LOS ANGELES: Actress Uma Thurman, who is indelibly linked to Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax studio thanks to her iconic roles in “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill,” has broken her silence about the disgraced Hollywood mogul, accusing him of attacking her and threatening her career.
Dozens of Hollywood women — including Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale and Salma Hayek — have accused Weinstein of acts ranging from sexual harassment to rape.
The scandal has touched off a deluge of allegations bringing down powerful men in entertainment, politics and the media, forcing many industries to re-examine workplace harassment policies.
Thurman, 47, told The New York Times in an interview published Saturday of two incidents in London that took place after the release of 1994’s Oscar-winning “Pulp Fiction.”
They followed an uncomfortable episode at a Paris hotel in which Thurman said Weinstein was dressed in a bathrobe and led her into a steam room during a meeting about a script.
In the first “attack,” which took place in Weinstein’s suite at London’s Savoy Hotel, “he pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things,” she said.
“But he didn’t actually put his back into it and force me. You’re like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track.”
A statement from Weinstein’s publicist quoted in the Times read: “Mr Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris. He immediately apologized.”
Thurman said she took a friend with her to confront Weinstein not long after that first incident. But his assistants pressured her to meet him alone in his room.
Thurman said she told Weinstein: “If you do what you did to me to other people you will lose your career, your reputation and your family, I promise you.”
Weinstein told the paper “she very well could have said this.”
Thurman’s friend Ilona Herman, who is Robert De Niro’s longtime makeup artist, recalled in the Times that the actress came out of that one-on-one meeting “very disheveled and so upset and had this blank look.”
Herman said Thurman told her that Weinstein had threatened to end her career.
Weinstein denied doing so and called Thurman “a brilliant actress.” He noted, in his comments to the Times, they had “a flirtatious and fun working relationship” until the Paris incident.
Weinstein, who like other men accused of misconduct has been banished from the entertainment industry, is reportedly in treatment for sexual addiction. Until now, he has insisted all his sexual encounters have been consensual.
Thurman had suggested mistreatment by Weinstein in an Instagram post last November, in which she said she was “angry.”
“Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators — I’m glad it’s going slowly — you don’t deserve a bullet — stay tuned,” she said at the time.
In the Times interview, Thurman also accused director Quentin Tarantino — who has often referred to her as his “muse” — of forcing her to drive an unsafe car during filming of “Kill Bill,” leading to a serious crash.
In footage posted by the Times, the actress is seen speeding down an unpaved road before crashing into a tree. Thurman is jolted sickeningly and left dazed for several moments until crew members carry her away.
“I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again,’” she said. “When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset.
“Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me.”
Tarantino did not respond to requests by the Times for comment.
Miramax told her at the time that she could see the footage of the crash if she gave up her right to sue, she said. She declined.
“When they turned on me after the accident,” she said, “I went from being a creative contributor and performer to being like a broken tool.”
Thurman said she has complex feelings about her experiences, on the one hand as a victim but on the other as an enabler.
“The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was,” she told the Times.
“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of ‘Kill Bill,’ a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”
Uma Thurman breaks silence on Harvey Weinstein
Uma Thurman breaks silence on Harvey Weinstein
Meta nixes diversity and inclusion program as it prepares for second Trump administration
MENLO PARK, California: Joining companies such as John Deere and Walmart, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is getting rid of its diversity, equity and inclusion program that includes hiring, training and picking vendors, a company spokesperson confirmed on Friday.
The move, which was first reported by Axios, comes on the heels of the social media giant’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking program and scale back policies on hate speech and abuse.
Citing an internal memo sent to employees, Axios said the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant said the US Supreme Court “has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. … The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.”
In practice, this means Meta will no longer have a team focused on diversity and inclusion and the company said it will instead “focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background.”
The company will also end it’s “diverse slate approach” to hiring, which meant that a diverse pool of candidates was considered for every open position.
Other companies that have ended DEI programs recently include McDonald’s, automaker Ford, Walmart and farm equipment maker John Deere.
US citizen denied entry into Poland after security staff object to handwritten notes in passport
- The unidentified passenger arrived at Krakow’s Balice airport on a flight from London
- She will remain at the airport for a return flight to London on Thursday
WARSAW: A US citizen has been blocked from entering Poland because her passport was defaced with handwritten notes, border officials said Wednesday.
The unidentified passenger arrived at Krakow’s Balice airport on a flight from London shortly after midnight, according to Justyna Drozdz, a local border security spokeswoman.
The woman was stopped at passport control because her document contained handwritten notes of locations and airport names under visa stamps from the countries she had visited.
The woman told border security staff she was unaware it was not permitted to write on passports or ID documents, Drozdz told Polish news agency PAP.
She will remain at the airport for a return flight to London on Thursday.
As a general rule, it is not permissible for the holder to write in a passport other than to provide a required signature and emergency contacts. Airlines and immigration officials often deny boarding or entry if they feel a passport has been damaged or defaced.
It was not clear why border officials elsewhere had not questioned the woman about her passport.
Iraqi archaeologists piece together ancient treasures ravaged by Daesh
NIMRUD: A decade after jihadists ransacked Iraq’s famed Nimrud site, archaeologists have been painstakingly putting together its ancient treasures, shattered into tens of thousands of tiny fragments.
Once the crown jewel of the ancient Assyrian empire, the archaeological site was ravaged by Daesh fighters after they seized large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.
The precious pre-Islamic artefacts destroyed by the jihadists are now in pieces, but the archaeologists working in Nimrud are undaunted by the colossal task they face.
“Every time we find a piece and bring it to its original place, it’s like a new discovery,” Abdel Ghani Ghadi, a 47-year-old expert working on the site, told AFP.
More than 500 artefacts were found shattered at the site, located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Mosul, the city in northern Iraq where IS established the capital of their self-declared “caliphate.”
Meticulous excavation work by Iraqi archaeologists has already yielded more than 35,000 fragments.
The archaeologists have been carefully reassembling bas-reliefs, sculptures and decorated slabs depicting mythical creatures, which had all graced the palace of Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II nearly 3,000 years ago.
Seen from above, the pieces of the puzzle gradually come together. Shards of what just several years ago was a single artefact are placed side by side, protected by sheets of green tarpaulin.
Bit by bit, the image of Ashurnasirpal II appears on one bas-relief alongside a winged, bearded figure with curly hair and a flower on its wrist, as the restoration brings back to life rich details carved in stone millennia ago.
Another artefact shows handcuffed prisoners from territories that rebelled against the mighty Assyrian army.
Partially reconstructed lamassus — depictions of an Assyrian deity with a human head, the body of a bull or a lion and the wings of a bird — lay on their side, not far from tablets bearing ancient cuneiform text.
“These sculptures are the treasures of Mesopotamia,” said Ghadi.
“Nimrud is the heritage of all of humanity, a history that goes back 3,000 years.”
Founded in the 13th century BC as Kalhu, Nimrud reached its peak in the ninth century BC and was the second capital of the Assyrian empire.
Propaganda videos released by IS in 2015 showed jihadists destroying monuments with bulldozers, hacking away at them with pickaxes or exploding them.
One of those monuments was the 2,800-year-old temple of Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing.
IS fighters wreaked havoc at other sites too, like the once-celebrated Mosul Museum and ancient Palmyra in neighboring Syria.
The jihadist group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and the restoration project in Nimrud began a year later, only to be interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and restart in 2023.
Mohamed Kassim of the Academic Research Institute in Iraq told AFP that “until now, it has been a process of collection, classification and identification.”
About 70 percent of the collection work has been completed at the Assyrian palace site, with about a year’s worth of fieldwork left before restoration can begin in full force, said Kassim, noting it was a “complex operation.”
His organization has been working closely with Iraqi archaeologists, supporting their drive to “save” Nimrud and preserve its cultural riches, through training sessions provided by the Smithsonian Institution with financial support from the United States.
Kassim said that the delicate restoration process will require expertise not found in Iraq and “international support” due to the extent of the “barbaric” destruction in Nimrud.
“One of the most important ancient sites of the Mesopotamian civilization,” according to Kassim, Nimrud is a testament to a golden age of “the art and architecture of the Assyrian civilization.”
The site was first excavated by archaeologists in the 19th century and received international recognition for the immense lamassu figures that were taken to Europe to be exhibited in London’s British Museum and the Louvre in Paris.
Other artefacts from Nimrud have been on display in Mosul and Iraq’s capital Baghdad.
The site has also attracted figures like British author Agatha Christie, who visited there with her archaeologist husband.
On a recent tour of Nimrud, Iraq’s Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak Al-Badrani hailed the “difficult” work carried out by archaeologists there, collecting broken pieces and comparing them to drawings and photographs of the artefacts they attempt to reconstruct.
The vast destruction has made it impossible, at least for now, to ascertain which antiquities were stolen by Daesh, the minister said.
And the process will take time.
Badrani said he expects that it will take 10 years of hard work before the marvels of King Ashurnasirpal II’s palace can be seen again, complete.
Man charged in Tupac Shakur killing files motion to dismiss the case
LAS VEGAS: An ex-gang leader is seeking to have all the charges against him dismissed in the 1990s killing of rap music icon Tupac Shakur.
Attorney Carl Arnold filed the motion on Monday in the District Court of Nevada to dismiss charges against Duane Davis in the 1996 shooting of Shakur. The motion alleges “egregious” constitutional violations because of a 27-year delay in prosecution. The motion also asserts a lack of corroborating evidence and failure to honor immunity agreements granted to Davis by federal and local authorities.
“The prosecution has failed to justify a decades-long delay that has irreversibly prejudiced my client,” Arnold said in a news release. “Moreover, the failure to honor immunity agreements undermines the criminal justice system’s integrity and seriously questions this prosecution.”
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the filing. He has said evidence against Davis is strong and it will be up to a jury to decide the credibility of Davis’ accounts of the shooting including those in a 2019 memoir.
Davis is originally from Compton, California. He was arrested in the case in September 2023 near Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest.
Davis is accused of orchestrating and enabling the shooting that killed Shakur and wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight after a brawl at a Las Vegas Strip casino involving Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Authorities have said that the gunfire stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”
In interviews and a 2019 tell-all memoir that described his life as a leader of a Crips gang sect in Compton, Davis said he obtained a .40-caliber handgun and handed it to Anderson in the back seat of a car from which he and authorities say shots were fired at Shakur and Knight in another car at an intersection near the Las Vegas Strip. Davis didn’t identify Anderson as the shooter.
Shakur died a week later in a nearby hospital. He was 25. Knight survived and is serving a 28-year prison sentence in connection with the killing of a Compton man in 2015.
Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s death and died in 1998 at age 23 in a shooting in Compton. The other two men in the car are also dead.
A Las Vegas police detective testified to a grand jury that police do not have the gun that was used to shoot at Shakur and Knight, nor did they find the vehicle from which shots were fired.
Algerians campaign to save treasured songbird from hunters
- Goldfinches are native to Western Europe and North Africa, and raising them is a cherished hobby in Algeria, where they are known locally as “maknin”
- Caging the wild birds cause them to suffer from serious health problems due to abrupt changes in their diet and environment, say advocates
SETIF, Algeria: With its vivid plumage and sweet trill, the goldfinch has long been revered in Algeria, but the national obsession has also driven illegal hunting, prompting calls to protect the songbird.
Amid a persistent demand for the bird that many choose to keep in their homes, conservation groups in the North African country are now calling for the species to be safeguarded from illegal hunting and trading.
“The moment these wild birds are caged, they often suffer from serious health problems, such as intestinal swelling, due to abrupt changes in their diet and environment,” said Zinelabidine Chibout, a volunteer with the Wild Songbird Protection Association in Setif, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.
Goldfinches are native to Western Europe and North Africa, and raising them is a cherished hobby in Algeria, where they are known locally as “maknin.”
The bird is considered a symbol of freedom, and was favored by poets and artists around the time of Algeria’s war for independence in the 1950s and 60s. The country even dedicates an annual day in March to the goldfinch.
Laws enacted in 2012 classified the bird as a protected species and made its capture and sale illegal.
But the practices remain common, as protections are lacking and the bird is frequently sold in pet shops and markets.
A 2021 study by Guelma University estimated that at least six million goldfinches are kept in captivity by enthusiasts and traders.
Researchers visiting markets documented the sale of hundreds of goldfinches in a single day.
At one market in Annaba, in eastern Algeria, they counted around 300 birds offered for sale.
Back to the wild
Chibout’s association has been working to reverse the trend by purchasing injured and neglected goldfinches and treating them.
“We treat them in large cages, and once they recover and can fly again, we release them back into the wild,” he said.
Others have also called on enthusiasts to breed the species in order to offset demand.
Madjid Ben Daoud, a goldfinch aficionado and member of an environmental association in Algiers, said the approach could safeguard the bird’s wild population and reduce demand for it on the market.
“Our goal is to encourage the breeding of goldfinches already in captivity, so people no longer feel the need to capture them from the wild,” he said.
Souhila Larkam, who raises goldfinches at home, said people should only keep a goldfinch “if they ensure its reproduction.”
The Wild Songbird Protection Association also targets the next generation with education campaigns.
Abderrahmane Abed, vice president of the association, recently led a group of children on a trip to the forest to teach them about the bird’s role in the ecosystem.
“We want to instill in them the idea that these are wild birds that deserve our respect,” he said. “They shouldn’t be hunted or harmed.”
