31, October 2017
Hollywood shaken by sex scandal involving Kevin Spacey 0
Sexual allegations against renowned Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey have shaken the US movie industry, which was already struggling to cover up a similar expose against powerful producer Harvey Weinstein.
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said Monday that it would not “honor” Spacey by giving him the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award next month.
The move came after Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making sexual advances on him more than 30 years ago.
Rapp, who was 14 at the time of the assault, said Spacey, then 26 years old, physically carried him into his bed and attempted to initiate sex with the teenaged actor.
The A-list actor claimed in response that he did not recall the incident at all and felt sorry for the effects of what would have been “deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
The actor also tried to avert media attention by revealing that he has been a homosexual throughout all these years.
The allegations led video streaming platform Netflix to cancel famous political show House of Cards, which featured Spacey in the leading role.
Media Rights Capital and Netflix, who produce House of Cards, said in a joint statement that they were “deeply troubled” by the news.
“In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time,” the statement said.
Spacey’s fall from grace came days the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hollywood’s de facto governing body, voted overwhelmingly to expel disgraced American film producer Harvey Weinstein amid mounting accusations of sexual harassment, assault and rape by at least 30 actresses.
The ouster was unprecedented since the academy was founded 90 years ago, turning one of the biggest Oscar players in history into a Hollywood pariah.
Weinstein’s films have received more than 81 Oscars, according to The Weinstein Company, which he co-founded with his brother Bob Weinstein in 1979 after selling Miramax.
The 65-year-old movie mogul, who was born in New York City to a Jewish family, has denied the rape allegations, while acknowledging that his behavior “caused a lot of pain.”
Source: Presstv
31, October 2017
UN says US likely to comply with Paris accord 0
The head of the UN environment program said Tuesday the United States is likely to live up to the Paris climate deal despite President Donald Trump’s planned pullout, because “all the big American companies” are working toward greener operations.
UN officials are increasingly citing the role of companies in the fight against climate change.
“There is one question that I get more often than any other question wherever I go on the planet and it is a very simple one. It is: ‘What about Donald Trump?'” Solheim told a panel in Geneva by videoconference from Nairobi.
“In all likelihood, the United States of America will live up to its Paris commitment, not because of the White House, but because of the private sector,” he said. “All the big American companies are dedicated to go in the green direction.”
But UNEP said countries and industries still need to do more to meet targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions that experts say contribute to global warming. The report criticizes coal-fired electricity plants being built in emerging economies, and insists that investment in renewable energies will pay for itself — and even make money — over the long term.
The Paris accord aims to cap global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) by the year 2100 compared to average world temperatures at the start of the industrial era — and even hopes to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees C.
UNEP says trends suggest that even if current national commitments are met, a temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century is “very likely — meaning that governments need to deliver much stronger pledges when they are revised in 2020.”
“Should the United States follow through with its stated intention to leave the Paris agreement in 2020, the picture could become even bleaker,” UNEP said.
Lead author John Christensen of UN Environment noted some US states like California were “acting independently of what the White House decides.” He said Trump’s bid to peel back constraints on the coal industry won’t mark a major shift because “it simply doesn’t pay off.”
He also said the US targets in the Paris accord, as agreed by the Obama administration, were “not that ambitious in the first place.”
But Christensen told the Geneva panel that the Trump administration’s impact on efforts could affect “negotiation dynamics” with other countries and embolden “what I call ‘noise-makers:’ they are the ones that are opposed to the basic idea” of fighting climate change.
Bob Ward, an expert on climate change policy at the London School of Economics, agreed that the coal industry is “unlikely to be revived in the United States because it is being displaced by cleaner and cheaper sources of energy.”
“Many countries now recognize that the transition to a low-carbon economy will generate sustainable growth and development, with lower poverty and higher living standards,” he said. “High-carbon economies look increasingly uncompetitive.”
A new round of UN climate talks known as COP 23 starts in Bonn, Germany, on Monday, when countries will take stock of their achievements and prepare more ambitious national goals.
On the positive, UNEP highlighted “rapidly expanding mitigation action” and says carbon-dioxide emissions have remained stable since 2014, thanks partly to renewable energy use in China and India. It cautioned that other greenhouse gases like methane continue to rise, however.
UNEP has trumpeted solar and wind energy, efficient appliances and cars, and efforts to preserve forests. Solheim cited tests this week on the world’s first solar-powered railroad in Australia and the launch of a hydrogen-run subway system in northern China.
“We are at the watershed moment: We have stopped the rise in CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions — there is every reason to believe we can bring them down,” Solheim said. “The train is on the right track, but our duty is to speed it up.”
(Source: AP)