#sunday telegraph october 2004

[ayittey1]

COCONUT CLASSICS

Fed up with the buffoonery and tomfoolery coming out of Africa. So I compiled a litany of the eccentricities and flat-out acts of buffoonery that I have come across in my research and work on Africa. Let me know which one you like the best. Enjoy.

In March 2017, Emmanuel Elibariki, a hip-hop artist, released a song in which he asked “is there still freedom of expression in Tanzania?” He was promptly arrested and his song banned from the airwaves. (The Economist, Oct 19, 2017; p.43).

The late president, Gen. Samuel Doe of Liberia summoned his finance minister – “only to be reminded by aides that he had already executed him” (The New York Times, Sept 13, 2003; p.A4).

In 2016, Uganda’s Parliament voted Shs68 million ($18,320) to cover the funeral expenses of each MP (Daily Monitor, Sept 15, 2016). Hand them over. I will bury them for FREE – with the Cutlass!

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda wants to ban oral sex “the mouth is for eating” https://bit.ly/2ILs3RV

"Corruption is everywhere -- in the villages, wherever", Zambia's Lands Minister Gladys Nyirango acknowledged at a major conference on graft in Africa. Hours later she was SACKED. (Sapa-AFP, March 4, 2007).

A former minister of finance was found hiding – where else? -- in a coconut tree: “Zambia’s former finance minister, Katele Kalumba, was arrested and charged with theft after the police found him hiding in a tree near his rural home. Mr. Kalumba, who had been on the run for four months, is being charged in connection with some $33 million that vanished while he was in office (The New York Times, Jan 16, 2003; p.A8).

In Zimbabwe, the anti-corruption czar, Ngonidzashe Gumbo, was himself a bandit, jailed for 10 years for defrauding the commission of $435,000 (The Herald, March 12, 2015). https://bit.ly/2UCre4b

Zambia President Edgar Lungu is buying a new Presidential Jet fitted with a cutting edge military grade anti-missile defense system which fires lasers at incoming heat-seeking missiles (Zambia Observer, Oct 12, 2018). https://bit.ly/2UyS9ho

In Feb 2019, “The First Lady of Zambia, Esther Lungu, travelled to the US with a 25-man delegation to receive four fire trucks, which the Los Angeles Fire Department, had RETIRED from service” (Punch, Feb 7, 2019). Hopefully they did not fly back with the trucks!

When two coconuts fight . . . https://on.wsj.com/2PlEVzd

RWANDA: “I have caught you supporting rebels to destabilize my government. Take that! The border is closed!” (Delivers a sharp left hook). UGANDA: “Wui! . . . No, it is you who is destabilizing my government. Take that!” (Delivers a stiff upper cut). AU (the referee) is snoring zzzzzzzzzz and awakes: “I APPEAL to both of you to end hostilities!”  And goes back to sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzz https://bit.ly/2SO3Agh   https://bit.ly/2UzW39K

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Two journalists were arrested and charged with publishing false information for reporting that President Bingu wa Mutharika, had moved out of a new 300-room palace because he believed it was haunted. The two, Raphael Tenthani, who works for the BBC, and Mabvuto Banda of the newspaper The Nation, were reportedly taken in raids at their homes. Malawi newspapers and radio stations carried the ghost report over the weekend, quoting a senior official. Mr. Mutharika has angrily denied the reports, saying, "I have never feared ghosts in my life." (Agence France-Presse, March 16, 2005)

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Insecurity challenges heightened in Bayelsa State following separate incidents of kidnapping of four policemen and six other persons along Nembe waterways by gunmen suspected to be sea pirates. Sunday Independent gathered that the gunmen also seized a gunboat belonging to the Nigeria Police in an incident that occurred on Friday. Sources said the gunboat was escorting a barge owned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) when the bandits struck (Daily Independent, October 26, 2014).

Coconut Eccentricities

Sudan

“Colonel Ibrahim Chamsadine was Sudan’s defense minister but was arrested and imprisoned in 1995 by Omar al-Bashir for opposing him. Later, the state claimed that he died in a plane crash on June 11, 2008. But he was found in a secret prison under a mosque in the Sudanese city of Omdurmanprison https://bit.ly/2YbKT9c

Mali

In March 1991, angry Malians took to the streets to demand democratic freedom from the despotic rule of Gen. Moussa Traore. He unleashed his security forces on them, killing scores, including women and children. But pro-democracy forces were not deterred and kept up the pressure. Asked to resign on March 25, he retorted: "I will not resign, my government will not resign, because I was elected not by the opposition but by all the people of Mali." Two days later, when he tried to flee the country, he was grabbed by his own security agents and sent to jail. From there, he lamented: "My fate is now in God’s hands."

Kenya

“President Daniel arap Moi has urged Kenyans to abstain from sex for at least two years to try to curb the spread of AIDS. . .Moi was speaking after the government announced plans to  import 300 million condoms to fight AIDS” (The Telegraph, July 13, 2001)

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Uganda

Uganda’s Agriculture Minister, Kibirige Ssebunya, declared that: “All the poor should be arrested because they hinder us from performing our development duties. It is hard to lead the poor, and the poor cannot lead the rich. They should be eliminated" (New Vision, Kampala, Dec 15, 2004). He advised local leaders to arrest poor people in their areas of jurisdiction.

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Soldiers teach wealth creation

BUSHENYI- Soldiers implementing the newly established operational Wealth Creation program have urged farmers to stop being afraid of working with them, saying they are not a colonial army that used to force people to do community tasks. The appeal was made at a meeting for the program’s southwestern army coordinators in Bushenyi District last week. The project replaced Naads last year. The meeting was organized by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) aimed at harmonizing collaboration between UCDA and coordinators to improve the quality and production of coffee (Daily Monitor, Feb 24,   2015)

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No fewer than 300 Nigerian soldiers FLED to Cameroon when Boko Haram insurgents overran Mubi, the second largest city in Borno State from security forces on Oct 30, 2014 (SUNDAY PUNCH, Nov 2, 2014).

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Kibaki

In May 2005, Lucy Kibaki, one of the two wives of President Mwai Kibaki, was hopping mad. She stormed into the Nairobi office of The Daily Nation, confiscated notebooks, tape recorders and pens. Brandishing a copy of the newspaper, Mrs. Kibaki, flanked by several security officers and the Nairobi police chief, Kingori Mwangi, demanded to know the whereabouts of a reporter who had written a story headlined “Shame of First Lady” that offended her. “I am here to protest, and I’m not leaving until I find the reporter who has been writing all these lies,” a witness said. Mrs. Kibaki then camped herself for much of the night at the desk of the newspaper's editor, unleashing a fury of broadsides at the staff. When a local television crew arrived, she slapped a cameraman. The problem was that she chose the wrong newspaper to unleash her full fury. It was the rival Standard newspaper that had printed the offending article, not the Daily Nation. (The Daily Nation, May 9, 2005). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nigeria

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) has proposed to spend N5 billion on the procurement of anti-terrorism, chemical, bio-radiation and NUCLEAR weapon equipment and other new projects. Breakdown of the budget by Daily Trust reveals that N254.2m was proposed for the procurement of NUCLEAR weapon equipment, as well as N196.6m for the purchase of two BMW 900 RT, 374 Sinoki motorcycles, 200 bikes and 30 rider kits. Daily Trust, Feb 21, 2018 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zimbabwe

Three people have appeared in court in Zimbabwe, accused of stealing a suitcase containing $150,000 (£117,600) of cash from the country's ousted president, Robert Mugabe. The suspected thieves allegedly spent the money on cars, homes and animals. A relative of the ex-president, Constantia Mugabe, is among the accused, government-owned media report. She allegedly had keys to Mr Mugabe's rural home in Zvimba, near the capital Harare, and gave the others access. The other suspects were employed as cleaners at the time of the theft, which allegedly happened some time between 1 December and early January (BBC Jan 10, 2019) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46830960 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenya

In January 2000,Kenya’s ruling party’s (KANU’s) gang of thugs known as Jeshi la Mzee (“the old man’s army”), attacked a group of opposition leaders outside parliament who were protesting against the resumption of IMF assistance. When the police were called to restore order, “It was the protesters, not the thugs, who were arrested” (The Economist, Feb 5, 2000; p.42). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Zimbabwe

"In Zimbabwe, the thieves are in charge and their victims face prosecution" (The Economist, March 16, 2002; p.18). In 2000, Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled that invasions of white commercial farmlands by "war veterans" did not constitute a workable form of land redistribution -- a position, which was affirmed by a Commonwealth agreement struck in Abuja, Nigeria in Sept 2001. But President Robert Mugabe tossed the agreement aside, reconstituted the Supreme Court by packing it with pliant judges who then ruled on Dec 6 2001 that the violent land invasions were legal (The Economist, Dec 8, 2001; p.45).

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President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, was miffed in December 2017 when two Ugandan musicians suggested in a song that he should retire. The two were promptly arrested and charged with disturbing the peace of the president. “Singer David Mugema and music producer John Muwanguzi were accused of having composed and disseminated via the internet a tune titled “Wumula”, meaning “retire”, their lawyer Abdallah Kiwanuka told AFP” (Mail &Guardian, Dec 6, 2017).

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DR Congo frees goats from prison

A minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered a Kinshasa jail to release a dozen goats, which he said were being held there illegally. Deputy Justice Minister Claude Nyamugabo said he found the goats just in time during a routine jail visit. The beasts were due to appear in court, charged with being sold illegally by the roadside. The minister said many police had serious gaps in their knowledge and they would be sent for retraining. Mr Nyamugabo was conducting a routine visit to the prison when, he said, he was astonished to discover not only humans, but a herd of goats crammed into a prison cell in the capital. He has blamed the police for the incident.(Thank God, he didn’t blame the colonialists). It is not clear what will happen to the owners of the goats, who have also been imprisoned. BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper says that given the grim state of prisons in Congo, the goats will doubtless be relieved about being spared a trial. There was no word on what their punishment would have been, had they been found guilty.

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Traffic Drives Nigerians Nuts, but a Trip to a Shrink May Go Too Far Enforcement of One-Way Rules in Lagos Tests Motorists' Sanity; 'A Lot of Cannabis'

LAGOS, Nigeria—You'd have to be crazy to drive the wrong way down a one-way street here. At least, that's what cops in the local Anti-One-Way Squad say.

Seeking to stem an epidemic of wrong-way driving, Lagos authorities have ratcheted up the standard $160 fine. Scofflaws now also face psychiatric evaluations. Contesting the charge can jack up the fine to $1,600—and you still get sent to a shrink. The legal logic is simple, says Sina Thorpe, spokesman for the Lagos state ministry of transportation: If you violate one-way rules, "you should have your head examined." Threatening errant drivers with psychiatric exams, which locals deem more bureaucratic than medical, is a twist in the rough road of Nigerian traffic. Lagos bigwigs have long paid on-duty local cops to speed them through jams by riding shotgun with machine guns and menacing other drivers with bullwhips. Cut-price motorcycle taxis use thunderous horns that sound like 18-wheelers to frighten others out of the way. (The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2011; p.A1

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Zambia: Zambia's Transport Minister, Nkandu Luo, acting to "improve sanity in the transportation industry" ordered all buses and taxis to be painted in same uniform color: Blue and white. The United Transport and Taxi Association (UTTA) who were not consulted on the move, claimed that the imposition of the colors "amounted to the worst form of dictatorship." "If they think it is such a good idea to have a uniform color, why don't they paint all government vehicles in the same blue and white so that they lead by example," UTTA member Mr. Bwalya Chupa complained. Passengers were not impressed either. "The buses should have been repaired before being smeared with a coat of paint," commuter Juliet Sefu opined. Rather than bring sanity to the transportation industry, most Zambians believe the Transport Minister has brought even further insanity to their already beleaguered transportation infrastructure (African Business, May 2001; p.13).

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Sierra Leone: The Sierra Leone Government is urging people to stop jeering and throwing stones at former military leader, Captain Valentine Strasser. A government statement said Captain Strasser had been embarrassed by people throwing stones at him and booing him when he ventured out on the streets of the capital, Freetown. "It is a great concern to the nation," the statement said (Daily Graphic, Accra, August 18, 2001; p.5).

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Uganda

Minister seeks to attract tourists: Uganda has sexy and curvy women   . .     . And coconuts too https://goo.gl/FXWsgi

Chad

The president built a moat around the capital to ward off rebel insurgency led by his relatives: “The government is digging a 10-foot-deep trench around the capital, Ndjamena, to prevent a repeat of an attack last month, when rebels in pickup trucks rolled in and fought two days of heavy battles. The ditch will all but encircle the city, slicing through neighborhoods and forcing vehicles to pass through fortified gateways, a security official said. The remaining trees that line the avenues of central Ndjamena are being felled. Residents say the rebels used trees knocked down by rocket-propelled grenades and cannon fire to block roads during the fighting” (Reuters reprinted in The New York Times, March 8, 2008). And who are the rebels? His own nephews and relatives. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has launched a space agency, hailing it a "milestone" as he campaigns ahead of elections at the end of the month. The Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency will deploy earth observation satellites, global navigation satellite systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, geospatial and space technologies for better farming, mineral exploration, wildlife conservation, infrastructure management and disease surveillance, he said in Harare https://bit.ly/2GZCq3w

Coconut Combat on Corruption

In Feb 2014 when Lamidu Sanusi, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, reported that some $20 billion in oil revenue was missing, it was he, the governor, who was immediately sacked by ex-Pres. Goodluck Jonathan for financial recklessness and misconduct! (BBC News, Feb 20, 2014) https://bbc.in/2Kb8rsE

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Paul Biya Fights Corruption? Don’t snicker; my head it splitting already! The man is holed up in Switzerland watching over his Swiss bank accounts! Holds a cabinet meeting every 4 years. In Oct 2018 he won a 7th 7-year term without even campaigning. He has already been in power for 41 years  https://bit.ly/2XWI4cG

Life in a coconut Republic

Liberia under Pres. Charles Taylor

“Wheel barrows serve as ambulances for the people. The public schools do not function; more than 70 percent of the population is illiterate. Yet, all government ministers have Ph.D.s – some even three or four – all purchased. At the University of Liberia, Charles Taylor offered 11,000 scholarships to his friends in 1997 but did not pay their tuition bills. Nor did his government pay the salaries of university professors and public school teacher . . . Liberia had a judicial system but Taylor named his friends who could not read or write to be judges and attorneys, and sentences were handed down on his orders . . . The capital has a fire building, painted bright red but its only fire truck has no tires, headlamps, or even a hose. Wires dangle from the engine. With no running water in the city, firefighters must jog or hitchhike to a creek three miles away to fetch water in buckets to put out a fire” (The Washington Post, Sep 9, 2003; p.A18). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nigeria

The late General Sani Abacha’s family thought they were smart. They hired Usman Mohammed Bello – a Sudanese from Karsala -- to look after their three children attending school in Amman, Jordan. Usman became a close confidante of Abacha with access to several coded foreign bank accounts opened by the late General. The family so trusted him that Abacha gave him diplomatic status in the Nigerian foreign office in Amman. He was also issued with both diplomatic passport number F317567 and a standard passport number A104786. Subsequently, Abacha was poisoned or died in 1998 from exhaustion from a Viagra-fueled sex orgy – depending on upon which version one believes. A short transitional government led to the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in March 1999, who vowed to recover Abacha’s loot of about $5 billion from abroad. On October 1, 1999, Usman Bello vanished. A hysterical Abacha family appealed to Nigeria’s police and government for help in catching him! “Nigeria’s State Security Service from from (SSS) established that the Sudanese might have salted away millions of dollars entrusted to him by the Abacha family and may also be privy to other financial transactions of the family overseas, especially in the Arab world” (Weekly Insight, July 19-25, 2000; p.1). Only in a coconut republic would thieves appeal to the police to apprehend a thief! Even then, part of the Abacha loot that was recovered, was quickly re-looted! About $709 million and another ₤144 million were recovered from the loot the Abachas and his henchmen stashed abroad. But the Senate Public Accounts Committee found only $6.8 million and ₤2.8 million of the recovered booty in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) (The Post Express (July 10, 2000).

Coconut Elections

Tanzania

The losing candidate lambasted voters, not his own incompetence, for losing an election: “The candidate of the Tanzania Labour Party (TLP), Augustine Mrema, did well in 1995 with another party, NCCR-Mageuzi, and less well with TLP in 2000. This time, he blamed the voters for betraying him. Mrema, a former home affairs minister who contested the 1995 elections as leader of his own party, chastised the voters for not choosing him previously. "I wonder why you have not given me votes to become president despite my impressive record as home affairs minister," he told a rally in Dar es Salaam broadcast live on radio and television. "I worked as deputy prime minister, which means I was boss to Mkapa and Sumaye, still you chose not to elect me president. Why? Some voters are hypocrites. They proclaim to support you but vote for other people. If you do not vote for me this time, you will have to explain." (Southen African News, Dec 16, 2005) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nigeria

To return Nigeria to civilian rule, the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, allowed only 5 political parties to be registered in 1996 and participate in the forthcoming elections. They all promptly chose HIM as their presidential candidate!

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Rwanda: On August 25, 2003, Paul Kagame, leader of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), won 95.05 percent of the vote. His challenger, Faustin Twagiramungu, found his campaign stymied at every turn by government security forces. His rallies were canceled, his workers arrested and his brochures seized. On the eve of the voting, “police arrested 12 of Twagiramungu’s provincial organizers, saying they were preparing election day violence” (The Washington Times, Aug 28, 2003; p.A19). “In Twagiramungu’s home town, soldiers reportedly looked at ballot papers and ordered those who voted the wrong way to try again” (The Economist, Aug 30, 2003; p.32). Faustin Twagiramungu, won 3.62 percent and a third candidate, Jean Nepomuscene Nayinzira, had 1.33 percent (The New York Times, Aug 26, 2003; p.A6). In the 2010 elections Kagame won 93% of the vote and in the 2017 elections he won 99.98% of the vote! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ethiopia: May 2015 election the opposition did not win a single parliamentary seat. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Ghana’s 1996 presidential election, opposition candidate, Col. Erskine did not win a single vote in his own constituency. In other words, he did not would vote for himself and neither did his wife and four children. He was livid. When he complained bitterly on a radio program, the electoral commissioner tossed six votes his way. Marriage breaker election. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Egypt

In Egypt’s March 2018 elections all of those who expressed an interest to contest either  disappeared or were thrown into jail. The main challenger was arrested and his campaign manager beaten up. The only candidate allowed to run was Mousa Mostafa Mousa. He was a strong supporter of the president. In fact, his own party previously endorsed the incumbent, Abdel Fattahh al-Sisi, who won 97% of the vote. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe’s July 2018 election bore all the hallmarks of the long-ruling ZANU-PF party’s usual machinations. Voters included more than 1,000 people about 100 years old and older; four were even born in the 1880s. Emmerson Mnangagwa (the incumbent) won 50.8% of votes to 44.3% for opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. He scraped through by the skin of his teeth to avoid a runoff! Yeah right! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congo DR The Mother of all Coconut elections took place in Congo DR on Dec 30, 2018 after being twice postponed. Vote in 3 opposition areas were postponed to March 2019. Rest of the country voted on Dec 30. The Electoral Commissioner declared Felix Tshisekedi, an opposition candidate, as the winner on Jan 15. There was widespread speculation that the incumbent, Joseph Kabila, had made a secret pact with Tshisekedi. The Catholic Church disagreed with the results, giving the nod to another opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, who declared himself president. A nasty political crisis erupted which wend its way to the Constitutional Court. Awoken out of its slumber, the African Union with indecent haste ordered the Court to hold off and wait for its high level and high profile delegation to come to Kinshasa to resolve the crisis. And the Chairman of the AU seeking to resolve an election dispute? Prez PAUL KAGAME of Rwanda who in Aug 2017 tossed his political rival, Diane Rwigara, into jail and won 99.98% of vote in presidential election https://goo.gl/URjASb The Court told the AU to butt out and mind his own business. It went ahead and confirmed Tshisekedi as the winner. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coconut Security Forces Mauritania

State news: Mauritania's president mistakenly shot by his nation's troops

(CNN) -- Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who came under fire from his own troops just hours before, took to his country's airwaves Sunday, saying the shooting incident was an accident. "I want to reassure all citizens of my well-being after the accident committed by an army unit on an unpaved road around Touela. ... Everything is fine," he said in an interview broadcast on official Mauritanian television. Troops shot the president late Saturday in what the government is calling a case of "friendly fire" -- though others believe it may have been an assassination attempt. Aziz's convoy mistakenly came under fire as it was heading back toward the capital of Nouakchott, the official AMI news agency reported. The gunshots came from a military unit stationed alongside the road in the west African country. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/13/world/africa/mauritania-president-shot/index.html By Amir Ahmed, CNN, October 14, 2012 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenya

In Africa, most of the police are highway robbers and judges, crooks. Tell a police officer that you saw a minister stealing the people’s money and it is you he will arrest! Asked to investigate the brutal murders of Robert Ouko and British tourist, Julie Ward, Kenya police issued this report: “Foreign Minister Robert Ouko was presumed to have broken his own leg, shot himself in the head and set himself afire. Two years earlier, Kenyan officials suggested that a British tourist, Julie Ward, lopped off her own head and one of her legs before setting herself aflame” (The Washington Post, April 20, 2001; p. A19). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ghana

The security forces can unleash the full force of their fury on unarmed civilians with batons, tear gas, water canons and rubber bullets. But how really brave are the security forces? On 16 December 1998, Corporal C. Darko and Constable K. A. Boateng at a Police Station in Accra, Ghana, were instructed to go and arrest Samuel Quartey, who was reported to police for being involved in a theft case. "When the suspect came out brandishing a cutlass (a machete), the police officers took to their heels with the speed of lightning that could have made an enviable record had they been timed" (The Mirror, 2 Jan 1999, 1). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soldiers on guard duties at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation no longer guard an observation post behind the TV studios because of a ghost who slaps officers who go on duty there at night. In September, 1994, an officer on guard at that sentry came running to the head of security complaining of an invincible hand which had on two occasions pulled his helmet from his head and slapped him. The senior officer, unmoved by the soldier's story, decided to prove him wrong by manning the post himself. Within an hour, the senior officer fled to the office telling a similar tale, this time the ghost allegedly smacked him four times on the face (Ghana Drum, Feb 1995; p.33). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nigeria

On July 23, 1998, Colonel Anthony Obi, Osun State's military administrator, strutted pompously to deliver a speech at a state function  at Osogbo in the southwestern part of Lagos, Nigeria.  As the Daily Champion (24 July 1998) reported: "Panic stricken Nigerian officials ran for safety when first a rat and then a python, apparently drawn by the smell of the rat, made a sudden appearance. The officials leapt up from their seats when the rat, described as having a "long snout and offensive smell," appeared from beneath the carpet by the high table. Colonel Anthony Obi, Osun State's military administrator, and his entourage nervously returned after security agents intervened and killed the beast. (p.1) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenya

Ambushed by bunch of rag-tag cattle rustlers, Kenya’s elite presidential guards quickly surrendered. Johann Wandetto, a reporter for the People Daily, a newspaper in Kitale, Rift Valley province, submitted a story in the March 6, 1999 edition with the title: “Militia men rout 8 crack unit officers: Shock as Moi’s men surrender meekly.” Wandetto was immediately arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison on what the court described as an “alarmist report” (Index on Censorship, 3/2000; p.99). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Congo DR

Nor can the security forces shoot straight. When civil war broke out in the DR Congo in 1997, Chad sent in troops to help the regime of Laurent Kabila stave off rebel attacks. What happened? “Congo rebels said 93 Chadian soldiers were killed in an ambush by Kabila government troops who mistook their identities. Chad, one of the nations allied with the Kabila regime, insisted the toll was lower” (The Wall Street Journal, Nov 12, 1998, A1). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sudan

And the mother of all security forces? When the African Union (AU) peacekeepers' base on the edge of Haskanita, a small town in southern Darfur, came under sustained rebel assault on Sept 29, 2007, they fled into the bush. “Ten were killed; at least 40 fled into the bush. The attackers looted the compound before Sudanese troops arrived to rescue the surviving peacekeepers” (The Economist, Oct 11, 2007; p.48) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hoisted by own petard

Ousted Mauritania leader in shock  

The former president of the West African state of Mauritania has said he was stunned by the coup that ousted him from power. Army officers overthrew President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya in a bloodless revolt on Wednesday. Speaking for the first time since the coup, Mr Taya said he had been shocked to find out who was behind it. He was toppled by the former security chief and close colleague, Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Vall. "My situation reminds me of the old adage: 'God, save me from my friends, I'll take care of my enemies'," President Taya told Radio France Internationale from Niger. "I was stunned by the coup d'etat [...] and even more so when I heard who were the authors," Mr Taya said. President Taya, who survived a number of coup attempts in his 21-year rule, was returning from the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia when the coup took place. Col Vall, 55, has been director of national security since 1987 and, after played a key role in the 1984 coup which brought Mr Taya to power. Critics accuse the government of using the US-led war on terror to crack down on his opponents. Mr Taya had also prompted widespread opposition by establishing links with Israel, making Mauritania one of only three Arab states to have done so. The following presidents were removed by members of their own security forces: Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011,  Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria in April 2019 and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan in April 2019. They never learn and keep spending more and more on security forces. In the end they are booted out by members of their own security forces.  Guinea

GUINEA: PRESIDENT ESCAPES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT Guinea's leader, Lansana Conté,  survived an assassination attempt, his security minister said, after unidentified men in military uniforms fired on his convoy. Mr. Conté, 70, a diabetic chain-smoker who has no obvious successor and is rarely seen in public, later appeared on state television. Military officials said his bodyguards returned fire and foiled the attack. Security Minister Moussa Sampil said that an unspecified number of people had been detained. In his television address, Mr. Conté spoke of "external manipulations" against him but added, "Personally, I only fear my close aides, who pretend they are with me while they are not sincere." (Reuters, Jan 20, 2005). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hundreds of marauding soldiers fired guns in the air in the streets of Conakry and other towns around the country on Friday, further threatening the ability of Guinea's beleaguered president Lansana Conte to govern. Banks, schools, markets and shops all closed at around 11.30am as news spread that heavily armed soldiers were marching into town, after talks between senior military officials and soldiers at a military base near the airport collapsed. "We want the leaders who stole our wages and betrayed us to step down," one of the soldiers marching in central Conakry close to the presidential palace, told IRIN on Friday afternoon. In the morning IRIN also saw presidential guards, distinguished by their red berets, in the center of the city. They were shooting in the air in what appeared to be an attempt to scare off the mutinous soldiers, but the presidential guards were outnumbered and eventually FLED! UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS   11 May 2007

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http://www.punchng.com/news/mubi-battle-300-nigerian-soldiers-flee-to-cameroon-again/

Boko Haram has seized control of a Nigerian town after hundreds of soldiers stationed there reportedly FLED across the border to Cameroon, a police source said. "Boko Haram fighters moved into Ashigashya" overnight on Monday, where they slaughtered three people in front of a church, a Cameroon police source told the AFP news agency on Tuesday on condition of anonymity. “Almost 500 Nigerian soldiers FLED the Nigerian border towns of Ashigashyia and Kerawa to take refuge from Boko Haram fighters on Cameroonian territory” (Al-Jazeera, Aug 26, 2014) www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/08/boko-haram-seizes-town-after-soldiers-flee-2014826181311739107.html

Islamist extremist group Boko Haram seized control of a Nigerian town of Malam Fatori, near the Niger border, after soldiers FLED, an official told the AFP. . . The fighting killed dozens and wounded about 30 people in the a commercial hub known for fishing and farming, the Anfani radio station in Diffa reported. “The town of Malam Fatori was taken by Boko Haram after violent fighting with the Nigerian army overnight,” said the official in Diffa. According to the official, 315 Nigerian soldiers FLED over the border to Diffa. Thirteen who were wounded were treated in a Diffa hospital, while the others have been repatriated (Today, Nov 10, 2014) HTTP://WWW.TODAY.NG/NEWS/315-NIGERIAN-SOLDIERS-FLEE-TO-NIGER-AS-BOKO-HARAM-RAIDS-TAKES-CONTROL-OF-ANOTHER-TOWN-IN-BORNO/

“NO fewer than 480 Nigerian soldiers have FLED into Cameroon following fierce fighting with Boko Haram insurgents. The Cameroonian Army Spokesman, Lt Col Didier Badjek, who confirmed this, said the troops had already been disarmed. (Cameroon Daily, Jan 20, 2015).

HTTP://WWW.CAMEROONDAILY.NET/2014/08/480-NIGERIAN-SOLDIERS-FLEE-TO-CAMEROON.HTML

Mercifully there is the Coconut Cure

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, there is a place called "the magic corner," where all and sundry, including politicians, come to be relieved or cured of their problems. "Even those top leaders of the government come to that tree," said Shabuni Haruni, a private security guard. "Yes, during the election." Upon the payment of a small fee, a traditional healer ("witch doctor") would take a patient to a huge baobab tree, reputed to be the abode of ancestral spirits. Patients remove their shoes, kneel in front of the tree with their eyes closed. At one session described by The Washington Post correspondent, Karl Vick, "Rykia Selengia, a traditional healer, passed a coconut around and around the head of her kneeling client. The coconut went around the man's left arm, then the right, then each leg. When she handed the coconut to the client, Mussa Norris, he hurled it onto a stone. It shattered, releasing his problems to the winds." (The Washington Post, Nov 12, 2001; p. A21).

[geniuslearner]

all about youtube. YouTube is an American online video sharing and web-based media stage dispatched by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim in February 2005. All throughout the planet, its clients observe more than one billion hours of recordings every day. YouTube content makers, prominently alluded to as YouTubers, transfer more than 100 hours of substance each moment. Speedy Facts Type of business, Type of site ... In 2006, when YouTube was one year old, it was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion. It has since advanced from a little video real time stage to a global juggernaut affecting mainstream society, web drifts, and making multimillionaire famous people. YouTube as an organization has detailed incomes of $19.8 billion out of 2020. After Google, YouTube is the most visited site around the world, with more than one billion month to month clients. Google's responsibility for has additionally changed its plan of action; it no longer produces income from notices alone. YouTube currently offers paid substance like motion pictures and restrictive substance. YouTube itself and supported makers partake in Google's AdSense program, which produces more income for the two players. Throughout the long term, YouTube has extended past the site into portable applications, network TV, and to allowing different administrations like Discord and Nintendo to be connected to it. The scope of recordings on YouTube is apparently limitless; clients can discover music recordings, video cuts, short movies, include films, narratives, sound chronicles, corporate supported film trailers, live streams, video blogs, just as substance from well known YouTubers. Most substance today is as yet produced by people, including joint efforts among YouTubers and organizations that support them. Since around 2015, set up media enterprises, for example, Disney, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia have made and extended their corporate YouTube stations to elevate their substance to a bigger crowd. YouTube likewise goes about as an informal community by permitting clients with a Google record to watch and transfer their own recordings, remark on recordings, rate and react to remarks, as or loathe recordings, make playlists, and buy in to different clients and channels. YouTube's extension likewise drove it to get one of the milestones of the advanced Internet and a necessary piece of day by day life for some clients. With billions of long stretches of substance and a large number of specialty gatherings, YouTube has additionally had an extraordinary social effect. As it has developed and advanced, it has gotten engaged with numerous discussions that have made feature news like its self-control, affirmed corporate partiality, permitting its clients to spread paranoid fears, and issues in regards to kid security and prosperity. History : History of YouTube Establishing and beginning development (2005–2006) From left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, the organizers of YouTube YouTube was established by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. The triplet were all early workers of PayPal, which them left advanced after the organization was purchased by eBay. Hurley had contemplated plan at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim considered software engineering together at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. There are various stories recounted the organization's establishing. As indicated by a story that has regularly been rehashed in the media, Hurley and Chen fostered the thought for YouTube during the early long stretches of 2005, after they had encountered trouble sharing recordings that hosted been taken shots at a supper get-together at Chen's condo in San Francisco. Karim didn't go to the gathering and rejected that it had happened, however Chen commented that that YouTube was established after an evening gathering "was presumably extremely fortified by advertising thoughts around making a story that was entirely edible". Karim said the motivation for YouTube initially came from the

Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show contention, when Janet Jackson's bosom was momentarily uncovered by Justin Timberlake during the halftime show. Karim couldn't without much of a stretch discover video clasps of the occurrence and 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on the web, which prompted the possibility of a video sharing website. Hurley and Chen said that the first thought for YouTube was a video rendition of a web based dating administration, and had been affected by the site Hot or Not. They made posts on Craigslist requesting appealing ladies to transfer recordings from themselves to YouTube in return for a $100 reward. Trouble in discovering sufficient dating recordings prompted a course change, with the site's organizers choosing to acknowledge transfers of a video. The YouTube logo was utilized from its dispatch until 2011. Another form of this logo without their "Broadcast Yourself" motto was utilized until 2015. YouTube started as an investment financed innovation startup. Between November 2005 and April 2006, the organization fund-raised from an assortment of financial backers with Sequoia Capital, $11.5 million, and Artis Capital Management, $8 million, being the biggest two. YouTube's initial base camp were arranged over a pizza joint and Japanese eatery in San Mateo, California. In February 2005, the organization enacted www.youtube.com. The primary video was transferred April 23, 2005. Named Me at the zoo, it shows prime supporter Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo can in any case be seen on the site. In May, the organization dispatched a public beta and by November, a Nike advertisement highlighting Ronaldinho turned into the primary video to arrive at 1,000,000 absolute perspectives. The site dispatched authoritatively on December 15, 2005, by which time the site was getting 8 million perspectives every day. Clasps at the time were restricted to 100 megabytes, just 30 seconds of film. In spite of prevalent thinking, YouTube was not the main video-sharing webpage on the Internet; Vimeo was dispatched in November 2004, however that website stayed a side undertaking of its designers from CollegeHumor at that point and didn't develop a lot, by the same token. The seven day stretch of YouTube's dispatch, NBC-Universal's Saturday Night Live ran a play "Sluggish Sunday" by The Lonely Island. Other than assisting with reinforcing appraisals and long haul viewership for Saturday Night Live, "Sluggish Sunday's" status as an early popular video set up YouTube as a significant site. Informal transfers of the production to YouTube attracted in excess of 5,000,000 aggregate perspectives by February 2006 preceding they were eliminated when NBCUniversal mentioned it two months after the fact dependent on copyright concerns. In spite of ultimately being brought down, these copy transfers of the drama advocated YouTube's range and prompted the transfer of all the more outsider substance. The site developed quickly and, in July 2006, the organization declared that in excess of 65,000 new recordings were being transferred each day, and that the site was getting 100 million video sees each day. The decision of the name www.youtube.com prompted issues for a correspondingly named site, www.utube.com. That site's proprietor, Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment, recorded a claim against YouTube in November 2006 subsequent to being routinely over-burden by individuals searching for YouTube. All inclusive Tube along these lines changed its site towww.utubeonline.com. Broadcast Yourself Era (2006–2013) YouTube's central command in San Bruno, California On October 9, 2006, Google reported that it had procured YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. The arrangement was concluded on November 13, 2006. Google's securing dispatched new recently discovered interest in video-sharing destinations; IAC, which presently claimed Vimeo, zeroed in on supporting the substance makers to separate itself from YouTube. YouTube logo from 2015 until 2017 The organization experienced quick development. The Daily Telegraph composed

that in 2007, YouTube burned-through as much transmission capacity as the whole Internet in 2000. By 2010, the organization had arrived at a piece of the pie of around 43% and in excess of 14 billion perspectives on recordings, as indicated by comScore. That year, the organization worked on its interface to build the time clients would spend on the site. In 2011, in excess of three billion recordings were being observed every day with 48 hours of new recordings transferred each moment. In any case, the vast majority of these perspectives came from a generally modest number of recordings; as per a programmer around then, 30% of recordings represented 99% of perspectives on the site. That year, the organization again changed its interface and simultaneously, presented another logo with a hazier shade of red. A resulting interface change, intended to bring together the experience across work area, TV, and portable, was carried out in 2013. By that point, over 100 hours were being transferred each moment, a number that would increment to 300 hours by November 2014. During this time, the organization additionally went through some authoritative changes. In October 2006, YouTube moved to another office in San Bruno, California. Hurley declared that he would venture down as CEO of YouTube to play a warning job, and that Salar Kamangar would take over as top of the organization in October 2010. YouTube's New CEO (2014–2018) YouTube logo since 2017 Susan Wojcicki was designated CEO of YouTube in February 2014. In January 2016, YouTube extended its base camp in San Bruno by buying an office park for $215 million. The complex has 51,468 square meters (554,000 square feet) of space and can house up to 2,800 representatives. YouTube authoritatively dispatched the "polymer" upgrade of its UIs dependent on Material Design language as its default, also an updated logo that is worked around the help's play button seal in August 2017. Through this period, YouTube attempted a few better approaches to create income past ads. In 2013, YouTube dispatched an experimental run program for content suppliers to offer premium, membership based channels inside the stage. This exertion was ceased in January 2018 and relaunched in June, with US$4.99 channel memberships. These channel memberships supplemented the current Super Chat capacity, dispatched in 2017, which permits watchers to give somewhere in the range of $1 and $500 to have their remark highlight. .

[mygangtome]

who were they then, who are they now: richard armitage

My dearest, dearest tumblr user. We’ve been here before, haven’t we? I’ve tried time and again to persuade you to watch this glorious, bonkers, utterly compelling madhouse of a show, and despite my recommendations of yesteryear, you still haven’t been persuaded.

So I’m going to have to bring out the big nose guns.

HEY! ARE YOU IN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING FANDOMS: THE HOBBIT, HANNIBAL, SPOOKS, CAPTAIN AMERICA?

DOES THIS FACE LOOK GOOD TO YOU?

pictured here: god he’s so dashing i hate him so muuhuhuhuch

Ladies, gents, and nonbinary friends, I present to you Richard Crispin Armitage. If you don’t know who he is, you probably haven’t been on Tumblr before.

who he was before?

pictured here: he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity

Back in the hazy, long-gone days of 2006, Richard Armitage already had a more substantial following than a lot of the Robin Hood cast. He’d been around a bit in stage and the small screen; he joined a circus in Budapest, played Macavity in Cats, stood by the side of a pool as eye candy in Cold Feet, gave a career-defining performance as Smug Man At Party in This Year’s Love, and even turned up as an extra in Star Wars.

pictured here: DIDN’T KNOW THAT, DID YOU, EH?

The sudden explosion of Richard into the public consciousness is primarily due to the BBC’s North and South in 2004, in which he played a brooding Northerner who primarily wears black and holds a position of power.

Then he got cast as Guy of Gisborne, a brooding Midlander who solely wears black and holds a position of power.

Typecasting? What’s that?

who was he then?

I’ve talked extensively for previous My Gang To Me days about Guy’s character, and his excellently melodramatic interactions with other characters on the show. He’s the big baddie in a show which needs one; the sneering, scowling foil to Robin’s optimistic heroism. But he’s also generous to a fault, obsessively loving, and full of thwarted ambitions. No other character divides the fandom more - is he a misunderstood good guy or an overindulged crybaby? Are he and Marion meant to be or an abusive relationship? Does he deserve a redemption arc? I DON’T KNOW, I’M NOT THE BOSS OF ROBIN HOOD, STOP ASKING ME ALL THESE QUESTIONS.

pictured here: there’s no such thing as too much eyeliner

Two years ago, I wrote the following about Guy, and it holds true:

More often than not we end our hijinks with an exasperated shout of “GISSSSBORRRRRRNE!” echoing through the castle and a shot of Guy slinking off to explain how he got foiled this week… Despite being a handsome devil, he is so deliciously dislikeable in a proper, old-school, tying-people-to-the-railroad tracks kind of way. And I’ll be honest, it’s worth watching the show just for a demonstration of how Armitage is able to smoulder with all parts of his body up to and including his back.

Where the Sheriff revels in his own villainy, Guy never thinks of himself as anything but The Hero Of This Story, and is all the more gloriously villainous for it. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the show is well aware of the fact that Richard looks nice without a shirt on.

pictured here: how many times can i use this screencap before it become gratuitous

Admittedly, my particular preference is for bearded-and-soulful-Armitage (more on that later on) but you know, any Armitage is good Armitage.

richard on guy

The Thing You Probably Know Already About Richard Armitage is that he is a ~method actor, which means that he takes all his roles Very Seriously. He wrote a diary for Thorin. He underwent waterboarding in order to get in character for his role as Lucas North in Spooks. He got extremely into William Blake for Dolarhyde. And, believe it or not, he also got very emotionally attached to Guy.

Today, [Richard] knocks on [series writer Dominic Minghella’s] door with a pencil and pad. Can he ask me some questions about his character? I tell him, truthfully, that I can’t believe he is here - an actor of his talent, sitting on my sofa, talking to me about playing this part. I feel so lucky. Suddenly, I stop myself - do I destroy what little (gamma-male) authority I have by being so candid? I glance at him. My concerns are unfounded. He is blushing. 

source: interview in sunday telegraph, october 2006

pictured here: richard cosplaying as 80s investment banking!au guy of gisborne

I can’t even be mad at this point. 

His own opinions on Guy are about as complicated as the fandom’s.

“I’m really hoping that when people sit and watch this, when Gisborne is trying to woo Marian they absolutely squirm in their seats and their skin is crawling. That was my main aim with this character, to make people absolutely despise him.” 

source: interview on bbc robin hood website, october 2006 

“His love for Marian is something which is beginning to unravel him and he’s becoming more human through her. It’s actually surprising him. I don’t think he quite realises what’s happening to him - he’s becoming human throughout the course of the series, I think.” 

source: interview on robin hood audiobook, “will you tolerate this?”

who did he become?

pictured here: i’ve never seen spooks so i can’t comment but OOH, DASHING

After Robin Hood, Richard officially became a Household Name when he joined the cast of Spooks as Lucas North, a series regular. Technically he started filming it whilst finishing off Robin Hood, which must have been an experience.

He stayed with Spooks for three years, becoming That Guy Off Spooks With The Face, You Know The One, and also turned his hand to a few other television and film roles over the years. 

He warmed the cockles of our collective hearts when he turned up as Dawn French’s love interest and future husband Harry Kennedy in The Vicar of Dibley. Bit of a jump for him, this one, as it’s a handsome and charming accountant, rather than a handsome and charming spy. Still, he rose to the occasion masterfully, and also got to snog Dawn French, so he won on multiple accounts.

In 2011, he turned up as the bespectacled Nazi spy Heinz Kruger in Captain America: The First Avenger. He got to have a secret submarine and run around with tommy guns. One time Chris Evans punched him in the face. It was awesome.

And then Thorin happened.

pictured here: majesty~

I will keep this brief, because if I talk too much about Thorin Oakenshield I’ll burst into tears, but it was the role that changed his life.

“I just think it’s a really amazing opportunity to take a character from a book that I was brought to as a child. My first experience on stage was in a production of The Hobbit at the Alex Theatre in Birmingham, and I played an elf.  And Gollum was a papier-mache puppet with a man offstage on a microphone. It’s been in my childhood very prominently, so to come to it as an adult,  a middle-aged man, and have another look at it is a brilliant opportunity." 

source: ‘the hobbit’ cast press conference, february 2011

Yes, that’s right, Richard Armitage is a Tolkien nerd. He wore elf ears made from cereal boxes to see the Two Towers in cinemas (he was thirty years old at the time).  And in 2012 he first graced our screens as Thorin, the proud and noble long-lost king of Erebor and a significant change of pace for a man who had developed a career as shifty, morally-dubious hired killers. 

He developed a reputation on set for being “moody and broody” (his words, not mine), due to all that method acting stuff that kept him fretting about the fate of the dwarven race when everyone else was fretting about lunch, but his performance was hailed as one of the best in the trilogy and - of course - it absolutely transformed his career.

who is he now?

Good question, and really one for Richard himself, or his doctor or his therapist or maybe a priest, but we’ll take a stab at it anyway.

After The Hobbit, Richard took a break from the massive media scrutiny and did what all British actors do when they’re scared, which is be in a play. In his case, the play was The Crucible at the Old Vic (I saw it, it was INCREDIBLE) and it earned him an Olivier nomination.

pictured here: bad timez 4 johnny p

He bounced from that into a couple of movies that you are, on the whole, unlikely to have seen - disaster movie Into The Storm, social drama Urban and the Shed Crew, bizarre fantasy Alice Through The Looking Glass…

But his most iconic role of late has been in Hannibal, as serial-killer-with-a-heart-of-gold-actually-no-wait-he-murders-people Francis Dolarhyde. He joined Hannibal for the last explosive season, and seems to have had a lot of fun killing people and wearing flower crowns and… I don’t know, I don’t go here, I’m doing my best.

pictured here: @nettlestonenell challenged me to fit at least one additional shirtless shot into this post, so here’s naked dolarhyde doing something that’s probably evil

It seems to have gone down well with the fans. And things are only looking up for our boy, who’s filming season two of his spy thriller Berlin Station as we speak. He’s based in London these days - still famously private about his private life, but happy to chat on twitter and instagram - just finished performing in his off-Broadway debut in Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love, earning rave reviews, and he’s got several movies coming up.

my gang, to me!

Have I persuaded you yet that you want to get to know the man who was Guy of Gisborne? Well, you’re in luck - the boy’s been busy. You might see him on the big screen this year in Pilgrimage, or Ocean’s Eight, or Brain on Fire. He’s aging well, like a fine wine, and you only have to poke a toe into his tumblr tag to find that his ‘army’ of fans are as passionate now as they were when Guy first slithered onto our screens, eleven years ago today.

pictured here: then & now

I think he might actually be aging in reverse.

Of course, if you want to see more of Richard, there’s one surefire way to do it - and it’s the reason I made this post. Come along and join the gang in Sherwood, and get to know Guy for yourself! Buy some DVDs, or fire up a stream, and settle down with a couple of glorious episodes of the friendliest, loveliest show in television - BBC Robin Hood. 

No matter how famous he gets, to us, he’ll always be Guy. And we wouldn’t have him any other way.

Sorry, guys. We saw him first.

-

post by @interestinggin / with thanks to richardarmitage.net & richardarmitageonline.com

#my gang to me 2017 #who they are now #guy of gisborne #richard armitage #bbc robin hood #guy #interestinggin #submission

[jobsearchtips02]

YouTube history: How the video-sharing website became so popular

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Getty.

YouTube has more than 2 billion month-to-month users checking out the video-sharing platform for their favorite vlogs, video, sports highlights, and more.

It’s been 15 years given that YouTube’s site introduced to the public in May 2005.

YouTube was established previously that year by three early PayPal workers. Ever since, it’s become the most popular totally free video-sharing platform in the world.

Take a look at the history of YouTube, from its start as a stopped working video-dating website to a powerhouse platform that’s released a new generation of money-making YouTubers and influencers.

Visit Business Expert’s homepage for more stories.

In its 15- year history, YouTube has ended up being the undisputed king of online video.

It has over 2 billion month-to-month users who view numerous countless hours of content every single day. Many people do not know how YouTube got its start.

The business rose like a spaceship after its starting in 2005, and was bought by Google 18 months later. Under Google, YouTube went from being a repository of amateur video to a powerhouse of original material, not to point out a launching pad for its own brand-new brand name of superstar, like PewDiePie and the Smosh Brothers

Here is how YouTube got its explosive start, and kept that momentum to become the biggest force in online video.

Late 2004: Three early staff members of e-payment start-up PayPal– Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim– start dealing with a concept for a site for users to publish video-dating profiles. They work out of Hurley’s garage in Menlo Park, California.

From delegated right: YouTube cofounders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.

Reuters/Lucas Jackson; YouTube.

Source: USA Today, Engadget

February 2005: On Valentine’s Day, Hurley– as CEO– registers the trademark, logo design, and domain for YouTube. The site launches to a small subset of users. However, YouTube-as-a-dating-site brings in little interest, requiring the cofounder to get ads paying ladies $20 to upload dating videos. Instead, users begin uploading videos of all kinds to YouTube.

Jawed Karim giving a beginning speech in2007

CSmediaUIUC/YouTube.

Source: Vice

April 2005: Based upon the feedback, the cofounders transformed YouTube into a totally free video-hosting platform where each clip has a distinct link. Nevertheless, the story of how the cofounders got to this point is a much objected to one.

Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake perform during the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Program in2004

Getty Images Entertainment/Frank Micelotta.

Karim has actually maintained the cofounders drew their inspiration from two substantial events in 2004: Janet Jackson’s wardrobe breakdown at the Super Bowl, and the destructive tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Chen and Hurley state they thought of the idea of YouTube as a location to publish videos they had actually taken at a party. Chen recently informed Company Insider that this story was later created with the assistance of an outdoors PR firm, to replace YouTube’s sordid dating origins.

Source: USA Today

April 2005: While YouTube is still in private beta, first video ever is submitted to the website. The video, called “Me at the Zoo,” is only 18 seconds long.

A screenshot of Jawed Karim from “Me at the zoo.”.

Jawed/YouTube.

May 2005: YouTube launches its beta variation to the public for the very first time. As you can see, the design has actually altered a fair bit ever since– the latest redesign to YouTube’s homepage remained in November 2019.

Wayback Machine.

September 2005: Admired investment firm Sequoia Capital invests $3.5 million in YouTube’s Series A round. Sequoia partner Roelof Botha operated at PayPal with the cofounders, and learnt more about YouTube after using it to publish old wedding and honeymoon videos.

Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha.

Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch.

October 2005: YouTube sees a video hit 1 million views for the very first time. The video is a viral Nike ad showing Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho getting his set of “Golden Boots,” and it shows the power of YouTube’s function in marketing and virality.

Nike Futebol/YouTube.

You can watch the complete Nike ad here

February 2006: After clips of the Saturday Night Live sketch “Lazy Sunday” bring in millions of views on YouTube, NBC demands that an especially viral clip is eliminated from the site. NBC’s grievance leads the way for YouTube’s “Content Verification Program,” which launched in October 2007 to assist content creators easily identify videos that infringe on their copyrights and get them eliminated.

Chris Parnell, left and Andy Samberg in “Lazy Sunday” on “Saturday Night Live.”.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube.

Source: New York City Times

April 2006: A video is uploaded to YouTube revealing two kids in China lip-synching to the Backstreet Boys. Susan Wojcicki– YouTube’s current CEO, who was in charge of Google’s acquisitions at the time– credits this video with persuading her that it would be worth it for Google to invest in user-generated material by buying YouTube.

The video that Susan Wojcicki states assisted to realize Google must acquire YouTube.

nitroxunit/YouTube.

Source: Organisation Expert

April 2006: Venture capital companies Sequoia Capital and Artis Capital Management invest $8 million in YouTube’s Series B funding round, bringing overall investment in the website to around $12 million. When YouTube is acquired months later, these firms’ investments pay out massively.

Sequoia Capital creator Don Valentine.

Steve Jennings/ Getty Images.

Source: New York Times

June 2006: After the initial spat over the SNL sketch just a couple of months previously, YouTube and NBC strike an offer to help promote the network’s upcoming fall TV line up. The relocation assists the conventional media company get in the brand-new digital age, and marks the start of YouTube’s a number of key partnerships with content suppliers later down the roadway.

YouTube/Screenshot.

October 2006: After a back-and-forth fight in between Yahoo and Google, Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion, netting the cofounders almost $400 million each in profits. The same day the offer goes through, YouTube moves to its headquarters in San Bruno, California.

Google cofounders Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin.

Kim Kulish/Corbis via Getty Images.

Source: ReadWrite, “The YouTube: A Full History”

May 2007: An infant named Charlie takes the world by storm. The 56- second home video of the young child biting his sibling’s finger– and after that smiling– is among the earliest YouTube videos to go viral. The family exposed in 2017 the clip has generated more than ₤ 1 million in royalties.

HDCYT/YouTube.

Source: The Sun

June 2007: The very same month Apple releases its first iPhone model, YouTube releases its mobile site. Hurley, YouTube’s CEO, anticipates that mobile is “going to be a substantial market,” making YouTube’s mobile site a “natural shift.”

Chad Hurley.

David Buchan/Getty Images.

Source: Mashable

July 2007: YouTube partner with CNN to host a presidential argument during the 2008 election cycle, featuring video questions sent by the public. Seven out of the 16 presidential candidates in 2008 revealed their campaigns through YouTube.

CNN/YouTube/Screenshot.

Source: New York Times

September 2008: The viral hit, “Development of Dance,” becomes the first YouTube video to hit 100 million views. The video turned its star, inspirational speaker Judson Laipply, into among the earliest viral YouTubers.

Judson Laipply/YouTube.

Source: Believe With Google

April 2009: Usher presents 15- year-old Justin Bieber to the world through a video on YouTube. Bieber would launch his music video for “Baby” the following year, and it remains one of the most-disliked videos on all of YouTube.

Reuters.

Source: Business Expert

October 2009: YouTube reveals that it has actually surpassed the turning point of 1 billion views a day. By this point, more than 20 hours of video are being published to YouTube every minute.

Google cofounders Chad Hurley (left) and Steve Chen.

AP Photo/Tony Avelar.

Source: Telegraph

April 2010: Felix Kjellberg joins YouTube to produce material under the channel name PewDiePie, where he initially supplies video-game commentary prior to broadening into vlogging and internet memes. The YouTuber has considering that surpassed 100 million customers, and is the most-subscribed-to solo creator on the platform today.

PewDiePie/YouTube.

Source: Service Expert

October 2010: Columnist and activist Dan Savage uses YouTube to launch the “It Improves” project on YouTube to send messages of wish to LGBTQ teenagers who feel bullied or ostracized because of their sexuality. The campaign winds up going viral, and even President Barack Obama gets involved.

YouTube/Screenshot.

Source: New York Times

October 2010: Hurley, a YouTube cofounder, steps down as CEO. In his location, Google appoints Salar Kamangar, who the business says was already leading YouTube’s daily operations for 2 years prior.

YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley, left, and previous YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar.

Reuters// Pascal Lauener; Reuters.

Source: BBC

December 2010: YouTube introduces skippable advertisements with a format called “TrueView,” permitting customers to skip over advertisements after five seconds and launch straight into the videos they want to see.

YouTube.

Source: TechCrunch

April 2011: YouTube officially enters the broadcast service with the launch of YouTube Live. YouTube Live has enabled the site to stream all types of content, including concerts, sports video games, the royal wedding, and the Olympics.

YouTube/Screenshot.

Source: Financial Times

October 2011: YouTube invests $100 million into its very first batch of original channels in a push to create original material on the platform. YouTube partners with established brands and significant celebrities, a move that developers see as the platform’s neglect for their value and influence.

YouTube/Screenshot.

Source: All Things D

May 2011: After a soft launch with indie films a year earlier, YouTube introduces provides a rental service, from which consumers can select countless films and TV shows to lease and stream straight on the platform. The move is seen as a quote to take on streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu.

YouTube.

Source: Digital Commerce 360

Spring 2011: YouTube plays a crucial function in a series of anti-government demonstrations, dubbed the Arab Spring, by helping share messages of freedom and democracy. With YouTube, protesters are able to submit videos sharing their messages and political criticism.

Scenes from Arab Spring protests in2011

Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters.

Source: University of Washington

August 2012: YouTube ends up being the go-to place for governmental elections by releasing the “YouTube Elections Center.” In addition to streaming the live speeches from the Republican politician and Democratic national conventions, the platform features content from eight news outlets, including YouTube-bred analyst Philip DeFranco.

YouTube/Screenshot.

December 2012: The viral video “Gangnam Design” becomes the very first YouTube video ever to reach 1 billion views, just five months after it’s first published. The Psy video later “broke” YouTube’s view count tracker, and is still one of the most-viewed videos on all of YouTube.

Youtube.

Source: Signboard

January 2013: YouTube opens “YouTube Spaces” in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, New York, and Sao Paulo. These areas function as recording and developing studios for YouTube content creators.

Madeline Stone/ Organisation Expert.

March 2013: YouTube reaches 1 billion month-to-month users.

Reuters.

Source: Think With Google

February 2014: Susan Wojcicki– Google’s 16 th worker who assisted encourage the company to purchase YouTube– is named the new CEO of the video-sharing platform.

Reuters.

Source: Service Expert

February 2015: After seeing children’s material boom, Google introduces a “family-friendly” version of the video platform called YouTube Kids. The platform filters material to guarantee it’s safe for minors, and provides adult controls like restricting screen time and disabling search. Now, YouTube Children attracts more than 8 million users a week.

YouTube.

Source: Wired, Tubefilter

August 2015: YouTube Gaming debuts as a way for players to livestream their play sessions to a live audience, along with which communicate and talk with fans in real-time. The service is indicated to counter Amazon-owned Twitch, the dominant force in the live-streaming market, which Google attempted (and stopped working) to buy a year previously.

YouTube.

Source: The Guardian

October 2015: YouTube unveils YouTube Red, its membership service that lets clients watch videos and stream music without ads, as well as access exclusive material including significant YouTubers. Three years later on, YouTube Red is relabelled YouTube Premium, and spins off its music-streaming to a different service called YouTube Music.

YouTube executive Matthew Glotzbach unveils the platform’s brand-new paid subscription service, YouTube Red.

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters.

Source: Range, The Edge

January 2016: The video for Adele’s “Hey there” sets a record as the fastest video on YouTube to strike 1 billion views. It takes the British vocalist simply 88 days to reach the turning point and beat the record previously held by “Gangnam Style.”

YouTube/AdeleVEVO.

Source: Guinness World Records

August 2016: YouTube starts informing creators when their videos are demonetized– suggesting the platform’s algorithm has actually decided some part of the clip does not abide by “advertiser-friendly material standards,” so it’s ineligible to generate income. Although these guidelines have actually existed since 2012, popular developers notice their rising effect. YouTuber Philip DeFranco slams demonetization as “a type of censorship.”

Samantha Lee/Business Expert.

Source: Recode, Business Expert

Both YouTube and Disney cut ties with him, and he’s kicked out of YouTube’s top-tier marketing program.

PewDiePie pays two men to hold up a sign reading, “Death to All Jews.”.

YouTube.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Service Insider

March 2017: Major companies throughout the United States and in global markets– like AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, and the British federal government– pull their ads from YouTube en masse after the Times of London reports that ads are appearing together with extremist and offensive content. YouTube’s ability to police content is taken into question, and experts approximate the boycott costs the business $750 million.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Getty.

Source: The Verge, Company Insider

April 2017: YouTube makes the very first of two major algorithm changes: It put stricter policies on ads, and later on revamped its Partner Program to raise the requirements of eligibility for money-generating channels. These modifications, together with the marketer boycott, help start YouTube’s first “Adpocalypse,” a term creators created for the huge downturn in revenue they noticed.

Hank Green, one-half of the Vlog Brothers, discuss the Adpocalypse in an April 2017 video.

Vlogbrothers/YouTube.

Source: Saying, New York City Times

April 2017: YouTube TELEVISION, an on-demand streaming service, formally releases in choose markets. It’ll be another 2 years prior to the service goes nationwide, and the rate jacks up to $50 a month.

Company Expert/ Screenshot.

Source: The Brink, Organisation Insider

November 2017: Throughout YouTube and YouTube Children platforms, users discover regarding family-friendly videos consisting of troubling and violent content. A lot more advertisers pull their ads, and YouTube reacts by updating its policies around age-restricted content.

Samantha Lee/Business Expert.

Source: The Edge, New York City Times

Paul isn’t prohibited from YouTube, he’s eliminated from its top-tier ad profits program. He asks forgiveness, and is still one of YouTube’s most controversial stars.

Logan Paul is the infamous Japanese “suicide forest” video.

YouTube/Logan Paul.

Source: Organisation Expert

April 2018: A lady opens fire at YouTube’s San Bruno headquarters, injuring 3 people and eliminating herself. Police later state she planned her attack due to the fact that she was upset about YouTube for censoring and demonetizing her videos.

Law enforcement officials walk toward YouTube workplaces in San Bruno, Calif., Tuesday, April 3,2018

Associated Press/Jeff Chiu.

Source: NPR

May 2019: T-Series, a Bollywood music label, ends up being the first YouTube channel to hit 100 million customers. It vanquishes PewDiePie, the second most popular channel, for the accomplishment.

A screenshot from the T-Series video “Teri Maa.”.

T-Series/YouTube.

Source: Service Insider

June 2019: Vox press reporter Carlos Maza speaks up about YouTube’s failure to act against right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder, who was pestering Maza with homophobic and racist remarks in YouTube videos. YouTube guidelines Crowder’s videos don’t breach harassment policies and keeps his video online, a decision that prompts backlash from the public and from employees inside YouTube.

Steven Crowder, left, and Carlos Maza.

Steven Crowder/YouTube; Carlos Maza/YouTube.

Source: Organisation Expert

September 2019: The Federal Trade Commission fines YouTube $170 million following an investigation into whether the platform violates children’s personal privacy laws by collecting the data of kids under the age of 13 without their parents’ consent. The FTC settlement also needs YouTube to produce a system where developers flag their content as family-friendly.

Diana from the YouTube channel, Children Diana Show.

Kids Diana Show/YouTube.

Source: Organisation Expert

December 2019: Six months after the Maza-Crowder controversy, YouTube updates its harassment policy to prohibit content that “maliciously insults” others– from creators to public figures– on the basis of race, gender, and sexual orientation. The revamped policy has actually led creators to stress about a crackdown on popular types of videos (like commentary and drama) and stoked fear of another Adpocalypse.

AP Photo/Reed Saxon.

Source: The Verge

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Boris Johnson ‘whipping up riot fears to avoid Brexit extension’

Boris Johnson is whipping up fears of rioting and deaths on the streets if Brexit is not delivered by 31 October so that he can try to invoke emergency powers and avoid extending the UK’s EU membership beyond that date, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, claimed on Saturday.

After a week in which the prime minister was accused by MPs from all the main parties, including senior Tories, of inciting violence by accusing Remainers of Brexit “surrender” and “betrayal”, Starmer said it was part of an orchestrated plan to stoke a sense of outrage among Leave voters and create civil unrest, so an extension might be avoided.

Increasingly MPs across the House of Commons believe Downing Street is considering using the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which grants special powers in the event of a national emergency, as a way to override the so-called Benn act, which mandates the prime minister to seek a delay to Brexit if no deal has been struck with Brussels by 19 October.

Johnson’s description of the act as the “surrender act” provoked heated exchanges in parliament last Wednesday. Female MPs invoked the memory of their murdered colleague Jo Cox and said they feared for their safety. on Saturday night the prime minister reinforced his rhetoric in a newspaper interview saying his “humdrum political metaphor” could just as well have been the “abject capitulation act”, and questioned whether the EU had been consulted during the bill’s drafting.

Starmer told the Observer that Downing Street’s strategy was clearly to stoke tensions but he warned Johnson that any attempt to invoke the Civil Contingencies Act would be defeated in the courts.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

“Whipping up the idea of riots or even deaths if we do not leave the EU on 31 October is the height of irresponsibility,” Starmer said. “But it is also pretty obviously being orchestrated. If this is part of a government plan to misuse powers under emergency legislation, I can assure the prime minister we will defeat him in court and in parliament.”

Johnson is expected to continue his attacks on Remainers this week at the Tory conference in Manchester where the slogan will be “Get Brexit Done”.

Former Tory MP and attorney general Dominic Grieve said he could see no other possible way Downing Street could comply with the law and deliver Brexit on time. “The Civil Contingencies Act is the only possible route I can imagine they can be thinking of,” Grieve said. “But if they do try to do this it would be a constitutional outrage. And if it passed through parliament it would be immediately challenged in the courts.”

Allies of Johnson have warned in recent days that the UK will face civil disorder on the scale of the gilets jaunes protests in France if Brexit were to be delayed or reversed.

Senior Labour sources said that possible use of the Civil Contingencies Act to trump the Benn act was on a list of options that the party’s legal advisers believe Downing Street might use.

After 11 supreme court judges ruled unanimously last week that Johnson’s decision to shut parliament for five weeks had been unlawful, and declared the prorogation null and void, MPs say there are signs of increasing desperation at No 10 as it faces the prospects of more defeats in parliament and the courts.

On Saturday night, Johnson signalled that he would again challenge the judiciary by introducing US-style political screening of supreme court judges before they are appointed. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, the prime minister said: “If judges are to pronounce on political questions in this way, then there is at least an argument that there should be some form of accountability. The lessons of America are relevant.” The Law Society and the Bar Council both said last week that politically appointed judges would threaten the independence of the judiciary.

Some minor parties are pressing hard to pass a motion censuring Johnson, forcing him to apologise for the language he has used against his Brexit opponents. Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville-Roberts has even asked Speaker John Bercow whether she can table a motion to impeach Johnson. Another avenue being examined is to censure Johnson should he appear before the liaison committee of MPs.

Last week the former Tory prime minister John Major said he feared the Johnson government would try to bypass the Benn Act through an order of council. “It is important to note that an order of council can be passed by privy councillors – that is government ministers – without involving HM the Queen,” he said, adding: “I should warn the prime minister that – if this route is taken – it will be in flagrant defiance of parliament and utterly disrespectful to the supreme court. It would be a piece of political chicanery that no one should ever forgive or forget.”

The Civil Contingencies Act provides the government with powers to create emergency regulations at times of national crisis and threats to safety (including wartime), emergencies that threaten “serious damage to human welfare”, or to the environment or the security of the UK. Damage to human welfare is defined in the act to include disruption to transport networks or to the supply of food, money, energy, or health services.

Downing St sources said it was not planning to use the Civil Contingencies Act. A spokesman added: “The prime minister is determined to deliver Brexit on time and he will abide by the law.”

Senior Labour sources played down suggestions by the Scottish National Party that the opposition parties could this week table a vote no confidence in Boris Johnson’s government, with a view to installing a caretaker administration led by Jeremy Corbyn who would then apply for an extension to Brexit and call an election.

While Labour is not publicly ruling out the move, shadow cabinet members privately say they will only move once an extension to Brexit has been guaranteed. The Liberal Democrats and other opposition parties, as well as former Tory MPs and independents, say they will not under any circumstances agree to install Corbyn in Downing Street, even temporarily.

Anna Soubry, leader of the Independent Group for Change, which has five MPs, said: “We need to keep the prime minister held firmly accountable for the mess he has created. We do not want any votes of no confidence until that extension is up and running and even then I will only support a vote of no confidence knowing that it will result in a government of national unity resulting in a people’s vote confirmatory referendum.

“Anything else gives Johnson his escape route. His only plan B is a general election and a general election would not solve Brexit. Only a referendum will sort out Brexit.”

On Saturday the Liberal Democrats announced that Dr Phillip Lee, who recently defected from the Tories, will be their candidate to fight the veteran Tory and hard-line Brexiter John Redwood in Wokingham, to set up a Leave v Remain contest in the Berkshire seat.

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Princess Diana's secrets

The late Princess Diana's previous head servant Paul Burrell has been portrayed as the royal's "closest compatriot" and her "keeper of secrets," two descriptors that don't exactly consider the blabby steward's ability to share her confidences at the drop of a black-and-white boater hat. (Despite the way that she clearly took the mystery of Burrell's homosexuality to her grave.) 

Burrell first progressed toward becoming Queen Elizabeth II's footman at the age of 18, moving to Highgrove in 1987 to watch out for Prince Charles and Princess Diana (by means of The Telegraph). He consequently joined Princess Diana in Kensington Palace after the illustrious marriage broke down. Throughout the years, they allegedly grew a significant cozy relationship — to the point that Princess Diana would allude to Burrell as "her stone." But as far back as her awkward demise in a 1997 pile up, he's completed an energetic business of presenting illustrious mysteries. In 2002, he purportedly sold his "story" to British newspaper the Daily Mirror for some place between £250,000 and £500,000. He's likewise composed two dishy journals (A Royal Duty and The Way We Were: Remembering Diana), performed a small time indicate spilling much more insider facts, and uncovered yet more babble amid an appearance on the truth show I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! 

From supposed sexual contacts to reputed late-night meet with road whores, these are the illustriously shocking insider facts shared by this especially loud steward.

She allegedly sought out prostitutes

Did Princess Diana have a weakness for sex specialists? 

In November 2002, Paul Burrell was cleared on charges that he swiped many Princess Diana's possessions. The rundown of unrealistic things incorporated a pepper processor, an "Indiana Jones whip," a few photographs (one marked "Diana"), a Prada Milano pack, and a Baywatch exchanging card signed by David Hasselhoff to Prince William (by means of ABC News). 

Following his absolution, a voluminous, exceedingly touchy "explanation of confirmation" from Burrell was spilled to the News of the World, as announced by The Telegraph. In an article inelegantly featured "Di's Whore-Able Secret," the New York Post picked up one of its most outrageous claims: Burrell supposedly would escort Princess Diana to Paddington Station so she could spend time with whores. In her book The Fortune Hunters, writer Charlotte Hays guaranteed the women would courteously chatter with Princess Diana outside her BMW: "Hi, Princess Di. How are you?" She would supposedly react with something like, "I'm fine. Have you been occupied with?" According to Burrell, she even took out "two fresh fifty-pound notes" once in a while, saying, "Look, young ladies, have the night off on me. Go home to your kids." 

Princess Diana supposedly taken a stab at mollifying Burrell on those wild evenings, saying, "Gracious, Paul, help up. Those young ladies require help."

Princess Diana allegedly thought Prince Charles wanted her dead

A couple of hours before regal coroner Michael Burgess opened a formal examination into the passings of both Princess Diana and her beau Dodi Al Fayed in January 2004, British newspaper the Daily Mirror distributed an unstable first page story that supposed that Diana had suspected her ex, Prince Charles, had needed to kill her (via People). 

As point by point in his journal A Royal Duty, Paul Burrell guaranteed Princess Diana wrote the alarming letter in October 1996, ten months previously she was killed in a deadly pile up in Paris, France. The letter apparently read, "My significant other is arranging 'a mishap' in my vehicle, brake disappointment and genuine head damage … to make the way unmistakable for him to wed." The BBC rushed to call attention to that there was positively no proof at all to back up those cases (by means of People). 

Princess Diana was allegedly on the very edge of a breakdown when she composed the letter, as yet experiencing the passionate aftermath her separation to Prince Charles, agreeing to The Evening Standard. Associates of Prince Charles put no stock in the report by any means. "It is risible and profoundly frightful," said one companion. "I am certain no one truly trusts this over the top case." 

The Daily Star announced Burrell consequently shared the physical letter amid a 2017 meeting on Australia's Sunday Night, saying, "This specific letter is somewhat impactful on the grounds that it is fairly creepy reasoning that she saw and forecasted her own demise."

Burrell would reportedly help Princess Diana induce vomiting

In the 2017 narrative Diana: In Her Own Words, talk with film shot in 1992 and 1993 highlighted Princess Diana opening up about her loaded association with Prince Charles and uncovering that she'd met him just multiple times previously they were hitched (through The Independent). Soon after learning of her better half's undertaking with Camilla Parker Bowles (now the Duchess of Cornwall), Princess Diana said she created bulimia. "Everybody in the family thought about the bulimia," she stated, "and everybody rebuked the bulimia for the disappointment of the marriage." She felt like the dietary problem was an unmistakably progressively "attentive" method for harming herself, not at all like liquor misuse. 

In August 2017, negligible days before the twentieth commemoration of Princess Diana's demise, Paul Burrell showed up on the British show In Therapy, a kind of "superstar guiding show," as per the Mirror. Amid his appearance, Burrell guaranteed he was simply "carrying out his responsibility" by empowering Princess Diana's bulimia. "I'd inspire the gourmet expert to set up a gallon of custard," he told Mandy Saligari, the program's therapist. "What's more, I'd purchase yogurt and heaps of bananas and set up the space to ensure she was agreeable." 

Recognizing that he was setting the scene so Princess Diana could make herself debilitated, Burrell admitted, "I'd ensure there was a heap of towels. I was carrying out my responsibility. I'd have done anything for Diana."

She'd reportedly buy pregnancy tests for a giggle

Timidity doesn't block devilishness; truth be told, the characteristics once in a while go connected at the hip. As per the Daily Mail, Princess Diana had an irregular comical inclination that fairly gave a false representation of her "Bashful Di" persona. (The Independent fairly clumsily hailed her a "timid revolutionary princess with a reason.") In the ITV narrative Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, claimed Princess Diana sent them "the rudest cards" on the normal. In the interim, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, uncovered his late mother's adage: "You can be as devious as you need, simply don't get captured." 

Except if, obviously, you need to get captured. In a spilled 39-page police statement, former regal head servant Paul Burrell guaranteed one of Princess Diana's unsurpassed most loved tricks was breezing into her neighborhood drug store and merrily obtaining home pregnancy tests. 

"She would take extraordinary enjoyment heading off to the counter in Boots," Burrell stated, "[and] grabbing Predictor pregnancy units or contraceptives" (via Daily Mail). At the time she was enjoying this execution craftsmanship, the British sensationalist newspapers were regularly aswirl with hypothesis that Diana was expecting her third youngster, with the Daily Express hungrily pondering in 1985 (via The Sun-Sentinel), "Is Princess Diana pregnant?"

Princess Diana was reportedly in a 'secret' second car crash

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana kicked the bucket in an awful pile up when her Mercedes S280 limousine smashed in France's Pont de l'Alma burrow. As indicated by Burrell, she was likewise associated with another mishap quite a while earlier. He recounted his story in a February 2018 scene of Australia's I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, during a "mystic perusing" by "superstar medium" John Edward (by means of the Mirror). 

The story was provoked by what sounds like a "chilly perusing" on Edward's part, who told Burrell, "You had a companion who gone in a vehicle mishap." Burrell took the gutsy goad, answering, "Were there two vehicle mishaps?" Edward reacted, "I'm feeling like there were two vehicle mishaps — relatively like one was foretelling and one was lamentable." 

An apparently shaken Burrell shouted, "Yes! You couldn't in any way, shape or form realize that." Later in the scene, Burrell opened up about this supposed mystery mishap to Real Housewives of Melbourne star Jackie Gillies, who innocently announced Edward was "addressing [Diana's] soul." Burrell revealed to her the late princess was "panicked that night," including, "She slammed her vehicle. … She was amidst no place." 

At the point when Princess Diana purportedly asked Burrell what to do in the repercussions of the mishap, he advised her to bolt herself "in the women loo in the closest inn and I'll come and get you." Burrell guaranteed he recovered Princess Diana from that bathroom and after that made plans to have her vehicle towed.

She allegedly blamed herself for her mother's absence

In February 2018, previous illustrious steward Paul Burrell uncovered one more of Princess Diana's indicated privileged insights. While it's well known that she had a profoundly stressed association with her mom, Frances Shand Kydd, Burrell guaranteed that strain was at the base of a portion of Diana's enthusiastic issues. "[She] dependably thought it was her blame that mummy had left home," he uncovered on a scene of I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! (via Daily Mail). Burrell additionally asserted Shand Kydd "was certifiably not an extremely kind individual. Not protective." 

Burrell affirmed that Shand Kydd's treatment of Princess Diana educated her dietary issue, saying that she "censured herself" for her mom's interminable nonattendance. "That is the place her anorexia begun," he said. "She endured with it for her entire life. She rebuffed herself." 

As indicated by the Express, several watchers were disappointed by Burrell's announcements, taking to online networking to share their wrath. "Great ruler! He likes to turn out with Diana related stuff once in a while to appear to be significant," thought of one. A kindred tweeter raged, "Paul Burrell on his 100th unscripted TV drama since Princess Di kicked the bucket."

She allegedly snuck several paramours into Kensington Palace

Following her separation from Prince Charles in 1996, Princess Diana purportedly took in excess of a couple of darlings — and she likewise went to Herculean lengths to keep these late-night trysts mystery. As indicated by previous illustrious steward Paul Burrell, he'd need to discover approaches to "pirate" Diana's lovers into Kensington Palace, performing strong accomplishments of sentimental secret activities that included concealing the men in the storage compartment of his vehicle. 

As per Burrell's famous, strangely articulate 39-page police proclamation, it sounds like the procedure wavered towards room a sham area. All together "to encourage the courses of action in connection to the Princess' male companions," Burrell supposedly told officers guarding the door that he was "going on an errand" and would not like to be ceased upon his arrival (via Daily Mail). "I would then blaze my lights and they would open the hindrance and let me in," he guaranteed. 

After coming back to Kensington Palace with the mystery darling close behind, Burrell said he wouldn't make a formal declaration that he was with someone, so police wouldn't have a record. Princess Diana's previous darling Dr. Hasnat Khan purportedly remained with her medium-term on a few events, and it was dependent upon Burrell to sneak him out the next morning. He said Khan "would be left to rest [in the palace] until some other time in the first part of the day, so, all in all I would give him something to eat and afterward take him home." An imperially sentimental racket.

Burrell claimed Dr. Khan was her soulmate

This supposed subtlety — the late-night prostitute visits, the sweethearts covered up in trunks —clearly transformed Princess Diana into an ace at sidestepping press. Following her separation from Prince Charles in 1996, she disguised her association with heart specialist Dr. Hasnat Khan (imagined, left) for year and a half, as per Tina Brown's book, The Diana Chronicles (by means of Vanity Fair). In the mean time, her loudmouthed previous head servant Paul Burrell asserted Dr. Khan was the affection for her life. "The Princess adored a considerable lot of her male companions," he said in a spilled explanation to police, "yet she was enamored with Hasnat Khan" (through the Daily Mail). 

Actually, Burrell guaranteed Diana asked a Roman Catholic minister if there was any way she could wed Dr. Khan secretly. Burrell purportedly needed to by and by convey the news to Diana "this was unrealistic." He reviewed a night when Princess Diana was praising her birthday "donning sapphire and precious stone hoops and look[ing] totally shocking." He asserted she later ran upstairs, evacuated all her garments, and ventured out to meet Dr. Khan wearing just a fur garment. 

Be that as it may, Burrell said their relationship confronted a difficult "hindrance." Dr. Khan purportedly "couldn't stand the weight set on him by the press in the outside world and he found that he had no security." As Tina Brown put it, he "couldn't confront the invasion of turning into Di's New Guy in each newspaper paper." Their relationship at last broke down in the mid year of 1997.

Her alleged last words to her trusted confidant

Amid a March 2018 scene of Australia's I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, butler Paul Burrell unexpectedly burst into shreds as he opened about Princess Diana's passing. 

"I do have a fantasy of me sitting alone with the Princess crossed legged on the floor and she is wearing a blue dress," he admitted (by means of the Express). "It's the last dress I saw her in." Burrell conceded he at first idea Diana was simply "playing a trap" and wasn't generally dead by any stretch of the imagination. He supposedly even "sat with her" after she kicked the bucket, attempting to comprehend the situation: "I held her hand and I said to her, 'Wake up, wake up, you're not by any stretch of the imagination dead, would you say you are?" 

Those disclosures went ahead the foot rear areas of a February 2018 scene that discovered Burrell sharing Diana's supposed last words to him: "The last things she said to me were on the telephone," he uncovered (by means of Yahoo!). "She was in Paris and the plain final words were, 'Guarantee me you will dependably be there.'" He purportedly answered, "I guarantee I will dependably be there." 

Following her passing, Burrell went to an epiphany: It was his obligation to deal with everything that Diana had abandoned. "She couldn't do that and she left me to do that," he stated, "so I needed to deal with her reality and the general population in it." 

Obviously, this arrangement does exclude keeping her mysteries.

#IFTTT #Blogger

[ladyarse]

Tottenham have extended their line of credit to take their stadium borrowing to £500m.

The rise in costs has come about due to the delay in construction with senior sources telling the Mail on Sunday that Spurs have extended their £400m, five-year loan from Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and HSBC by a further £100m.

Unlike Arsenal, who agreed to repay their stadium financing back over a longer period, thus easing the burden on the club, Spurs agreed to a five-year repayment plan in 2017, leaving them just under four years to pay the money back.

What they want it to look like

It is still unclear when the new stadium will be ready after it was discovered that wiring for some critical systems had to be taken out and redone. Twice.

“There are literally thousands of miles of wiring to cover in order to find the faults,” a source told the Mail. “Some of the wiring has been built over.”

Mail on Sunday 21 October 2018

It is believed that the faults have not yet been resolved and Spurs’ opening date has now moved further into 2019. Tottenham originally wanted to open the ground for their game against Liverpool on 15 September.

The Emirates Stadium cost £390m in 2006 (£554m in today’s money) and opened on schedule.

In order to fund the build, that started in 2004, Arsenal took on £260m (£370m) of debt.

It was supposed to be open months ago but Tottenham’s new stadium is still some way from being finished with reports that it could open by the end of 2018 looking ever more fanciful.

The chief engineer on the project, Nick Cooper, has declared that, when finished, it will be the ‘greatest that’s ever been built’ in some pretty Trumpesque comments, but I guess they have to actually finish building it for us to determine if that’s true or not.

Cooper told the BBC: “We’ve tried to do something in double time.

“If you look at any other project of this nature you wouldn’t have achieved as much as we’ve achieved with the stadium. [Read on to the end to find out why that’s just not true]

“Be patient with us, we understand the frustrations. [It will be] the greatest that’s ever been built.”

Pochettino is ‘confident’ that the stadium will be ready for the end of the year, saying recently, “I am confident this year. I had a private conversation with Daniel.

“I think they are confident. They are working hard to try to find the solution.

“I hope before the year ends, before Christmas, we can play. That’s my wish.”

That seems like more wishful thinking.

As you can see from the images below taken at the end of September, the stadium is still some way from being finished. Spurs will then have to host a number of test events to ensure the ground is safe enough for the paying public.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You can get a better feel for the state of the place in this video which was posted on Youtube:

But yeah, Christmas….

Tottenham have denied that the cost of their stadium has risen to £1.2bn after more delays could see this season written off for the club in terms of opening their new venue.

Sources within the construction industry have claimed that the cost of the project could see Spurs paying 300% more than the original £400m-cost.

This comes down to Daniel Levy not negotiating a fixed-cost deal with the contractor, Mace.

Daily Telegraph 22 September 2018

Most building projects run over schedule and over budget, apart from the Emirates but we had Arsene ‘Economic Whizz’ Wenger in charge of that. It really is a special effort to increase costs by 300%. That £850m figure in the Matt Law’s piece is also misleading as the original stadium estimate was £400m.

You’d also expect, if you’re paying around £1bn for anything, somebody would be able to give you an idea of when you might be able to use it. The management of this project has been shambolic from Tottenham and it will be fans who have to pick up the tab.

Claiming their new ground would be the only place to watch Champions League football in London this season was just a little cherry thrown from Levy to the Arsenal and Chelsea fans.

https://twitter.com/DailyCannon/status/1042698458140999680

https://twitter.com/DailyCannon/status/1042700146658697216

The Mail on Sunday reported in an EXCLUSIVE that Tottenham’s new stadium may not open until 2019 after some safety systems were found to be missing completely.

Sources who spoke to the MoS in August believe the problems could take up to six months to sort out.

They told the MoS reporters, “The critical issues include [safety] systems. Some systems are incomplete or missing and nobody knows how long it is going to be.

“Completion could run into next year, depending on what other issues crop up. A best guess is that this delay will be between three to six months. In addition, the cost of the build has already reached £1billion and it is difficult to predict what the final bill will be. The costs keep piling up.”

via Mail on Sunday

via Mail on Sunday

Tottenham have also been told that their ‘fire detection contractor’ “encountered higher than usual electrical wiring faults.”

A spokesperson for Spurs said, “Urgent follow-up meetings with Mace [Tottenham’s construction partners] and the trade contractors are currently taking place. We are reviewing the situation and planned timetable to rectify and re-test, after which we shall be in a better position to outline a revised timetable.”

A company working on Tottenham’s new stadium advertised for electricians in August to start immediately on a ‘three-month contract’.

The ad was discovered and posted on Reddit by an eagle-eyed user and was the first hint that things could get worse for Spurs before the MoS released their exclusive.

According to Construction Enquirer Spurs are now paying workers on the new stadium more per week than they spend on players.

“The Enquirer understands that yesterday saw a record workforce of 3,800 operatives clock-in on the project which saw its planned opening delayed this week,” they wrote. CE also revealed that electricians were being paid £400-a-day in June. One expert close to the project added, “You’ve got 3,800 operatives down there in two shifts and whatever overtime they want.

“There’s 600 electricians on site and thousands of other trades.

“Being conservative that’s going to rack-up at an average of at least £1,000 a week per head in labour costs.” That’s £3.8m-a-week. Spurs players pick up a total of around £2.4m-a-week.

What they want it to look like

The stadium was supposed to be ready for Spurs to play all their home games at their new ground, apart from the match against Fulham which was always expected to take place at Wembley.

What it currently looks like (via Construction Manager Magazine)

But they have now announced that their games against Liverpool (15 September) and Cardiff City (6 October) will also take place at England’s national stadium.

Their game against City, which has been moved to Sunday 28 October for TV, cannot be played at Wembley as they are hosting an NFL game on that date and Pep Guardiola has already hinted that he is opposed to switching it to a City home game as it would leave him with only one home game in their final five matches of the season.

“We want to help the Premier League,” he told reporters at his press conference this week.

“This can happen because they build an amazing stadium for Tottenham Hotspur, sometimes there are delays.

“We are going to adapt if we can adapt but of course we are going to think of ourselves as well.

“I don’t know. I can only say, when that happens, of the last five games four are away.”

How does it compare to Arsenal’s build? Read on to find out

Ashburton Grove

What all this does is highlight what a remarkable job Arsenal did to construct Ashburton Grove on time and budget.

Spurs’ project was estimated to cost around £400m but that has now officially rocketed to £850m with the figure not expected to stop there. In April, the Guardian reported it could pass the £1bn mark before it’s complete and, as you read above, some involved with the project think they have already surpassed that figure.

It’s no surprise Spurs were the only Premier League club to buy nobody in the summer window.

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To contrast, the Grove cost £390m.

Some Spurs fans (and media) will point to an ‘accelerated’ and ‘ambitious’ schedule Spurs allegedly attempted to open their stadium this season, however, they actually began work on it in 2012 after announcing plans in 2008 and submitting planning applications in 2009. It was then revised in 2010 before building started in September 2012.

Construction on Arsenal’s stadium started in February 2004 after purchasing the land in 2000. The ground opened, on schedule and budget, on 22 July 2006.

They said it wouldn’t affect spending. They told us it would help us compete. Am I talking Arsenal or Spurs?

It doesn’t matter because both clubs said the same thing and both clubs lied, as Spurs fans are starting to realise.

Whisper it quietly but Arsenal fans can help Tottenham come to terms with what they are about to go through. It might have seemed like bitterness stemming from their rivalry, but when Arsenal fans tried to tell their Tottenham counterparts they were in for a rough ride, they were being sincere.

Mostly.

Spurs are the only ‘top’ side not to have bought any players. They can argue they don’t need to, given how well they played last season but a). they won nothing and b). if you aren’t improving you are going backwards.

Daniel Levy told Tottenham fans that their new stadium would not impact their ability to buy players.

https://twitter.com/Bateseyboy/status/1026161468105019393

It’s a tale Arsenal fans are familiar with. They heard the same for around eight years after they moved to the Emirates only for the board and management to then use the fact they were hamstrung by the stadium move to finally justify a lack of spending and sales of big stars.

Daily Mail 4 August 2018

That was Arsenal’s model and it could well be Tottenham’s too – buy young, sell high.

Between Arsenal taking up residence in the Emirates in 2006 and Mesut Ozil’s arrival in 2013 heralding the removal of the financial shackles (to some degree), the club sold Thierry Henry, Jose Reyes, Freddie Ljungberg, Alex Hleb, Gilberto Silva, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Eduardo, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gervinho, Gael Clichy, Robin van Persie and Alex Song for a considerable chunk of change.

They also sold tons of youth and fringe players while releasing more for nothing including Mathieu Flamini (the first time) and Andrei Arshavin.

Spurs will hope that their young players stick around but, as the reality of the mortgage payments on a shiny new home kicks in, many of those players will release they can double and triple their wages elsewhere.

Daily Mail 7 August 2018

Money that comes from selling them won’t be reinvested in the squad, at least not adequately. Tottenham will hope Mauricio Pochettino can wring the same results from a lesser squad. That’s assuming his head doesn’t get turned as well.

For all Arsene Wenger’s faults, there was never a danger of him leaving Arsenal in the lurch. One of the many guarantees Arsenal had to give to secure funding to build the Emirates was that Wenger would remain in charge. He signed up knowing it meant he was unlikely to taste glory for some time.

Will Pochettino feel the same? Is he as embedded at Spurs as Wenger was with Arsenal? That seems unlikely.

Football rivalry makes it easy to laugh when the other side are suffering but what is about to happen at Spurs doesn’t have to be the way it goes. They could have learned from the frustration Arsenal caused their fans and been a bit more honest with their projections. But why should they?

When fans will swallow most of what a club tells them, what incentive is there to be honest?

Tottenham borrow more money for stadium as further delays set in Tottenham have extended their line of credit to take their stadium borrowing to £500m. The rise in costs has come about due to the delay in construction with senior sources telling the Mail on Sunday that Spurs have extended their £400m, five-year loan from Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and HSBC by a further £100m.

#tottenham hotspur

[caveartfair]

Auction Sales Rose 25% in 2017—and the 9 Other Biggest News Stories This Week

01  Global auction sales increased 25% to $11.21 billion in 2017, according to a report from ArtTactic.

(via The Art Newspaper)

The analysis by the London-based firm looked at publicly available data from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips, finding improved sales across the board. The overall increase came even as consignments dipped 9.3%. Christie’s saw the greatest overall turnover and improvement from 2016, with total auction sales of $5.89 billion, a rise of 34% over 2016 performance thanks partly to the record-breaking sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in November. Sotheby’s sales totaled $4.69 billion, a 15% increase, with improved performance of sales in London accounting for much of the rise. Phillips remained a distant third in terms of overall turnover, with sales of $624.4 million, a notable 28% increase from the year before. Together, the findings “suggest the auction market is in full recovery after slumping by almost a third between 2014 and 2016,” reported The Art Newspaper.

02  French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to loan the fabled Bayeux Tapestry to the United Kingdom.

(via The Guardian, AFP, and the Washington Post)

The decision, announced at an Anglo-French summit in Britain on Thursday, symbolizes the continued strength of relations between the two countries even amid the forthcoming exit of the U.K from the European Union in 2019. A major historical object for both Britain and France, the 68-meter (223-foot)  tapestry depicts the 11th-century Battle of Hastings between Norman-French and English troops. It was created shortly after the battle and has has not left France in 950 years. The loan won’t begin until 2022 so that preservation work can be done to ensure the tapestry can be moved safely. The fragility has led some French experts to criticize the announcement, with Pierre Bouet, the curator who cares for the tapestry at the Normandy museum where it is on view, saying he thought the announcement was a “hoax” at first. It has not yet been announced where in the U.K. the work will ultimately be displayed once it is restored. Regardless of the location, British Museum director Hartwig Fischer told The Guardian it was “probably the most significant” loan ever from France to the U.K.

03  The Tate and National Galleries Scotland suspended ties with prominent British art dealer and major donor Anthony d’Offay after allegations of sexual harassment.

(Artsy, Hyperallergic, and the New York Times)

Three allegations against the 78-year-old d’Offay, first reported on Sunday by the London-based Observer newspaper, date between 1997 and 2004, and include unwanted kisses, demeaning language, and inappropriate workplace behavior. A fourth woman filed a complaint on December 20th, alleging that d’Offay had sent her malicious messages. The charge is currently under investigation by London police. D’Offay told the Observer that he was “appalled” by the allegations and “categorically” denies the claims, adding that he was unaware of the investigation and believes that “police time is being wasted.” The sexual harassment claims against d’Offay were not the only to emerge against figures in the art world over the weekend. Thirteen male models and assistants accused legendary fashion photographer Mario Testino of sexual exploitation and misconduct, while 15 male models leveled accusations against Bruce Weber in a New York Times story published last Saturday. “Both photographers said they were dismayed and surprised by the allegations,” the paper reported. And on Tuesday, Hyperallergic reported four new allegations of sexual misconduct against artist Chuck Close, who said he had “never received any complaints prior to reading about them in recent news reports,” and apologized.

04  The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) will no longer publish its annual art market report.

(via the Financial Times)

The TEFAF report was a key barometer in the art industry for years, providing a comprehensive and sweeping overview of the often opaque and diverse market. A statement from TEFAF cited “consultation with both stakeholders and industry experts” as the reason for canceling the art market report. Instead, the fair will produce “very in-depth and highly focused reports that concentrate on a variety of subjects in the art market,” the statement read. The future of TEFAF’s art market report has been uncertain after its author since 2008, economist Dr. Clare McAndrew, left in 2016 to compile a new report for Art Basel and UBS. New methodology used for the 2017 TEFAF report by McAndrew’s replacement, Maastricht University professor Rachel Pownall, found the overall size of the market in 2016 to be $45 billion, while McAndrew put it closer to $57 billion. McAndrew’s analysis saw the market contracting by about $6 billion from 2015 to 2016, while Pownall’s methodology found that the overall size of the market hovered at around $45 billion both years. “Such inconsistencies raised pertinent questions about how to measure an opaque market and it’s a shame that the debate has in effect stopped,” wrote Melanie Gerlis in the Financial Times.

05  Prominent curators, dealers, and scholars questioned the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent’s Russian Modernism exhibition, calling it “highly questionable.”

(via The Art Newspaper & artnet news)

The Art Newspaper published an open letter on Monday, signed by leading scholars and dealers, raising authenticity concerns over 26 Russian avant-garde works attributed to artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, and El Lissitzky on view in the exhibition. They suggested the works be removed until the museum addresses the questions raised. On loan from the Russian art collector Igor Toporovski’s charitable organization, the purportedly 20th-century artworks have been on display at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent, Belgium, since mid-October 2017. Signatories of the letter include renowned art historians, writers, curators, and dealers who have expressed concern that the paintings “have no exhibition history, have never before been reproduced in serious scholarly publications, and have no traceable sales records.” A spokesperson for the museum told artnet News that “the museum followed standard procedures to review the loans ahead of the exhibition,” but deferred to Toporovski for provenance and expert examination. Toporovski has affirmed to artnet News that his foundation can provide “provenance, history, and technical description…on request, for research, scholars, and professionals” and invited a reporter to view the materials in person; however, he refused to discuss further details via email.

06  Over 100 figures from the German and international art world have signed an open letter questioning the firing of Documenta CEO Annette Kulenkampff.

(via e-flux)

The letter challenges the actions taken by Documenta’s supervisory board in the wake of a multi-million deficit run up by Documenta 14, curated by Adam Szymczyk. In November, it was announced that Kulenkampff would not complete the final year of her contract. But the letter argues that blame has been disproportionately placed on Kulenkampff even though the quinquennial’s imperiled financials “arose through a program concept for which all involved parties shared responsibility.” The letter also accuses local and state politicians on the advisory board of conspiring to end Documenta’s nonprofit status and not adequately challenging the far-right German officials who have attacked work included in the exhibition as “disfigured art,” a phrase that invokes the Nazi-era classification “degenerate art.” Among other recommendations, the letter called on the supervisory board to adapt Documenta’s budget to the “requirements of a global art event with worldwide impact that is unique in its dimensions,” affirm its nonprofit status, and reinstate Kulenkampff to a board position.

07  Simon de Pury declared his victory in a legal tussle over a privately sold $210 million Paul Gauguin painting.

(via artnet news)

The Swiss art dealer, curator, and auctioneer Simon de Pury ammounced on Instagram this week that he and his wife, Michaela, had won their lawsuit seeking $10 million in connection to a 2015 Gauguin sale that de Pury helped broker. He said he was owed the fee due to a “gentleman’s agreement” with former Sotheby’s executive director Rudolf Staechelin, the seller of Gauguin’s 1892 work Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry)?. The painting was sold to Guy Bennett, a former Christie’s expert who now directs the collections and acquisitions for Qatar’s museums. When de Pury first approached Staechelin about selling the painting to Bennett, the auctioneer said he was verbally promised a handsome commission. However, Staechelin claimed de Pury set the price at $230 million, despite knowing the Qataris would max out at $210 million. Although the sale eventually occurred, Staechelin’s lawyer, John Wardell, told the Telegraph in June that de Pury’s behavior constituted “a clear breach of fiduciary duty and all commission has been forfeited if any right ever existed.”

08  A historic Frank Lloyd Wright building in Montana was razed last week despite efforts by preservation groups to save the structure.

(via Hyperallergic)

Bulldozers descended on the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Lockridge Medical Clinic late on January 10th, demolishing the 5,000-square-foot structure designed by the famous architect in 1958. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy (FLWBC), which had fought for over a year to save the historic Whitefish, Montana, building, reacted with shock and anger. Developer Mick Ruis bought the property in 2016, though he temporarily halted his plans to replace the building with a multi-use development after an initial backlash. Ruis said he’d part with the building for the same $1.6 million he paid to acquire it and the FLWBC had worked to devise plans to preserve the structure. On January 4th, Ruis announced that any buyer would have to close the deal by January 10th. Though the FLWBC made an offer on the 8th, Ruis demanded that the group submit a larger and nonrefundable deposit by the following afternoon, Hyperallergic reported. The FLWBC appealed for an extra day; however, Ruis rejected the request last Wednesday and the building was destroyed within hours. The demolition triggered complaints that preservationists weren’t given sufficient forewarning, yet Ruis’s attorney maintained to The Daily Beast that the developer had already given them “plenty of time.”

09  Christie’s suspended an employee that U.S. investigators suspect of leaking classified information to the Chinese government.

(via the Wall Street Journal)

A former Central Intelligence Agency officer who has been serving as head of security at Christie’s in Hong Kong was suspended this week after being arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday. The man, identified as Jerry Chun Shing Lee by the Wall Street Journal, was charged with unlawfully retaining classified information, and is suspected to have provided China with information that compromised a major network of U.S. informants in the country, leading to the systematic killing of several of them. Christie’s confirmed in a statement to the Wall Street Journal that Lee was an employee and had been suspended. “The allegations predate his employment with the company. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation we have no additional comments,” an auction house spokesperson told the paper. Lee left the CIA in 2007; he had worked at the agency for over a decade. After temporarily leaving the country, Lee and his family settled in northern Virginia in 2012. He was recently allowed to travel to Hong Kong, even as the investigation into his activity ramped up. When FBI agents learned he would be returning to the U.S., they obtained a warrant for his arrest.

10  Two newly authenticated drawings by Vincent van Gogh are now on display at the Singer Laren museum in the Netherlands.

(via Smithsonian Magazine)

The Van Gogh Museum confirmed the authenticity of the two drawings that date back to Vincent van Gogh’s early years among the Impressionists in Paris on Tuesday. The works depict the famous French landmark, the hill of Montmartre. According Smithsonian Magazine, The Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry (1886) and The Hill of Montmartre (1886) reveal an important part of the artist’s artistic development, reflecting a “shift towards the more experimental style of the Impressionists” he met in Paris. The Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry, which was held by the artist’s sister-in-law until 1911, was eventually acquired by the Van Vlissingen Art Foundation in 2014. The foundation also authenticated the work. That led to a subsequent re-examination and authentication of TheHill of Montmartre, which had been removed from two of the artist’s catalogues raisonnés due to questions over its origin. The drawings, put on display as part of the “Impressionism & Beyond” exhibition on Tuesday at Singer Laren, will be on display until May 6th.

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

[theimpossiblestudentexpert-blog]

The 2-Minute Rule for child support

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/csa-contact-information-why-you-need-aiden-ware Kid Assistance Uk Federal Government

From 25 November 2013 all new applications for youngster maintenance should be made via the 'Child Upkeep Solution' using the new statutory '2012 Scheme' and connected legislation. No new applications are approved by the Child Assistance Company, and also existing cases are being closed on a prepared development basis, which is meant to finish by 2017/18.

Gingerbread president Fiona Dam claimed: "These are difficult times for households and any missed maintenance settlements can have a major impact in solitary parents' capability to feed, outfit and also look after their child.

Also before its opening, the CSA went through objection, with MP David Tredinnick defining the CSA as a "follow up to 1984" as a result of problems regarding "CSA Snooping". [12] In February 2006, Work Secretary John Hutton asked Sir David Henshaw to upgrade the youngster support group with three vital locations of focus; exactly how finest to ensure moms and dads take economic responsibility for their children when they are apart, the ideal plans for supplying this end result cost efficiently as well as the alternatives for relocating to brand-new structures and also policies, recognising the need to safeguard the level of solution supplied to the current 1.5 million parents with care. This was announced when Work Secretary John Hutton mentioned that the CSA's performance was "inappropriate", as well as revealed that it would be evaluated. [14] Sir David Henshaw was to report his findings before the parliamentary summertime recess and also subsequently Sir David Henshaw's Record to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Recovering Child Support: Routes to Duty, was compiled.

Under the new method the basis for calculating upkeep has actually been streamlined, with a fixed percent of the non-resident moms and dads earnings being taken, from 15% for one youngster, 20% for 2, and also 25% for 3 or even more. Where upkeep is computed utilizing the standard rate, the amount of maintenance is additionally lowered if the non-resident moms and dad has children in their current family. Where this matters, the CSA will not take into account: 15% of their net weekly income if there is one youngster living with them, 20% if they are two children living with them, and 25% for three or more. [5]

Youngster Support Uk Payments

Upgraded statistics released in the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission Yearly Report as well as Accounts 2010/11 [8] revealed that, whilst repayments were being made in 65% of CSA cases for the year April 2006-- March 2007, this had boosted to 78% by March 2011.

In November 2004, the head of the CSA resigned in the middle of prevalent objection of the CSA systems. [10] Sir Archy Kirkwood, chairman of Work and also Pensions Board, described the circumstance as "a systemic, chronic failure of administration right throughout the completeness of the agency." [11] In November 2005, Tony Blair admitted that the CSA is "not correctly matched" to its work, in the middle of reports that for every single ₤ 1.85 that gets with to kids, the CSA invest ₤ 1 on administration. [12] [13]

He stated: "Overall, the research study suggests the government's reforms will certainly see even more youngsters benefiting from maintenance payments and, most importantly, more separated households collaborating to support their kids.

There are a range of means separated parents could choose to schedule support settlements. The federal government hopes that these parents will certainly collaborate to come to a contract that is reasonable and also agreeable by both sides. Obviously, whatever terms that are decideded upon need to be put into creating. For example, possibly one moms and dad will certainly be in charge of costs associated with education and learning as opposed to making the normal youngster maintenance payments.

Kid Support Uk Regulation

Child Assistance Firm is the government body in charge of applying the Kid Support Act of 1991. This makes sure that solitary parents are supported economically. It gathers, applies and also moves Youngster Maintenance from the non-resident parent, to the moms and dad that is caring for the child/children.

Revenue Support is a benefit in the UK for people that get on a low income or no revenue whatsoever. The standards for this well-being is that you can assert only if you're under the retirement/pension age, sick or disabled or a carer or a single parent of a kid below 5 years old, on a low revenue as well as have less than ₤ 16000 in financial savings.

Analyses based upon the exact same monetary requirements could offer various outcomes, depending on which rules the instance is evaluated under. Non-resident moms and dads who would certainly pay much less under the brand-new rules currently could not obtain reflected on, other than in special conditions. While the CSA strategy to ultimately relocate everybody to the same system, in the interim various individuals with the very same current circumstance will certainly pay different quantities, based exclusively on when the instance wased initially examined. One daddy, Mark Cook, whose month-to-month repayments would go down from ₤ 250 to ₤ 150 if analyzed under the new rules, is taking the CSA to the European Court of Human being Rights, declaring that this disparity totals up to discrimination under Post 14. [9] Nonetheless, main stats show that the average weekly obligation is slightly a lot more under the brand-new system. For the years 2006-2007, the ordinary brand-new scheme liability was frequently ₤ 23 each week, whereas the old scheme differed from ₤ 22 to ₤ 23. [7]

Youngster Tax Obligation Credit report is a government arranged benefit that helps with the economic side of raising a kid in the UK. This is for people over the age of 16 that are accountable for raising a youngster. Children under 20 years old are supported, but over 16 years, have to remain in training or permanent education and learning.

The Carer's Allowance is a well-being advantage for people to help them care for a person that should be looked after. You don't require to be a loved one of the person you're looking after as well as you could likewise gain National Insurance credit scores each week in the direction of your pension.

Youngster Assistance Uk

The circumstance ultimately obtained so negative, that on Monday 24 July 2006, the Secretary of State for Work as well as Pensions, John Hutton MP, revealed that the CSA was not working and also as a result would be axed as well as replaced by a "smaller sized, more concentrated" body. [15]

Youngster Assistance Uk Rules

HM Ticket Office is the official UK government issuer of passports to UK people in behalf of the Crown. The Key Office is likewise house to the General Register Workplace-- which is accountable for civil enrollment services in England and Wales.

Child upkeep orders are enforceable worldwide. No matter if it was created through a court order of CMS was made use of. They're all registered as well as imposed. If the moms and dad that is making settlements lives in the United States then it's handled with the reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (REMO). The UK's Interact company has an useful Frequently Asked Question, as well as very easy to get in touch with phone numbers for further help.

In March 2008 a site was created to test the CSA, allowing people to publicly post their tales and receive responses. The website, CSAhell.com, [16] has actually been priced quote in the nationwide continue CSA relevant tales, including the BBC web site [17] and the Sunday Telegraph. [18] Since its creation, the web site has actually released practically 2,500 stories and issues concerning the CSA, and also has itself been criticised by the Public as well as Commercial Provider Union. [19]

Calculate Kid Support Uk

There's a ₤ 20.00 cost that the parent that will certainly receive settlements needs to pay in order for the CMS to determine the appropriate quantity of money that need to be paid. Both parents will certainly also wind up liable for charges each week if the CMS collection solution is utilized. The paying moms and dad will have to pay an additional 20 percent in addition to exactly what their child upkeep repayment is. The moms and dad receiving repayment will have to pay 4 percent of exactly what they obtain.

TV Licensing is the settlement of the charge that the state broadcaster requests as a payment for it's solution to the British public. A TV Licence is required if you watch or record TELEVISION programs on TELEVISION or on an online TELEVISION service. You are excused from these charges if you're over 74 years of ages.

Youngster Assistance Company Uk Telephone Number

Regardless where the court is associated with the financial compensation the protection parent will get, after that the court can release a court order for the amount of money to be paid, thinking that both parents are in agreement on the amount. If this takes place, moms and dads should recognize (especially the moms and dad obtaining repayment) that this order is just excellent for a year. After a year, either of the parents are able to put in a recommendation to CMS. If an evaluation is after that done, the previous court order would certainly no more apply.

Maternity Allowance is allocated to women who don't get approved for statutory maternity payments. The application for an insurance claim can be made 26 weeks after fertilization and also you can get repayments 11 weeks before the birth of the baby.

In October 2011 the Division for Job as well as Pensions launched a public examination on plans to eliminate CMEC as well as move its features back to the Division. This was authorized after examination and also agreement by both Homes of Parliament. Responsibility for personnel and also functions passed from CMEC back to the Division for Job and also Pensions on 30 July 2012, coming to be the 'Youngster Maintenance Team'.

Functioning Tax Credit rating is a state advantage in the UK that helps families or individuals that get on a low revenue wage. You need to be over 16 years old to use and it does not matter if you're benefiting a firm in the UK or if you're self utilized, you could still take advantage of this.

Youngster Assistance Company Uk

The Independent Situation Supervisor's Office was established in 1997 as an independent body to handle complaints regarding the CSA. Three reoccuring styles are discussed in several previous annual records, [6] specifically hold-up (51% of issues in 2004-2005), mistake (24% of issues in 2004-2005) and no action taken (14% of issues in 2004-2005). Inning accordance with Division for Job as well as Pensions statistics, [7] the average length of time for a case to be cleared under the new system has actually enhanced from approximately 18 days in March 2003, to 287 in December 2005.

The Work and Support Allocation is financial assistance when it comes to a person being sick or handicapped as well as not able to function. This agency was originally a combination of Income Assistance and Inability Benefit, however they currently create part of the brand-new firm.

HM Earnings & Customs is the government body in charge of making certain public cash is available for public services across the UK. The custom-mades service enables genuine trade across our borders and also is vital in maintaining our social, financial and also physical security.

The Child Maintenance Service is the regulation of monetary assistance for kids that have one moms and dad. This provides a main estimation as well as is the option to a "family-based arrangement" that is prepared without the aid of the government. Calculation tool is offered online.

Lots of think that enforcing these charges will just wind up harming the youngsters. Gingerbread, a single moms and dad charity organization, has been really singing regarding this throughout steadfast war the modification. As well as they've made some progress already. The charges were initially a ₤ 100.00 initial settlement for the repayment computation and also the regular charge for obtaining moms and dad was seven percent.

Kid Assistance Modifications Will Effect On '100,000 Families'

UK Border Agency is additionally known as UK Visas and Migration. This is the federal government division that deals with people who intend to work, go to, settle or research in the UK. Right here you could discover out if you require a visa for the UK, the regulations on immigration and also other functional standards.

Trainee Money is the federal government based money choice for trainees in the UK. Here you could learn more concerning finances, gives, bursaries as well as student financing. You can likewise check your repayment days, track your application and also change your details.

Handicap Living Allocation is a benefit allocation for handicapped individuals-- concentrating mostly on care prices and also flexibility. This tax-free benefit normally indicates you have the ability to make various other claims as well. This is not a standard repayment and the amount will depend on your conditions as well as needs.

Use the Child Maintenance Service or Child Support Agency (CSA)

Overview

Eligibility

How to apply

How to pay

Non-payment

Disagreements about parentage

Changes you need to report

Complaints and appeals

Contact

9. Contact

The phone number, email and post address you need depends on which office is managing your case.

CSA

CSA cases set up after 2003

Contact your local CSA office if you have a query about an existing case opened in March 2003 or later. Search for your local office if you don’t know which one you should contact.

Belfast (east England)

Birkenhead (north-west England)

Dudley (the Midlands)

Falkirk (Scotland and north-east England)

Hastings (south-east England)

Plymouth (south-west England)

You’ll need your National Insurance number and date of birth.

CSA cases set up between 1993 and March 2003

Use the online form or call the CSA Helpline if you opened a child maintenance case before March 2003.

CSA Helpline

Telephone: [phone] 

Textphone: 0345 713 8924

Monday to Friday, 8am to 7:30pm 

Saturdays, 9am to 4:30pm 

Find out about call charges

Welsh language CSA Helpline

Telephone: [phone] 

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm 

Find out about call charges

Child Maintenance Service

Existing cases with the Child Maintenance Service

Call the telephone number you were given over the phone if you have recently made an application. You can also find the number:

in your welcome pack

at the top of any letter the Child Maintenance Service has sent you

Child Maintenance Options

Make a new child maintenance arrangement

Talk to Child Maintenance Options to get more information about the choices available or for help setting up a new child maintenance arrangement.

Child Maintenance Options 

Telephone: [phone] 

Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm 

Saturdays, 9am to 4pm

Welsh language: 0800 408 0308 

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm 

Find out about call charges

Child Maintenance Options can’t discuss existing CSA or Child Maintenance Service cases.

Employer helplines

Get help from the relevant service if you need to make child maintenance deductions from an employee’s pay.

Child Maintenance Service

Call the Employer Support Team. You’ll find the number:

in your employer welcome pack

at the top of any letter from the Child Maintenance Service

Child Support Agency

Contact the CSA employer helpline.

CSA employer helpline

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Katy Perry, personalised superyachts, and Russian spies: inside the crazy life of London property tycoons the Candy brothers

Nick Candy and Christian Candy are two super-wealthy property developer brothers, who went from redeveloping a small flat in southwest London to creating the ultra-lavish £150 million apartment block One Hyde Park.

The two brothers gained fame for a list of high-profile clients that reportedly includes sheikhs, Kylie Minogue, and oil billionaires.

Media reports peg the brothers as billionaires, but they told a UK court this year their combined wealth is around £600 million.

The brothers are known for paying as little tax as possible on their personal wealth and property deals — but they say they operate strictly within the law.

The brothers are being sued for £132 million by a fellow property developer who claims the pair loaned him money, then threatened his family to squeeze out higher repayments.

LONDON — Emma Holyoake's 14-page witness statement read like a soap opera script, and it even involved a former soap opera actress.

The statement described a dramatic scene: one-time "Neighbours" star Holly Valance walking into her hotel room to find her multimillionaire, property developer husband lying on the floor in the foetal position, crying "inconsolably."

The man on the floor was Nick Candy, one half of the wealthy Candy brothers, weeping because of his brother's alleged "bullying."

It's a contrast to the usual public image of the Candy brothers, who usually appear in press coverage as coolly imposing, or alongside their glamourous wives.

Valance confided the uncomfortable episode to Holyoake during a party in Ibiza. It should have remained private, but emerged in court as part of an explosive £132 million legal battle between Emma Holyoake's husband, Mark Holyoake, and the Candy brothers.

There was no shortage of dramatic details during the case.

Holyoake, also a property developer, accused the brothers in the High Court of intimidation, blackmail, and extortion after he borrowed £12 million from Christian Candy to finance a redevelopment.

The case was filed in 2015 and went to trial in February this year, when the two opposing parties and a supporting cast of witnesses appeared before a trial judge to give evidence that veered like a novel between celebrity gossip, terrifying accusations of violence, and dry financial details.

The Candy brothers would not speak to Business Insider for this piece, but have vehemently denied all the charges and have said they are confident they will win. The judge, Christopher Nugee, is yet to make his verdict. Whatever the outcome, it won't erase months of lurid headlines about dead Russian spies, alleged blackmail, and underhand dealings. 

The Candy brothers are ultra-wealthy property developers who began with just a £6,000 loan

Nick Candy and his younger brother Christian Candy are celebrities in the property world and are behind some of London's most expensive redevelopments. They are known for buying up buildings, carrying out high-end renovations and refurbishments, then selling properties at a considerable mark-up. One example is their high-end apartment development, One Hyde Park. The pair bought the central London site for £150 million in 2004. When the complex was finished, it contained what was at one point "the world's most expensive flat", which sold for £140 million alone in 2014.

Nick is married to the popstar Holly Valance, while Christian is married to the socialite Emily Crompton. The brothers are fascinating for their combination of flashy glamour, and for the celebrities who reportedly buy their properties (singer Kylie Minogue is apparently one client.)

The two are often referred to as billionaires, but according to High Court disclosures, their net wealth is around £600 million. The last public estimate of their wealth dates from The Sunday Times' "Rich List" in 2010, when they entered the list with a net wealth of £300 million. They were subsequently dropped from the list after refusing to take part in the verification process, according to The Telegraph. 

According to The Guardian, the Candy brothers were born to Anthony "Tony" Candy, who ran an art studio, and Patricia, a drama teacher. They grew up in Surrey, a wealthy London suburb, and were privately educated at the £24,000-a-year Epsom College. Their parents eventually separated, but the brothers have spoken publicly about their close familial relationship.

Nick Candy told The Daily Mail of his love for his father, who died in 2013 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, saying: "Money was no object. I spent a lot trying to find the best doctors — and I found the best one there is — but it was all too late."

And Christian Candy, during the Holyoake trial, revealed that he had briefly fallen out with his mother but was otherwise close to his parents — even nicknaming his father "Rockstar".

The brothers began their career in property in 1995, when their grandmother loaned them £6,000 to buy and renovate their first flat in Fulham.

During the Holyoake trial, Nick Candy told the High Court that the brothers spent the following decade amassing "millions and millions" from buying and refurbishing properties. During that period, he said, they had "done, I think, almost 50 properties."

"I mean all across sort of Earl's Court, Chelsea, Knightsbridge, we had done property development," he said, and reeled off a list of some of the most expensive areas in London. These included: Manresa Road, once known as the third-most expensive street in London, Redcliffe Square, Bramham Gardens, Bolton Gardens, Roland Gardens, and Roulston Street.

But it was in 2006 the pair would land on their blockbuster project: the lavish One Hyde Park.

One Hyde Park is located in Knightsbridge, where it's common to see Ferraris and Maseratis idling next to each other at traffic lights. According to earlier press investigations, the flats in the complex are owned by oligarchs, sheikhs, and celebrities, though the brothers won't publicly disclose their clients.

The luxurious development has come to symbolise one of the biggest problems with London's high-end property market: foreign millionaires parking their money in non-transparent, tax-efficient houses while the average worker struggles to buy a one-bed flat. There have been stories about how few One Hyde Park flat owners actually live there, and freedom of information requests in 2011 found that only a handful actually pay council tax.

The brothers operate through several companies, some registered offshore to the British Virgin Islands and Guernsey, but the two they talk about most publicly are Christian Candy's CPC Group, which buys properties, and Nick Candy's Candy & Candy, which does interior design. CPC Group is registered in Guernsey, while Candy & Candy is registered in London.

Here's a map showing some of the most expensive properties owned and redeveloped by the Candy brothers:

And here's a list of some of the boats, cars, and houses they've owned:

At least two yachts, called the "Candyscape" and "Candyscape II," and a powerboat called "Catch Me If You Candy." Nick Candy also reportedly owns a yacht called "II.II," named after his daughter's birthdate.

A penthouse apartment in One Hyde Park, belonging to Nick Candy.

A row of mansions in central London worth £200 million, which Christian Candy plans to turn into three luxury homes.

An enormous Monaco penthouse called "La Belle Epoque," which the brothers sold for £199 million in 2010.

Two Rolls-Royces, a Mercedes SLR McLaren, two Ferraris, two Range Rovers, a Cherokee Jeep, and ... a Renault Clio.

That the brothers seem inseparable is all part of the Candy brand, but they are in fact two quite distinct personalities.

It would be easy to assume Nick Candy is the younger of the two brothers. He is less financially successful. His face and figure are more fleshed out, his hair is tufty and unruly, and he often became emotional while giving evidence in court. During the case, he occasionally referenced his own career failures (as an accountant), and took more interest than his brother in who was watching the trial from the public gallery. In one instance he asked a theatre professor who had turned up to watch the trial whether he was planning to write a play about the case.

It's actually Christian Candy who is younger, but it's his CPC Group which takes on the real risk of property development, before Nick Candy's Candy & Candy steps in to help out with refurbishment. He cuts a tall, slim, dark-haired figure who cultivates a serious image with well-fitting suits and a stern manner. In court he was controlled and sharp, speaking with a slight lisp.

Mark Holyoake accused the brothers of loaning him £12 million, then using 'blackmail' and threats to force a higher repayment

According to Holyoake's account, he met Nick Candy while they were both students at the University of Reading. The two became friends, lost touch for a decade, but became reacquainted in 2007 through a mutual friend. According to Nick Candy, the two became "close friends," seeing each other every two to three weeks.

During this period of friendship, Holyoake founded British Seafood, a seafood importer which collapsed in 2010. Holyoake was investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, but the SFO terminated its case in 2013.

Then in October 2011, Holyoake decided to buy and redevelop a mansion block in Grosvenor Gardens, an exclusive area in London close to Buckingham Palace. Holyoake, through his company Hotblack, took on a debt facility from Investec bank to help with the approximately £42.5 million deal. But the bank didn't lend him the full amount — so he turned to other sources, including the Candy brothers.

According to Holyoake's account of events, Nick Candy unofficially brokered a loan from his brother Christian. Christian provided a £12 million loan to Holyoake, through CPC Group, in exchange for a 20% interest rate and 30% of the profit from the eventual sale of the revamped Grosvenor Gardens. On its face, the terms should have rung alarm bells — 20% is an unusually high rate of interest, the kind normally seen on high-risk credit cards.

Things went south from there.

Holyoake alleged the Candys' real intent was to "steal" the redevelopment and the subsequent profits. He claims he signed more loan agreements after being "threatened" by Christian Candy, and that he ultimately repaid £37 million. He said he was forced to sell Grosvenor Gardens earlier than planned, losing out on millions in planned profits.

All of this, he alleged, was because he was too scared for his family's safety to do anything except what the Candy brothers told him.

He alleged that Christian Candy behaved like "a gangster."

He said in his witness statement: "Chris had said previously, on numerous occasions, that he was going to ruin my life if needed that he would nuclear bomb me, fuck me up and fuck my world up and cause me complete financial ruin as well do everything in his power to make sure I never recovered. I can't remember a conversation where these type of threats were not said."

And while giving evidence in court, Emma Holyoake cried under cross-examination as she repeated allegations of harassment and intimidation.

At one point, according to Mark Holyoake, Candy referenced the fact Emma was pregnant.

He said in his witness statement: "Chris Candy said that 'You need to think about your pregnant wife' and said that he 'would feel terrible if anything were to go wrong during the pregnancy for her or the baby'.

"The manner and tone in which this was said was clearly intended to be a threat and I took it as such."

The Candy brothers denied making threats, but Christian Candy acknowledged that he had used "colourful language" while dealing with Holyoake.

When Holyoake's barrister, Roger Stewart QC, asked if Candy had told Holyoake he would "put him in a deep dark hole" at one point, Candy replied: "I said eff off and die. I was so frustrated with him, I had 28 months with this character. I didn't mean eff off and die, it wasn't an instruction to take a long walk off a short cliff."

Holyoake's lawyer pointed out connections between a murdered spy and an important Candy brothers associate

Stewart continued to pursue the idea that the Candys had issued threats during the cross-examination of other witnesses and defendants.

One strand of his inquiry involved the Candys and their coincidental connections to the murdered Russian spy and dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

One of the defendants in the case is Steven Smith, a founding director at Christian Candy's CPC Group. He was cross-examined during the trial about his association with RISC Management, a private investigations firm. Smith was director at RISC between 2005 and 2013.

The agency at one time made payments to Litvinenko, and the former KGB officer accused of murdering him, Andrey Lugovoy.

Under cross-examination, Smith laid out RISC's relationship with Litvinenko. He said Litvinenko and Lugovoy carried out investigations for the agency as "a double act."

Stewart quizzed Smith about RISC's "controversial" reputation. He then outlined how the Candys had hired RISC to run background checks on prospective buyers of One Hyde Park apartments. And Christian Candy revealed he had asked another former RISC director, ex-policeman Cliff Knuckey, for advice on recovering Holyoake's debt.

Stewart asked Candy whether he knew about Knuckey's reputation, describing him as an "illegitimate debt collector."

Knuckey was arrested in 2012 for alleged police bribery, though the charges were dropped. In an earlier case, a High Court judge ruled that Knuckey had pretended to be a representative for the Saudi Royal Family to dig for information on a prospective One Hyde Park buyer.

Christian Candy denied enlisting "thugs" to threaten Holyoake. He said: "It's not hoodies and baseball bats ... it's difficult to recover £17.4 million. I started with Cliff Knuckey as the ex-head of anti-money laundering."

Candy said he hadn't known of Knuckey's earlier arrest when consulting him about collecting Holyoake's debt.

There were more references to violence when Emma Holyoake said she "feared" for her husband's life because of mysterious deaths of three people linked to people who knew the Candy brothers, one of whom was a RISC client.

The Candys denied the allegations and in their closing statement described all of this as "unpleasant speculation", designed to "embarrass the defendants into settling."

In addition to allegations of threats, blackmail, and intimidation —   accusations of tax evasion could ruin their wealth

If Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) takes an interest in Holyoake's claims of tax evasion, their fortune might come under closer scrutiny too.

HMRC is the UK's tax body, and has already investigated the Candy brothers between 2003 and 2007. The outcome of that four-year investigation was never disclosed. HMRC declined to comment both on the original investigation and the likelihood of a second.

Holyoake's barrister alleged during the trial that the Candy brothers had structured their businesses to avoid paying tax.

In his closing statement, Holyoake's barrister said: "[There] is a lie at the very heart of CPC ... In straightforward terms, CPC was set up for illegitimate financial gain at the expense of HMRC and the UK taxpayers and the benefit of both Christian Candy and Nick Candy."

Stewart's argument is basically this: Christian Candy and Nick Candy purport to own and run their two separate companies, with CPC Group run out of Guernsey and Candy & Candy run out of the UK. But, his argument goes, the two brothers are incapable of separating their affairs. Instead, they run their businesses jointly, and don't declare this to the UK's tax authorities. According to Stewart, the brothers have avoided paying "millions" in tax.

Here's one way Stewart attacked the question:

Nick Candy's Candy & Candy doesn't pay him that much as a company. When Stewart described Candy & Candy as a "minnow" compared to CPC, Nick replied: "You're correct."

Stewart asked how he had therefore managed to pay an alleged £1.2 million for Katy Perry to come and sing at his wedding.

"That's not my lifestyle, that's a one-off event," Nick replied. "I won't get married again."

And he added under cross-examination: "I am not a director or shadow director [of CPC]. I have never been to a board meeting of the CPC Group, this is a matter of fact."

Stewart repeatedly tried to trip up the brothers about the separation of their businesses. If the brothers were so separate in their dealings why, in correspondence, did they often refer to "we" and "us" when it came to making property deals?

Christian Candy described the examples as "loose language."

Stewart retorted: "You need multiple versions of the truth for multiple audiences."

In their closing submission, the Candy brothers said HMRC isn't party to the trial and said the question of company ownership was "irrelevant."

One tax specialist, speaking anonymously to Business Insider, said the allegations could be enough to make HMRC "curious."

The person said HMRC opens enquiries for "any number of reasons" — randomly, for risk assessment, alerts from algorithms, and tip-offs. But they said it was also possible HMRC had already examined the Candy brothers' tax structures.

The Candys are open about paying minimal tax.

During a 2010 interview with The Financial Times, Christian Candy played Monopoly with a reporter. When he landed on the "Super Tax" square, he exclaimed: "What! I don't pay tax. I am a tax exile."

And during the trial, Christian talked about being "prescriptive" about, literally, which country he slept in.

He said: "I lived in Monaco for 12 years, and spent 183 nights in the UK. I was prescriptive about what country I spent my nights in."

Holyoake brought in the CEO of a failed music startup to give evidence about Nick Candy

If Christian Candy was the man with alleged ties to questionable organisations and people, Nick Candy was "Clown Candy" with a more fun personality, according to the Holyoakes.

This characterisation of Nick Candy stacks up with previous reports, which suggest Christian is the "numbers man," while Nick is the showman who promotes the Candy brand.

In one email referenced during the trial, Mark Holyoake referred to Nick as "Clown Candy," because he was "jovial." The Candys, according to their defence, felt this was a derisory nickname that showed Holyoake wasn't really much of a friend.

In the witness box, Nick was often humorous, even when talking about his own alleged shortcomings.

At one point he said of his relationship with Holyoake: "There was banter, no problem. He called me 'Ricky Butcher' because he thought I was thick as two short planks."

It was difficult for journalists in the public gallery not to laugh, and Nick continued: "We'll probably read all about that in the national newspapers tomorrow, I look forward to reading that."

And Emma described Nick in her witness statement as "ultra-materialistic, a terrible name dropper, and more than a little boastful." But she added that she felt "he had a good heart" and that "his 'loads-of-money' demeanour was just a shield to hide his insecurities."

But according to one witness, Nick could be equally "bullying" as his brother.

Ian Roberts cofounded music startup firm Crowdmix in 2013. Its main investor was Nick Candy, who put around £10 million into the startup through his investment vehicle Candy Capital.

It collapsed before it ever launched a product, having burned through millions of pounds by throwing parties, and hiring celebrities and expensive consultants. Roberts was ousted as CEO of the company, and Nick Candy eventually bought Crowdmix's assets.

Sources who spoke with Business Insider last year claimed Candy forced Roberts out to take control of the company.

And in the witness stand, Roberts spoke up for the first time since his company collapsed to say exactly that.

"I thought that what they were doing was effectively blackmail," he said in his witness statement.

He also described Nick Candy as "a gangster", and suggested Candy had undermined the company's fundraising efforts by firing him and CFO David Newland.

He said: "I agreed [with cofounder Gareth Ingham] that Nick was acting like a gangster. He had put us at point of a gun and we were cracking."

Under cross-examination, Candy shot back. He described Roberts as "delusional" about his former startup's value, and described his investment as "the worst deal I have ever done."

He denied any wrongdoing. He asked Stewart, rhetorically, why he would plough almost £10 million of his money into a startup only to undermine it.

Though not directly relevant to Holyoake's claim, Roberts' appearance was intended to show how ruthless the Candy brothers could be.

The brothers have a complicated set of interests — and Nick Candy is slowly building a tech startup empire

It is difficult to unpick every company the Candy brothers have invested in, owned, or been involved with. But what little information there is suggests their interests are diversifying.

Christian Candy often does major property developments through offshore vehicles, like PGGL for One Hyde Park, or Project Blue for the Chelsea Barracks redevelopment, which took eight years to get off the ground. Another offshore firm, Dukes Lodge London Ltd, owns empty property near Grenfell Tower in Kensington.

And CPC struck a deal to buy a plot near Windsor in 2006 not by buying the land directly, but by buying a holding company which owned it. This only became public after a massive leak of documents from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, known as "the Panama Papers."

 The Guardian reported that Christian Candy has reshuffled almost £340 million in assets this year, amid a wider slowdown in the high-end property market. There is no suggestion that this is connected to the case, but The Guardian reports Holyoake is watching the transactions for signs of asset dissipation — a way of hiding how wealthy you really are.

Nick Candy, meanwhile, has branched out from property, investing in advertising, broadband, and music firms.

His name appears 10 times on the UK's companies register across 30 companies, though not all of these are still active. Filings show he often invests through his venture vehicle, Candy Ventures SARL, which is registered in Luxembourg. He has another investment vehicle in the UK, Candy Capital.

Business Insider examined Companies House filings in April and found Nick Candy is involved with the following startups:

Blippar — augmented reality

Audioboom — audio and podcasting

Sonr (acquired by Audioboom this year) — social listening

Crowdmix (renamed Music Media) — music and social media. Crowdmix's former CEO, Ian Roberts, gave evidence against Candy during the Holyoake case.

Hanzo — web analytics

Satellite Solutions Worldwide — broadband

Be Heard — marketing and advertising

It hasn't been an easy introduction to tech investment. Of these, Blippar, Audioboom, and Crowdmix are the best-known startups. Crowdmix collapsed, and ex-Blippar staff told Business Insider earlier this year that the augmented reality firm was struggling to generate recurring revenue.

The Candy brothers might find it tough to move on

The Holyoake case isn't the first or even second time the Candy brothers have had to fight a high-profile court battle. The brothers sued their Qatari partners for the failed Chelsea Barracks project in another expensive High Court battle, eventually settling out of court. And Christian Candy successfully fought to reinstate a private garden outside his £200 million Cambridge Terrace property in Regent's Park.

The brothers have fought back against Holyoake, calling him a "pathological liar" in witness statements. In one statement, Nick Candy relays a three-way email exchange where Mark Holyoake apparently tried to divide the brothers by claiming Christian had spoken negatively about Nick. 

Nick Candy said: "Christian replied to me saying, 'What a twat. He is a pathological liar/stirrer,' with which I concurred."

And in other incident in the same statement: "Christian responded to me commenting that he thought Mr. Holyoake was a "pathological liar" and that "we are supposed to be his friends, and he has fucked us several times since [CPC] gave him this loan." 

The brothers also pointed to the fact three of his witnesses stand to gain financially if he wins the trial, because he pledged a portion of any damages.

The judge, Christopher Nugee, gave little away while hearing the trial and is expected to make a decision in October.

But as Nick Candy noted in the witness box, it almost doesn't matter what the outcome is.

"For the rest of my life," he said. "Whatever happens, people are going to think – even if you find us completely innocent – the rest of our lives there is going to be a slight smell, yes?"

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Expert: In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli. — Howard Zinn, 1922-2010 When the US, UK and their fellow destroyers of nations embarked in October last year on erasing Iraq’s ancient Mosul in order to save it, did they reflect on the enormity of the cost to humanity and history of their actions now and that of their genocidal, illegal invasion and fourteen year occupation – and counting? (Not forgetting the bombing of the country from 1991-2003.) There was a quasi pull-out in 2009, but a reported 16,000 mercenaries remained in the US Embassy compound. Mosul, situated on the Tigris River, was first mentioned in name by the Greek writer Xenophon in 401 BC, although the area was inhabited from probably the 25th century BC. As Fallujah, near destroyed by the US in 2004 was known as City of Mosques, Mosul has been known as City of Churches. The population however, has been richly diverse: Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens, Kurds, Yazidis, Shabakis, Mandeans, Kawliya, Circassians. Sunni Islam has been the largest religion, but Salafism, Christianity, Shia Islam, Sufism, Yezidism, Shabakism, Yarsan and Mandeanism all coexisted in and around this ancient, hauntingly beautiful city. Mosul, as so much of Iraq, has suffered unimaginably under ISIS – but it is hard to spot the difference from how Iraq suffered under the US and UK (and are again.) The US bombed the city during the 2003 invasion, murdered Saddam Hussein’s two sons and fifteen year old grandson there in July 2003 – no Judge or jury, just US/ISIS style summary executions – as across the nation. Robert Fisk wrote of US atrocities in Iraq as related to him by an American veteran. There is a US Army “Warrior creed” which: … allows no end to any conflict (but) total destruction of the ‘enemy.’ It allows no defeat… and does not allow one ever to stop fighting (lending itself to the idea of the ‘long war.’) It says nothing about following orders, it says nothing about obeying laws or showing restraint. It says nothing about dishonourable actions… Fisk writes (September, 2006): “From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo to Bagram, to the battlefields of Iraq and to the ‘black’ prisons of the CIA, humiliation and beatings, rape, anal rape and murder have now become so commonplace that each new outrage is creeping into the inside pages of our newspapers.” Note “inside pages”, as so “commonplace.” “Looser Rules of Engagement” In April this year, it was revealed that the US Air Force on a bomb-fest over Mosul – and indeed wider Iraq and Syria – were operating under “looser rules of engagement.” Moreover: Lt Gen McFarland, now orders air strikes that are expected to kill up to ten civilians without prior approval from U.S. Central Command … And this is “liberation” from ISIS? (Emphasis added.) Presumably the family of eight reported killed by a US bomb in late October, including three children, one just two years old, were one of the General’s “expected” kills. Air strikes in Iraq and Syria have:   … destroyed 6,000 buildings with over 40,000 bombs and missiles have inevitably killed much higher numbers of civilians. Apocalyptic horror. Of course, US and UK presence in air and on the ground in Syria are entirely illegal. So the people of Mosul and Syria’s cities, towns and villages are hostage to ISIS/Daesh and other head chopping factions fighting with US weaponry. US forces on the ground are “advising” the Iraqi army – which has absorbed militias every bit as terrorizing as ISIS. US forces themselves have, of course, a gruesome history of terror and gathering body parts as “souvenirs.” In World War 11 it was skulls, ears, teeth; in Vietnam penises. In Afghanistan it was fingers “and other body parts”, and in Iraq it was reportedly fingers, with dead bodies being tied to US tanks in Fallujah and as Ross Caputi wrote:1: Some of my closest friends mutilated dead bodies, looted from the pockets of dead resistance fighters, destroyed homes, and killed civilians. Destruction – a “Partial” List And ponder further on the US “liberation” of Mosul. As Nicholas J. Davis has written earlier this year, Award-winning Iraqi environmental scientist, Mosul-born Souad Al-Azzawi2  compiled a partial list of air strikes on the city: * Many government buildings have been destroyed. U.S. officials told USA Today, attacks are often conducted at night to minimize civilian casualties, but security guards and civilians in neighboring buildings have of course been killed. * Telephone exchanges have been systematically bombed and destroyed. * Two large dairies were bombed, killing about one hundred civilians and wounding two more. * Multiple daytime air strikes on Mosul University on March 19th and 20th killed ninety two civilians and wounded one hundred and thirty five, mostly faculty, staff, families and students. Targets included the main administration building, classroom buildings, a women’s dormitory and a faculty apartment building. (Note: Mosul University was one of the largest educational and research centres in the Middle East. Near unbelievably, the murderous ISIS primitives are thought to have destroyed over 8,000 books and 100,000 manuscripts – but the US destroyed near the entire faculty.) * 50 civilians were killed and 100 wounded by air strikes on two apartment buildings, Al Hadbaa and Al Khadraa. * A mother and four children were killed in an air strike on a house in the Hay al Dhubat district of East Mosul on April 20th, next door to a house used by Islamic State that was undamaged. * Twenty two civilians were killed in air strikes on houses in front of Mosul Medical College. * Twenty civilians were killed and seventy wounded by air strikes on the Sunni Waqif building and nearby houses and shops. * U.S. air strikes on April 24th damaged the Rashidiya water treatment plant in West Mosul and the Yarmouk power station in East Mosul. * Banks and a bottling plant were bombed, more dead and maimed. * An air strike on a fuel depot in an industrial area ignited an inferno with 150 casualties on 18th April. * Bombs have damaged a food warehouse, power stations and sub-stations in West Mosul, and flour mills, a pharmaceutical factory, auto repair shops and other workshops across Mosul. More US destruction and arguably war crimes are listed here. General Mattis’s “Annihilation Tactics” To further assess what a US “freed” Mosul might look like, here is a brief summary of what Fallujah’s 2004 “freedom” cost: The 1st Marine Division fired a total of 5,685 high-explosive 155mm artillery rounds during the battle. The 3rd Marine Air Wing (aviation assets only) expended 318 ‘precision’ bombs, 391 rockets and missiles, and 93,000 machine gun and cannon rounds. When the Iraqi army re-took the remains of the city from ISIS/ISIL, as ever advised by the US, The Telegraph headline said it all: “Fallujah in ruins after Iraqi forces retake ‘90%’ of the city from ISIL. On Sunday 28th May US Secretary of Defence James Mattis stated that the U.S. military is to use “annihilation tactics” to defeat ISIS fighters in Mosul telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “civilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation.” Mattis knows a bit about “annihilation tactics”.  He headed Camp Pendleton’s Ist Marine Division in Iraq which were integral to the massacres in Fallujah in April and November 2004. Speaking to a group of soldiers about how to behave in Iraq during a 2003 speech he ordered: Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet. Fallujah’s mass graves are silent witness to the diligent obedience to Mattis’s orders. “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight … It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right upfront with you …”, he told a conference in San Diego, in 2005. When the US is not shooting and bombing Mosul’s families in the cursed name of liberation, it is displacing them. Figures to 19th May show in excess of 526,000 men, women and children fleeing their homes and all they own. In the month to 2nd December 2016 over one thousand civilians were killed. On May 26th one hundred and five civilians were killed. On 30th May in the Az Zanjili district of the city, at least two hundred people were reportedly killed in a bombing lasting several hours and dozens of homes “completely flattened.” (Al Araby, 30th May.) The figures in human cost, hour by hour, day after day, would surely fill volumes. On 27th May the US had dropped leaflets telling people to leave the Old City, Mosul’s ancient heart, a city referred to as Al Fayha (the Paradise) and the “Pearl of the North.” US forces, however, care as little as ISIS for life, limb or the Middle East’s haunting Pearls and Paradises. Mosul Will Be “Destroyed Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, has stated that Mosul, formerly home to two million souls, will be completely “destroyed” and “uninhabitable” by the time the terrorists have been driven out.3 Another ancient jewel destroyed in the name of “freedom.”. Behind the figures are people living the unimaginable. As this was being finished, a message came from a Mosul-born friend, who writes: The American Coalition are lying … Civilians in Mosul are getting killed by the bombing and Iraqi and coalition ground missiles. They keep bombing each area for one or two weeks killing hundred of civilians and when the area is empty from any snipers … Two of my mother’s cousins houses in Thawrah area were bombed three days ago. Fourteen family members died. Four women, eight children the oldest is ten, and two men. People reclaimed seven bodies and other seven still under rubble. They couldn’t save any survivor under the rubble because the bombings are still going on intensively on the area. Those are my relatives and I know very well that they have nothing to do with IS. This is the New US/(Prime Minister) Abadi strategy … In Hay al Refaiae, last week my other cousins moved into five houses with their families with also an eighty seven year old old mother to avoid the American Coalition bombing.  All five houses were destroyed – with the whole surrounding area. Three of them were injured. “Why Do I Get So Angry?” Another letter was sent to a friend by his father, also used with permission and gratitude: People ask me: Why do I get so angry? Below is a scene today from Mosul, my home town. It is a scene repeated a thousand times over, all around Mosul. Yesterday the U.S. Air Force undertook 158 bombing missions over the city of Mosul. Every bridge across the Tigris in Mosul is now destroyed, the Sugar Factory has been bombed, a 5-Story medical centre has been demolished, the entire airport has become rubble, much of the city’s infra structure including water and electricity have ceased to function, the University of Mosul buildings have been levelled, thousands of homes have been rendered unlivable, and of course no one is counting the civilian dead and the refugees. And all for what? To destroy the Islamic State? Is this the same so-called Islamic State whose factions have been supported, financed, and trained by the CIA over the past five years in order to bring about regime change in Syria? Since 2003, the United States has bombed Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan … and presently it has its eye focused on Iran. And yet, we have the gall and temerity to talk about the savagery and barbarism of the Mongolian hordes of eight centuries ago. I really do wonder why people keep asking me: Why do I get so angry? Thinking the Unthinkable In the title I query the outcome of this criminal decimation and cite Hiroshima. Parts of Iraq already have higher cancer and birth defect statistics than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, linked to the depleted uranium weapons used by the US and UK from 1991 to now. Donald Trump has demonstrated his casual fecklessness with weapons of mass destruction by dropping the largest “conventional” weapon ever used on Afghanistan and fifty nine radioactive and chemically toxic Tomahawk Cruise missiles on Syria, neither country had been proved of doing anything but simply existing. On the Presidential campaign trail, Mark Halperin of Bloomberg asked  Donald Trump, whether he would use nuclear weapons against ISIS. “Well, I’m never going to rule anything out”, replied Trump. When pushed by Chris Matthews of MSNBC on this issue, Trump said: “Somebody hits us within ISIS – you wouldn’t fight back with a nuke?” Iraq is near destroyed on the Blair and Bush lies that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Trump does and it seems, is prepared to think the unthinkable. Will the UN, the relevant world bodies, the “international community” wake up, before it is too late, before a swathe of Iraq and Syria’s people are vapourised, with twenty seven centuries of history? * Guardian, 13th March 2012 * Ph.D., Colorado School of Mines * Independent, 15 February 2017. http://clubof.info/

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How much money does Brad Pitt have? Here’s how he earns and spends it

Brad Pitt thanked his children, who “color everything” he does, while accepting his first Academy Award for acting on Sunday.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Brad Pitt took home his first-ever Oscar for acting on Sunday for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

He’s most recognizable as an actor, but a significant slice of his income also comes from producing.

He spends his millions on real-estate, including a French vineyard that produces rosé, and a number of philanthropic efforts.

Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Brad Pitt won his first-ever Oscar for acting at the Academy Awards on Sunday. Since he first came on the scene in the late 1980s, he’s earned a total of 106 awards and 186 nominations.

He’s also earned millions of dollars.

While there’s no verifiable net worth estimate for Pitt, his typical yearly earnings are comfortably in the millions. Forbes estimated his total paycheck was around $31.5 million in 2016 alone. And that’s not just from acting — Pitt is an accomplished producer with his own production company, as well.

He primarily spends his money on real estate and philanthropic efforts.

A spokesperson for Pitt didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Pitt’s net worth or personal life from Business Insider.

Keep reading for a look at how Pitt makes and spends his fortune.

Brad Pitt has come a long way since earning $6,000 for his breakout role in 1991.

Pitt played a hitchhiking one-night-stand to Geena Davis’ character Thelma in the 1991 film “Thelma and Louise.”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Pitt had just seven minutes of screen time in the Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon cult classic “Thelma and Louise.” The 1991 movie gave Pitt his first big break, albeit with a rather small payday of just $6,000, according to The Telegraph.

In 1995, Pitt earned $4 million for “Se7en” and in 1996, he earned $10 million for “Sleepers,” according to Refinery29. By the late 1990s, Pitt’s baseline paycheck was in the neighborhood of $17.5 million.

Today, Pitt’s movie appearances still yield multimillion-dollar paydays.

Most recently, Pitt was paid $10 million for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Pitt as 1960s stuntman Cliff Boothe in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Sony

His role as a 1960s stuntman in Tarantino’s movie earned him his first Oscar win for acting, but his upfront payday for the film was significantly lower than the typical $20 million Pitt pulls in from other blockbusters like “World War Z.” This can be attributed to differences in payment models.

For movies like “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Inglorious Bastards,” Pitt was paid a base salary, but he also received bonuses depending on the success of the film post-release.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, and Don Cheadle in 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven.”

Warner Bros.

The payment model varies for actors from movie to movie, and Pitt certainly isn’t struggling because of it.

Pitt founded a production company, Plan B Entertainment, with ex-wife Jennifer Aniston in 2001.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Pitt is currently the sole owner of Plan B, as he bought out Aniston’s stake upon their divorce in 2005.

The production company’s first movie was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” which ultimately grossed half a billion dollars worldwide. The company was also behind 2006’s “The Departed,” 2010’s “Eat, Pray, Love,” and 2011’s “Moneyball.”

More recently, Pitt and Plan B would go on to produce a number of culturally significant films, including “12 Years a Slave,” “Selma,” “Moonlight, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.”

While it is unclear how much money Pitt takes home as a producer, The Hollywood Reporter estimates that actors who cross over into producing successfully take home a decent chunk of change — for example, Adam Sandler earned $5 million to produce “Grown Ups 2,” a movie he also starred in.

Pitt’s high-profile relationship with Angelina Jolie also earned the couple millions.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt portrayed a husband-and-wife team of secret agents in the film, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Pitt was paid $20 million to star in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” where he met ex-wife Jolie.

The power couple went on to monetize their relationship in a number of ways. They sold never-before-seen photos of their growing family to media outlets — including some of the most expensive exclusive photos to date. After the birth of their twins, Knox and Vivienne, in 2008, Pitt and Jolie sold photo rights of the children to People and Hello! magazine for $14 million. They then reportedly donated those earnings to charity.

Both were involved in multiple philanthropic projects, even creating a joint foundation in 2006. Through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, the pair made donations including $1 million toward humanitarian efforts in Darfur in 2007 and $2 million toward wildlife protection in Namibia in 2011.

In 2016, when the pair announced their split, Forbes estimated they had earned a combined $555 million since 2004. The divorce proceedings for their two-year marriage have been tricky, with parts of their real-estate portfolio still yet to be divvied up.

One of the couple’s disputed assets is their sprawling French vineyard. The two were married on the estate in 2014.

MICHEL GANGNE/AFP via Getty Images

Jolie and Pitt have had a messy custody battle on top of difficulty separating assets: They are still arguing over who gets to keep the French estate, albeit privately with a judge.

Chateau Miraval, a 1,200-acre estate in Correns, France, has been part of the Jolie-Pitt real-estate portfolio since 2012, but they’ve reportedly rented the property since 2008. They bought the property for $67 million, according to Us Weekly.

It features 35 rooms and other non-residential spots like the chapel the pair were married in and a recording studio that Pink Floyd and Sting have used. The property also includes a vineyard that specifically produces rosé.

Pitt and Jolie still co-own the rosé brand made on the estate’s property.

David Tonelson/Shutterstock

Pitt and Jolie brought in the Perrins, a French winemaking family known for their experience in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, to produce the wine. It is a 50-50 partnership, according to The Telegraph.

This business venture also undoubtedly earns Pitt a decent chunk of change. In June 2019, a single magnum bottle of Miraval sold for nearly $3,000 at a charity auction, according to Forbes. The rosé is now widely sold and was even featured at the “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” premiere after party.

Beyond real estate, Pitt’s largest expenditures are philanthropic.

Brad Pitt in New Orleans with the Make It Right foundation.

Alex Brandon/AP

Through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, Pitt has donated millions of dollars to various causes, personally donating part of his movie deal earnings to the foundation on a yearly basis. According to the Daily Mail, the foundation was worth $41 million in March 2019.

In addition to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, Pitt has also been involved in other philanthropic endeavors indvidually.

He founded the Make It Right foundation in 2007 to rebuild homes in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Through the foundation, Pitt put $26 million toward building 109 homes. The project was not without its pitfalls — rotting and collapsing new homes led to a lawsuit. Pitt made a statement through a spokesperson to NBC about the debacle in 2018: “I made a promise to the folks of the Lower Ninth to help them rebuild — it is a promise I intend to keep.” In the most recent development, Pitt and other foundation directors asked the court to remove them from the lawsuit, but the request was denied by a judge in New Orleans in October 2019.

He also cofounded a humanitarian assistance organization called Not On Our Watch with “Ocean’s Eleven” castmates George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Don Cheadle.  The fund merged with an anti-war crime organization called The Sentry in 2019.

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$210 Million Gauguin Masterpiece Embroiled in Legal Dispute—and the 9 Other Biggest News Stories This Week

Catch up on the latest art news with our rundown of the 10 stories you need to know this week.

01  A legal battle over a $210 million Gauguin masterpiece highlights the art world’s “handshake deals.”

(via The Telegraph)

Swiss art dealer, curator, and auctioneer Simon de Pury is suing Ruedi Staechelin, a former Sotheby’s executive described as an “old schoolfriend” of de Pury’s, for a $10 million commission on the $210 million sale of Paul Gauguin’s painting Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) (1892). The work was sold to Guy Bennett, a former Christie’s expert who now directs the collections and acquisitions for Qatar’s museums. When de Pury first approached Staechelin about selling the painting, he claimed he was verbally promised a handsome commission if he secured the sale, although Staechelin set the price at $250 million, and negotiations ground to a halt. In 2014, they resumed, with Staechelin claiming de Pury offered $230 million, despite knowing the Qataris would max out at $210 million. Staechelin’s lawyer, John Wardell QC, said that constituted “a clear breach of fiduciary duty and all commission has been forfeited if any right ever existed.” The case is ongoing.

02  London’s June post-war and contemporary auctions came to a close this week, and the results indicate the market is on a solid, steady upward trajectory.

(Artsy)

The post-war and contemporary evening sales kicked off Wednesday at Sotheby’s, which brought in £62.3 million with fees (£52.6 million without), falling between the estimates of £44.3 million and £60.6 million with a 95% sell-through rate by lot. That represented a 15% increase from last summer’s evening sale, but was still less than half the 2015 total for the same sale. In a pair of short and well-managed contemporary evening sales, both Phillips and Bonhams performed extremely well in the absence of Christie’s, which canceled its June auctions, notching the same sell-through rate of 94%. At Phillips, photographer Wolfgang Tillmans set a new record when his Freischwimmer #84 (2004) sold for £500,000 (£605,000 with fees). Phillips brought in a total of £24.4 million with fees (£20.2 million without) on a sale with a high estimate of £25.4 million, its second highest result for June auctions ever, and twice what it totaled last June. At the Bonhams sale, seven lots, which together comprised 77% of the low estimate (£4.1 million) by value, were guaranteed. It was a notable step for the auction house, which has until now shied away from such a broad use of guarantees, which are typically deployed to entice reticent sellers.

03  The first Arts Council England grant since Sir Nicholas Serota took over will increase funding to regions outside the capital.

(via The Art Newspaper)

The new grants program is the first to be announced since Serota, the former director of the Tate, became the Council’s chairman in February. It consists of £409 million in annual National Portfolio grants, which will go to 831 local arts organizations, and an additional £213 million in other arts grants, for a total spending increase of 12% over the current financial year. In an effort to correct a regional imbalance, “England’s four largest recipients (Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company) have accepted an average 3% reduction, with these savings mainly being channelled to smaller organizations outside London,” The Art Newspaper reported. The share of spending in the regions will rise over the next four years to 60% from 56% now. Of the annual £409 million in funding, £45m, or 11%, will go to the visual arts and £37 million, or 9%, to museums. The remainder is earmarked for theatre, music, dance, and other arts programming. The council also said it is concerned over the limited progress in diversity of museum leadership.

04  The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on whether a group injured by a 1997 bombing in Israel can seize Persian artifacts held in Chicago museums due to Iran’s alleged role in the attack.

(via Reuters)

The U.S. citizens behind the suit want to take ownership of the ancient works as part of a $71.5 million default judgement against Iran, which was found to have sponsored the terrorist group responsible for the attack. The pieces, including ancient tablets and pottery, are held in Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Previously, an appeals court found that some of the survivor’s claims were barred by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which limits when disputes with sovereign foreign governments can be adjudicated in U.S. courts. Other aspects of the plaintiffs’ claims were also tossed out because Iran does not assert ownership to some of the works, though the plaintiffs claim it is the rightful owner because the pieces were illegally smuggled out of the country. When the Supreme Court takes up the matter in its fall term, the eventual ruling is likely to have implications for other FSIA cases, notably those in which the sued foreign government does not directly engage in commercial activity in the United States.

05  Designs have been released for New York’s first official monument to the LGBTQ community.

(via the New York Times)

In the wake of last summer’s shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo formed the LGBT Memorial Commission. The commission began calling for designs in October for a memorial to the attack and a monument to LGBTQ rights. On Sunday, on the tail of Pride Week celebrations, it was announced that sculptor Anthony Goicolea’s proposal for Hudson River Park’s waterfront piers had been chosen. The work comprises a ring of nine boulders, each divided by a glass prism that casts a rainbow when struck with sunlight. Goicolea, a mixed media artist originally from Georgia who now resides with his husband in Brooklyn, says he was deeply affected by his visit to Manhattan’s West Village, home to the historic Stonewall Inn. “I had never seen people—gay people—engaging in this way,” he told the Times. Giocolea describes his work’s functional intent, with renderings of the design showing park visitors, including a gay couple, relaxing on the boulders.

06  Salvador Dalí’s remains will be exhumed in order to settle a long-running paternity case.

(via The Guardian)

For a decade, tarot card reader and fortune teller Pilar Abel has been working to prove that she is the Surrealist’s only child. According to Spanish law, this would make her heir to one-fourth of his sizeable estate. Abel, who now lives in Girona in northeast Spain, says her mother met Dalí while working in Cadaqués and the two had a covert affair in 1955. Abel was born the next year. In 2007, the courts granted her permission to remove DNA from Dalí’s death mask, but the results were inconclusive. Later that year, another test was performed on material provided by Dalí’s friend and biographer Robert Descharnes. Abel claims she never received those results, although Descharnes’s son says he spoke to the doctor and the test was negative. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, which controls the artist’s estate, says it plans to appeal.

07  The family of late Austrian sculptor Franz West has won a legal fight over the rights to his estate.

(via The Art Newspaper)

Representatives of the West family argued that they possessed the rights to the artist’s estate following his death in 2012. But the Franz West Private Foundation claimed contracts created just days before the artist passed away transferred the rights to his work and assets to the newly created organization. On Tuesday, a civil law court in Vienna sided with the family, asserting that the documents establishing the foundation were created improperly and lacked standard language. Unless the foundation appeals, the remaining artworks and the profits from those already sold—a figure in the “many millions of euros,” according to the family’s lawyer—will be transferred to West’s young children (the artist’s wife died in 2016) and their legal guardian.

08  A number of small- and medium-sized galleries in New York and around the world are shutting down due to a variety of mounting struggles.

(via the New York Times)

High rents, the costs of doing art fairs, and a diminished appetite for emerging artists have hastened the decline of small- and medium-sized art galleries, the New York Times reports. Dealers such as Lisa Cooley, On Stellar Rays’s Candice Madey, and Andrea Rosen lamented the changing economics and culture of the art market, which they said leaves them unable to work closely with their artists, unable to pay their bills, or both. The trend is also indicative of, or a casualty of, the broader trend of economic inequality, which has created some thriving global “mega-galleries” serving the collecting needs of the world’s wealthiest consumers, while their smaller peers are finding fewer collectors “willing to gamble on the emerging artists represented by small and midsize galleries,” the Times reported. If this trend continues, it is unclear who or what will help discover and sustain the next generation of artists, industry insiders fear.  

09  Germany’s Bundeskunsthalle has provided an early glimpse of some of the roughly 250 works recovered from Cornelius Gurlitt’s trove of Nazi-looted art that will go on view for the first time this fall.

(via the New York Times)

The show, which features works by the likes of Monet and Rodin, will open at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany on November 3rd. It marks the latest development for the controversial Gurlitt collection, amassed by an influential art dealer during the Nazi era and discovered by police in his son’s Munich apartment in 2012. Titled “Dossier Gurlitt: Nazi Art Theft and Its Consequences,” the forthcoming exhibition focuses on artworks thought to be either stolen by Nazis or sold under duress. Due to a long-running legal dispute over Gurlitt’s will, these works were unable to be put on public display until now. Show organizers hope that the publicity surrounding such an event may result in new information that will help determine provenance of the objects. As of last week, of Gurlitt’s 1,039 pieces, only 63 have been researched; just four have been returned to their rightful heirs.

10  New discoveries related to a Tintoretto altarpiece formerly owned by David Bowie have emerged ahead of a planned return to its hometown for the 2019 Venice Biennale.

(via The Art Newspaper)

A jewel among the late musician’s collection, the portrait of Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Jacopo Tintoretto sold at Sotheby’s last November for £191,000, with fees. From there, it was loaned to the Rubens House, where it was revealed Tuesday. Amid this changing of hands, analysis uncovered an underpainting suggesting the work is a decade older than believed. Research—which will be published in full this fall—also suggests that the work was painted entirely by Tintoretto and not his studio. These findings have inspired the painting’s inclusion in a future Biennale exhibition in the Church of San Geminiano, which hosted a collection that inspired the likes of Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Maerten de Vos. According to Belgium’s tourism minister, the exhibit will present a “unique opportunity to show the Flemish masters to the world in the place where—more than any other—they drew inspiration from their Italian colleagues and from the classical legacy.”

—Artsy Editors

Cover image: Paul Gauguin, When Will You Marry?, 1892. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

from Artsy News

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