U.S. health officials announced Friday that the United States will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for signs of a new virus outbreak that has killed two people and sickened dozens of others.Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the screenings will take place at airports in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and will focus on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak.A CDC spokesman, Scott Pauley, told VOA that only people traveling from Wuhan would be screened at this time.Chinese health officials say many of those who became sick from the virus worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan. Three cases have been detected outside China — two in Thailand and one in Japan – with health officials saying those patients had visited Wuhan prior to becoming sick.Health authorities have identified the virus as a new type of coronavirus, part of a large family of viruses that includes the common cold as well as the more serious illness SARS. Scientists say the new virus strain appears most similar to SARS, but say it seems to be weaker than that disease.Two people in China have died from the mysterious virus and 45 others have been infected in Wuhan and nearly 50 have been infected worldwide. Chinese officials say five people remain in serious condition.The CDC says upon arrival in the United States, travelers from Wuhan will answer a health questionnaire and have their temperatures taken for signs of illness. Those who are determined to be at risk of the virus will be taken to a nearby hospital and isolated for further assessment.CDC officials told reporters during a conference call Friday that they expect more cases will be reported outside of China. They said the risk of the virus to the American public is low, but said they want to take proper precautions.Health officials believe the virus spread in China from animals to humans. It is not clear if the virus is now capable of human-to-human transmission, but CDC officials say there are some indications that people may be able to spread the virus in a limited way. Scientists say that it is also possible that the virus could mutate to become more dangerous.At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have also started health screenings for incoming airline passengers from central China.This time of year is one of the busiest travel seasons in China, with people flying both to and from the country to celebrate the Lunar New Year.Pauley said the CDC anticipates a higher number of Chinese travelers to the United States for the New Year and has factored this into its planning.China said it has increased disinfection efforts in major transportation hubs to help ensure the virus does not spread. Wuhan is a main hub in China’s railway network.A State Department spokesman said the United States is closely monitoring the outbreak in China as well as actively working with governments across the region to combat spread of the virus.The World Health Organization is warning that a wider outbreak of the virus is possible and has given guidance to hospitals worldwide. However, in a statement Thursday, the WHO said that it does not recommend instituting any trade or travel restrictions on China at this time.The most common symptoms of the newly identified virus are fever, cough and difficulty breathing.VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Month: January 2020
Oprah Winfrey said Friday that Russell Simmons attempted to pressure her about her involvement with a documentary in which several women detail sexual abuse allegations against the rap mogul, but his efforts were not what prompted her to leave the project.
“He did reach out multiple times and attempted to pressure me,” Winfrey told The Associated Press through a spokesperson on Friday. It was not anything Simmons said that prompted Winfrey to withdraw from the “On the Record” film, according to Winfrey, but rather inconsistencies in the story of one of Simmons’ accusers, Drew Dixon, that she felt needed to be addressed.
Winfrey said Friday that she still believes Dixon and other women in the film, but that more reporting was needed. “On the Record” directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have said they have ample evidence against Simmons, a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings.
Winfrey has said she wanted to delay the release of the film, scheduled to premiere Jan. 25 at the Sundance Film Festival, but that that view was not shared by the film’s directors. “On the Record” had been part of her partnership with Apple, which no longer will distribute the documentary.
Winfrey, who herself has spoken openly of been sexually abused, announced she was leaving as executive producer on Jan. 10, saying that more work was needed and that and the filmmakers were “not aligned” in their “creative vision.” The film’s producers, Impact Partners, said in a statement earlier this week that the movie was ready for Sundance.
“We have always championed the voices of those who have been wrongly silenced. The women in this film have made a great sacrifice by coming forward to tell their stories in their own words. We are honored to support them,” the Impact statement reads. “We stand firmly behind the work of the intrepid filmmakers who continue to break new ground by advancing important stories in the public interest.”
The AP does not typically name alleged victims of sexual abuse, but Dixon has told her story publicly, including on CBS This Morning earlier this week.
The communications between Winfrey and Simmons and her concerns about Dixon’s story were first reported by The New York Times.
Simmons has denied any wrongdoing. On Friday, a Simmons representative issued a statement, saying “If defending himself against terrible accusations is considered intimidation then there would be no justice.”
Speaking to The Associated Press on Friday, Winfrey disputed allegations by the makers of “On the Record” that she gave them little warning before her Jan. 10 announcement. In a story which ran early Friday, Dick and Ziering told The Hollywood Reporter that they received just 20 minutes notice before Winfrey issued her statement.
“It was very disappointing and upsetting,” Ziering told The Hollywood Reporter. We were concerned about the survivors and what the hell this is going to do to them. That was our first thought. 'Oh my God. Let's tell everybody and figure this out.' "The film isn’t ready.”
Winfrey told the AP that Dick and Ziering knew well of her intentions. She said she had raised concerns last month about the film needing more work. According to Winfrey, she told Dick and Ziering that "new information'' had made her see gaps she "thought needed to be filled" and that it was better to "take a rest.''
"They said they would go on with or without me,'' Winfrey told the AP. She said the bottom line for her was that
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Four more cases have been identified in a viral pneumonia outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that has killed two people and prompted countries as far away as the United States to take precautionary measures.
The latest cases bring to 45 the number of people who have contracted the illness, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said Saturday. Five are in serious condition, two died and 15 have been discharged. The others are in stable condition.
The cause of the pneumonia has been traced to a new type of coronavirus.
Health authorities are keen to avoid a repeat of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus that started in southern China in late 2002 and spread to more than two dozen countries, killing nearly 800 people.
The U.S. announced Friday that it would begin screening passengers at three major airports arriving on flights from Wuhan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would deploy 100 people to take the temperatures and ask about symptoms of incoming passengers at the Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City’s Kennedy airports.
At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China. The list includes Thailand and Japan, which have together reported three cases of the disease in people who had come from Wuhan. It is an unusually busy travel period as people take trips to and from China around Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 25 this year.
Doctors began seeing a new type of viral pneumonia – fever, cough, difficulty breathing – in people who worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan late last month. The city’s health commission confirmed a second death this week, a 69-year-old man who fell ill on Dec. 31 and died Wednesday.
Officials have said the pneumonia probably spread from animals to people but haven’t been able to rule out the possibility of human-to-human transmission, which would enable it to spread much faster.
No related cases have been found so far among 763 people who had close contact with those diagnosed with the virus in Wuhan. Of them, 665 have been released and 98 remain under medical observation, the Wuhan health authorities said.
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The new virus emerging from a live animal market in southern China has worrisome echoes of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which killed 774 people worldwide in 2002 and 2003. Two people have died from the new virus, which is closely related to the SARS virus. Forty-one people have become ill. Three travelers have carried it to Thailand and Japan. Georgetown University infectious diseases physician Daniel Lucey worked on SARS in 2003 in China, Hong Kong and Toronto.He says this outbreak is different in three ways. Chinese scientists have tools that were not available in 2002. They had the acumen to look for something new. And they had something else that was missing during SARS: the transparency to warn the world.Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, right, speaks next to Wong Ka-hing, the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health during a press conference at the Health Department in Hong Kong, Jan. 11, 2020.Quick IDThe world first heard about a new disease coming out of Wuhan, China, Dec. 31. A week later, Chinese researchers announced they had identified the culprit. The following week, German researchers developed the first diagnostic test. That’s fast. “It’s truly an incredible accomplishment,” Lucey said. In the early 2000s, scientists looking for a virus had to grow it in animal cells in petri dishes.The problem with SARS was “it didn’t grow in any of the usual cell lines. One of the University of Hong Kong scientists had the idea, ‘Well, let’s just try some other cell lines. Why not? What’s to lose?’ And it grew in one that nobody expected it to grow in,” Lucey said.Then the researchers had to grow enough of the virus to isolate its DNA and read its genetic code, a process known as sequencing.The technology has advanced tremendously in the past decade and a half. “Back then, it took days to sequence,” Lucey said. “Now, it can take hours.”Scientists don’t even need to grow the virus in cells anymore. They can directly detect extremely small amounts of viral DNA in a patient’s spit or blood. A electron microscope image of a coronavirus is seen in this undated picture provided by the Health Protection Agency in London, (File photo).Pneumonia in pneumonia seasonHaving the right tool is important, but what’s more important, Lucey added, is thinking to use it at a time when it’s not obvious. It’s winter in China, he said, and “it’s a tribute to the insight of the Chinese clinicians to recognize that there’s a new infectious disease causing pneumonia in the middle of pneumonia (or flu) season.”Lucey said that didn’t happen in the first outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which has killed more than 850 people.In April 2012, 13 health care workers at a hospital in Zarqa, Jordan, came down with pneumonia. Two died. Tests for known viruses, including SARS, came up negative. Later, in September, a Saudi man died of pneumonia, and scientists determined that a novel virus was causing what was dubbed MERS. Only then did researchers go back and find the MERS virus in samples from the Jordanian patients. Lucey also credits the Chinese scientists for getting the word out quickly. China drew criticism for covering up the spread of SARS in 2002. “You need to have the frame of mind and the political will and the scientific wherewithal to share the information with the world immediately so that diagnostics can be developed immediately,” he said. “And that’s what’s happened. China has done all those things.”However, some information is still missing. The three patients who carried the virus outside China came from Wuhan but have no known link to the animal market identified as the source of the other infections.”It just suggests to me that there are other people in Wuhan that are infected, and/or other animal markets,” Lucey said. “The virus is out of the bag,” he added. “I’m afraid we’re at the beginning of the beginning, and a long way to go.”
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A second person has died from a newly identified virus in central China that has sickened dozens. The outbreak prompted U.S. health officials to announce Friday that the United States would begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China. Here is what we know about the virus.What is the newly identified virus?Health authorities have identified the virus as a new type of coronavirus, part of a large family of viruses that includes the common cold as well as the more serious illness SARS. Laboratory tests have ruled out all previously known coronaviruses, including SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, as well as influenza and bird flu. Scientists say the new virus strain appears most similar to SARS, but say it seems to be weaker than that disease.How many people have become sick?Two people in China have died from the mysterious virus and 41 others have been infected. Chinese officials say five people are in serious condition.FILE – A vendor gives out copies of newspaper with a headlines of “Wuhan breakout a new type of coronavirus, Hong Kong prevents SARS repeat” at a street in Hong Kong, Jan. 11, 2020.Where has the disease been reported?Cases of the virus were first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, believed to be the epicenter of the outbreak. Chinese health officials say many of those who became sick worked at or visited a seafood market in the suburbs of Wuhan. Three cases have been detected outside China — two in Thailand and one in Japan — but health officials say those patients had visited Wuhan before becoming sick.How does the virus spread?Health officials believe the virus is spread from animals to humans. There is, so far, no evidence that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission, although health officials say they cannot rule out this possibility. Scientists say it is also possible that the virus could mutate to become more dangerous.What are the virus symptoms?The most common symptoms of the virus are fever, cough and difficulty breathing.What is the U.S. response?The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk of the virus to the American public is low, but that it wants to be prepared and so is setting up health screenings at three U.S. airports. The focus will be on travelers to the United States on direct or connecting fights from Wuhan. The CDC said travelers with symptoms arriving at San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles airports will undergo testing for flu or other possible causes.How are Asian countries responding?At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have also started health screenings for incoming airline passengers from central China, including Thailand and Japan, both of which have seen cases of the virus. This time of year is one of the busiest travel seasons in China, with people flying both to and from the country to celebrate the Lunar New Year. China has increased disinfection efforts in major transportation hubs.What is the World Health Organization recommending?The WHO is warning that a wider outbreak of the virus is possible and has given guidance to hospitals worldwide. It said in a statement Thursday that it did not recommend instituting any trade or travel restrictions on China at this time.
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A jury of seven men and five women was selected Friday for Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial after an arduous two-week process, setting the stage for testimony to begin in the next week.The final tally mostly erased a gender imbalance that, just hours earlier, led to complaints by prosecutors that the defense was deliberately trying to keep young women off the panel.”They are systematically eliminating a class of people from this jury,” prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said.The defense said it wasn’t specifically targeting young women, but didn’t want jurors who were too young to understand the way men and women interacted in the early 1990s.”That was a different time in New York and on planet Earth,” Weinstein attorney Arthur Aidala said.Weinstein, 67, ambling out of the courthouse, didn’t comment when asked his thoughts on jury selection. “Ask Donna!” he said, referring to lawyer Donna Rotunno. Three alternate jurors — one man and two women — were also seated who will sit through the trial and take the place of any jurors on the main panel who can’t make it through to deliberations.Donna Rotunno walks ahead of her client Harvey Weinstein, left, as they arrive at a Manhattan courthouse to attend jury selection for his trial on rape and sexual assault charges in New York, Jan. 17, 2020.Weinstein, the former studio boss behind such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” is charged with raping a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting another woman in 2006. He has pleaded not guilty and said any sexual activity was consensual. If convicted, he could face life in prison.Complicated selection processThe tussle over juror gender comes amid a selection process that has been far from easy.Weinstein’s case has attracted widespread public attention and catalyzed the MeToo movement as dozens of women have come forward over the last two years with allegations of sexual misconduct. That’s made it tough for Weinstein’s lawyers, prosecutors and Burke to find a fair and impartial jury.Each day for nearly a week, whenever Judge James Burke introduced Weinstein to a new batch of potential jurors and asked if they couldn’t be impartial, dozens of hands shot up.Weinstein’s lawyers have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to move the trial out New York City, arguing that the media hub where celebrities and ordinary people often intersect can’t possibly give Weinstein a fair trial.Cognizant of the media attention and the weight some people are putting on the case, Burke has cautioned potential jurors: “This trial is not a referendum on the #MeToo movement.”Of more than 600 people summoned as potential jurors in Weinstein’s case, some have marked themselves for disqualification by admitting they knew one of Weinstein’s many accusers, had personal experience with sexual abuse, or read “Catch and Kill,” a book by Ronan Farrow, one of the first reporters to bring the allegations against Weinstein to light.There were others like supermodel Gigi Hadid, who reported for jury duty and wound up in the Weinstein pool, who even said they had met the defendant. One man’s wife starred on a show that Weinstein’s studio produced and said he couldn’t be impartial. One woman said she couldn’t be impartial because she has a “close friend who had an encounter with the defendant in his hotel room.”Another man was scratched for saying he couldn’t be fair-minded because he had often spotted Weinstein in Tribeca, the lower Manhattan neighborhood that hosts an annual film festival. “On several occasions I’ve seen him on the phone screaming at someone,” he said of Weinstein.In the end, the jury includes the author of a upcoming novel that she describes as involving young women dealing with predatory older men. The defense, out of challenges, argued against including her on the jury, but Burke said she could serve. The defense then asked for a mistrial over her inclusion on the jury but was denied. Weinstein lawyer Rotunno said the woman had lied on her jury questionnaire, but prosecutors noted she disclosed on the form that she was a novelist.That so many people in the running to be on the jury have had experiences involving Weinstein or his accusers speaks to the breadth of his alleged abuse, as well as the ubiquitous nature of celebrity in New York, where stars are frequently spotted by paparazzi and the public alike riding the subway, shopping for groceries and walking their pets.Juror prejudices, experiencesThen there have been other issues, including at least one instance of what jury consultants call “stealth jurors” — people eager to serve, especially on a high-profile case, because they hope to make a point, or a profit.On Thursday, Burke threatened to hold a potential juror in contempt of court for asking his followers on Twitter “how a person might hypothetically leverage serving on the jury of a high-profile case to promote their new novel.”Opening statements are expected next Wednesday. The trial could last about six weeks.While Weinstein’s celebrity was behind some of the difficulties in finding an impartial jury in this case, they also stemmed from the fact that the MeToo movement has Americans thinking more than ever about their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault.”A lot of folks who will be incapable of separating their own workplace experiences from the case … and might not even recognize that they’re bringing their own prejudice, if you will, to bear on the circumstances,” said jury consultant Philip K. Anthony. “It’s not bad on their part — it’s just human nature.”Anthony’s Los Angeles consulting firm is not involved in Weinstein’s case.During the phase of jury selection called voir dire, where lawyers attempt to size up people who have assured the judge they could be fair and impartial jurors, the lawyers’ concerns were in evidence. Addressing a pool of prospective jurors Thursday, prosecutor Meghan Hast signaled concerns that the sight of Weinstein, who’s been using a walker since back surgery last month, could influence their attitudes about him.”Is there anything about Harvey Weinstein, looking at him today, that makes you feel that there’s no way that man’s a rapist?” she asked. No one responded.Defense lawyer Damon Cheronis told the panel that they would hear testimony from Weinstein accusers who might get emotional and cry on the witness stand. He also asked the potential jurors whether they were familiar with the concept of “victim shaming.”Another one of his questions: “Does anybody think an individual could have sex with someone that they may not find attractive for reasons other than love?” No one responded.Prosecutors plan to call at least four women to the witness stand who have accused Weinstein of violating them, but whose allegations weren’t the basis for the New York charges.As jury selection was getting under way last week, California prosecutors charged Weinstein with sexually assaulting two women there, one of whom who is expected to testify in the New York case.Burke ruled Friday that if Weinstein testifies on his own behalf, prosecutors can’t question him about that accuser on cross examination.
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More than two years after France promised to return colonial-era treasures to their African homes, Benin — ostensibly the first recipient of the groundbreaking policy — still awaits them. But on Friday, a small museum outside Cotonou celebrated the return of antique royal scepters gifted by a group of Paris gallery owners.In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked joy — and unease — when he announced colonial-era treasures from Africa would be returned, or shared through exhibitions and loans. The first gesture would be the speedy return to Benin of 26 objects looted by French colonial forces in 1892.But turning that promise into reality is not so easy. Only last December did France’s culture minister offer a concrete timetable, saying the objects now housed at Paris’ leading African art museum would be returned by 2021.Enter a group of Paris Left Bank gallery owners, whose private efforts are moving much more quickly than public ones. They have not only acquired and returned precious antiques to Benin for years, but raised funds to build a small museum outside Cotonou to house them.On Friday that institution, the Petit Musee de la Recade, welcomed one of its biggest troves to date: more than two dozen pieces, including 17 scepters, coming from the ancient Kingdom of Dahomey, located in parts of what is modern day Benin.Speaking by phone from Cotonou, Paris gallery owner Robert Vallois said the gesture doesn’t constitute restitution of ill-gotten art. Instead, he and his colleagues bought the antiques in France, with the specific intent of returning them to Benin.Macron’s restitution promise has been more complicated to realize. It means changing French laws and ensuring old and fragile pieces are properly housed.With French support, Benin is building a new museum in Abomey, once the capital of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Jose Pliya, head of Benin’s national agency for heritage promotion and tourism development, spoke to VOA about the process last year.”We really have to have the good condition — temperature, isolation, conservation — to welcome them … a lot of things have to be done. The training of all the conservators in Benin, how to protect the pieces,” Pliya said.Despite the roadblocks, Macron’s restitution vows add pressure on other European countries and museums with African collections.Vallois said he and his gallery group are not part of such debates. Instead, they’re following their own counsel — and what’s important to them is that the objects return to their countries of origin.
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Set in the 1933 Soviet Union, the historical movie drama “Mr. Jones,” director by Agnieszka Holland and first-time screenwriter Andrea Chalupa, packs a powerful message. The movie tells a story of a young Welsh reporter searching for truth in the 1933 Soviet Union. Tatiana Vorozhko has the story, narrated by Joy Wagner.
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Bobby Humphreys never thought that it would be a tiny Chihuahua that would help him go through a very large rough patch in life. But the small dog named Lady did more than that – she also inspired the Maryland native to turn his home into a shelter for abandoned, abused and neglected Chihuahuas. Evgeniya Samus has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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U.S. health officials announced Friday that they will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for a new virus that has sickened dozens and killed two, prompting worries about a new international outbreak.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say they will begin taking temperatures and asking about symptoms of passengers at three U.S. airports who traveled from the outbreak city of Wuhan.Officials estimate roughly 5,000 passengers will go through the process in the next couple of weeks at New York City’s JFK International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. The first direct flight was expected Friday night at JFK, and the next expected Saturday morning in San Francisco.More than 40 cases of the newly identified coronavirus have been confirmed in Asia, including two deaths — at least one involving a previous medical condition. Officials have said it probably spread from animals to people but haven’t been able to rule out the possibility that it spreads from person to person.So far, the risk to the American public is deemed to be low, but the CDC wants to be prepared and is taking precautions, Dr. Martin Cetron said.It’s always possible a virus can mutate to become more dangerous. It’s also likely that more cases will spring up around the world, including at least one at some point in the United States, said another CDC official, Dr. Nancy Messonnier.At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China. The list includes Thailand and Japan, which both have reported cases of the disease in people who had come from Wuhan. Travel is unusually heavy right now as people take trips to and from China to celebrate the Lunar New Year.Arguments against screeningThe CDC said the airport screenings are part of an effort to better detect and prevent the virus from the same family of bugs that caused an international outbreaks of SARS and MERS that began in 2002 and 2012.SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, belongs to the coronavirus family, but Chinese state media say the illness in Wuhan is different from coronaviruses that have been identified in the past. Earlier laboratory tests ruled out SARS and MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome — as well as influenza, bird flu, adenovirus and other common lung-infecting germs.CDC officials said Friday that they are not certain if China has begun screening passengers before they board airplanes to travel abroad, but it’s been discussed.The New York and San Francisco airports each receive three direct flights from Wuhan each week, Cetron said. Los Angeles International gets significant numbers of passengers who start their journeys in Wuhan but change planes in Beijing.People with symptoms who seem like they might be infected will undergo testing for flu or other possible causes. Specimens can be sent to CDC for specialized testing for the new virus, though it can take a day for those results to come back, CDC officials said.
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An unprecedented show for the people of Saudi Arabia, with a young girl taking center stage and representing the kingdom’s younger generation, was held at Riyadh’s King Fahd stadium on Jan. 16, 2020.The event, attended by thousands of enthusiastic Saudis, was the grand finale of the Riyadh Season, a huge entertainment festival attended by millions over the past three months. The show, titled “Leila, the Land of Imagination” and incorporating dancing, music and fireworks, was about a 10-year-old girl who explores the history of Saudi Arabia and dreams of a future without prejudice. The event was the brainchild of Italy’s Marco Balich, responsible for more than 30 ceremonies for the Olympic Games. His all-female creative team worked inside and outside the kingdom for over a year and a half to create an unforgettable experience for the audience. “Leila, the Land of Imagination,” the grand finale of the Riyadh Season, told the story of a young girl who represented Saudi’s new generation looking toward the future, in Saudi Arabia, Jan. 16, 2020. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)For Saudi entertainment authorities, it was a musical and fireworks extravaganza — the culmination of a festival with more than 200 artistic and sporting events in 12 areas of the capital. Many foreign visitors also participated. Balich, the executive producer, called it a “moment where energy is blossoming in Saudi Arabia. Women are now driving and taking positions and this new energy is transforming Saudi Arabia into a land of opportunities for the younger generation.”
“2020 is an amazing year for Saudi Arabia because things are actually physically changing,” Balich said. “Abaya [is] not compulsory anymore, music is everywhere, concerts, entertainment, 500 movie theaters. And this ceremony, this big show in the stadium summarizes, in a way, this kind of energy.”The grand finale of the Riyadh Season involves more than 400 performers, at the King Fahd Stadium in Saudi Arabia, Jan. 16, 2020. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)Creative director Angela Alo led the team that put the show together, involving more than 400 performers. Saudi Arabia is changing, she said, and the show represented that change. The journey of the main character Leila, whose name means “daughter of the night” in Arabic, was the result of wild imagination, she added.Balich also discussed the young Saudi girl.”Leila is a young girl that has a 70-year expectancy in front of her, of a country that is changing rapidly,” he said. “I believe that she can be the symbol of this gracious and gentle revolution that is happening in this country.”Najua, a young female dentist in the audience at the stadium, said it was the first time she had seen such a show, adding it was “really fantastic.”
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An ancient and rare species of tree has been saved from Australia’s bush fires by a specialist team of firefighters. Australia’s Wollemi pines survived the dinosaurs, and were protected from huge blazes near Sydney by water-bombing aircraft and specialist firefighters, who were winched into a narrow gorge by helicopter. “It was a military-style operation,” said Matt Kean, the New South Wales environment minister. “We had fire retardant, irrigation systems. We winched staff into the area to make sure that we were doing everything we could to protect the trees, and fortunately it paid off.”These trees can be found nowhere else in the world. In fact, there are only 200 left on the planet, so we needed to do everything we could to protect them and ensure they were able to survive into the future,” he added.An aerial view of Wollemi National Park where endangered Wollemi Pines are being protected from bush fires by a specialist team of remote-area firefighters and parks staff at New South Wales, Australia, mid-January 2020.The Wollemi National Park near Sydney is the only place in the world where these giant trees are found in the wild. Before 1994, they were thought to be extinct. Experts believe the pines are an invaluable link to Australia’s prehistoric past, and have estimated the grove could be up to 200 million years old.Their exact location is a secret because of fears that visitors could bring in pathogens that might cause disease. Some trees were charred by the flames, and a couple of trees were destroyed, but this rare species has survived Australia’s bush fire crisis.The fires have killed 29 people and an estimated one billion animals, as well as destroying hundreds of homes.Heavy rain has fallen across southeastern Australia, offering some relief for fire crews battling dozens of blazes, but there are concerns the wet weather could cause landslides and flash flooding.
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Two documentaries offering a female perspective on the death and destruction in the war-torn Syrian cities of Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta received Oscar nominations for Best Documentary. Waad al-Kateab’s film “For Sama” and Feras Fayyad’s film “The Cave” document civilians’ struggle for survival in devastated cities where doctors in makeshift hospitals tend to throngs of injured and dying. Amidst airstrikes, barrel bombs and chemical attacks, citizen journalist-turned-filmmaker al-Kateab chronicles her daily life in besieged Aleppo since the beginning of the rebellion against the Assad regime in 2012.”When I filmed everything you’ve seen in the film, I had no idea that I would do a film. So, I was just documenting all these moments because I was sure that I would be killed and I wanted this story not to be dead,” al-Kateab told VOA.”For Sama” is a visual diary dedicated to her daughter, Sama, born in the middle of destruction.Over five years in Aleppo, al-Kateab filmed thousands of hours of footage, recording her personal life as a young student, as a young bride living with her husband, Hamza, a doctor in Aleppo, and then as a mother.FILE – Director/producer/cinematographer Waad al-Kateab, left, and director Edward Watts participate in PBS’s “For Sama” panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., July 30, 2019.While thousands of people who were looking for a better life abandoned the city, al-Kateab and her husband chose to stay, with Hamza working at a makeshift hospital where he was one of the few doctors left tending to injured civilians, mostly women and children.While airstrikes were hitting the hospital, al-Kateab kept filming the incoming casualties, holding the camera with one hand and her baby with the other. “I can’t really separate myself between Waad the mother and Waad the journalist. Everything I was trying to do was mixed between these two, and you can see that in the film,” she said.Filming everything around her served as a coping mechanism for al-Kateab. When she would feel hopeless as a mother, unable to give her daughter a better life, she would keep filming. And when she could no longer bear to film the horrors she witnessed, she would find solace in her baby daughter. She also drew hope that her footage would humanize the refugees on the world stage by showing how dangerous life is in Syria.”Behind every one of us, there is a story, there is a lot of memories, there is childhood and a lot of complicated decisions until they (we) reach this point. When people see the film, they can experience the same situation I went through,” al-Kateab said.After five years in Aleppo, ak-Kateab fled to London with her family in 2017. There, she collaborated with award-winning filmmaker and producer Edward Watts to make “For Sama.””It was incredibly challenging, trying to make this film,” Watts told VOA. “There were so many different stories. It was the story of Aleppo. The story of the hospital and their friends. It was the story of the whole conflict. And there was so much incredible footage. Trying to scope that, distill that down, while retaining its essence, retaining its spirit and doing justice to these guys’ lives was very hard.”‘The Cave'”The Cave” by Syrian filmmaker Fayyad is also an Oscar contender in the category of Best Documentary Feature. This is Fayyad’s second Oscar-nominated documentary on war-torn Syria.As in the film “For Sama,” Fayyad’s documentary chronicles Herculean efforts by a skeleton crew of doctors and nurses at an underground hospital called The Cave to save as many lives as possible from airstrikes by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its allies in Eastern Ghouta. “The Cave” also chronicles the destruction through the eyes of a woman, the hospital’s head doctor, Dr. Amani Ballour, in a culture where, for women, wartime struggles are compounded by gender inequality.”A woman would be attacked if she turned to be a manager, and this is what happened with Dr. Amani. She managed to be a manager. She was the first manager in the history of Syria to lead a hospital,” Fayyad told VOA.FILE – Feras Fayyad arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, March 4, 2018.Fayyad also said that the film documents airstrikes by Russian warplanes and chemical attacks by the Assad regime on civilians, many of them children.He said both the Syrian government and its Russian allies have tried to discredit his film.”They called me a propaganda maker and the film a propaganda film,” Fayyad told VOA.Theodore Strzhizhovskiy, head of press, information and public relations of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, told VOA: “As for ‘The Cave,’ we do not closely follow Mr. Fayyad’s creative endeavors.”Fayyad, a Syrian exile living in Denmark, has been denied a visa to enter the United States to attend the Oscars.Members of the International Documentary Association wrote a letter to the U.S. State Department, requesting that Fayyad be given a visa to enter the U.S. and represent his film at the Oscars.When asked by VOA about the filmmaker’s case, the State Department responded in a statement: “The Department of State recognizes the important contributions international filmmakers and documentarians make to the culture of the United States. We strive to facilitate the legitimate travel of artists to the United States, regardless of nationality.”
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Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing of “Music to be Murdered By” on Friday.The follow-up to 2018’s “Kamikaze” – also released without warning – was announced on Twitter just after midnight.The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the album, “Darkness,” which depicts a shooting at a concert and includes footage of news broadcasts from recent mass shootings around the U.S. The video ends with an appeal to register to vote: “When will this end? When enough people care. Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”The cover art features a bearded Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head, in apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 album of the same name, Pitchfork noted.Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.
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For almost two years, a group of dedicated young women in a conservative neighborhood of Pakistan has been working to beat the odds and change the culture around them. The women are doing it by cycling. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from Pakistan’s largest city Karachi
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Today she travels the world, attends a red-carpet movie premiere and sits on panels with astronauts, former presidents and feminist icons.But in the years after 9/11, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, center, sits at the Islamic Center of New York University during Friday prayers, Dec. 27, 2019. At 17, she and a group of friends started the blog Muslimgirl.com in response to anti-Muslim bullying they experienced after 9/11.A decade later, her She was 9 when the airliners struck the World Trade Center towers, and she remembers the warning of her Jordanian immigrant father: “They’re going to blame us.”In the aftermath, she was bullied. People threw eggs at her home and slashed her mother’s tires. Her family faced such a backlash that her father temporarily relocated them to Jordan.While she is proud of being “born and raised a Jersey girl,” it was only in Jordan that she began to take pride in her roots. She learned Arabic and appreciated Middle Eastern food and hospitality. When she returned to the U.S., she began to wear a headscarf as an act of defiance against a rising anti-Muslim tide.“I lost a lot of friends, people started treating me differently,” she said. But she also became an ambassador for her faith. Students, even teachers, stopped her in school and asked about the Quran and Islam.“I had to learn as much as I possibly could about my own religion, the ins and outs of it, what Islamophobes were saying about it, so that I could understand how to respond,” she said.Eventually, she concluded that if the people around her had those questions, so did many others.In recent years, Forbes magazine chose her for its “30 Under 30” list of top achievers. Michelle Obama asked her to speak at the United State of Women Summit. She was also part of a panel that included female astronaut Cody Coleman and was moderated by former President Bill Clinton. Most recently, she served on an advisory committee for the live-action remake of Disney’s “Aladdin” and attended the premiere.“It was such a full-circle moment for me, because when I was a little girl, Princess Jasmine was one of the only representations that I had growing up,” she said.Being on the committee allowed her “to try to course-correct some of the problematic stereotypes” in the first movie, including some that she did not notice as a child.She pointed to two examples: The opening song talked about a faraway place that is “barbaric.” And Jasmine was dressed in a belly dancing outfit and chains in a “hyper-sexualized and oppressive way.”On her site, Al-Khatahtbeh is especially proud of stories that deal with race and sexuality. “Of course, female sexuality is honored within our religion, and it shouldn’t be something we shy away from or think of as a taboo.”Most of the site’s visitors live in the U.S. and Britain, and an estimated 70% are Millennials and Gen Z ages 15 to 32. One of the site’s most controversial stories was written by a Muslim transgender convert.“We want to push the envelope that way by creating that space and reminding people that they have a place within our religion,” she said. “I’m really proud of that, because one thing MuslimGirl does really well is we attract youth. They want to come in, and they want to learn more about Islam because of the way that we put it out there. We always say that our language is the Millennial tongue.”
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Ohio’s Statehouse would join a small number of others around the country with outdoor monuments dedicated to real women in U.S. history under a proposal expected Thursday to create a memorial to Ohio women who fought for voting rights.Currently, all statues of historical figures outside the Statehouse are of men, including Christopher Columbus, President William McKinley (a former Ohio governor), and seven Civil War generals including Ulysses S. Grant.“Who are these seven men?” asks a trivia question for tourists at the base of the Civil War statue, which is topped by a statue of a woman from ancient Rome whose sons were prominent in the military and politics.Women’s Suffrage MovementThe Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery looks back at the women’s suffrage movement – one of the longest reform movements in U.S. history – with an exhibition called, “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence.” Curator Kate Clarke Lemay shows us some of the art and artifacts from that era and how creating visual displays for their cause created a different understanding about women’s freedom and voting rights.
Reporter: Julie Taboh, Camera: Adam Greenbaum; Adapted by: Martin SecrestAround the corner, “Peace,” a winged female figure, stands on the north side of the Statehouse, remembering Ohio’s civil war soldiers “And The Loyal Women Of That Period.” Another statue of a generic woman, also representing peace, sits below a statue of McKinley.On Thursday, members of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission planned to propose the voting rights memorial to the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board.It’s time to include real women on the Statehouse grounds, especially those who fought for such an important right, said State Sen. Stephanie Kunze, a co-chair of the commission. Such a statue would both honor their work and inspire the girls and young women of today, she said.“It’s deserving to honor the women who fought for the right to vote during this 100th anniversary, and then to really look forward to see what else women are going to achieve in the next 100 years,” said Kunze, a Republican from Hilliard in suburban Columbus.Wax statues at at the Occoquan Workhouse Museum in Lorton, Virginia, show the 1917 force-feeding of suffragist Lucy Burns, an American women’s rights advocate who was on hunger strike. (Photo by Diaa Bekheet)If the memorial is approved, fundraising would likely top $1 million and construction could follow after a five-year waiting period.Nationally, statues of real women are relatively rare on the grounds of statehouses.Connecticut’s Statehouse features a statue of former Gov. Ella Grasso, the state’s first female governor elected in her own right, while Utah has a statue of Martha Hughes Cannon, the country’s first female state senator.A statue of Esther Hobart Morris, Wyoming’s first female justice of the peace, stood for years in front of the state Capitol but was moved inside after last year’s renovation, with some calls for it to be returned outside after its own renovation. In Hawaii, the Capitol features a statue of Queen Liliuokalani, the last monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom.The Arkansas Capitol has a statue featuring the Little Rock Nine, the black students who integrated Central High School, six of whom were girls.Arkansas and Mississippi also have monuments to Confederate women featuring figurative representations. “Forward,” an allegorical female statue, stands outside the Wisconsin State Capitol. “As Long as the Waters Flow,” a 13-foot representation of a Native American woman, stands prominently outside the Oklahoma Capitol.Minnesota has a memorial to women’s suffrage that honors 25 women who fought for voting rights, with an expansive garden that includes their names but no statues.Inside statehouses, Alabama has a statue of Gov. Lurleen Wallace, Illinois has a statue of Lottie Holman O’Neill, the first woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly, and Oklahoma has a statue of Kate Barnard, the second woman ever to be elected to a statewide public office in the United States (Oklahoma commissioner of charities and corrections in 1907).Nebraska’s hall of fame inside the Capitol building includes busts of Willa Cather and Mari Sandoz, and Maryland will soon have an indoor statue of Harriet Tubman.Over the years, the country hasn’t done a great job honoring all the people who contributed to what it means to be American, said Lisa Benton-Short, a geography professor at George Washington University.“There’s a lot of our story that’s missing, and it’s missing from those key spaces,” she said.The Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial, unveiled in 2014 on the South Side of the Ohio Statehouse, was the Capitol’s last new outdoor memorial. At the time, some questioned its appropriateness because it includes a representation of the Star of David, while others worried about triggering a race to erect other memorials. In the end, though, it was easily approved.
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The The World Health Organization reports that 3,382 cases of Ebola, including 2,232 deaths, have occurred in Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces since the start of the outbreak in August 2018. The epidemic is unfolding in an area affected by a two decades-long conflict that has claimed countless lives.Capobianco says this unstable, dangerous situation has raised fear and hostility in communities toward responders.”The episode was regrettable and I think the expression of the frustration in the communities seeing this Ebola outbreak continuing month after month,” he said. “You know, this is a year-and-a-half now. And, that is a way that the frustration and the fear is manifesting.” Capobianco says the attack is a sign that the Red Cross needs to do more to build community trust and acceptance. He says the hundreds of volunteers involved in Ebola operations come from the communities in which they work. He says this is one of their strengths.After the volunteers recover from the shock of the attack, he says they will go back into the communities. The Red Cross official says they will talk and listen to what they have to say while continuing to involve them in the Ebola response.
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The last 10 years were the hottest decade ever measured on Earth, last year was the second warmest ever and NASA says “you haven’t seen anything yet.”The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that the average global temperature in the 2010s was 14.7 degrees Celsius, with eight of the 10 hottest years ever recorded.Parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America had record-high temperatures in 2019. Alaska’s average temperature was above freezing for the first time in recorded history.Many climate scientists who have seen the study said there was no other explanation for the record-breaking warming than human activity.”This is going to be part of what we see every year until we stabilize greenhouse gases,” said Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “We crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming territory in 2015 and we are unlikely to go back. This shows that what’s happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some weather phenomenon.”Experts say natural causes of a warmer atmosphere, including more heat from the sun and climate variations, are not big enough to explain the long-term temperature rise.For those who still question global warming, the scientists say all one has to do is look at melting ice sheets, more powerful storms, floods in some parts of the world and drought in others as clear evidence.
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The new U.S.-China trade agreement includes provisions that are aimed at curbing forced technology transfers, in which companies hand over technical know-how to foreign partners. For many high-tech businesses, the intellectual property behind their products represents the bulk of their companies’ value. To learn more about the risks of IP theft, Elizabeth Lee recently visited the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where companies talked about the risks to their technology secrets.
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The former pope Benedict XVI reportedly wants his name removed from a controversial book that appears to undermine his successor, Pope Francis, on issues of priestly celibacy. The book hit stores Wednesday in France, the first country to publish it. But despite the furor the book has stirred in the press, many French readers appear underwhelmed.The book, “Des Profondeurs de Nos Coeurs,” meaning “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” defends priestly celibacy at a time when Pope Francis is considering whether to lift restrictions on married priests in remote areas. Cardinal Robert Sarah, who co-authored the book, rejects accusations he manipulated Benedict regarding the content. The furor, which appears to lay bare spiritual divisions between the two popes, has made news headlines, but hasn’t stirred up much public interest. Parisian Brigitte Gallay says she has heard about the book, but notes Protestant ministers are married with children. She sees nothing wrong about a church that’s closer to the lives of ordinary people — even though some Catholics might be shocked at the thought of married priests. The Catholic Church has taken a hit in France, not just because of declining attendance, but also because of a major pedophilia scandal — the theme of a recent movie. A trial opened this month against a priest at the heart of the scandal, which has helped fuel debate about the dangers of priestly celibacy. At Paris bookstore Gibert Joseph, social worker Alexander Monnot adds the book to a pile of others he’s planning to buy. Monnot says he supports celibacy for priests. “The fact is, at the very beginning of the Church, there was Jesus and 12 apostles,” Monnot said. “And even some were married. They all left their families to preach. Jesus was not married. And priests should be an incarnation, a continuation of Jesus.”Monnot says he is looking forward to reading the book’s arguments in favor of celibacy, but that’s not the only reason he’s buying it. He predicts the French publisher will recall this edition, which has Benedict’s name as co-author, meaning the copy he’s buying may one day be a collector’s item.
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The possibility that a new virus in central China could spread between humans cannot be ruled out, though the risk of transmission at the moment appears to be low, Chinese officials said Wednesday.
Forty-one people in the city of Wuhan have received a preliminary diagnosis of a novel coronavirus, a family of viruses that can cause both the common cold and more serious diseases. A 61-year-old man with severe underlying conditions died from the coronavirus on Saturday.
While preliminary investigations indicate that most of the patients had worked at or visited a particular seafood wholesale market, one woman may have contracted the virus from her husband, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a public notice.
The commission said the husband, who fell ill first, worked at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Meanwhile, the wife said she hasn’t had any exposure to the market.
It’s possible that the husband brought home food from the market that then infected his wife, Hong Kong health official Chuang Shuk-kwan said at a news briefing. But because the wife did not exhibit symptoms until days after her husband, it’s also possible that he infected her.
Chuang and other Hong Kong health officials spoke to reporters Wednesday following a trip to Wuhan, where mainland Chinese authorities briefed them on the outbreak.
The threat of human-to-human transmission remains low, Chuang said, as hundreds of people, including medical professionals, have been in close contact with infected individuals and have not been infected themselves.
She echoed Wuhan authorities’ assertion that there remains no definitive evidence of human-to-human transmission.
The outbreak in Wuhan has raised the specter of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS is a type of coronavirus that first struck southern China in late 2002. It then spread to more than two dozen countries, killing nearly 800 people.
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Posthumous inductees Whitney Houston and The Notorious B.I.G. will lead a new class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined by Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails and T-Rex.The gospel-trained Houston, whose soaring voice transformed the Dolly Parton cover “I Will Always Love You” into a gigantic hit, was one of four artists elected after being on the ballot for the first time. The Doobie Brothers, Biggie and T-Rex were the others.The annual induction ceremony will take place May 2 at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, the city where the rock museum is located. The Saturday night show will be on HBO, televised live for the first time.Houston, who succumbed to years of drug abuse in 2012, was an instant success after being signed to a record contract at age 19. Her 1985 debut had three No. 1 singles: ”Saving All My Love for You,” ”How Will I Know” and ”The Greatest Love of All.” She had seven consecutive singles top the charts, a first for any artist.The daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and cousin of Dionne Warwick, she grew up in the business.The imposing, Brooklyn-born rap artist Christopher Wallace took on the identities of The Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls and was massively influential as rap became music’s dominant style in the 1990s. With hits like ”Juicy” and ”Big Poppa,” he was the leader of an East Coast school of rap that found itself in a bitter rivalry with artists from the West Coast.He was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles at age 24 in 1997. On the album, ”Life After Death,” with hits like ”Mo Money Mo Problems” and ”Hypnotize,” he became the first artist to earn multiple No. 1 singles after his death.Depeche Mode remains active, but its biggest influence came in the 1980s, when its post-punk, synthesizer-dominated music made the Brits a favorite of the goth subculture. Hits included ”Personal Jesus,” ”Just Can’t Get Enough” and ”Enjoy the Silence.”Depeche Mode shares with fellow inductees Nine Inch Nails the honor of having one of their signature songs covered by country legend Johnny Cash, who recorded ”Personal Jesus” and NIN’s ”Hurt” during his late-career resurgence.With songs like ”Closer,” NIN was a leader of the industrial rock movement in the 1990s. Like Green Day, a memorable performance in the mud at Woodstock ’94 brought them a wider audience. Leader Trent Reznor has become a go-to soundtrack producer in addition to his continued work with Nine Inch Nails.The Doobie Brothers weren’t critical favorites, but they had some indelible rock hits in the 1970s, including ”Listen to the Music,” ”Black Water” and ”China Grove.” They’re embarking on a 50th anniversary tour this summer, bringing members Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons, Tom Johnston and John McFee together for the first time in 25 years, and a rock hall induction makes for perfect publicity.The British band T-Rex was know primarily for its 1970s hit ”Bang a Gong (Get it On)” and, to a lesser extent, ”Jeepster.” The death of leader Marc Bolan in 1977 ended the band.The two non-performing inductees may be able to bring some star power with them.Music manager Irving Azoff has watched the finances for several bands, but is best-known as the manager of the Eagles since 1974.Jon Landau is a former music journalist, known for an indelible line when he saw a concert by a little-known artist in 1974: ”I saw rock `n’ roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” Shortly thereafter, he became Springsteen’s manager, a job he still holds today.Tickets for the induction ceremony go on sale Feb. 27. Performers will be announced at a later date.
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A legal adviser at the European Union’s highest court said Wednesday that the bloc’s data protection rules should prevent member states from indiscriminately holding personal data seized from Internet and phone companies, even when intelligence agencies claim that national security is at stake.
In a non-binding opinion on how the European Court of Justice, or ECJ, should rule on issues relating to access by security and intelligence agencies to communications data retained by telecommunications providers, advocate general Campos Sanchez-Bordona said “the means and methods of combating terrorism must be compatible with the requirements of the rule of law.”
Commenting on a series of cases from France, the U.K. and Belgium — three countries that have been hit by extremist attacks in recent years and have reinforced surveillance — Sanchez-Bordona said that the ECJ’s case law should be upheld. He cited a case in which the court ruled that general and indiscriminate retention of communications “is disproportionate” and inconsistent with EU privacy directives.
The advocate general recommended limited access to the data, and only when it is essential “for the effective prevention and control of crime and the safeguarding of national security.”
The initial case was brought by Privacy International, a charity promoting the right to privacy. Referring to the ECJ’s case law, it said that the acquisition, use, retention, disclosure, storage and deletion of bulk personal data sets and bulk communications data by the U.K. security and intelligence agencies were unlawful under EU law.
The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal referred the case to the ECJ, which held a joint hearing with two similar cases from France and another one from Belgium.
“We welcome today’s opinion from the advocate general and hope it will be persuasive to the Court,” said Caroline Wilson Palow, the Legal Director of Privacy International. “The opinion is a win for privacy. We all benefit when robust rights schemes, like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, are applied and followed.”
The ECJ’s legal opinions aren’t legally binding, but are often followed by the court. The ECJ press service said a ruling is expected within two months.
“Should the court decide to follow the opinion of the advocate general, ‘metadata’ such as traffic and location data will remain subject to a high level of protection in the European Union, even when they are accessed for national security purposes,” said Luca Tosoni, a researcher at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law. “This would require several member states — including Belgium, France, the U.K. and others — to amend their domestic legislation.”
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