[IsraelTimes] Jewish Hollywood star says financier pulled out of backing her directorial debut, ‘Eleanor the Great,’ after she refused to rewrite story to something non-Holocaust related
Scarlett Johansson said in an interview published Saturday that she was asked by a financial backer of her directorial debut, "Eleanor the Great," if the main character could be caught in a lie about something other than the Holocaust.
"I mean, if they’d said ’I’ll only back this if you shoot in New Jersey,’ or ’We need to get this done by the spring,’ then that would have been one thing," she told The Telegraph.
"But they were objecting to what the film actually was," she said. "It had to be about what happens when someone gets caught in the worst lie imaginable; if not the Holocaust, then what could it be? They offered no alternative. It was just, ’This is an issue.’"
Johansson said the unnamed backer pulled out, taking a significant chunk of the budget.
"We’d been talking about the film for so many months, and then this was the outcome?" she told the British newspaper. "It was really shocking, and I was so disappointed."
Johansson said Sony Pictures Classics came on board as distributors, and the studio made up the shortfall.
"If I wasn’t Jewish, would I have known how to do this [movie]?" she said. "I don’t know. But that was a factor in me wanting to do it: I knew this world, and I knew versions of Eleanor."
"Eleanor the Great" stars 95-year-old Jewish actress June Squibb as she seeks connection in New York City following the death of her best friend Bessie.
Feeling isolated, Squibb’s character, Eleanor Morgenstein, winds up joining a support group for Holocaust survivors at the local Jewish community center.
There, when pressed by the group’s members to share her story, Morgenstein tells Bessie’s story as her own.
The film opened in cinemas in September, and is available for viewing in theatrers across Israel and the world.
Reviews of the film were mixed, with The Guardian giving the film two out of five stars for seriously misjudging the seriousness of the story’s premise, while Variety called the movie, which received a five-minute ovation at its premiere, an "unconvincing crowd-pleaser."
[IsraelTimes] Yoni Finlay, who was shot and seriously injured during the deadly Yom Kippur terror attack at a Manchester synagogue, says he is thinking of moving to Israel due to antisemitism in the United Kingdom.
Finlay tells London’s Sunday Times that he and his ex-wife have been discussing if they should make the move with their four children.
"It would be really upsetting to leave Manchester. This is my hometown. I am Mancunian. But I can’t bring my kids up in this environment," he says, noting that his children have experienced antisemitism.
"There is so much anger and so much hate," he says. "It’s become hard to recognize the UK any more, with the [anti-Israel, pro-Paleostinian] hate marches and the chanting.
"It’s very difficult. People being angry at Israel shouldn’t turn that into hatred of Jews. I have said this again and again: Words have impact, and actions have consequences. And this sort of terrorist attack is the consequence," he says.
"I believe there is light and there is darkness, and there was a huge amount of darkness that day," Finlay says.
"I have never been that close to evil. You could feel it radiating off him," he says of Jihad al-Shamie, who was rubbed out by police on October 2 outside the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester after he rammed a car into pedestrians, attacked them with a knife and tried to force his way into the building.
Congregation members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed in the attack.
Finlay says Shamie yelled "This is for the kids you have killed," presumably a reference to the actions of the IDF during the war against Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... "I remember the crack of the guns going off," says Finlay. A bullet fired by police is believed to have traveled through Shamie and the door of the synagogue before hitting Finlay, who was helping to barricade the entrance.
"I was putting pressure myself on the wound, like you see in the films," Finlay says.
Finlay says his father, who was at the synagogue and is a retired doctor, has told him that he had felt helpless and unable to help his son.
"He didn’t have the training for a gunshot wound. That was a difficult thing for a son to hear their father say, because they are always there to help and support you," Finlay says.
Finlay says he does not want the police officer who fired the bullet that hit him to lose his job.
"I wouldn’t want anybody to lose their job over what happened," he says. "Ultimately, the police ran towards danger to protect us. They were doing everything they could to try to stop a terrorist trying to kill us. That’s what they were doing."
#5
Like Herb, I'm deeply offended by the insinuation that Mr. Finlay might, in the course of rescuing his family, be wounded a second time. [Trump at medal ceremony: "G-d damn, Yoni!"]
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during informal talks with American officials, announced his willingness to step down in 18 months. CNN reported this on November 29.
"The White House has concluded that it will only support a plan that calls for the immediate resignation of the Venezuelan leader," the channel clarified, citing an informed source.
According to CNN, the US presidential administration believed that Maduro's resignation could be a solution to the problem, but rejected Maduro's proposal.
According to the publication, American leader Donald Trump gave his Venezuelan counterpart an ultimatum during a call last week and also threatened to use force.
Earlier, US President Trump raised the possibility of negotiations with the Venezuelan leader. According to the White House chief, Venezuela would like to negotiate. Shortly before Trump's statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Maduro of leading a drug cartel.
Venezuela previously appealed to Iran for political support in response to threats from the United States. The statement came amid yet another escalation of tensions around Caracas. Meanwhile, US actions in the region are raising questions even within the country.
Reuters reported that the US plans to increase pressure on Venezuela in the near future, including the overthrow of President Maduro. However, it is unclear whether US President Trump has made a final decision to act. There is no information on the exact timing or scale of the upcoming operations.
#11
DooDahMan - that's what I said. I recall Uranium One defeated our export controls by being smuggled out via Canada. Not too mention the amount fentanyl precursors that's smuggled across the northern border. That whole country is compromised and is becoming wholly unrecognizable.
[IsraelTimes] Council chief refers matter back to committee, after proposal called out by Irish PM, drew charges of antisemitism from Israel and local Jewish community.
“Dammit, Eoin, what’s the world coming to when the goddamn PM objects to us insulting our Jews!”
[IsraelTimes] Olwen Fouéré joins two others in turning down honorary doctorates over school’s research partnership with Technion
Three Irish figures, including actress Olwen Fouéré, have rejected honorary doctorates from the University of Galway due to the university’s research partnership with The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Fouéré, who has appeared in movies and shows including “Derry Girls” and “The Crown,” refused to receive the honor at a ceremony on Thursday, alongside filmmaker Margo Harkin and academic Kerby Miller, according to the Irish Times.
Fouéré said her decision was due to the university’s “extremely problematic” ties with the Haifa-based Technion.
Through the EU-funded ASTERISK program, Galway has a partnership worth some €4 million (NIS 15 million) with the Israeli university to derive sustainable green hydrogen from seawater.
Anti-Israel groups like Academic for Palestine have called on Galway to withdraw from the program due to what they say is Israel’s unfair treatment of the Palestinians and “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
The school’s president said in September that, while it would not participate in any new research agreements with Israeli partners, it was contractually obliged to continue the existing partnership with the Technion.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members had experienced major mental health issues for years, and would lock himself in a 'darkened room' away from his wife and children, according to his community advocate.
Father-of-five Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been charged with first degree murder after allegedly opening fire on soldiers Andrew Wolfe, 24, and Sarah Beckstrom, 20, on Wednesday near the White House. Beckstrom tragically died from her injuries on Thanksgiving, while Wolfe is reportedly 'hanging on' and still fighting for his life in a critical condition.
Now, new details of Lakanwal's deteriorating mental health have emerged, including being unable to hold down a job and taking weekslong, isolated cross-country drives to cope. His behavior deteriorated so sharply that a community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help, fearing he was becoming suicidal.
'Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year, 03/2023. He quit his job that month, and his behavior has changed greatly,' the person wrote in a January 2024 email to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a nonprofit group that provides services to refugees.
Emails obtained by AP reveal the advocate warned about his erratic conduct long before the tragedy, offering the clearest picture yet of how he was struggling in his new life in the United States.
He was brought to America as part of Operation Allies Welcome in 2021, an initiative to help evacuate and resettle Afghans who assisted US troops during the disastrous withdrawal. In Afghanistan, Lakanwal worked in a special Afghan Army unit known as a Zero Unit. The units were backed by the CIA.
Lakanwal resettled with his wife and their five sons, all under the age of 12, in Bellingham, Washington state.
The emails described a man who was struggling to assimilate, unable to hold a steady job or commit to his English courses while he alternated between 'periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.' Sometimes, he spent weeks in his 'darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.' At one point in 2023, the family faced eviction after months of not paying rent.
Lakanwal's family members often resorted to sending his toddler sons into his room to bring him the phone or messages because he would not respond to anyone else, one email stated. When his wife left him with the kids for a week to travel to visit relatives, the children would not be bathed, their clothes would not be changed, and they would not eat well. Their school raised concerns about the situation.
But then, there were 'interim' weeks where Lakanwal would try to make amends and 'do the right things,' according to the email. During this time, he would reengage with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services as was mandated by the terms of his entry into the US.
'But that has quickly evolved into manic episodes for one or two weeks at a time, where he will take off in the family car, and drive nonstop,' the email read. Once, he went to Chicago, and another time, to Arizona.
A longtime friend had earlier revealed Lakanwal struggled with the horrors he saw and violence he carried out as part of his duty within the elite Afghan unit.
'When he saw blood, bodies, and the wounded, he could not tolerate it,' the childhood friend told The New York Times.
'It put a lot of pressure on his mind.'
The father-of-five was part of the elite paramilitary outfit which engaged in combat with the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan, often referred to as a 'death squad.' While his role within the unit is not clear, his taskforce was often linked to night raids, covert operations and was suspected of carrying out executions. But when the advocate who worked closely with Lakanwal and other Afghan families in similar circumstances learned he had been named as the suspected shooter, they were stunned.
The advocate said they were unable to comprehend the violence of the attack with the memory of seeing Lakanwal play with his young sons.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity to share undisclosed details while cooperating with the FBI in its investigation.
In response to the two emails, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), visited Bellingham a few weeks later in March 2024 and attempted to make contact with Lakanwal and his family, according to the community member.
After not receiving any updates, they believed Lakanwal refused further assistance.
As investigators work to determine a motive, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed on Sunday officials 'believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country.'
She said: 'We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state and we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members.'
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney in the District of Columbia, said Lakanwal drove across the country from Bellingham, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Seattle, to the nation's capital.
#4
The problem is that he came from a cultural, legal and ethical consensus that is insane by Western standards and vice versa.
Killing people for leaving a religion of challenging ideas is consensus in Afghanistan but insane behavior in the West.
Challenging unquestionable revealed truth and changing one's religious attitude is consensus in the West but insane behavior in Afghanistan.
"Over there" this conflict was papered over by creating the narrative of strong, but subservient Dhimmi infidel forces serving the "Noble People of Afghanistan."
"Here" in the West this narrative can'r be maintained and our "allies" have to make decisions.
[Rudaw] Electricity in the Kurdistan Region has returned to normal, and the 24-hour power supply from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) flagship Runaki project has also been restored, Erbil’s electricity ministry confirmed on Sunday.
In a statement, the ministry said "the Kurdistan Regional Government is pleased to announce that national electricity has returned to its normal state, and 24-hour power supply has also been restored for the Runaki project."
The announcement comes days after the Region had been experiencing severe blackouts since Wednesday night’s attack on the Khor Mor gas field in the eastern Sulaimani province.
A liquid storage tank at the Khor Mor facility was struck, according to a statement from UAE-based Dana Gas - a joint operator and major shareholder in Pearl Petroleum, the consortium leading the development and production at the site.
Earlier in the day, the Region’s Electricity Minister Kamal Mohammed had told Rudaw, "By tonight, the situation will be back to normal and the Runaki Project and 24-hour electricity will return as it was."
Runaki - "light" in Kurdish - is the KRG’s key project, which aims to provide uninterrupted electricity to residents across the Region.
Ahead of the Wednesday attack, around four million people enjoyed the service.
Kurdish officials previously affirmed that the attack caused an estimated 80 percent drop in the Region’s electricity production.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, Gloria slowly backed away from the eight-foot bull frog. If the creature croaked she would surely be deafened... Iraq has lost around 1,200 megawatts of power due to the halt of gas supplies from Khor Mor, a bigwig from Baghdad’s electricity ministry told Rudaw on Sunday, describing the outage as a direct consequence of Wednesday’s attack on the key gas field.
"We at the Iraqi electricity ministry have been affected by the interruption of energy supplies from the investment stations in the Kurdistan Region," ministry spokesperson Ahmed Mousa said, adding that "the disruption is the result of the targeting of the Khor Mor gas field, which halted gas supplies and consequently led to the suspension of electricity generation from the stations located in the Region."
Mousa told Rudaw that in the aftermath of the strike, Iraq’s nationwide electricity output stands at about 20,000 megawatts, down from the 27,500-megawatt capacity available before the attack.
The impact has been particularly felt in the provinces of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Nineveh and Salahaddin, he said, noting that the ministry maintains "high-level coordination" with the Kurdistan Region’s electricity authorities to mitigate the shortage.
At the same time, Mousa said that gas imports from Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... - on which Iraq heavily relies - were also brought to a complete halt late last week due to what Tehran described as pipeline maintenance. Iran is supposed to provide 35 million cubic meters of gas per day,
Iran was scheduled to resume gas supplies the same day, but has yet to do so.
[IsraelTimes] Hostages’ forum slams remarks by spokesman for Qatari Foreign Ministry, says ‘the return of the hostages is the core’ of agreement formulated by Trump for a postwar Strip
A front man for Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... ’s Foreign Ministry said that the two deceased hostages whose bodies remain in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... should not be seen as grounds to delay the second phase of US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... ’s peace deal.
The comments from Doha, a key mediator of the ceasefire, drew backlash from the organization representing hostages’ families. They came as efforts continue to locate the bodies of the two slain captives, police officer Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, nearly two months after the agreement mandating their return took effect.
The bodies of 26 deceased hostages have been returned gradually, without any assurances or fixed timeline, over the course of the past seven weeks. In an interview with an al-Araby al-Jadeed podcast that aired Saturday, the Qatari front man, Majed al-Ansari, says the issue of the two remaining bodies potentially delaying the next phase "is the most important" right now.
"We don’t believe Israel should be allowed to obstruct the implementation of the agreement over these two bodies," he said. "At the same time, of course, the Paleostinian side is working to retrieve the bodies and preempt any Israeli pretexts." "should be allowed"
The first phase of the deal, delineated in an October 9 ceasefire agreement, includes the return of all hostages, living and deceased. The rest of the US-backed plan, which has not been formally agreed on, would see Israeli troops withdraw further from Gaza as Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... disarms and hands control over to a transitional governing body and multinational peacekeeping force.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement responding to Ansari that Doha should be focusing its efforts on ensuring the remains are released, as per the deal’s first phase.
"We remind the mediators, primarily Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, that the return of the hostages is the core of this agreement," said the forum, which has represented most of the captives’ families. "Instead of pressuring Israel not to ’use delays as an excuse,’ the mediators should direct their full efforts and leverage all available pressure toward Hamas, the terrorist organization that has failed to meet its commitments under the agreement."
Ansari’s comments are significant because Qatar has acted as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas. The US has also expressed eagerness for the deal to move forward, and it was endorsed by the UN Security Council earlier this month.
But Hamas has so far refused to agree on the matter of demilitarization, and few countries have volunteered for the multinational force meant to oversee the Strip’s security.
The territory is now split between Israeli and Hamas control. Israel insists the Strip must be demilitarized before Trump’s plan can advance.
"The current endeavor for Qatar and its partners in the region is to move from the first phase to the second [of the plan], and thus achieve a sustainable peace that can comprehensively end the state of war in the Gaza Strip," Ansari said. "There are significant challenges in reaching this stage of truce, but the focus now is on maintaining it long enough to reach a political solution in which all parties in the region, along with the international community and the United States, work together to make this plan a success and end the war."
Gvili and Rinthalak were both kidnapped in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that launched the war. Gvili, a police officer, was killed fending off the Hamas invasion at Kibbutz Alumim. Rinthalak was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, where he worked in agriculture.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera reported that teams from the Red Thingy and from the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, were searching for the remains of an "Israeli prisoner" in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya.
Beit Lahiya lies on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line. Gvili is the lone Israeli still held in Gaza.
"Hamas has proven it knows exactly where all the hostages are located. When it chooses to, it directs recovery teams to recover them," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in its statement.
At a rally on Saturday night, Ran’s father, Itzik Gvili, said there must be "no next phase" to the current Gaza ceasefire, and "no ’day after’ in Gaza," until Hamas returns the last two bodies.
The ceasefire plan, the US president has said, is meant to create an opening for Israel to normalize relations with more of its neighbors. But Ansari said that any potential normalization between Doha and Israel would only occur if the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict is resolved.
"Any normalization with Israel will only occur within the framework of a solution to the Paleostinian issue," he said. "The absence of a grinding of the peace processor for the Paleostinians means there will be no stability in the region."
[Rudaw] A Kurdish official on Sunday said the transitional government in Damascus is not coordinating with northeast Syria (Rojava) authorities to remove families with alleged Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) affiliations from al-Hol camp.
Sheikhmous Ahmed, who supervises Rojava's camps for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), told Rudaw that the population of the notorious al-Hol camp has dropped to 25,183, adding that 14,920 of them are Syrians. Rojava and Damascus had agreed to facilitate their return to their homes, but Ahmed claimed that the transitional government is not cooperating.
The camp’s population was initially around 60,000.
"Those people are from areas under the control of the transitional government, and there is no coordination between us and the government for removing Syrian families. We asked the transitional government to assist in this matter, but received no response," Ahmed said.
Hol camp, located in the vicinity of Hasaka city, is infamous for its squalid conditions and has frequently been described as a breeding ground for extremism.
In January, one month after the fall of Bashar al-Asaad’s regime, Rojava authorities announced that Syrians held in al-Hol camp can return to their homes.
"We open the door for the voluntary return of Syrians in al-Hol camp to their areas with full support," read a statement from the Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES), which administers Rojava.
In addition to Syrians, 3,988 Iraqis and 6,284 people from many countries are held in the camp, according to the latest figure provided by Rojava’s Ahmed on Sunday.
Kurdish officials in Rojava have repeatedly called on countries to repatriate their nationals. Iraq has been praised for its ongoing efforts to repatriate nationals from the camp.
Ahmed also said that Iraq is repatriating another batch of nationals from al-Hol on Monday without specifying their number.
Roj is another refugee and IDP camp in Rojava. It houses families considered less dangerous than those held at al-Hol.
According to figures provided by Ahmed, Roj camp’s population is 2,294, of whom 55 are Syrians, 75 Iraqis and the rest from other countries.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
..always the voice of sweet reason...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
