Foreign
Trump names Gibson, Stallone and Voight Hollywood ambassadors
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US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed three film stars to be special ambassadors tasked with promoting business opportunities in Hollywood.
“It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
All three celebrity figures have recently been associated with Trump and his election campaign. It is unclear what their roles will involve.
In a statement, Gibson, 69, said he received the news “at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised.
“Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give and help and insight I can.”
Gibson, who recently lost his home in the Los Angeles wildfires, added: “Any chance the position comes with an Ambassador’s residence?”
The Braveheart and Mad Max star had publicly endorsed Trump in a video released shortly before November’s election. He also criticised Vice-President Kamala Harris, who was Trump’s Democratic rival in the presidential race.
Stallone, 78, best known for playing the titular character in the Rocky franchise, introduced Trump at Mar-a-Lago for his post-election victory speech.
He compared the president-elect to America’s first leader, calling him the “second George Washington”.
“Without him, you can imagine what the world would look like?” he said.
He added that Washington – who was president from 1789 to 1797 – didn’t realise he would change the world when he defended his country.
Voight, 86, who starred in Midnight Cowboy and Pearl Harbor, is a long-time supporter of Trump and has called him the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.
Here’s what to know about Donald Trump’s inauguration
It’s been a difficult few years for Hollywood with the Covid pandemic, multiple labour strikes, and competition with streaming services.
Lucas Shaw, a long-time Hollywood analyst, does not believe the new envoys can do much to help the struggling industry.
“He [Trump] sees them as allies, and he can use them to talk about change in Hollywood, but I don’t imagine you’re going to have John Voight and Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson trying to figure out how to restore the cable bundle, or make streaming more profitable, or figure out how to make China import more Hollywood movies,” he said.
Trump’s relationship with Hollywood has been fraught with tension and controversy.
The entertainment industry was partly responsible for bringing Trump back to prominence with his reality show, The Apprentice, as it bolstered his image as a savvy businessman, Mr Shaw told the BBC.
Trump’s ascent to the White House changed the dynamic, putting him at odds with the politics of much of the industry.
“Hollywood tends to donate to and support Democrats more than Republicans, and so it serves as an effective industry for him to criticise,” said Mr Shaw.
It is also easy to “portray as these rich fat cats who don’t have your interests in mind”.
In August 2019, during his first term, Trump criticised the film industry as “racist” and accused it of creating “very dangerous” movies.
His comments stemmed from controversy ahead of the release of the film The Hunt, an action-horror about a group of elites who hunt people for sport.
Speaking outside the White House, he said that Hollywood was doing a “tremendous disservice to the country” by producing content that incites violence and division.
The following year, Trump took aim at the Academy Awards for selecting South Korean film Parasite as best picture.
He questioned how a foreign film could win the top honour and suggested it was undeserving.
Trump’s stance on immigration, climate change, and social justice has drawn sharp criticism from major celebrities, and he has faced the ire of stars like Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.
Some of his policies have also targeted Hollywood, including a push to end tax breaks for film production in certain states.
The announcement of his special ambassadors for Hollywood comes just four days before his inauguration in Washington DC on 20 January.
Los Angeles – the heart of the entertainment industry – is currently struggling to contain deadly wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and buildings and left many businesses struggling to recover.
Damages are estimated at approximately $250bn (£204bn).
Foreign
Trump says Iran has 22% of missiles left
Iran still has “21, 22 per cent” of its missiles left, US President Donald Trump said Friday, in a week in which Tehran fired dozens of them toward regional neighbours, despite a sputtering ceasefire.
“They still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say, percentage wise, maybe 21, 22 percent of their missiles,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.
That figure for Iran’s missile stockpile is higher than one of 18 per cent Trump gave in May. He has often claimed to have completely destroyed Iran’s war-fighting capacity.
Iran’s military said Friday it had fired “warning missiles” at two US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman — a claim promptly denied by the US military. Two days earlier, Kuwait said it had intercepted 30 ballistic missiles fired as part of “heinous Iranian aggression.”
AFP
Foreign
US, allies oppose Bolivia President Paz’s ouster as unrest grow
The United States and allies on Friday condemned the ongoing efforts to overthrow the elected government of President Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia.
The Shield of the Americas member states said “mob rule” cannot replace the decision that most Bolivians made at the ballot box to remove “two decades of corrupt governments.”
The U.S., Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago signed the joint statement.
They affirm support for the Paz administration as it resists “attempts to drag Bolivia backwards through cynical efforts to prevent the delivery of food, medicine and other vital supplies.”
“Those who are funding these protests with dirty money from drug trafficking and transnational crime should be held accountable,” the allies urged.
The governments encouraged people who have grievances to dialogue with the government, warning against abusing their causes to “regain power.”
President Paz admitted Bolivia has been pushed to a “breaking point” amid weeks of widespread protests and a blockade that has paralyzed major cities.
Farmers, miners, transport workers and teachers are demanding immediate measures to ease the country’s worst economic crisis in four decades.
Defence Minister Marcelo Salinas and Education Minister Beatriz Garcia resigned this week as demonstrators continue to demand Paz’s resignation, a call he rejects.
The government accuses ex-President Evo Morales of fuelling unrest, which opposition figures believe could end with a referendum to decide whether Paz should remain in office.
Foreign
Russia claims deadly drone strike varsity hostel killed 21 students
Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of carrying out a deadly drone attack on a university complex in Starobelsk, in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region, claiming that 21 students were killed in the strike.
According to a statement circulated by Russian officials, the attack occurred on the night of May 22 and targeted the academic building and dormitory of Lugansk State Pedagogical University.
Russian authorities alleged that 16 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including four heavy drones, were deployed in three waves during the operation.
Officials described the incident as one of the deadliest attacks on a civilian educational facility in the region since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, claiming that the victims were students residing in the university dormitory.
“Just a week ago, they were students with dreams, plans and a future. Today, all that remains are photographs, memories and unbearable grief,” the statement said.
The authorities further alleged that the strike was deliberate and targeted civilians rather than military infrastructure.
The claims could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian authorities had not publicly responded to the allegations at the time of filing this report.
Since the start of the conflict, both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure, allegations that are often difficult to verify independently due to ongoing hostilities and restricted access to affected areas.
The reported incident has renewed concerns among humanitarian organizations about the impact of the war on educational institutions and young people caught in the conflict.
The Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fifth year, has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, widespread displacement and extensive damage to homes, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure across both countries.
International observers have consistently called for independent investigations into attacks involving civilian casualties, regardless of the parties involved, to establish the facts and ensure accountability under international humanitarian law.
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