Listening apps have listed automatically listed free podcasts for years. Creators aren't happy about Luminary's approach, and it's not just because the platform has premium memberships creators won't see a cut from.
In between studying for finals, 19-year-old NYU freshman Phillip Youmans will premiere his debut feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, the youngest filmmaker ever to do so.
Vacation is a state of mind. Holiday premium CBD Gummies are THC free and absolutely delicious. No need for a special occasion, take a Holiday any day. Work hard, vacation harder and get $10 off your first order when you use code DIGG10 at checkout.
The company beat sales and profits expectations in the three months to 31 March, thanks in part to its cloud computing business, which signed up major corporate clients over the period.
This super-high-budget pastel dream of a music video dropped at midnight last night and already has north of 20 million views — but, ya know, in case you missed it.
I knew I was non-binary, but I was afraid to tell my doctor I didn't want to fully transition from female to male. I thought finding an in-between wasn't allowed.
Lonely, confused and horny brands are irritating enough, but Netflix accounts regularly tip over into ugly self-righteousness, presenting a corporation with an estimated $165 billion valuation as a friend to the underrepresented and the downtrodden.
Vacation is a state of mind. Holiday premium CBD Gummies are THC free and absolutely delicious. No need for a special occasion, take a Holiday any day. Work hard, vacation harder and get $10 off your first order when you use code DIGG10 at checkout.
The filmer of the video found herself without the necessary change to access a public restroom. Luckily for her, her cocker spaniel was here to save the day.
Annual assessments can be wildly inaccurate — not to mention soul-crushing. Here's why the ritual, dreaded by managers and the managed alike, falls short and what might work better.
This nine-year-old video helps puts an image to the data, using a "ludic and organic metaphor that incorporates mitosis-like spilts" to portray the largest maritime empires of the 19th and 20th centuries.
A new generation has gravitated toward crystals in hopes of finding on-trend spiritual solace. But for the veteran dealers and collectors at the country's biggest gems and minerals showcase, a beautiful rock has timeless appeal.
A recent uptick in sightings of unidentified flying objects — or as the military calls them, "unexplained aerial phenomena" — prompted the Navy to draft formal procedures for pilots to document encounters, a corrective measure that former officials say is long overdue.
The idea that inflammation could be at the root of many noncommunicable diseases — like Alzheimer's, cancer, arthritis and asthma — is a startling claim. But it may just be true.
If you've purchased any fan apparel online or at a major US sporting event in the past few years, chances are you've spent money with the modern Fanatics.
The #USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) carrier strike group, centered on an aircraft carrier, is underway in the #MediterraneanSea returning from operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet. See more with this week's Naval Update #Map. https://t.co/ZYIC1ultzG
Microsoft hit the trillion-dollar value mark for the first time, becoming the third technology giant to reach the milestonehttps://t.co/m7YaI0fwfS@AFP chart on the world's top-valued companies pic.twitter.com/Y7ZMkaEW36
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un presents a sword to Russia's President Vladimir Putin following their talks in Vladivostok, Putin and Kim held a day of talks on an island off the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok two months after Kim s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump ended in disagreement, cooling hopes of a breakthrough in the decades-old nuclear row. April 25. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands during their talks at Far East Federal University on Russky Island in Vladivostok, Russia, April 25, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin said after holding his first face-to-face talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that U.S. security guarantees would probably not be enough to persuade Pyongyang to shut its nuclear program. Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Beijing to brief Chinese leaders on his just-concluded summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said he is also willing to share details of the talks with the United States.
North Korean state media on April 26, meanwhile, reported that Kim had invited Putin to Pyongyang "at a convenient time" -- an offer that was "readily accepted," according to the Korean Central News Agency. No dates were specified.
The moves could raise Moscow's profile and influence in negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's nuclear program, talks that have failed to bring fruitful results despite two summits between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim.
* A new book claims that North Korea gave the United States a $2 million bill to cover its expenses for the care of comatose Otto Warmbier * There are conflicting reports as to whether the bill has been paid * Otto's father, Fred Warmbier, said that he had not been informed about any hospital bill and it sounded like a 'ransom' for his late son * North Korean sentenced Otto Warmbier to 15 years in jail in 2016 for stealing a poster before returning him to the U.S. in a coma in 2017 * He died shortly after of complications from the injury that are not entirely known * Scans of Warmbier's brain before his death revealed extensive brain damage associated with unexplained trauma that U.S. neurosurgeons couldn't pinpoint * Warmbier died on June 19, 2017, in Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 22
The Trump administration agreed to reimburse North Korea for Otto Warmbier's care, then stiffed the rogue nation on the bill after it released the comatose student into U.S. officials' care.
North Korea surprised an American envoy with a $2 million invoice that it presented the State Department hours before Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was flown from Pyongyang to Ohio in June 2017, two people familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.
Intensified fighting for control of the Libyan capital is turning residential areas of Tripoli into "battlefields", the Red Cross said Thursday, amid a row over France's alleged backing of military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
"The humanitarian situation in and around Tripoli has deteriorated sharply over the past three weeks," since Haftar launched an offensive on April 4 against forces loyal to the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.
KHARTOUM, SUDAN — Three members of Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council have resigned, but their resignations are yet to be accepted, the TMC said late Wednesday.
Lieutenant-General Omar Zain al-Abideen who heads the TMC's political committee was one of the resigning members, the TMC said in a statement. The two others were Lieutenant-General Jalal al-Deen al-Sheikh and Lieutenant-General Al-Tayeb Babakr Ali Fadeel.
Sudan's protest leaders have called for a million people to march Thursday to demand the military give power to a civilian council. The call came after the head of Sudan's transitional military council said it would hand over power "within days" if civilian groups can agree on who will be in a new government.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, Russia in this undated photo released on April 25, 2019 by North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said during his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin peace and security on the Korean peninsula depend entirely on the future U.S. attitude, North Korean state media KCNA said on Friday.
Kim's remarks were seen as keeping pressure on the United States to be more flexible in accepting Pyongyang's demands to ease sanctions, compared to the U.S. stance during his unsuccessful second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February.
The North Korean leader said at the time he would wait until the end of the year for the United States to become more flexible.
Maximum pressure, meet minimum patience. The Trump administration took another dramatic step toward disrupting the status quo in and on Iran with the abrupt halt of all waivers for U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports. The decision places Washington on a collision course with China, India, and Turkey—whose continuing crude imports from Iran would be subject to U.S. penalties after May 2—and appears designed to push Iran's leadership to the brink.
Spanish frigate ESPS Mendez Nunez, USS Abraham Lincoln, USS John C. Stennis, French frigate FS Languedoc, USS Leyte Gulf, USS Bainbridge, USS Mobile Bay, British destroyer HMS Duncan, and USNS Arctic in the Mediterranean on April 24, 2019.
While two carriers attracting most of the attention, a smaller US footprint is being established between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where Russia -- and Turkey -- are raising concerns.
PENTAGON: As two US Nimitz-class aircraft carrier strike groups staged a very public show of force in the Mediterranean this week, nearby, a much quieter deployment of US assets appears to be expanding.
Since last May, two MQ-9 Reaper drones previously based at an undisclosed location in Africa have instead operated out of Larissa Air Base in Greece, close to the Aegean coastline. The deployment, which continues while the drones' home base undergoes unspecified repairs, is the subject of new talks between the US and Greek governments about options for more US involvement in the future.
The current agreement to keep the Reapers at Larissa expires in August, but Greek media reports say the US and Greece are discussing options for a more robust US presence at the base in the future, including possibly stationing KC-135 tankers there.
Researchers at China's Xiamen University claimed to have launched and landed a hypersonic rocket Jia Geng No. 1 (pictured) during a landmark experiment this week over Gobi Desert
ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) - China is leading the U.S. in a race to deploy hypersonic missiles that would defeat existing air defense systems, according to senior U.S. officials.
The combination of speed, maneuverability and altitude of these missiles makes them difficult to track and intercept. They travel at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound or about 6,200 kilometers (3,853 miles) per hour. Some will travel as fast as 25,000 kilometers per hour, according to U.S. and other Western weapons researchers. That's about 25 times as fast as modern passenger jets.
Admiral Harry Harris, the former head of U.S. Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee in February last year that hypersonic weapons were one of a range of advanced technologies where China was beginning to outpace the U.S. military, challenging its dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.
* Kim met Putin on an island off the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Thursday. It is the first time the leaders have met face to face. * The meeting comes two months after denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang collapsed in Hanoi. For Russia, the meeting was seen as a way to show the world that Russia can be a global power broker.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to denuclearize but needs "security guarantees" to do so.
Speaking after a high-profile summit with Kim, Putin said Russia favored denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and Kim agreed, but said bilateral security guarantees were not enough.
Putin said he didn't know if it was time to resume six-way talks with North Korea to end a standoff over its nuclear weapons program. The "six-party talks" had taken place between North and South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Russia and China in the early 2000s, but collapsed in 2009 when North Korea pulled out, saying it would resume its nuclear enrichment program in order to boost its nuclear deterrent.
The core values of this nation… our standing in the world… our very democracy...everything that has made America -- America --is at stake. That's why today I'm announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. #Joe2020https://t.co/jzaQbyTEz3
With an early-morning tweet and accompanying video, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he is making a third run for his Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Biden opened his announcement video with footage of the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., highlighting President Donald Trump's comment that there were "very fine people on both sides," following violent clashes that left one counter-protestor dead.
"With those words, the President of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. And in that moment, I realized that the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in my lifetime," Biden said.
WNU Editor: Will the Democrats vote for someone who voted against busing/de-segregation, and who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, the Iraq war, and conservative Supreme Court justices (Scalia and Thomas)? And on top of all of that, a long and "creepy" history of interacting with women. You tell me.
More News On Former Vice President Joe Biden Announcing His 2020 Presidential Run
"Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson accuses United Kingdom Intelligence of helping Obama Administration Spy on the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign." @OANN WOW! It is now just a question of time before the truth comes out, and when it does, it will be a beauty!
* President Donald Trump repeated a claim that United Kingdom's intelligence service helped former President Barack Obama spy on his 2016 campaign * He cited a report from former CIA analyst Larry Johnson - best known for peddling a hoax about Michelle Obama using a slur against white people * Johnson has long claimed Britain helped Obama's administration help spy on Trump - a charge the United Kingdom has denied * Trump's accusation comes the day after the White House announced the first couple will make a state visit to the United Kingdom in June * The White House has touted this claim before and infuriated the British * Trump has been reigniting spying claims on his campaign since special counsel Robert Mueller wrapped up his investigation
President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated a claim that United Kingdom's intelligence service helped former President Barack Obama spy on his 2016 campaign and said he can't wait until 'the truth comes out.'
The claim came the day after the White House announced that Trump would travel in June to Britain for a state visit, which will include meeting Queen Elizabeth.
The president cited a claimed made by former CIA analyst Larry Johnson - best known for peddling a hoax about Michelle Obama - on the conservative One America News Network.
''Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson accuses United Kingdom Intelligence of helping Obama Administration Spy on the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign.'' @OANN WOW! It is now just a question of time before the truth comes out, and when it does, it will be a beauty!,' he tweeted.
WNU Editor: We still do not know when President Obama learned that the FBI was conducting a surveillance/spy operation on the Trump campaign, and we definitely do not know on what he said and did after he knew. And in regards to British intelligence .... from Christopher Steel and his dossier to the role that Joseph Mifsud played, there are a lot of former and suspected MI6 agents in the mix. There is also the role that an Australian ambassador played and his links with British intelligence that helped push the Russian-collusion narrative .... UK, Australia Have Reason to Be Concerned About Declassification (Epoch times). The best way to resolve this is to declassify relevant documents, and to appoint a special counsel that will investigate and make public a report on the who/what/why/where/and when this entire sordid mess started, and to hold accountable those responsible. In the meantime British intelligence and the press are going ape-shit crazy over these accusations without looking at the background and context on why they are being made.
More News On The Reaction To President Trump Accusing Former President Obama Of Requesting/Ordering British Spies To Target His 2016 Campaign
Just a heads-up that blogging will be light for the next three days (until Sunday morning). Travelling tonight to New York City to do a presentation on what is my take on current geopolitical events in front of a business group tomorrow, followed by a debate with other presenters on Saturday. I love debates.
Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, center, talks with El Paso Sector Chief Aaron Hull, right, at El Paso International airport after doing a Osprey aircraft tour of the U.S.-Mexico border, Feb. 23, 2019. Martinez Monsivais/Pool via Reuter
The Pentagon's watchdog has cleared acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan of allegations he violated his ethics agreement by favoring his former employer Boeing while serving in government.
The inspector general's finding clears the way for Shanahan to likely be nominated by President Trump to take the Defense secretary job permanently.
After years of critical coverage, the US Africa Command axed investigative reporter Nick Turse and The Intercept from its daily media review.
f a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Or to bring this thought experiment into the modern age—if it happens in the forest, does it stay in the forest? I ask this question because it has a bearing on the article to come. Specifically, what if an article of mine on the U.S. military appears somewhere in our media world and that military refuses to notice? Does it have an impact?
Before I explain, I need to shout a little: AFRICOM! AFRICOM! AFRICOM!
Any media monitoring service working for U.S. Africa Command, the umbrella organization for American military activity on the African continent, would obviously notice that outburst and provide a "clip" of this article to the command.
WNU Editor: Is Nick Turse a journalist, and is the Intercept a legitimate news organization, in the eyes of the Pentagon/Africom the answer is no. Banning reports and news organizations is nothing new, but what is bothersome is the silence from the mainstream media.
Under Xi Jinping, Beijing has elevated its missile forces to a point where many rockets in the Chinese arsenal now rival or outperform those of the United States. This dramatic shift could render American carriers – the backbone of U.S. military supremacy – obsolete in a conflict with China.
China's powerful military is considered to be a master at concealing its intentions. But there is no secret about how it plans to destroy American aircraft carriers if rivalry becomes war.
At November's biennial air show in the southern city of Zhuhai, the biggest state-owned missile maker, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Ltd, screened an animation showing a hostile "blue force," comprising an aircraft carrier, escort ships and strike aircraft, approaching "red force" territory.
On a giant screen, the animation showed a barrage of the Chinese company's missiles launched from "red force" warships, submarines, shore batteries and aircraft wreaking havoc on the escort vessels around the carrier. In a final salvo, two missiles plunge onto the flight deck of the carrier and a third slams into the side of the hull near the bow.
— EU Data News Hub🇪🇺 (@EUDataNewsHub) April 25, 2019
This is the moment North Korea's Kim Jong-un meets Vladimir Putin. Both leaders are in Russia's port city of Vladivostok to begin summit talks: https://t.co/2HztHJCRyu
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives at the railway station in the Russian far-eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, April 24. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
* A French warship — apparently the frigate Vendemiaire — transited the closely-watched Taiwan Strait, a regional flashpoint, this month. * In response, China uninvited France from participating in a naval parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of China's navy. * The US routinely sends warships through the strait, an international waterway, despite repeated warnings from Beijing to tread lightly.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A French warship passed through the strategic Taiwan Strait this month, U.S. officials told Reuters, a rare voyage by a vessel of a European country that is likely to be welcomed by Washington but increase tensions with Beijing.
The passage is a sign that U.S. allies are increasingly asserting freedom of navigation in international waterways near China. It could open the door for other allies, such as Japan and Australia, to consider similar operations.
The French operation comes amid increasing tensions between the United States and China. Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom of navigation patrols.
DONALD TRUMP is "concerned" about running against potential Democrat nominee Joe Biden because he is the "best prepared" to take on the role, a former Republican National Committee chair has claimed.
TRADE between the 53 member states in the Commonwealth is expected to surge to £1.5trillion by 2030, the political association's Secretary General has revealed.
ITALIAN far-right party CasaPound has pledged to make Italexit happen to put an end to the "disastrous" effects agreeing to adopt the euro had on the Southern European country.
BALI'S Mount Agung volcano erupted at the weekend and spewed ash high into the sky. There were no reports of injuries following the incident but could Mount Agung erupt again?
Visitors to Hong Kong’s History Museum can take the subway to the city’s Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood, a bustling tourist and shopping district. There they’ll find a sprawling 190,000 square foot facility where visitors can wander through three stories of exhibits on events that have shaped the history of Hong Kong and China, from the Opium Wars to the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II.
To find out about that, visitors need to get back on the the subway and go two stops further into Kowloon and the city’s blue-collar Mongkok district. From there, it’s a short walk through markets with stalls hawking cheap clothing and electronic goods to an unmarked doorway of a nondescript commercial building lodged between a gas station and a noodle shop. Inside is the world’s only museum dedicated to the events of June 4, 1989.
The door to the June 4 Museum was easy to find on Friday afternoon, when it celebrated its re-opening in a new location after a three-year closure. About 20 pro-Beijing protestors attempted to block the entrance, with police repeatedly asking them to step aside.
Their screams, blasted through megaphones, could be heard from the museum on the tenth floor of the building, where—in a space the size of a one-room apartment—an exhibition details the history of the 1989 student-led democracy movement that was crushed by Chinese military force. Video footage of tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square, guns firing and an injured protestor receiving CPR plays on a loop on the far wall.
“They’re trying to stop us from opening. No idea which organization they are from, but certainly its an agency of the Chinese Communist Party,” says Kennis T., a member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which runs the museum. He declined to give his last name for fear of safety.
The museum almost did not make its planned opening date. Less than three weeks ago, vandals broke into the property and threw salt water into its electric sockets. Luckily, precious exhibit items—like a bullet-riddled helmet worn by a student protestor on the night of the crackdown, which killed what is believed to be thousands of people—had not yet been moved into the new space. After the incident, 24/7 security was put in place.
“It must be politically motivated,” Albert Ho, chair of the Hong Kong Alliance, tells TIME. There must have been a plan, he says “to destroy exhibition material so as to delay the opening of the museum.”
The protests and the break-in are not the first challenges Ho and his team have faced. The museum, which began operating as a roving display at various locations in 2012, officially opened at a space purchased by the Hong Kong Alliance in 2014. It became an important educational resource.
Denise Ho, an assistant professor of history at Yale University who studies modern Chinese history, tells TIME that she was touched by the mainland Chinese visitors she met when visiting the museum a few years ago. “One in particular told us that he came to visit because he felt that he couldn’t learn about the Tiananmen movement at home, so he made a point to visit the museum when he traveled to Hong Kong,” she says.
But the building’s security guards forced guests to register identification details before going upstairs, and ensured they were aware of security cameras capturing their entrance. This particularly unnerved the visitors from mainland China, where the topic of Tiananmen is off-limits. Eventually, building management filed a lawsuit arguing that the site was not permitted to operate as a museum. Instead of fighting an expensive legal battle, organizers decided to close the facility. It shut its doors in July 2016.
Nearly thirty years on, it is still difficult for ordinary Chinese to find out about the events of 1989. The Chinese government has not accepted responsibility for the massacre. An official investigation was never held, and the government did not release information about those who were killed. In the mainland, activists have been detained for commemorating the killings. Internet searches for any terms related to Tiananmen—even the date of the incident—are blocked by China’s censorship apparatus..
“The Chinese government has done a thorough job erasing June Fourth from the historical memories of most of the young people in China, but the older generation in China who were alive at that time, and world outside China, have not forgotten these events,” says Andrew Nathan, a professor of political science at Columbia University, who co-edited a book, The Tiananmen Papers, which released secret Chinese government documents about the event.
Despite the harassment suffered by the June 4 Museum, Chinese censorship has not yet reached Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous enclave, and citizens can freely Google the words “Tiananmen Square Massacre” and see pictures of the notorious tank man facing off to a row of Chinese tanks. Every year, tens of thousands of people gather for a candlelight vigil to commemorate the anniversary, an event organized by the Hong Kong Alliance.
Nevertheless, there are concerns over the mainland’s increasing encroachment. Hong Kong’s freedom of the press rankings have been on a precipitous slide in recent years. Late last year, a foreign journalist was expelled from the city after he hosted a talk with the leader of a pro-independence party. Not long after, a talk that was to be given by Chinese dissident writer Ma Jian, whose books have been banned on the mainland for the last 30 years, was inexplicably cancelled, before being re-instated.
Despite the headwinds, Ho says that the Hong Kong Alliance plans to keep the museum open for as long as possible.
“We are able to make use of the limited liberty we enjoy in Hong Kong,” Ho says. “We have the responsibility to continue to voice the conscience of the nation and in particular, to preserve the memory of the people and the truth of history.”
Ma Jian has a flair for the provocative. In 2012, the London Book Fair partnered with the all-powerful Chinese state agency responsible for regulating publications and the Internet—the General Administration for Press and Publication. In protest, the author smeared an X across his face in red paint. He then attempted to hand a copy of a book he had written, its cover also marked with a red X, to the head of the agency, who was attending the fair. The book was about one of China’s most taboo topics—the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square.
Ma had reason to be angry: his books have been banned in his homeland for the last 30 years, and he has not been allowed to return to China for the last few years as the country’s President, Xi Jinping, has initiated a widespread crackdown on dissent.
The author was born in the Chinese city of Qingdao in 1953. He started his career on a more traditional path, at a petrochemical plant in Beijing, before deciding to become a photojournalist. In the 1980s, he began hanging out in the Chinese capital’s underground literary and art scene and took up painting again—a childhood love that was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. He also started writing. His first book, 1988’s Stick Out Your Tongue, inspired by his travels in Tibet, caught the attention of the country’s censors, and all copies were destroyed. Since then, none of his books have been allowed to be published in China.
His latest work is, without a doubt, a political statement. China Dream—a phrase borrowed directly from Xi who commonly uses it to describe a “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”—is a scathing, dystopian novel that follows a fictional Chinese provincial leader as he works to replace people’s dreams with government propaganda.
But Ma says that he refuses to stand down. “I have never allowed myself to not write something for fear of consequences; that would be the death of literature in my mind,” Ma told TIME.
China Dream has already been released in the U.K., where he now lives with his wife and children, and it will be available in the U.S. on May 7.
Here’s what the writer-in-exile had to say about the new title and what is happening in China today.
Tell us about your new book.
China Dream was inspired by the idea that China was shrouded in a veil of lies. It was a strong desire to expose these lies and shine a light on them that drove me to write the book. I wanted to reveal the darkness that lies at the core of Xi Jinping’s sunny utopia.
Did you draw on inspiration from your own life for the book?
[The book’s main character] Ma Daode’s task is not only to suppress memories of the past but also to control speech in the present. My whole life has been affected by the [Chinese government’s] desire to clampdown on personal liberties and freedom of speech. When I was living in China in the 1980s I was continually being detained, arrested for things I said, or paintings I created. This has continued today where my books are still banned and I am forced to live in exile.
“China Dream” is a phrase commonly used by Xi Jinping and in Chinese propaganda. Why did you chose to call the book that?
When Xi Jinping rose to power and announced his China Dream of national resurgence, and made this the bedrock of his rule, I at once saw it as a crime. It is criminal for a leader to impose a dream on a nation. Dreams are an expression of the most unfettered realm of the human spirit.
My dream for China is that it will become a country that respects freedom of speech, where independent thought prospers. This, of course, would be a time when a totalitarian regime no longer exists, where people are free to determine their own life paths and to dream their own dreams. It will be a country that gives dignity to every individual life, where people feel safe in their own homes, and feel that they can express their thoughts freely that go against official ideology without fear of arrest or suppression.
How do you stay attuned to what is going in China while living outside of it?
In fact, I feel more attuned to what is going on in China living in London, more connected than I did in China when my movements were monitored, when I was forbidden to meet with sensitive people, where information was blocked by the firewall. Here I can know real-time, through the internet, what is happening. Information that is restricted in China, I have full access to.
What do you want China’s youth, who have not been able to learn about what happened in Tiananmen, to know about the massacre?
My hope is that the young people of today will have an opportunity to re-connect with their own history that has been denied them. They need to learn the lessons of those crucial years, because the situation [in China] today is more dangerous than it has been in many decades.
Is the Chinese government succeeding in its efforts to enforce censorship?
At the moment, it looks like their system of censorship is succeeding in maintaining the Communist Party’s barbaric rule. The party has huge amounts of money, it has an army of censors.
What do you hope readers will learn from reading your book?
We are now in a state of turmoil, in a state of flux, where there is a loss of faith in all leaders, where truth is under threat. I hope that this book can show that is vital that individuals never give up asking questions. If you stop reflecting on the past, if you don’t question what is fed to you, if you don’t question the motives of the people who are leading you, we will all share a common fate, and that is that we will all be controlled by people that are more stupid and evil and than us.
Did any recent events in particular prompt you to start writing the book?
I only have to read the news from China; every day there is something that will fill me with rage. But perhaps one of the sparks for writing of this particular book was attending the London Book Fair where China was the guest of honor. Here in the country where I had sought refuge, where I thought that the freedom of expression was one of the founding values, I saw how the red carpet was rolled out for the Chinese censors-in-chief.
A talk you were scheduled to give in Hong Kong last year was suddenly cancelled (before being re-instated). Many believe the motivation was political. Will China Dream be published in Hong Kong?
Until now, all of my books have been published in Hong Kong in the Chinese language, but the spread of the Communist party’s control beyond it’s borders means that no Hong Kong publisher would dare to publish this book.
Originally there was one publisher who was willing to publish it in Hong Kong, we got quite far in the process—it had been edited and the cover had been approved. Suddenly they said they were not going to go ahead with it, and they did not give me a clear reason. I can only assume that they received a message from above or they realized themselves that it could be too dangerous and they could face possible arrest as other publishers have in Hong Kong.
This interview, which was translated by Ma Jian’s partner and translator, Flora Drew, has been edited for length and clarity.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The suspected leader of the militant group Sri Lankan authorities said carried out a series of Easter Sunday bombings died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, officials said Friday.Police said on an official Twitter account that Mohamed Zahran, the leader of local militant group National Towheed Jamaat known for his vitriolic extremist speeches on social media, had been killed in one of the nine suicide bombings.
Police also said they had arrested the group’s second-in-command.
They said investigators had determined that the assailants’ military training was provided by someone they called “Army Mohideen,” and that weapons training had taken place overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province.
Police also said that the attackers had worked out at a local gym and by playing soccer using their authentic national identity cards. They added that the vehicles used in the attack were purchased from a car dealership in Kadawatha, a suburb of Colombo, the capital.
They said that the operator of a copper factory who was arrested in connection with the bombings had helped Mohideen make improvised explosive devices and purchase empty cartridges sold by the Sri Lankan military as scrap copper.
Australia’s prime minister said earlier Friday that it had been confirmed that the Sri Lanka attackers were supported by the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the massacre, distributing video of Zahran and others pledging allegiance to the withered caliphate.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters in Colombo that some 140 people in the island nation had been identified as having links to the Islamic State group, and that the Sri Lankan government has “the capability “to completely control ISIS activities” in the country.
“We will completely control this and create a free and peaceful environment for people to live,” he said.
Sirisena blamed Sri Lanka’s defense secretary, who resigned Thursday, and police chief, who he said would soon step down, for a failure to share weeks of information from international intelligence agencies about the plot ahead of time.
Across Colombo on Friday, there was a visible increase of security as authorities warned of another attack and pursued suspects that could have access to explosives.
Armed soldiers stood guard outside St. Anthony’s Shrine, one of the three churches attacked, and nearby shops were closed.
Gration Fernando crossed himself when he looked at the church after walking out of his shop there. Fernando says he, like other Sri Lankans, was worried about further attacks.
There is “no security, no safety to go to church,” he said, adding that “now children are scared to go to church” as well.
Authorities told Muslims to pray at home rather than attend communal Friday prayers that are the most important of the week.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared some of the suspects “may go out for a suicide attack.”
Afterward, in an unusually specific warning, the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka said places of worship could be hit by extremists this weekend. The U.K.’s foreign ministry advised its citizens not to travel to the island nation off the tip of India.
Late on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s health ministry drastically revised down its estimated death toll from the coordinated attacks. A statement said “approximately” 253 people had died, nearly one-third lower than the police’s estimated death toll of 359.
The discrepancy was not immediately explained, but it fit a pattern of claims and counterclaims by Sri Lankan officials that have muddled the investigation.
In a predominantly Muslim area of Colombo’s Maligawatta neighborhood, vegetable sellers laid their produce on the sidewalks near the mosques as women in long black chador shopped.
Leaders at the neighborhood mosques said they planned still to hold Friday noon prayers. They said both the police and volunteers would be guarding the neighborhood to protect the faithful.
Imtiyas Ahamed, one prayer leader, said he planned to preach about how extremists like the Islamic State group were not faithful Muslims.
“In Islam, it is not said to kill yourself and kill others,” Ahamed said.
As he spoke, men one at a time came into the mosque to pray. They sat on their knees and bowed toward Mecca, the sweat from their brows falling on the mosque’s purple-and-gray carpet.
Abdullah Mohammed, 48, another Muslim from the neighborhood, stood outside.
“Everyone is nervous,” Mohammed said. “Not just the Muslims. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus — everybody’s nervous.”
Ahamed also urged people not to think all of Sri Lanka’s Muslims were like the people who carried out Sunday’s attacks.
“After the New Zealand attack, we don’t think every white Australian is an extremist,” he said.
___
Associated Press writers Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.
(TOKYO) — German automaker Daimler, which makes armored limousines used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, says it has no idea where he got them and has no business dealings with the North.
Kim has raised eyebrows by using Daimler-branded stretch limousines at several very high-profile summits, including his meeting this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and both of his earlier summits with President Donald Trump.
The sale of luxury goods, including limousines, is banned under U. N. sanctions intended to put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Kim nevertheless had two limos waiting for him at Vladivostok station — a Mercedes Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Mercedes Maybach S62. He is believed to have also used the S600 Pullman Guard for his summits with Trump in Singapore in June last year and in Hanoi in February.
“We have absolutely no idea how those vehicles were delivered to North Korea,” Daimler spokeswoman Silke Mockert said in a written response to an Associated Press report Wednesday on the limousines . “For Daimler, the correct export of products in conformance with the law is a fundamental principle of responsible entrepreneurial activity.”
Daimler, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is one of the world’s biggest and more prestigious automobile companies. It is one of the biggest providers of high-end passenger cars and the world’s largest producer of trucks above 6 tons.
On its home page, the multinational giant boasts of selling vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and of having production facilities in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.
North Korea, however, isn’t one of its official customers.
“Our company has had no business connections with North Korea for far more than 15 years now and strictly complies with E.U. and U.S. embargoes,” she said. “To prevent deliveries to North Korea and to any of its embassies worldwide, Daimler has implemented a comprehensive export control process. Sales of vehicles by third parties, especially of used vehicles, are beyond our control and responsibility.”
Kim’s ability to procure the limousines anyway is a good example of how porous the international sanctions tend to be.
According to Daimler, the Mercedes-Benz Pullman limousines offer their passengers “a superbly appointed setting for discreet meetings.”
The version used by Kim is believed to be equipped with all the key communications and entertainment systems so that, according to a company description of the car, its occupants can remain “fully in touch with the rest of the world while enjoying the luxury and comfort of their own very special place in it.”
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Australia’s prime minister said Friday that the Sri Lankan militant group blamed for the Easter bombings that killed at least 250 people had support from the Islamic State group, a day after Sri Lankan officials said they were still evaluating foreign ties.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters that he could confirm links between a local Sri Lankan organization and “support being provided including the targets of these attacks” by the Islamic State group network, citing overnight briefings. He said Australian police were involved in the investigation.
In the capital Colombo, there was a visible increase of security overnight as authorities warned of another attack and pursued at least five suspects that could have access to explosives.
Armed soldiers surrounded St. Anthony’s Shrine, one of the three churches struck on Sunday, and nearby shops were closed.
Gration Fernando crossed himself when he looked at the church after walking out of his shop there. Fernando says he, like other Sri Lankans, was worried about further attacks.
There is “no security, no safety to go to church,” he said, adding that “now children are scared to go to church” as well.
Authorities told Muslims to pray at home rather than attend communal Friday prayers that are the most important of the week.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared that some of the suspects “may go out for a suicide attack” in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.
Afterward, in an unusually specific warning, the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka said places of worship could be hit by extremists this weekend. The U.K.’s foreign ministry advised its citizens not to travel to the island nation off the tip of India.
Late on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s health ministry drastically revised down its estimated death toll from the coordinated attacks on churches and luxury hotels in and around Colombo. A statement said “approximately” 253 people had died, nearly one-third lower than the police’s estimated death toll of 359.
The discrepancy was not immediately explained, but it fit a pattern of claims and counterclaims by Sri Lankan officials that have muddled the investigation.
In a predominantly Muslim area of Colombo’s Maligawatta neighborhood, vegetable sellers laid their produce on the sidewalks near the mosques as women in long black chador shopped.
Leaders at the neighborhood mosques said they planned still to hold Friday noon prayers. They said both the police and volunteers would be guarding the neighborhood to protect the faithful.
Imtiyas Ahamed, one prayer leader, said he planned to preach about how extremists like the Islamic State group were not faithful Muslims.
“In Islam, it is not said to kill yourself and kill others,” Ahamed said.
As he spoke, men one at a time came into the mosque in the shadow of a cricket stadium to pray. They sat on their knees and bowed toward Mecca, the sweat from their brows falling on the mosque’s purple-and-gray carpet.
Abdullah Mohammed, 48, another Muslim from the neighborhood, stood outside.
“Everyone is nervous,” Mohammed said. “Not just the Muslims. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus — everybody’s nervous.”
Ahamed also urged people not to think all of Sri Lanka’s Muslims were like the people who carried out Sunday’s attacks.
“After the New Zealand attack, we don’t think every white Australian is an extremist,” he said.
The Serbian journalist Dejan Anastasijevic, who documented his country’s descent into revanchist nationalism under strongman Slobodan Milosevic, died Wednesday in Belgrade after a long illness. A friend, colleague and intellectual guide for a generation of journalists covering the violent conflicts in the Balkans after the end of the Cold War, Anastasijevic was 57.
Anastasijevic documented Milosevic’s land grabs in Croatia and Bosnia in the early 1990s, reporting on Serb militia members’ war crimes against Muslim and Croat civilians for the Serbian news outlets Vreme, Tanjug and B92. Anastasijevic became TIME Magazine’s Belgrade-based correspondent in 1996. As an ethnic Albanian separatist movement rose in the Serbian province of Kosovo in the late 1990s, and Serbian forces cracked down on insurgents and civilians alike, he became a key voice in the international coverage of that crisis.
Respected for the objectivity of his reporting, the clarity of his analysis and the power of his writing, Anastasijevic developed and maintained sources on all sides of the multi-party fighting over the years, from officers deep inside the Serbian security apparatus to members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army.
He was also targeted for his reporting. During the U.S.-led bombing of Belgrade during the war in Kosovo, threats from Serbian security forces drove Anastasijevic and his family from Serbia to seek temporary safety in Vienna, Austria. He returned after the war to his apartment in downtown Belgrade. Later, his home was attacked with a hand grenade.
When Milosevic was put on trial for war crimes and genocide in The Hague in the early 2000s, Anastasijevic testified against him.
“The consequences of his policies,” Anastasijevic wrote soon afterwards for TIME, “were all too visible, in Sarajevo, in Srebrenica and in Vukovar. Almost 11 years ago, I walked the town’s muddy streets, stepping over corpses, as Serb militia members led away helpless civilians to what would be their mass grave. A year later, as part of a similar land grab in eastern Bosnia, the same men were happily torching Muslim homes and murdering their owners. The fighters were drunk with bloodlust and slivovitz, but they were also led by the invisible hand of Milosevic’s secret police, who organized, armed and supplied them. It was the link between Milosevic and these crimes that my testimony was intended to help prove.”
Compassionate with the victims of oppression and generous with novice and veteran colleagues alike, Anastasijevic was calm in the face of extraordinary danger, resolute in pursuit of the facts, and convivial after deadline.
Read Anastasijevic’s 2006 essay on Slobodan Milosevic’s passing here
(TOKYO) — The ambiance was friendly. Nice, comfy seats. An exchange of polite welcomes.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un even managed to match Russian President Vladimir Putin’s manspreading — the two sat with knees spread wide apart as they chatted before the start of their first summit, which began Thursday in the Far East port city of Vladivostok.
With so little else to go on, it’s a common practice for North Korea watchers to pay extremely close attention to Kim’s every word and gesture when he makes public appearances. Summits are no exception, and there’s always lots of analytical commentary, insightful and silly.
What caught the attention of many outside observers Thursday wasn’t the scene, but the sound — of Kim’s loud breathing.
Clips of the introductory encounter were quickly tweeted around the world, many with comments about the leader’s audible breathlessness. South Korea’s media, meanwhile, speculated that it could be a sign of Kim’s poor health. He is, after all, overweight and a notoriously heavy smoker.
But when the two delivered their opening comments to start the actual talks, Kim seemed to have gotten over whatever the problem was.
Experts have noted that when Kim met President Donald Trump for the first time, they nearly lunged at each other with hands outstretched for a handshake. They vied several times to lead the other with an alpha male hand on the back. Gazes were carefully not averted, lest that appear to suggest submission.
The impression from their second encounter, in Hanoi two months ago, was more measured. The two tended to mirror each other more closely, which is a sign of respect and cooperation rather than aggression.
Kim’s first greeting with Putin was more like his performance in Hanoi, though a bit stiffer. It was in some ways similar to an old style Soviet meeting, with a bit of a formal chill to it.
He and Putin approached each other with fixed smiles and held an extended handshake for the cameras. It’s often an awkward moment, even for the most experienced politicians. But they appeared relaxed — or perhaps just well-poised — as they also did during the initial part of the talks, which were broadcast live.
Unlike the much taller Trump, Putin is roughly the same height as Kim, which probably helped.
The health of the North Korean leader has been the topic of speculation before.
During his first summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, last April, he appeared to be out of breath as he signed a guestbook after a short walk. He was also shown on TV red-faced at a banquet, likely from the ample beverages available.
But Kim has managed to make it through nearly a dozen summits now. His meetings with Moon, in particular, were well received in the South and seen to reveal a genuine warmth and desire for better relations.
It remains to be seen how effective he will be in getting out from under the sanctions that have been imposed on his country for its nuclear weapons programs. But if nothing else, he has demonstrated a surprising air of confidence alongside some of the biggest players on the world stage.
(Bloomberg) — Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to clean up his signature Belt and Road infrastructure program amid criticism the policy is indebting poorer nations and making them dependent on Beijing.“We need to maintain that all cooperation is conducted under the sun and work together to combat corruption with zero tolerance,” Xi said in an address to the annual Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Friday.
He vowed that China will negotiate and sign high-standard free trade agreements with more countries, strengthen cooperation in customs, taxation, auditing and supervision, and establish a cooperation mechanism for jointly building the Belt and Road tax collection and management system.
“We need to pursue high-standard cooperation,” he said. “We will adopt widely-accepted rules and standards, and encourage participating companies to follow general international rules and standards in product development, operations procurement, tendering and bidding.”
Some 5,000 attendees from across the globe were in the audience for Xi’s address. Chinese officials have already pledged this week to improve funding arrangements for projects along the Belt and Road network, in response to increasing wariness that the initiative saddles developing countries with loans they can’t repay.
Xi unveiled the plan to rebuild ancient trading routes across Eurasia in 2013, calling it the “project of the century.” China’s government has since poured billions into investments from Africa to the South Pacific. The president champions it as a means to spur development, goodwill and economic integration.
At least seven countries that have agreed to Belt and Road projects have suspended, scaled back or terminated them, or experienced backlash for their involvement in the program. Earlier this month, China struck a deal with Malaysia to resume the East Coast Rail Link project for 44 billion ringgit ($10.7 billion) — down from 65.5 billion ringgit — after deciding to terminate it in January as the Southeast Asian country struggles to narrow its budget deficit.
To address some of the concerns, Beijing is taking a range of steps to exert more control over the program, officials and participants said. They include a more muted publicity drive, clearer rules for state-owned enterprises, restricted use of the Belt and Road brand, and building overseas auditing and anti-corruption mechanisms, according to officials and participants who have spoken to Bloomberg.
The People’s Bank of China will “build an open, market-oriented financing and investment system,” Governor Yi Gang said in brief remarks on Thursday. The government also released its analysis framework for debt sustainability.
Even before the forum officially kicked off, Xi pledged new development with the Philippines in a Thursday meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, including China’s commitment to build an industrial park north of Manila and provide resources for Duterte’s initiatives to spread wealth to his country’s far-flung regions, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
In March, a senior official from China’s top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, said China wants to combine its manufacturing and construction know-how with the advanced technology of Western firms on the global trade-and-infrastructure program, pledging greater cooperation with American and European companies on Belt and Road ventures.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones
Despite her protestations that she didn’t even want to be a knight, Game of Thrones fans knew better. By the time Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) was knighted by Ser Jaime in the series’ final season, the scene was a hailed as a milestone moment for the beloved character. The fact that the episode was titled “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was just one more reason to feel Brienne was finally getting the recognition she deserves.
For Joëlle Rollo-Koster — a professor of medieval history at the University of Rhode Island who was herself knighted by the French government as a Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques — the moment held another layer of meaning: Brienne has long drawn comparisons to Joan of Arc, and now there’s even more complexity to the relationship between the fictional character and the real 15th century Frenchwoman, who defied the conventions of her time, led an army to victory and was killed for her transgressions.
But first, that knighting ceremony. Game of Thrones is known to often draw inspiration from medieval European history, so how did Brienne’s big moment compare to what we know about the real thing?
Rollo-Koster points to the Arthurian romances written by Chrétien de Troyes in the 12th century as perhaps the earliest source for a narrative description of dubbing someone a knight — a word related to the French adouber, a verb meaning to give someone weapons. The scholar Jean Flori traced a turning point to that body of work, citing the year 1180 as the moment when the word switched from meaning principally “to arm a knight” to meaning “to make someone a knight.”
One of the stranger elements of the dubbing ceremony is something the French called colée.
“The colée is a slap on the face,” Rollo-Koster says. “I explain it to my students as, number one, you need to resist that slap. If you’re a knight on your knees and somebody punches you and you are not able to resist, that shows you don’t have much strength. There’s that macho strength element, but there is also a memory element: Here, I’m slapping you, let it be the last time somebody slaps you on the face.”
Helen Sloan/HBOBrienne of Tarth gets knighted by Jamie Lannister at last.
Over time, that ceremony evolved from a literal blow or slap to what has been described as “a gentle stroke with the flat of the sword on the side of the neck, or on either shoulder as well.” That movement — might have gotten a nod on Game of Thrones with Jaime’s brush on Brienne’s shoulder though it’s hard to say for sure — evolved into the sword-tapping familiar from dubbing ceremonies in pop culture. But, says Rollo-Koster, “if it was a true medieval ceremony in the 11th or 12th century, [Brienne] would have been smacked in the face.”
The move away from the blow isn’t the only way the ceremony evolved in the Middle Ages.
Early descriptions involve an older knight recognizing a younger knight — à la Jaime and Brienne — but as the 13th century approaches, the Church becomes involved, with a priest or bishop eventually taking the place of the fellow knight.
“That ceremony is a rite of passage. By the 11th and 12th century, it’s not overly ritualized, but people say a few words,” Rollo-Koster says. “Usually the good knight is going to have a younger knight swear that he’s going to do right, do justice, help the poor, the widow and the orphan, support the church, don’t be mean, don’t lie, be honorable. Then the Church starts to bring in that you need to be a knight of God. We have an evolution from a pure secular ceremony to a religious ceremony. What we saw [on Game of Thrones] was a mishmash — a knight ordaining another knight, but using religious language.”
To Rollo-Koster, that religious language — in which Ser Jaime references three of the divine aspects of Game of Thrones‘ Faith of the Seven — doesn’t seem so different from what a real-life medieval priest might have used. Just as Jaime invokes the name of the warrior, the father and the mother, real priests would invoke Christianity’s holy trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Rollo-Koster also says that medieval priests often spoke Latin so poorly that they might have accidentally invoked a female Holy Spirit by using a feminine form of the word.
“They would make a mistake and turn it into the feminine, and that’s exactly what they are doing in the show. He says in the name of the father and then the name of the mother,” she says. “It’s a take on an extremely masculine ceremony, which they turn feminine. They turn it feminine in the language of the dubbing, the father and the mother, and also in the person they are dubbing, because you never dub a woman, as [Brienne] says. The play with it is fun and this is what brought me right away to Joan of Arc.”
After all, transgressions of gender norms are central to Joan of Arc’s story.
Though she led her army to an important win at Orléans in 1429, fighting against the English during the Hundred Years’ War, she was later captured and tried as a heretic.
Rollo-Koster calls attention to the fact that — unlike many other real women throughout history who dressed as men in order to serve in the military — Joan of Arc’s gender was not concealed, even when she was wearing armor or men’s clothing. And when she was charged with religious crimes, the allegations included not just her claims of divine inspiration but also her wardrobe choices.
“What condemned Joan of Arc was her constant moving between men and women, men and women, this is what made her a heretic,” Rollo-Koster says. “She was called relapsed because she swore to get rid of her men’s clothes and take the female clothes back and put them on herself, but then she decided no, I’m not going to be wearing women’s clothes anymore. The moment she was back into men’s clothes, they say, O.K., we’re burning you.”
Getty Images; HBO
As Rollo-Koster notes, the very concept of chivalry was defined by its maleness — going all the way back to the linguistic ties between “virtue” and the Latin vir, meaning “man” — and women’s lack of participation was more than a matter of just traditional roles. In the record of Joan of Arc’s trial, there’s also a discussion of a sword she found at a church, and the question of whether she put it on the altar there. This matters so much because, if she had, it could be seen as a “pseudo knighting ritual,” Rollo-Koster says, as dubbing ceremonies often involved leaving the sword that would be used on a church altar in advance of the ceremony. If she had put her sword on the altar, she would have been taking part in another ritual from which women were barred.
That transgression “freaked medieval men out,” she says. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431. Brienne of Tarth, of course, wears armor and carries a sword too.
In the years since, Joan of Arc has been recognized as both a French national hero and a saint. And as fan reaction to Brienne’s knighting shows, the world today is a much more welcoming place for the idea that a woman could meet the ideals of knighthood.
Heading into the big Battle at Winterfell, Game of Thrones viewers can only hope that the links between Brienne and Joan don’t extend to the historical hero’s real fate. After all, there’s already at least one big difference between Brienne of Tarth and Joan of Arc (besides the fact that Brienne lives in a fantasy world of dragons and the dead).
Ser Brienne is now a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — but though Joan of Arc became a saint, she was not officially dubbed a knight.
Days before his wife, Meghan Markle, is due with the couple’s first child, Prince Harry made a surprise appearance alongside his sister-in-law at the country’s Anzac Day services. The Daily Mail’s royal reporter Rebecca English tweeted that she was told by a source that Harry was “pleased he can attend today’s Service, as planned. With their baby due, his name was not printed in the programme in case he was unable to do so.”
Prince Harry’s surprise appearance was alongside the Duchess of Cambridge, a.k.a. Kate Middleton, at Westminster Abbey at the memorial service designed to honor citizens of Australia and New Zealand who died in military conflict or peacekeeping operations, particularly those killed during the Anzac landings in Gallipoli during World War I, per the Royal Family. (Anzac stands for the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.) This year’s service also marked the anniversary of the “first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.”
Prince Harry and Duchess Kate attended the event together, because Meghan Markle could be too close to her due date to attend and Prince William is currently in New Zealand paying tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings.
You are subscribed to email updates from World – TIME. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Priests in Goa acted as Congress agents: AAP The Goa unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday blamed some Catholic priests for acting as agents of the Congress to appeal to church-goers to vote
