Officials take water sample Tuesday at Victoria's Secret massage parlor in Bangkok
BANGKOK — After allegedly finding underage girls, human trafficking and prostitution, investigators literally got to the bottom of a brothel recently raided to unearth evidence of another crime.
Police filed fresh charges Tuesday against Victoria’s Secret management for allegedly pumping groundwater for the bubbly pleasure of its customers, a problem at the capital’s many commercial sex venues that officials say is speeding its sinking.
The inspection of the brothel’s waterworks near Rama IX Road was led by a police unit specializing in environmental crimes and officials from related departments. Col. Suwat Inthasin, who oversaw the operation, said tests showed Victoria’s Secret was illegally leeching from the water table.
“It’s confirmed now that they were using groundwater,” Suwat said in a Wednesday interview. “That area is a restricted where pumping groundwater is forbidden. It’s against the law.”
The city’s waterwork agency is also planning to sue the brothel management for financial compensation over environmental damages, Col. Suwat said.
Tapping groundwater without permission is punishable by up to six months in jail. Victoria’s Secret once had a permit to pump groundwater, but the license expired in 2003.
Police subsequently ordered the inspection of four other “massage parlors” operated by the same owner of Victoria’s Secret – Long Beach, Embassy, The Lord and Copacabana – over the next several days to see if they do the same.
Suwat said the inspection will take some time because the water utility is shorthanded of experts and staff.
“I know the media wants to have quick news,” the police colonel said. “But somethings can’t be quick.”
Prior to Tuesday’s raid, city officials have warned that massage parlors, a thin euphemism for brothels, are stealing groundwater for their massive daily water consumption and accelerating the capital city’s annual rate of subsidence.
Pumping has exacerbated the problem in Bangkok for most of its modern history as rapid development put pressure on the aquifer in a place that is geologically delicate due to being a floodplain and its thick, permeable ground layer of clay.
The city sank by as much as 1.2 centimeters in a single year in the early ‘80s, according to a 2006 paper in Engineering Geology.
Despite alarms raised by the city, police had not taken any action against the massage parlors until Tuesday, after the scandal broke about Victoria’s Secret, where a ledger apparently detailing free services for high-ranking officials was also found.
Investigators identified businessman Kampol Wirathepsuporn and his wife Nipha Wirathepsuporn as operators of the brothel, though they remain at large. The pair has been charged with 12 offenses, including human trafficking, pandering, profiting from underage prostitution and abetting illegal immigration.
Officials take water sample Tuesday at Victoria’s Secret massage parlor in Bangkok
A November 2013 file photo shows the destruction in the typhoon-damaged coastal town of Marabut of Eastern Samar Province, Philippines. Photo: DPA
SACRAMENTO, California — A California man was sentenced to life in federal prison Tuesday for buying Filipino children for sex and pornography in what prosecutors called one of most “lurid, willful, and disturbing” child exploitation cases in the nation.
U.S. District Judge John Mendez said he was sickened by the crimes committed by Michael Carey Clemans, 57, of Sacramento.
Prosecutors say he gave detailed instructions on how young girls should be posed, how their hair should be cut, whether they should wear makeup or have their bodies oiled.
“His true plan was to find young girls, virgins, and then go have sex with them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andre Espinosa said. “A 57-year-old man doesn’t have sex with a 7-year-old girl – he rapes her.”
Michael Carey Clemans. Photo: US District Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California
The sentence came after defense attorney Daniel Olmos argued that the judge should consider Clemans’ cooperation in helping authorities catch his co-conspirators.
But Mendez agreed with prosecutors, saying the “unthinkable, inexcusable” crimes outweighed the assistance.
“He has taken away the childhood of those victims,” Mendez said.
Clemans was an Army veteran with no criminal record who lived in Bangkok for two years while working as a pilot for a small airline. He later returned to Sacramento and lived with his mother while traveling to the Philippines several times.
He had “another side to his life,” Mendez said. “Mr. Clemans is a dangerous man. A danger particularly to children.”
Authorities say Clemans began conspiring with a woman in the Philippines in 2014 to produce child pornography and obtain girls.
He sent the woman, Lyan Tandeg, nearly $6,000 for equipment she used to photograph naked children so he could decide which ones he would rape when he traveled to the country, authorities said.
He directed her to find orphans, victims of typhoons and other vulnerable victims. He paid a co-conspirator, Shellina Atad, to obtain temporary custody of Filipino children and produce child pornography, authorities said.
Investigators found three of the children who posed for the pornographic photos, including one called “Angel,” when they were 7, 9, and 10.
Prosecutors brought them from the Philippines to Sacramento to testify at Clemans’ trial.
Tandeg and Atad were arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 15-year prison terms in the Philippines, according to court documents.
At one point, authorities say Clemans was communicating with more than 50 child pornography providers and obtained more than 27,000 child pornography images.
Olmos acknowledged the “abhorrent” crimes but argued that Clemans should receive some sentencing consideration because he had a clean criminal record, accepted responsibility and let investigators use his online accounts to set up his co-conspirators for prosecution.
A jury found Clemans guilty in September of buying children, conspiracy and traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, producing and receiving child pornography.
Olmos said Clemans will appeal his life sentence. Clemans stood seemingly emotionless during the hearing, but Mendez let him hug his parents and other family members before he was led away.
“Thank you for your support and love,” he told his mother. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — Serving for a spot in the Australian Open semifinals and with the score at 40-love, Hyeon Chung started thinking how he might celebrate being the first Korean to reach the last four of a Grand Slam.
Not so fast. He hadn’t let up when upsetting No. 4 Alexander Zverev or six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic en route to the quarterfinals, but he let his guard down for a few points against No. 97-ranked Tennys Sandgren.
He missed four match points in the last game and had to fend off two break points, including one in a 31-shot rally dominated by slice backhands, before finally beating Sandgren 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.
“In last game, I think at 40-love, I’m thinking what I had to do in ceremony or something like that,” he said, explaining how he got slightly ahead of himself. “After deuce, break point. I was like, no, nothing to do with ceremony. But just keep playing – keep focused.”
Then he fully embraced the moment, joking with Jim Courier in an on-court TV interview, introducing the audience to his parents and his coach, and taking the microphone to speak in Korean to millions of new tennis fans back home.
The No. 58-ranked Chung is the lowest-ranked man to reach the Australian Open semifinals since Marat Safin in 2004. At 21, he’s also the youngest to reach the last four at a major since Marin Cilic did it here in 2010.
Two women who’ve been to this stage at a Grand Slam before will meet in the last four. Top-ranked Simona Halep recovered from an early break to win nine straight games in a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 6 Karolina Pliskova and set up a semifinal match against 2016 champion Angelique Kerber, who routed U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2.
Kerber has been the only Grand Slam singles champion in the women’s draw since her third-round win over Maria Sharapova. Two-time French Open finalist Halep has had a tougher road – having to save match points in a third-round win over Lauren Davis that finished 15-13 in the third – to reach the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the first time.
Not that Chung’s run has been routine. After taking out Zverev and Djokovic, Chung could next face defending champion Roger Federer for a spot in the final. Federer was playing Tomas Berdych later Wednesday in the quarterfinals.
Until the last game, Chung had been simply too consistent for Sandgren, a 26-year-old American who had never won a match at a Grand Slam tournament or beaten a top 10 player until last week.
Sandgren’s unexpected run – he beat 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka and No. 5 Dominic Thiem en route to the quarterfinals – was overshadowed by heavy scrutiny of his Twitter account and his follows and retweets of far-right activists. He deleted his Twitter history before the quarterfinals, saying he wanted to start from scratch, but must have been distracted by the fallout.
Kerber has had no serious distractions on a 14-match winning streak, and is hoping to emulate her breakout year in 2016.
She won the Australian and U.S. Open titles two years ago and reached the No. 1 ranking, but slipped into the 20s last year. She didn’t win a title between the 2016 U.S. Open and the Sydney International earlier this month.
Her first three wins were in straight sets but a fourth-round struggle against No. 88 Hsieh Su-wei had commentators wondering if Kerber was in 2016, or 2017 form.
She responded with six service breaks against the No. 17-seeded Keys, finishing off the match in 51 minutes and improving her record to seven wins in eight matches against the American.
“I just try to find the feeling back that I had, like 2016, and just enjoying my time. I mean, on and off court,” Kerber said of her turnaround. “I know that I was working hard in the offseason, and I know that I can play good matches. I know that I can win close matches and also, yeah, going out there and playing good in the bigger tournaments.”
Airport official Kanaruj Artt Pornspolt poses in 2017 with a Christmas present for a child identified as Mashia who had been living with her family for three months inside Suvarnabhumi Airport. Photo: Kanaruj Artt Pornspolt / Facebook
SAMUT PRAKAN — A Zimbabwean family who was stuck inside a Bangkok airport for months has been sent to the Philippines, immigration authorities said Wednesday.
Immigration Bureau Police said the family of four children and four adults who had been stuck at Suvarnabhumi Airport since October been sent to the Philippines by the UNHCR on Monday.
“They flew to the Philippines the day before yesterday,” Maj. Gen. Pruettipong Prayonsiri of Immigration Police said Wednesday.
Preuttipong said he did not know what would happen to the family – whether they would be permanently resettled, placed into a refugee camp, afforded legal status or deported back to Zimbabwe.
“Now it’s in the UNHCR’s hands. Our job was to help deliver them from the airport,” Preuttipong said.
The Philippines is a signatory to UN conventions on refugees and has been more accommodating to refugees and asylum-seekers than Thailand, which does not recognize their legal status.
Hannah Macdonald, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said she could not confirm or deny the family’s location or status Wednesday.
“We cannot discuss this family, for the the safety of this family and other families like it,” she said.
The family first came to attention when an airport employee posted in December a photo of him giving a Christmas gift to one of the children. The family had been stuck in the airport since it attempted to leave Bangkok in October for Barcelona, only to be denied entry and returned to Bangkok.
The group of eight also refused to be sent back to Zimbabwe, saying that they feared for their safety.
Deputy junta chairman Prawit Wongsuwan shouts to reporters 16 Jan.
BANGKOK — The national anti-graft agency suggested Wednesday that deputy junta chairman Prawit Wongsuwan may be in the clear for failing to declare the many expensive watches he has been spotted with.
A top executive at the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which has ostensibly been investigating whether Prawit broke the law by failing to declare dozens of watches, many worth over a million baht, said the general could have borrowed the timepieces from his friends as has been claimed.
“In our general principle, the assets that you have to declare must be yours,” Worawit Sukboon said at a news conference, prompting questions about whether that pertained to borrowed items. “If it’s not yours, then you don’t have to notify the NACC.”
He added, “So the NACC must look into the facts and find out whether he [Gen. Prawit] was the true owner of those items.”
Under great scrutiny from the public – and pressure from a military regime that has reflexively closed ranks around its own touched by allegations of corruption – the commission has been criticized for being incapable of conducting a fair investigation.
After junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha scolded reporters Tuesday for asking about Prawit’s watches, calling it “personal issues,” transparency activist Veera Somkwamkid slammed the comment as “immoral and irresponsible.”
“This is not a personal issue. This is an issue that he wants to hide,” Veera said Monday morning in an online post. “If he was honest and transparent, why didn’t he declare it in a report to the NACC?”
Worawit stressed that the investigation into the watches was not over, though he declined to say when it would. He said the commission is waiting to question a “key witness” in the case, who he said would return from overseas next week. Worawit refused to name the witness.
“We cannot yet reveal the details,” Worawit said. “Please wait for the results to come out.”
The news conference was crashed by a man who attempted to give an image of the “see no evil” three monkeys to Worawit, but was promptly stopped by security guards. The man was later identified as an activist who goes by the name Ake Auttagorn.
Prawit, 72, has come under intense pressure to explain how he acquired at least 25 luxury watches that he was seen wearing on multiple occasions in recent years, and why they were not listed in mandatory asset reports as required by the law.
As of Wednesday morning, the hashtag #FriendsWatches, was trending on Thai Twitter.
The general told the press 16 Jan. that he’d borrowed the watches from friends and had already returned them, an explanation met with much derision from the public. On Tuesday he refused to answer reporters’ questions about the investigation.
The anti-graft commission has been panned by transparency watchdogs for appearing reluctant to take legal action against Prawit. Commission chairman Watcharapol Prasarnrajakit is especially criticized for his close ties to Prawit and refusal to recuse himself from the proceedings.
At today’s news conference, Worawit said Watcharapol had changed his mind and would now step back from the investigation for the sake of impartiality.
Rohingya women carry children and wait for food handouts in 2017 at Thangkhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury / Associated Press
YANGON — Myanmar says it’s ready for a gradual repatriation of Muslim Rohingya refugees chased out by the Buddhist-majority country’s military. Bangladesh says it’s preparing for the transfer, but it might need more time.
And the refugees themselves?
In interviews in recent weeks with dozens of the nearly 700,000 Rohingya who’ve poured into Bangladesh since August in what’s become the world’s worst refugee crisis, The Associated Press has found deep skepticism, if not outright terror, about returning to a place where they say their homes were burned, their wives, sisters and mothers raped, and their friends and neighbors slaughtered.
The two nations’ border seemed calm Tuesday, despite some sense, in Myanmar, at least, that the proposed transfer of refugees might still go forward.
“No matter what, from our side, Myanmar is ready to start the process, but Bangladesh may have difficulties, causing a delay in sending refugees back,” said Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s social welfare minister.
If the desires of the refugees themselves are considered, it won’t happen any time soon. In the sprawling camps that cover the hills south of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, along the border with Myanmar, the Rohingya say they want to return to their burned villages, but only with strong outside monitoring of their safety and living conditions.
“How can we go back to Myanmar without anyone guaranteeing our security,” said Alam, a Rohingya in the Bulakhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, who, like many Rohingya, goes only by one name. “If we would be given homes in our villages that were burned, then we will go back.”
More than 680,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape a crackdown by Myanmar’s military that began following attacks by a Rohingya militant group on Aug. 25. The United Nations and the United States have described the crackdown as “ethnic cleansing.” The U.N. human rights chief has also suggested that it may be genocide.
The two countries have agreed to a two-year repatriation process set to begin Tuesday. But officials in Bangladesh on Monday said a number of issues remained unresolved, in particular worries that refugees were being forced to return.
Abul Kalam, a Bangladesh relief official, said by phone from Cox’s Bazar that officials are preparing lists of potential returnees.
“We are doing our work. This is a human process, and it needs the preparing of lists, proper verification, coordination with Myanmar and other departments and agencies here,” he said. “Both sides have agreed to execute it and the process has started. I don’t see any problem in implementing the deal.”
There’s little sign of that, however, at the border.
A local government official, Khaleda Begum, called the border calm. She told the AP that she saw two men and one woman with their belongings enter Bangladesh in the morning from Myanmar.
“I asked them who they are,” she said. “They told me they were coming from Myanmar to get to Kutupalong (refugee) camp.”
Win Myat Aye said Myanmar has provided Bangladesh with a list of 700 Rohingya and 400 Hindu refugees who have been verified as eligible for repatriation. Only refugees with identity documents — which most Rohingya lack — will be allowed back into Myanmar.
Many in Myanmar see Rohingya as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, although many families have lived in Myanmar for generations. They have been denied citizenship, freedom of movement and other basic rights.
Though a total of more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, international aid workers, local officials and the refugees themselves say preparations for repatriation are far from complete.
Myanmar Union Minister Thaung Tun told reporters Tuesday that his country is “ready to receive those who will be coming across the border.”
Thaung Tun said Myanmar is currently prepared to receive 300 returnees a day and “the number could increase based on the progress of the first batch that will be coming across.”
The two countries have signed an agreement to begin sending people home in “safety, security and dignity,” but rights groups have expressed worry about Rohingya returning to villages they left only months ago in terror. According to the U.N. refugee agency and other rights groups, Rohingya are still fleeing across the border into Bangladesh, although the numbers are smaller than in previous months.
“As of today, the necessary safeguards for potential returnees are absent, and there are continued restrictions on access for aid agencies, the media and other independent observers,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva on Tuesday.
This image released by A24 Films shows director Greta Gerwig, right, and Saoirse Ronan on the set of "Lady Bird." Gerwig is expected to be the fifth woman nominated for an Oscar for best director when the nominations for the 90th annual Academy Awards are announced on Tuesday. (Merie Wallace/A24 via AP)
NEW YORK — The Academy Awards showered outsiders, on screen and off, with milestone-setting nominations that celebrated Guillermo del Toro’s full-hearted ode to outcasts “The Shape of Water,” embraced first-time filmmakers like Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele, and made “Mudbound” director of photography Rachel Morrison the first woman ever nominated for best cinematography.
In nominations that spanned young and old, studio blockbusters and passion-fueled indies, the 90th annual Academy Awards on Tuesday gave many who have long been shunned by the movie business — women directors, transgender filmmakers, minority actors, even Netflix — something to cheer about.
Leading all nominees with 13 nods, including best picture, was “The Shape of Water,” by veteran Mexican filmmaker del Toro, whose Cold War-era fantasy is about a mute office cleaner (Sally Hawkins) who falls in love with an amphibious creature. But the nominations also carried forward some of the ongoing reckoning of the Me Too movement that has been felt especially acutely in Hollywood, where male filmmakers outnumber women by a ratio of approximately 12-to-1.
Gerwig, the writer-director of the nuanced coming-of-age tale “Lady Bird,” became just the fifth woman nominated for best director, following Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow, the sole woman to win, for “The Hurt Locker.” Speaking by phone Tuesday from Los Angeles, Gerwig said the distinction was extremely meaningful.
“When I think about Kathryn Bigelow winning and me sitting there watching it and feeling suddenly like, ‘It’s possible,'” said Gerwig. “To be nominated as the fifth woman, I hope that what it does is that women of all ages look at it and they also find the spark within themselves that says: ‘Now I have to go make my movie.’ That’s what I want. And I want it selfishly because I want to see their stories.”
Morrison posted Twitter of her nomination: “I hope it tells all the dreamers out there (especially the young girls with cameras in their hands) that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.”
In what’s been a wide-open awards season, Oscar voters chose nine best-picture nominees, including four with female protagonists: “The Shape of Water,” ”Lady Bird,” Martin McDonaugh’s rage-fueled comic drama “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Jordan Peele’s horror sensation “Get Out,” Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill drama “Darkest Hour,” Steven Spielberg’s timely newspaper drama “The Post,” Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic “Dunkirk,” Luca Guadagnino’s tender love story “Call Me By Your Name” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s twisted romance “Phantom Thread.”
One of Gerwig’s first calls of congratulations was to another first-time filmmaker, Peele. The two have been brought together by Hollywood’s months-long Oscar campaigning and their mutual rookie status. (Gerwig previously co-directed a small feature.)
Peele becomes the fifth black filmmaker nominated for best director, and the third to helm a best-picture nominee, following Barry Jenkins last year for “Moonlight.” He’s also the third person to receive best picture, director and writing nods for his first feature film after Warren Beatty (“Heaven Can Wait”) and James L. Brooks (“Terms of Endearment”).
“I’m going to write. I’m now going to get hard at work on the next one,” Peele said by phone. “One of the greatest things that I get from this whole process is this faith in my voice. It’s like jet fuel. It makes me want to make as many movies that I can in my life.
This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Timothee Chalamet in a scene from “Call Me By Your Name.” Chalamet was nominated for an Oscar for best actor on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. The 90th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 4. (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)
“The Shape of Water” landed just shy of tying the record of 14 nominations, scoring a wide array for nominations for its cast (Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer), del Toro’s directing, its sumptuous score (by Alexandre Desplat) and its technical craft. Del Toro said in an interview Tuesday that he would celebrate with an extra chicken sausage for breakfast: “That will be my indulgence for the day.”
“You realize that we are all, in some way or another, a bit of an outsider in different ways,” said del Toro of his film’s resonance. “Not fearing the other but embracing the other is the only way to go as a race. The urgency of that message of hope and emotion is what sustained the faith for roughly half a decade that the movie needed to be made.”
All of the acting front-runners — Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards”), Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”), Allison Janney (“I, Tonya”), Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards”) — landed their expected nominations. But there were plenty of surprises and more than a few landmarks in the nominations announced from Los Angeles ahead of the March 4 ceremony, to be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
Meryl Streep scored her 21st nomination, for “The Post,” and John Williams (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) his 51st. Two 89-year-old legends became the oldest nominees: Agnes Varda (“Faces Places,” best documentary) and James Ivory (“Call Me By Your Name,” for adapted screenplay). There were eight first-time acting nominees, including 22-year-old “Call Me By Your Name” breakthrough Timothee Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya, 28, of “Get Out.” Saoirse Ronan, that grizzled 23-year-old, landed her third Oscar nom, for “Lady Bird.”
Denzel Washington (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.”) was nominated for best actor, likely eclipsing James Franco (“Disaster Artist”). Franco was accused of sexual misconduct, which he denied, just days before Oscar voting closed.
Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World,” also sneaked into the best supporting actor category. Added to the film in reshoots little more than a month before the film’s release, 88-year-old Plummer is the oldest acting nominee ever. “Everything has happened so quickly of late that I am still a trifled stunned but excited by it all,” said Plummer.
Perhaps most unexpected was the broad success of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread,” which scored not only nods for Daniel Day-Lewis for best actor and Lesley Manville, for best supporting actress, but also nominations for best picture, Anderson’s direction, costume design and Johnny Greenwood’s score.
Anderson likely displaced Steven Spielberg (“The Post”) and Martin McDonagh, the director of the film many have tapped to win best picture, “Three Billboards.” His absence is a major knock for a film that has endured the harshest backlash of the contenders, with many claiming it’s out of touch in matters of race.
Still, “Three Billboards” scored seven nominations Tuesday, behind only “The Shape of Water” and Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.” The World War II epic, thus far little-honored in Hollywood’s awards season, emerged especially strong with Oscar voters, taking eight nominations, many of them in technical categories. It’s Nolan’s first nomination for best director.
Though the favorites are largely independent films, a number of blockbusters fared well, including five nods for “Blade Runner 2049,” four for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” three for “Baby Driver,” two for “Beauty and the Beast” and two for Pixar’s “Coco,” which is up for best animated feature. The Wolverine film “Logan” even notched a screenplay nod, a first for a superhero movie.
Yet Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman,” which became the highest grossing movie ever directed by a woman, failed to receive any Oscar nods despite an awards campaign. Sean Baker’s far lower budgeted “The Florida Project” also managed only a supporting actor nomination for Willem Dafoe despite hopes for more.
Though some minorities were still absent from the acting categories, the film academy, which has worked to diversify its membership in recent years, voted for a field of nominees almost as diverse as last year when “Moonlight,” ”Fences” and “Hidden Figures” powered a rebuttal to the “Oscars So White” backlash of the two years prior. Four black actors — Washington, Daniel Kaluuya, Spencer and Mary J. Blige (“Mudbound”) — were among the 20 acting nominees.
The documentary category — also including “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” ”Last Men in Aleppo” and two Netflix entries: “Icarus” and “Strong Island” — likewise contained history. Yance Ford, the director of “Strong Island,” about Ford’s investigation into his brother’s 1992 murder, became the first transgender filmmaker nominated for an Oscar.
Some had lobbied for “A Fantastic Woman” star Daniela Vega to become the first transgender actor nominated. While Vega didn’t garner a nomination, her film, from Chile, landed in the best foreign language category. The other nominees are: “The Insult,” from Lebanon; “Loveless,” from Russia; “On Body and Soul,” from Hungary; and the Palme d’Or winner “The Square,” from Sweden.
Last year’s Oscars broadcast drew 32.9 million viewers for ABC, a four percent drop from the prior year. More worrisome, however, was a steeper slide in the key demographic of adults aged 18-49, whose viewership was down 14 percent from 2016.
Though the show ran especially long, at three hours and 49 minutes, it finished with a bang: the infamous envelope mix-up that led to “La La Land” being incorrectly announced as the best picture before “Moonlight” was crowned.
This year, the academy has prohibited the PwC accountants who handle the envelopes from using cellphones or social media during the show. The accounting firm on Monday also unveiled several reforms including the addition of a third balloting partner in the show’s control room. But the movie business has larger accounting problems. Attendance hit a 24-year low in 2017.
It was a dominant if bittersweet day for 20th Century Fox. Its specialty label, Fox Searchlight, is behind both “Three Billboards” and “The Shape of Water,” and Fox released “The Post.” Yet Fox’s leading 27 nominations may soon count for the Walt Disney Co., which last month reached a deal to purchase Fox for $52.4 billion.
Both Amazon and Netflix failed to crack the best picture category but earned nominations elsewhere. Netflix’s “Mudbound” scored four nods and Amazon’s “The Big Sick” grabbed a nomination for Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon’s original screenplay about their real-life romance.
“At times we worried it would be insurmountable, or would rip us apart, or even worse — that no one would like it,” Nanjiani and Gordon said in a joint statement. “The fact that it connected with audiences is exhilarating, and this nomination proves that our love is real. We have decided to stay married.”
JAKARTA — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis got an up-close look at Indonesian commandos – including soldiers walking on fire and breaking bricks with their heads.
The commandos performed for Mattis at the conclusion of a two-day visit in which Mattis expressed interest in closer U.S. contacts with Indonesia special forces.
With music as a backdrop, Mattis looked on in silence as the commandos demonstrated their hostage-rescue skills, snake-handling and hand-to-hand combat training.
Afterward, Mattis was flying to Hanoi for his first visit to Vietnam.
Children in Bueng Kan province show the messages they wrote for their hometown Thursday at the annual Red Cross and Rubber Day event.
BUENG KAN — When the law establishing Bueng Kan province came into effect, Sirintra Thongdee was only in kindergarten. Then 6, she was told by her family that she was no longer of Nong Khai province but now a citizen of Bueng Kan.
Seven years later, the 13-year-old says she has yet seen any drastic changes except for her own sense of place.
“When there was yet Bueng Kan province, I wanted to go to Nong Khai city because it is a big district,” she said. “But when Bueng Kan became a province, I feel better that I am already living in the city. Things are more convenient, and I feel no need to move.”
Kanyavee Ravi
While adults are trying their best to make Thailand’s youngest province self-sustaining, the youth of Bueng Kan play a crucial role in its future. Therefore, nurturing a sense of community belonging is one of the top obligations Bueng Kan has to its children. So the Red Cross and Rubber Day festival, the province’s biggest annual event that ran Jan. 17 to 23 this year, provided a significant opportunity to do so.
Though the first attempt to separate from Nong Khai province was undertaken two decades ago, Bueng Kan and the other seven districts only managed to become a new province in the northeastern region in 2011. The rationale was that its location was too far from Nong Khai city.
If forced to name the most obvious change, Sirintra said it was a road along the Mekong River which has been extended and improved. From a small riverside lane, it is now a recreational area for local residents providing sunrise viewpoints for tourists and a venue for Bueng Kan’s weekend walking street.
Sirintra Thongdee
It is probably beyond the ability of the young girl to realize the land value her province is accruing as more projects head here, including a special economic zone and the construction of a fifth bridge linking Thailand to Laos. Lying along the mighty Mekong opposite to Laos’ Bolikhamxay province, this northernmost town of the Isaan region is strategically located for a connection to Vietnam as well.
Besides learning about Dinosaurs in Isaan, tapping the rubber trees now at the heart of Bueng Kan’s economy, the exhibition at the Red Cross and Rubber Day event presented visions for Bueng Kan and encouraged children to write down what they want to see in their hometowns.
“I wish Bueng Kan had an amusement park.”
“I wish Bueng Kan became a trade center and had a cinema.”
“I want Bueng Kan to have so so many big libraries.”
“I want a zoo.”
Pakjira Thongtheeradech
These are among hundreds of messages written by children that were displayed on the board alongside adult opinions. The most popular comment was, perhaps, “Wish Bueng Kan had an airport,” to which Sirintra nodded her approval. She said that if she wants to fly to Bangkok now, she has to ride three hours to Udon Thani International Airport. The 13-year-old girl also suggested a train station.
“Right now, I have to use public bus or a private car if I want to go to another province,” she said. “If there was an airport, it would be easier.”
Sirintra’s dream could come true as the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has begun a feasibility study and identified an area for construction, 25 kilometers from the city center.
While the journey to the province remains inconvenient, another young resident of Bueng Kan suggested they eliminate the reasons to travel. Pakjira Thongtheeradech said, “I wish Bueng Kan had a university like Khon Kaen. Now we only have colleges.”
Kanyavee Ravi
Pakjira, a Matthayom 1 student, said education is one of the main reason children leave Bueng Kan to the nearby towns. Although there is currently the Bueng Kan Campus of Udon Thani Rajabhat University, the choices of available programs are very limited.
Building an airport or a university cannot be done in a month, so some kids came up with more doable requests.
“I want a pedestrian flyover in front of our Bueng Kan School,” Kanyavee Ravi said. “We have a zebra crossing but cars usually come too fast and don’t stop when they are told to.”
Either taking years or months, these are voices of the new generation who hold the future of Thailand’s newest province and it can only become possible if adults are willing to listen to them.
Children put the message they wrote for Bueng Kan province on a display.A child tries tapping a rubber tree Thursday at the Rubber Day event in Bueng Kan province. Rubber industry now plays a crucial role in the Bueng Kan’s economy.
Cadet Pakapong Tanyakan poses for a picture with his mother on Aug. 16, 2017. Image: Sukanya Tanyakan / Facebook
BANGKOK — A long-awaited investigation into the death of a cadet in October concluded he died of health conditions, his family told reporters Tuesday.
Behind a closed door meeting at the armed forces headquarters which reporters were not allowed to observe, army officers briefed the parents and relatives of Pakapong Tanyakan about findings that took more than two months to compile.
Pakapong’s sister told reporters after the meeting that the military repeated the same explanation given in December, when the army blamed Pakapong’s death on sudden heart failure.
“The military’s explanation is similar to what they have said in previous news conference,” Supicha Tanyakan told reporters in a brief interview.
She added that the family’s criminal case against the military will continue. Supicha could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Gen. Chawarat Marungruang, head of the committee that oversees the investigation, said he expects the two sides will have more conversations in the future.
He also said the inquiry result is not final and that the military would consult with forensic scientists and doctors for a more complete picture, Chawarat said.
“We are not drawing a deadline on when the work will be completed,” the air force general said. “But we are doing everything quickly.”
The 19-year-old cadet died during training at an armed forces academy in Nakhon Nayok province in October. The military initially blamed “sudden heart failure” and other health conditions for his death, but his family protested those findings on suspicion Pakapong might have died from physical mistreatment.
After the news drew widespread attention and anger from the public, the armed forces announced they would investigate the chain of events that led to Pakapong’s death.
Pakapong’s family was also shocked to discover that some of the cadet’s internal organs had gone missing from his body. The military later admitted to keeping them without the family’s knowledge and returned them to his parents following social media outcry.
Shortly after today’s briefing started, Pakapong’s family was seen storming out of the meeting room and driving away. They told reporters they were angry at the military’s insistence that only Pakapong’s parents would be allowed in.
They returned about 20 minutes later, saying military officers had changed their mind and would allow the entire family into the meeting room.
