Archives for March 2022

Despite their economic interdependence, the two countries have been at loggerheads over regional security, Australia’s ban on the use of Chinese technology for 5G telephone networks, and Australian legislation aimed at curbing China’s efforts to influence the country’s domestic politics.

China has frozen high-level government contacts with Australia and put informal sanctions on some of the country’s goods, including wine and barley. Australia’s center-right prime minister, Scott Morrison, who faces an election within months, has accused opposition politicians of selling out to Beijing, drawing rebukes from former and current Australian intelligence officials.

In June 2020, officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization searched the homes of four Chinese journalists based in Australia. Two Australian journalists who were working in China left there in haste a few months later after state security officers questioned them, including about Ms. Cheng.

Ms. Cheng’s friends have doubted that she was detained because of these broader issues, though the tensions may now weaken Australia’s leverage over her fate.

As a business news host for CGTN, or China Global Television News, China’s main international broadcaster, she promoted herself as a bridge between the two countries and was uninterested in gossiping about politics, said Rowan Callick, an Australian journalist formerly based in Beijing.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/asia/china-cheng-lei-australia.html

Despite their economic interdependence, the two countries have been at loggerheads over regional security, Australia’s ban on the use of Chinese technology for 5G telephone networks, and Australian legislation aimed at curbing China’s efforts to influence the country’s domestic politics.

China has frozen high-level government contacts with Australia and put informal sanctions on some of the country’s goods, including wine and barley. Australia’s center-right prime minister, Scott Morrison, who faces an election within months, has accused opposition politicians of selling out to Beijing, drawing rebukes from former and current Australian intelligence officials.

In June 2020, officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization searched the homes of four Chinese journalists based in Australia. Two Australian journalists who were working in China left there in haste a few months later after state security officers questioned them, including about Ms. Cheng.

Ms. Cheng’s friends have doubted that she was detained because of these broader issues, though the tensions may now weaken Australia’s leverage over her fate.

As a business news host for CGTN, or China Global Television News, China’s main international broadcaster, she promoted herself as a bridge between the two countries and was uninterested in gossiping about politics, said Rowan Callick, an Australian journalist formerly based in Beijing.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/asia/china-cheng-lei-australia.html

In response to Rumer Willis’s Instagram post, Sarah Paulson, who worked with Bruce Willis in “Glass,” Shyamalan’s 2019 sci-fi thriller, said: “He was such an incredible acting partner to me, and is the loveliest, most gentle hilarious man. He reigns supreme in my book.” (In her Times review of “Glass,” Manohla Dargis wrote, “[Samuel L.] Jackson and especially Willis remind you again of how fine they can be when asked for more than booming shtick and smirk.”)

In response to Moore’s Instagram post, Jamie Lee Curtis wrote: “Grace and guts! Love to you all!”; and Rita Wilson wrote: “My heart goes out to Bruce, and all of the family. So thankful you shared this with us. Keeping you all in our prayers.”

On Twitter, Gabrielle Giffords, a gun control advocate and former congresswoman, wrote: “I’m thinking of Bruce Willis and his family today. Aphasia makes it hard for me to find the right words. It can be lonely and isolating.”

The actor Seth Green tweeted, “I have so much love for Bruce Willis, and am grateful for every character he’s given us.”

And the actor-director Kevin Smith wrote, “Long before any of the ‘Cop Out’ stuff, I was a big Bruce Willis fan — so this is really heartbreaking to read,” referring to his 2010 movie that Willis starred in. “He loved to act and sing and the loss of that has to be devastating for him,” Smith said. He said he felt badly about his “petty complaints from 2010.” In 2011, on the Marc Maron podcast, Smith had complained openly about working with Willis, saying that working with the action star was “soul crushing.”

Thought of primarily as a movie star, Willis has received more accolades for his work on television: For his role as the private detective David Addison (played opposite Cybill Shepherd) in “Moonlighting” — an ABC comedy-drama-romance that ran from 1985 to 1989 — he earned three Golden Globe nominations, winning one, and two lead actor Emmy nominations, winning one.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/movies/bruce-willis-aphasia.html

The cover of another, “The Perks of Loving a Wallflower,” looks very much like a typical historical romance novel — period outfits, elaborate hairstyles — until it doesn’t. The two people wrapped in each other’s arms are women.

Photographs for the cover were taken in New York City in December 2020, a difficult time to take pictures of models cuddling, but executives at Forever, the book’s publisher, felt they had to find a way.

“There’s not a lot of stock, believe it or not, for lesbian regency romance,” said Leah Hultenschmidt, the book’s editor.

Forever hired two models who were a couple in real life so they could nuzzle for the camera without violating Covid safety protocols. The book was sold widely, not only in bookstores but also in pharmacies, grocery stores and Walmart.

One book that is often cited by booksellers and publishing executives as a turning point for the genre is “Red, White Royal Blue,” by Casey McQuiston. A love story about the Prince of Wales and the American president’s son, it was published in 2019 by St. Martin’s Griffin, with an initial print run of 15,000 copies. Its publisher said it now has more than 1.3 million copies in print across formats.

McQuiston, who uses they/them pronouns, said their books are written for and about queer people, but they have also heard a lot of, “Oh, my mom and her book club are reading that.”

“When a book has the ability to cross over and be embraced by mainstream readers and be more pop culture-friendly, I think that is really important,” they said. “It’s sad to say, but there is still this level of humanization that we need.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/books/lgbtq-romance-novels.html

The cover of another, “The Perks of Loving a Wallflower,” looks very much like a typical historical romance novel — period outfits, elaborate hairstyles — until it doesn’t. The two people wrapped in each other’s arms are women.

Photographs for the cover were taken in New York City in December 2020, a difficult time to take pictures of models cuddling, but executives at Forever, the book’s publisher, felt they had to find a way.

“There’s not a lot of stock, believe it or not, for lesbian regency romance,” said Leah Hultenschmidt, the book’s editor.

Forever hired two models who were a couple in real life so they could nuzzle for the camera without violating Covid safety protocols. The book was sold widely, not only in bookstores but also in pharmacies, grocery stores and Walmart.

One book that is often cited by booksellers and publishing executives as a turning point for the genre is “Red, White Royal Blue,” by Casey McQuiston. A love story about the Prince of Wales and the American president’s son, it was published in 2019 by St. Martin’s Griffin, with an initial print run of 15,000 copies. Its publisher said it now has more than 1.3 million copies in print across formats.

McQuiston, who uses they/them pronouns, said their books are written for and about queer people, but they have also heard a lot of, “Oh, my mom and her book club are reading that.”

“When a book has the ability to cross over and be embraced by mainstream readers and be more pop culture-friendly, I think that is really important,” they said. “It’s sad to say, but there is still this level of humanization that we need.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/books/lgbtq-romance-novels.html

This month, Reuters reported on Meta’s shifts with a headline that suggested that posts calling for violence against all Russians would be tolerated. In response, Russian authorities labeled Meta’s activities as “extremist.”

Shortly thereafter, Meta reversed course and said it would not let its users call for the deaths of heads of state.

“Circumstances in Ukraine are fast moving,” Mr. Clegg wrote in an internal memo that was reviewed by The Times and first reported by Bloomberg. “We try to think through all the consequences, and we keep our guidance under constant review because the context is always evolving.”

Meta amended other policies. This month, it made a temporary exception to its hate speech guidelines so users could post about the “removal of Russians” and “explicit exclusion against Russians” in 12 Eastern European countries, according to internal documents. But within a week, Meta tweaked the rule to note that it should be applied only to users in Ukraine.

The constant adjustments left moderators who oversee users in Central and Eastern European countries confused, the six people with knowledge of the situation said.

The policy changes were onerous because moderators were generally given less than 90 seconds to decide on whether images of dead bodies, videos of limbs being blown off, or outright calls to violence violated Meta’s rules, they said. In some instances, they added, moderators were shown posts about the war in Chechen, Kazakh or Kyrgyz, despite not knowing those languages.

Ms. Lever declined to comment on whether Meta had hired content moderators who specialize in those languages.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/technology/ukraine-russia-facebook-instagram.html