Mel Gibson’s latest role in a movie about wealth and power within a super-rich New York family has sparked controversy. Gibson plays the patriarch of the family, in the dark comedy. However the family name in the movie, Rothchild, is strikingly close to the wealthy Jewish banking family Rothschild.
The movie, is being offered to buyers at the Cannes film festival.
Mel Gibson has been accused of anti-semitic behaviour in the past. And although the movie does not allude to any ethnicity in the family the closeness of the names has lead to charges of anti-semitism.
Monsanto the manufactures of the lead brand of weedkiller Round Up, have been ordered to pay a Californian couple $2bn in damages. The couple both contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cancer after using the weedkiller for 30 years on their property.
Pressure has been mounting on Bayer (the German owners of Monsanto) and Monsanto as more lawsuits have been filed. This is the third successful lawsuit against the company of its kind.
The company has been accused of bullying scientists and “ghostwriting” scientific papers claiming Round Up is safe for years. Their has also been close scrutiny over Monsanto’s relationship with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who continue to approve the use of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Round Up) despite growing evidence to suggest that it is carcinogenic.
The Democrates have done away with the requirement that witnesses declare “so help me God,” when giving evidence to Congress.
Republican lawmakers are quick to attack the new procedures, jumping in every time the phrase is omitted.
“I am a sinner, I make mistakes every single day, but I do think that we could use a little more of God, not less,” Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana earnestly told his colleagues seated around the dais of the House Natural Resources Committee.
Since the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal and the #MeToo movement you would think the issue of sexual assault and the “casting couch”: which involved the offer of acting roles in exchange for sexual favours, within the profession would be a thing of the past.
However it appears the #MeToo movement has done little to halt the issue of sex trafficking, and Cannes plays an important role in the practise. Young actresses often from Eastern Europe are groomed and brought to the festival. They are then introduced to these wealthy, powerful men in the industry on their yachts. The young actresses are then promised small or non-speaking parts in movies, allowing them to have a H-1 visa. Once in the US they are passed around powerful and wealthy men in Hollywood. If they refuse they are told they will have their visas revoked. Experts say that immigration officials should always be suspicious if actresses are being given the expensive H-1 visa for small parts in films.
The New York Senate passed two bills back-to-back Wednesday that are being seen as a direct attack of the President.
The first could seen President Trump’s tax returns realised to Congress. The second could allow state prosecutors to charge people whom the President has pardoned with state crimes.
The bills are still to pass through the state assembly, before passing to the Governors desk. Republicans are calling the move politically motivated by the Democratic ran Senate of New York.
A report, newly published, detailing the suicide rates of young people in the U.S. show an increase of nearly third in the month following the realise of “13 Reasons Why” in 2017.
The controversial and highly popular TV series premiered on Netflix in 20017 and follows the story of a teenage girl who commits suicide. In the show she has left 13 video tapes detailing the reasons why she will take her own life. In the final episode viewers graphically see the teen kill herself.
The show caused outrage amongst health care professionals and parents. People are now asking if the sharpe increase in suicide rates amongst this demographic are linked to the hit TV show?
Microsoft has entered the world of election security with its new Open Source software ElectionGuard. Security analysts have said it may take some time for the software to take on.
Microsoft CEO said the new software would help: “modernize all of the election infrastructure everywhere in the world.”
The numbers are plain: New York’s population is falling, for the first time in more than 10 years. New York was once the have-to-be-place for anyone who wanted to make it big in media, fashion, tech, or banking. But now with the ability to remotely work this is no longer the case.
And with the high taxes, high cost of living, crumbling infrastructure, poor schools, and dysfunctional transit system New Yorkers who can are choosing to leave.
Members of the cast of the hit Netflix show “Queer Eye” have met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to gain support for the proposed Equality Act. The Equality act would stop discrimination on a basis of gender identity, sex and sexual orientation by expanding the existing Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The cast members met with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Dem Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as other high profile Democrats.
Conservative radio presenter, Rush Limbaugh, has called for President Trump to call a Special Council to investigate the origins of the Mueller Report. Limbaugh has called for this action as many liberal politicians are still not satisfied with the findings of the Mueller Report. The report, which was set up, to investigate whether the President had colluded with Russia during the 2016 Presidential Elections, found that there was no evidence of collusion.
The British Parliament have had what called “the final decisive” vote on Brexit. With the results in no one option has gained a majority. British politics remains in a state of turmoil as the majority of MPs do not support leaving the EU; but the British people having voted in a referendum to leave the EU: the deadlock continues.
