Foreign

David Lynch, legendary filmmaker, dies at 78

Published

6 months ago

January 17, 2025

David Lynch, the filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark and dreamlike vision in such movies as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and the TV series “Twin Peaks,” has died just days before his 79th birthday.

His family announced the death in a Facebook post on Thursday.

“There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole,’” the family’s post read. “It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

The cause of death and location was not immediately available. Last summer, Lynch had revealed to Sight and Sound that he was diagnosed with emphysema and would not be leaving his home because of fears of contracting the coronavirus or “even a cold.”

“I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not,” Lynch said, adding he didn’t expect to make another film.

“I would try to do it remotely, if it comes to it,” Lynch said. “I wouldn’t like that so much.”

Lynch was a onetime painter who broke through in the 1970s with the surreal “Eraserhead” and rarely failed to startle and inspire audiences, peers and critics in the following decades. His notable releases ranged from the neo-noir “Mulholland Drive” to the skewed gothic of “Blue Velvet” to the eclectic and eccentric “Twin Peaks,” which won three Golden Globes, two Emmys and even a Grammy for its theme music. Pauline Kael, the film critic, called Lynch “the first populist surrealist — a Frank Capra of dream logic.”

“‘Blue Velvet,’ ‘Mulholland Drive’ and ‘Elephant Man’ defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade,” director Steven Spielberg said in a statement. Spielberg noted that he had cast Lynch as director John Ford, one of his early influences, in his 2022 film “The Fabelmans.”

“It was surreal and seemed like a scene out of one of David’s own movies,” Spielberg said. “The world is going to miss such an original and unique voice.”

“Lynchian” became a style of its own, yet one that ultimately belonged only to him. Lynch’s films pulled disturbing surrealistic mysteries and unsettling noir nightmares out of ordinary life. In the opening scenes of “Blue Velvet,” among suburban homes and picket fences, an investigator finds a severed ear lying in a manicured lawn.

Steven Soderbergh, who told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was a proud owner of two end tables crafted by Lynch (his numerous hobbies included furniture design), called “Elephant Man” a perfect film.

“He’s one of those filmmakers who was influential but impossible to imitate. People would try but he had one kind of algorithm that worked for him and you attempted to recreate it at your peril,” Soderbergh told the AP. “As non-linear and illogical as they often seemed, they were clearly highly organized in his mind.”

Lynch never won a competitive Academy Award. He received nominations for directing “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and, in 2019, was presented an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

“To the Academy and everyone who helped me along the way, thanks,” he said at the time, in characteristically off-beat remarks. “You have a very nice face. Good night.”

His other credits included the crime story “Wild at Heart,” winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the biographical drama “The Elephant Man” and the G-rated, aptly straightforward “The Straight Story.” Actors regularly appearing in his movies included Kyle McLachlan, Laura Dern, Naomi Watts and Richard Farnsworth.

Lynch was a Missoula, Montana, native who moved around often with his family as a child and would long feel most at home away from the classroom, free to explore his fascination with the world. Lynch’s mother was a English teacher and his father a research scientist with the U.S. Agriculture Department. He was raised in the Pacific Northwest before the family settled in Virginia. Lynch’s childhood was by all accounts free of trauma. He praised his parents as “loving” and “fair” in his memoir, though he also recalled formative memories that shaped his sensibility.

One day near his family’s Pacific Northwest home, Lynch recalled seeing a beautiful, naked woman emerge from the woods bloodied and weeping.

“I saw a lot of strange things happen in the woods,” Lynch told Rolling Stone. “And it just seemed to me that people only told you 10% of what they knew and it was up to you to discover the other 90%.”

He had an early gift for visual arts and a passion for travel and discovery. He dropped out of several colleges before enrolling in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, beginning of a decade-long apprenticeship as a maker of short movies. He was working as a printmaker in 1966 when he made his first film, a four-minute short named “Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times).” That and other worked landed Lynch a place at the then-nascent American Film Institute.

There he began working on what would become his 1977 feature debut, “Eraserhead.”

“David’s always had a cheerful disposition and sunny personality, but he’s always been attracted to dark things,” a childhood friend is quoted as saying in “Room to Dream,” a 2018 book by Lynch and Kristine McKenna. That’s one of the mysteries of David.”

Aside from furniture making and painting, Lynch was a coffee maker, composer, sculptor and cartoonist. He exuded a Zen peacefulness that he attributed to Transcendental Meditation, which his David Lynch Foundation promoted. In the 2017 short film “What Did Jack Do?” he played a detective interrogating a monkey.

Lynch was himself a singular presence, almost as beguiling and deadpan as his own films. For years, he posted videos of daily weather reports from Southern California. When asked for analysis of his films, Lynch typically demurred.

“I like things that leave some room to dream,” he told the New York Times in 1995. “A lot of mysteries are sewn up at the end, and that kills the dream.”

Foreign

US Embassy Opens Up On Reasons Behind Reduction in Visa Validity For Nigerians

Published

12 hours ago

July 12, 2025

ADMIN

The United States Mission in Nigeria on Friday debunked insinuations making the rounds that Washington’s recent decision to reduce visa validity for Nigerians was in retaliation for some actions of the Nigerian government.

The US embassy announced on Tuesday that it had reduced visa validity for non-immigrant Nigerian applicants from five years to three months, citing reciprocity for its action.

But in what appeared to be a u-turn Friday, the mission said it was not a reciprocal action but “part of an ongoing global review of the use of U.S. visas by other countries using technical and security benchmarks to safeguard U.S. immigration systems.”

It said in a statement that speculations that the reduction in visa validity was “the result of any nation’s stance on third-country deportees, introduction of e-visa policies, or affiliations with groups like BRICS” were untrue.

The statement said: “The U.S. Mission Nigeria wishes to address misconceptions about the recent reduction in visa validity for most nonimmigrant U.S. visas in Nigeria and other countries.

“This reduction is not the result of any nation’s stance on third-country deportees, introduction of e-visa policies, or affiliations with groups like BRICS.

“The reduction in validity is part of an ongoing global review of the use of U.S. visas by other countries using technical and security benchmarks to safeguard U.S. immigration systems.

“ We value our longstanding partnership with Nigeria and remain committed to working closely with the Nigerian public and government officials to help them meet those criteria and benchmarks, thereby ensuring safe, lawful, and mutually beneficial travel between our nations.”

Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar had said on Thursday that the US was “mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prison.”

He said Nigeria, with its own population of over 230 million, was not prepared to accept Venezuelan deportees.

He added:”It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelans prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own, we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria, for crying out loud.”

He said Nigeria with a population of over 230 million was not prepared to accept Venezuelan deportees.

“It will be unfair for Nigeria to accept 300 Venezuelan deportees,” he said.

Instead, he said Nigeria was looking “to do deals with the US” because the country has a lot of gas, critical minerals and rare earths needed by American tech companies.

The Wall Street Journal quoted internal documents and sources as saying the Trump administration was pushing the leaders of Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau to accept migrants deported by the US whose home countries refuse them or are slow to take them back.

The newspaper says that, prior to their White House summit on Wednesday, the US government had already sent requests asking all five countries to accept migrants expelled from the US – a strategy the paper described as an “aggressive” overlap between the Trump administration’s deportation campaign and its foreign policy.”

Foreign

Trump Appoints Sean Duffy as Interim Head of NASA

Published

2 days ago

July 11, 2025

Admin

President Trump on Wednesday named Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as the interim leader of NASA after a previous nomination fell through, rupturing the relationship between Elon Musk and the president.

“He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post announcing Mr. Duffy’s appointment.

Mr. Duffy, who will also keep his job at the Transportation Department, said on X that he was “honored to accept this mission.”

After Mr. Trump’s successful election campaign, to which Mr. Musk contributed more than $250 million, the president-elect picked Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and a close associate of Mr. Musk, to lead NASA.

Mr. Isaacman was Mr. Musk’s choice to lead the agency, and his appointment was seen as beneficial to SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s rocket company. SpaceX has multiple NASA contracts, which are crucial to its business, and Mr. Isaacman has twice gone to space as a private astronaut on SpaceX flights.

In a social media post announcing the nomination in December, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Isaacman as an exceptional leader with a passion for space.

On May 31, the day after Mr. Musk left his government position, Mr. Trump announced that he had withdrawn Mr. Isaacman’s nomination, citing “a thorough review of prior associations.” The president had been informed that Mr. Isaacman had donated to Democrats in the past, and considered that unacceptable.

While the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk had already been deteriorating, the withdrawal of Mr. Isaacman’s nomination pushed it toward a total breakdown.

Mr. Trump said this week that it would have been inappropriate for Mr. Isaacman to lead NASA because of his friendship with Mr. Musk and SpaceX’s business with the agency.

The administration is yet to announce its next choice for NASA administrator.

“Short of a new nominee, this was a great move,” Mr. Isaacman said on social media after Mr. Duffy’s interim position was announced. “NASA needs political leadership from someone the President trusts and has confidence in.”

As the caretaker head of NASA, Mr. Duffy would also become the latest Trump official to hold multiple jobs in the administration. Others include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has three additional jobs, and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who is also the acting Librarian of Congress.

Mr. Duffy will replace Janet Petro, a veteran NASA executive, who was appointed acting head of the agency by the Trump administration in January.

Foreign

Politician sentenced to death over $37.8M bribery scandal

Published

3 days ago

July 10, 2025

Admin

A Chinese politician has been sentenced to death over a $37.8M bribery scandal.

Wang Yong, a former vice-chairman of the government of the Xizang autonomous region, received a suspended death sentence for taking bribes, a court in Hunan province announced.

The Chenzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Wang to death for bribery with a two-year reprieve.

The court deprived him of his political rights for life and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets.

All of Wang’s illicit gains and related interests will be turned over to the State treasury.

The court said that from 2007 to 2023, Wang used his various positions including as director of the policy and regulations department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China Southwest Regional Administration, Party secretary, and director of the Civil Aviation Safety Supervision Bureau of Guizhou province, and Party secretary and chairman of Guizhou Airport Group to seek benefits for organizations and individuals in project contracts and other areas.

In return, he accepted bribes worth more than 271 million yuan ($37.8 million).

The court said Wang’s offenses were extremely serious, with an “extreme” amount of bribes, and causing significant damage to public assets and the interests of the country and the people.

Wang confessed to his crimes, pleaded guilty, showed remorse, and actively returned his illegal gains, which have been fully recovered, the court said. These actions led to a lenient punishment.

Wang’s case was heard publicly on May 15, with more than 40 people attending the trial. Prosecutors presented evidence, and Wang admitted guilt and made a final statement in court.

In China, a suspended death sentence is typically commuted to life in prison after two years if the inmate commits no further crimes. The term can be further reduced based on the inmate’s behavior.