dogsled to the world he once knew. Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa for Italys Vivo Film produce alongside Philipp Kreuzer and Jrg Schulze for Germanys Maze Pictures, Julio Chavezmontes for Mexicos Piano, and Rai Cinema.Contact:The Match Factory

Dir.Mohammad RasoulofRasoulof has faced censorship challenges in Iran since his second feature Iron Island (2005), and has been sentenced to prison twice for filmmaking activities. But that has not stopped him winning three Cannes Un Certain Regard prizes for Goodbye (2011), Manuscripts Dont Burn (2013) and Man Of Integrity (2017). There Is No Evil presents four interconnected stories, involving a young man serving his military service, a soldier on leave, a beekeeping married couple and a family living with a secret.Contact:Films Boutique

Dir.Christian PetzoldBerlinale regular Petzold, last in the festival two years ago with Transit, reunites with that films co-stars Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski for this modern-day retelling of a myth relating to the titular water nymph. In this version, Undine is a young tour leader in Berlin who connects with an industrial driver. Schramm Film produces, in co-production with Les Films du Losange. Backers include Canal+, Cin+ and French and German national and regional film bodies.Contact:The Match Factory

Dir. Hong Sang-sooHong returns to the Berlinale for the third year in a row with his seventh film starring muse Kim Min-hee, who won a Silver Bear as best actress for On The Beach At Night Alone in 2017. The pair also appeared in Forum last year with Grass. In their latest film, Kim plays a married woman who visits two friends at their homes and runs into a third one at a theatre, but their seemingly friendly conversations contain undercurrents that suggest all might not be well.Contact:Finecut

More here:

Berlin 2020: Screen's guide to the Competition titles - Screen International

Who builds buildings? Thats tradespeople. Theres a whole industry sitting around building our facilities. In one of the cases that we have got, one of our universities is starting a major science precinct ... They are slowing that down while they work out what the economic impact [of the travel ban] will be.

One university is understood to be considering postponing a project worth more than $150 million, expecting the saving could match the revenue lost this semester.

In 2017, the most recent year for which comprehensive national data is available, the 12 universities that account for 80 per cent of Chinese students collectively had $1.47 billion worth of property under construction. The largest developments were at the University of Sydney with $318 million, UNSW with $205 million, UniSA with $272 million and Monash University with $165 million.

Some universities, including UNSW and the University of Queensland, are in the midst of major expansion projects that could be affected by the travel restrictions.

The restrictions currently apply until February 29. How they apply to tertiary students will be reviewed in the coming week, after government medical officials advised there was scope for relaxation subject to the virus being contained and strict health protections being in place in Australia.

That will depend on the growth and containment outside of Hubei [the province where the outbreak originated] in mainland China, Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Saturday.

Loading

If allowed into the country, students would need to self-isolate for 14 days with the support of their host universities. The window for students to begin studies on the ground in Australia is rapidly closing, with the teaching semester getting under way and the end of March looming as a critical deadline for enrolments.

Margaret Sheil, vice-chancellor of QUT, which currently has about 1200 international students stuck offshore, said her university was not as exposed as others, but even so a tight operating surplus of around $20 million this year could be wiped out.

The biggest impact in the longer term, if this was to go on, would be less investment in capital, in facilities, she said.

Professor Sheil pointed to the governments abolition of a $3.9 billion education investment fund, from which the dollars were diverted to a fund for natural disaster responses.

We now dont have that kind of co-funding for capital investment and that would be where Id be focusing, because that would be a longer term, sustained response, she said.

We wont be able to invest in facilities for domestic students in the way that we have unless there is some relief there.

Federal education minister Dan Tehan said the travel ban would have an economic impact, but the government wanted to mitigate it and universities were in strong financial positions.

My hope is, in the short term, in the next two to three weeks, we might start to see some breakthroughs which will mean that some of those contingency plans that some of the universities are having to look at, they might be able to change their plans, he said.

Fergus Hunter is an education and communications reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Excerpt from:

Universities put major construction projects on ice amid coronavirus financial blow - The Sydney Morning Herald

It advertised salaries of up to $5,000 per week, paid vacations, full health and dental insurance, and tuition subsidies for student employees. The agency advertised online and at London bus stops.

It had a code of ethics for clients and banned unsavoury clients. Customers paid by cash or credit and the agency kept half the gross revenue generated by the escort.

McKay, of the Ontario Court of Justice, released his ruling Friday after a 10-day trial that concluded last June. The case began in London and concluded in Kitchener after McKay was reassigned to a new courthouse.

He found that sex workers on the street are most at risk of violence, that sex work is safer when it moves indoors, and that sex workers are safer when clients are screened, security staff are hired, and their trade is professionally managed.

McKay found that advertising makes prostitution safer by opening up channels of communication, minimizing the risks of violence, and helping sex workers get off the street.

He found that banning advertising and banning people from managing the sex work of others "without coercion" violates the Charter because it increases the risk of injury or death, criminalizes helpful behaviour, and is "grossly disproportionate in its effects on liberty and security of the person."

The ruling dismays an advocate who argues Canada is properly taking aim at prostitution.

"It's astounding," said John Cassells, director of a group called Men Ending Trafficking. "We have a situation now in Ontario where we're protecting pimps, and their Charter rights apparently supersede the rights of victims and vulnerable women and girls to be protected."

Lockyer disagrees that the ruling encourages pimps to traffick vulnerable females.

"This ruling has nothing to do with permitting exploitation. On the contrary. It prevents exploitation by enabling legitimate relationships to be set up that are not explotive," he said.

While police can still lay prostitution charges against escort services, they should seek good advice from a prosecutor before doing so, Lockyer said.

Prosecutors are reviewing the ruling. The Ministry of the Attorney General could not say Friday if it will be appealed.

McKay found that defence experts relied on evidence while prosecution experts were "committed advocates for the abolition of the sex industry." He gave prosecution experts no weight in his ruling.

Defence lawyer Jack Gemmell hopes the ruling persuades the Liberal government to reconsider the prostitution law.

The ruling surprised Osgoode Hall law professor Debra Haak, who earned a PhD studying the role of law in prostitution.

"What it tells me is that this law is complicated, and that this law opens up really important questions about the intersection between people's individual rights under our Charter, and the rights of groups under our Charter," she said.

She said she expects the prostitution law will need to be tested at an appeal court and at the Supreme Court of Canada.

"I imagine in the next week or two there will be a lot of people pointing to this decision and claiming that it stands for certain things," Haak said.

Parliament enacted the law after the Supreme Court found the previous prostitution law unconstitutional in 2013.

jouthit@therecord.com

Twitter: @OuthitRecord

jouthit@therecord.com

Twitter: @OuthitRecord

Read the original:

Prostitution charges dismissed against owners of escort service - TheRecord.com

Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: About two years ago, when the TDP severed its ties with the BJP-led NDA, the saffron party ended up with perhaps its worst-ever performance in any State in the country at the hustings.

The TDP alleged that the Centre betrayed the State and carried out an extensive campaign against the BJP.

Though the political dynamics in the State took a 180-degree turn in the elections that followed, the BJP is still limping its way to recovery because of the damage inflicted on it.

But, once bitten, twice shy, the national party now seems to be more aware of the political pitfalls in Andhra Pradesh.

That, perhaps, is the reason for BJP leaders like GVL Narasimha Rao to swing into action to bring in a national perspective to the State politics by clearly defining the role of the Centre in matters of the State, even when some of his colleagues openly pinned hopes on and promised Centres intervention in issues like capital relocation.

The Centre cant intervene in the matters of the State. There is a clear distinction between State politics and Central governance. Had we promised something which was not in the Centres purview and eventually the Centre clarified that capital location was a matter of the State, we would have been blamed for reneging on the promises made by our local party leaders, reasoned GVL Narasimha Rao, Rajya Sabha MP and partys national spokesperson, in an interview with TNIE on Friday.

The MP is clear that over-promising would only hurt his party. Of course, we would have gotten political mileage had we capitalised on the issue, but we are not here to over-promise. Since I have clarified from the very beginning that Centre will not intervene, there is no shock factor now, saving us from an adverse political fallout, he added.

Though the Centre has a limited role when it comes to the matters of State, the BJP had adopted a political resolution against the three-capital idea of the YSRC government.

Recalling how the Union government refused to interfere in the matters of State in the past, GVL observed, When TDP was in power here and NDA was ruling at the Centre, we (BJP State unit) gave representation to Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was the Union law minister even then, to nudge the State in the direction of setting up the High Court in Rayalaseema, a matter in which the Centre could have a say.

He squarely refused and suggested that we could politically fight for it. Even now, we may have passed a political resolution in favour of Amaravati, but the Centre will not interfere just because the party might politically benefit.

The same will be the case with respect to the issue of abolition of Legislative Council. GVL said that the motivations for the State governments decision to scrap the Council would be irrelevant for the Centre. Motivations of Council abolition are not relevant to the Centre. It will go by the procedure and precedents. There is no scope for rejection. The Central government will do what the Constitution says, he revealed.

But will the BJP really benefit for supporting the fight against capital relocation? See, we have two options: either to stay away or take the side of the people. In the interest of the State, we have supported Amaravati, GVL noted.

Keeping past experiences and national perspective in mind, besides being wary to not to fall into the trap of the TDP, the saffron party has evolved its strategy to grow in the State based on its ideology. That is the reason for the party to close the doors for the TDP, which was its ally in the last term, forever. As a political party, we are here to protect public interest.

"The hypocrisy of the TDP is that it was us to follow Chandrannas Constitution. When his party is in power, Centre cant intervene in State issues. But, when YSRC is ruling, he wants Centre to override all States decisions.

"This is not done. There is no way for the TDP to be back in the NDA fold. Not even in the next election, he asserted, recalling partys previous national chief Amit Shahs statement in Vizianagaram before the 2019 polls.

It seems the BJP strongly believes that its partnership with Pawan Kalyans Jana Sena would brighten its prospects in the State.

Pawan Kalyan will be a huge asset, he said. It was widely speculated that many of the saffron party members were against the idea of alliance with the actor-turned-politician, who withdrew his support to his once-ally for denying special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The Rajya Sabha MP confirmed that there were certain reservations within the party initially, but all is well now.

Weve had a few apprehensions as to how our partnership would evolve, but after meeting Jana Sena leaders in the first coordination meeting they were instantly resolved and we got comfortable to work together, he said.

See the rest here:

Bringing in national perspective, BJP treads a fine line of growth - The New Indian Express