Category: Новини

Leaders of a Hollywood actors union voted Thursday to join screenwriters in the first joint strike in more than six decades, shutting down production across the entertainment industry after talks for a new contract with studios and streaming services broke down.

It’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors’ guild president.

In an impassioned speech as the strike, which begins at midnight, was announced, actors’ union president Fran Drescher, former star of “The Nanny,” chastised industry executives.

“Employers make Wall Street and greed their priority, and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run,” Drescher said. “It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history.”

Hours earlier, a three-year contract had expired, and talks broke off between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.

Outside Netflix’s Hollywood offices, picketing screenwriters chanted “Pay Your Actors!” immediately after the strike was declared. Actors will begin picketing alongside writers outside studio headquarters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.

“It looks like it’s time to take down the MASKS. And pick up the SIGNS,” Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis said in an Instagram post with a photo of the tragic and comic masks that represent acting.

The premiere of Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” in London was moved up an hour so that the cast could walk the red carpet before the SAG board’s announcement. Stars including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon left the event once the strike was announced.

The strike — the first for film and television actors since 1980 — casts a shadow over the upcoming 75th Emmy Awards, whose nominations were announced a day earlier. Union rules prevent actors from doing any interviews or promotions around the awards, and they may not appear at the ceremony.

The strike rules also prevent actors from making personal appearances or promoting their work on podcasts or at premieres. And they are barred from doing any production work, including auditions, readings, rehearsals or voiceovers, along with actual shooting.

While international shoots technically can continue, the stoppage among U.S.-based writers and performers is likely to have a drag on those, too.

Disney chief Bob Iger warned the strike would have a “very damaging effect on the whole industry.”

“This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption,” Iger said on CNBC. “There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic.”

A nearly two-week extension of the actors union contract and negotiations only heightened the hostility between the two groups. Drescher said the extension made us “feel like we’d been duped, like maybe it was just to let studios promote their summer movies for another 12 days.”

Before the talks began June 7, the 65,000 actors who cast ballots voted overwhelmingly for union leaders to send them into a strike, as the Writers Guild of America did when their deal expired more than two months ago.

When the initial deadline approached in late June, more than 1,000 members of the union, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bob Odenkirk, added their names to a letter signaling to leaders their willingness to strike.

While famous names predominate, the strike also includes tens of thousands of little-known actors who scramble for small parts at sometimes meager pay. The union says modest-but-essential income streams, including long-term residuals for shows they appear in, have dried up.

Stakes in the negotiations included that kind of pay, which actors say has been undercut by inflation and the streaming ecosystem, benefits, the growing tendency to make performers create video auditions at their own expense, and the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence.

“At a moment when streaming and AI and digital was so prevalent, it has disemboweled the industry that we once knew,” Drescher said, drawing applause from her fellow union leaders. “When I did ‘The Nanny’ everybody was part of the gravy train. Now it’s a vacuum.”

The AMPTP said it presented a generous deal that included the biggest bump in minimum pay in 35 years, higher caps on pension and health contributions, and “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses.”

“A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” the group said in a statement. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”

SAG-AFTRA represents more than 160,000 screen actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers. The walkout affects only the union’s actors from television and film productions, who voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike before talks began on June 7. Broadway actors said in a statement that they stand “in solidarity” with SAG-AFTRA workers.

The 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since their own talks collapsed and their contract expired on May 2. The stoppage has showed no signs of a solution, with no negotiations even planned.

That strike brought the immediate shutdown of late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” and several scripted shows, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix,” “Hacks” on Max, and “Family Guy” on Fox, which have either had their writers’ rooms or their production paused. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers have been pulled too.
…

A sponsor is giving away 20,000 tickets to Women’s World Cup matches in New Zealand as ticket sales remain sluggish in a country in which rugby dominates as the national sport. 

According to FIFA, 1.25 million tickets have been sold for matches across cohosts Australia and New Zealand. Of those 320,000 have been sold to matches in New Zealand, but only six of those matches are close to a sell out. 

On Thursday, the accounting firm Xero, a tournament partner, said it would offer 5,000 free tickets to a match at each of New Zealand’s four venues. 

Women’s World Cup chief executive Dave Beeche told the New Zealand Herald that FIFA is “comfortable” with the current rate of ticket sales in New Zealand. He said sales had picked up in recent weeks as coverage of the tournament had increased. 

“Naturally, there are some games that are experiencing higher demand with the Kiwis and some of the top-ranked teams,” Beeche said, “but we’re happy with how the progress is overall.” 

Last month FIFA’s head of women’s football Sarai Bareman indicated she had some concerns about the pace of ticket sales in New Zealand, despite overall sales being ahead of the 2019 World Cup in France. 

Bareman said sales in Australia have been bolstered by support for the Australian women’s team which is a genuine title contender, while New Zealand’s Football Ferns have never won a World Cup group match. 

A larger problem is that soccer is not generally a widely supported sport in New Zealand and attracting fans to stadiums in the coldest months of the year was always going to be a hard sell. 

New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, will play South Africa in Auckland on Saturday in a match which could have been sold out several times over. 
…

HBO dominated Wednesday morning’s Emmy nominations, with the elite trio of “Succession,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us” combining for a whopping 74, but the dominant theme darkening the scene is the ongoing writers strike and the looming possibility that actors may join them in as little as a day.

“Succession” and its deeply dysfunctional dynasty of 1 percenters led all Emmy nominees in its fourth and final season with 27, including best drama, which it has won two of the past three years. It got three nominations for best actor in a drama, with Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin all getting nods for playing men of the Roy clan, and Sarah Snook getting a best actress nomination. It also got four nominations for best supporting actor in a drama.

The cursed vacationers at a Sicilian resort from the second of “The White Lotus” truly dominated the supporting categories, however, landing five nominations for best supporting actress in a drama — including nods for Jennifer Coolidge and Aubrey Plaza — and four more for best supporting actor.

Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, the duo on a fungus-filled quest in ” The Last of Us,” each got lead acting nominations. The show, an adaption of the popular Playstation video game, was second behind “Succession” with 24 nominations. “The White Lotus” had 23.

“Ted Lasso” was tops among comedies with 21 nominations, including best comedy series and best actor for Jason Sudeikis.

The nominations suggested that HBO can still dominate even as streaming-only outlets have taken over so much of elite TV — though the distinction is increasingly blurred, with a huge segment of viewers watching “Succession” and the cable channel’s other offerings on the streaming service now known as Max.

Cox, 77, got his best actor in a drama nod despite appearing in fewer than half of this season’s “Succession” episodes, though as the Roy family patriarch he loomed just as large over the episodes he didn’t appear in. A win would be his first in three nominations for the role, though he won an Emmy for best supporting actor in a TV movie in 2001.

Strong won in 2020 for playing “eldest boy” Kendall Roy. Culkin got his first nomination for best actor after two previous nominations in the supporting category.

Other nominees:

Drama series: “Andor”; “Better Call Saul”; “The Crown”; “House of the Dragon”; “The Last of Us”; “Succession”; “The White Lotus”; “Yellowjackets.”

Comedy series: “Abbott Elementary”; “Barry”; “The Bear”; “Jury Duty”; “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; “Only Murders in the Building”; “Ted Lasso”; “Wednesday.”

Anthology series: “Beef”; “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”; “Daisy Jones & the Six”; “Fleishman is in Trouble”; “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Best actress in a drama series: Sharon Horgan, “Bad Sisters”; Melanie Lynskey, “Yellowjackets”; Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”; Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”; Sarah Snook, “Succession.”

Best actor in a drama series: Jeremy Strong, “Succession”; Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”; Kieran Culkin, “Succession”; Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”; Brian Cox, “Succession”; Jeff Bridges, “The Old Man.”

Best actor in a comedy series: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”; Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”; Bill Hader, “Barry”; Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”; Jason Segel, “Shrinking.”

Best actress in a comedy series: Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”; Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”; Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”; Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face.”

Best supporting actress in a comedy series: Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”; Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”; Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”; Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”; Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso”; Jessica Williams, “Shrinking.”

Best supporting actor in a comedy series: Anthony Carrigan, “Barry”; Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso”; Phil Dunster, “Ted Lasso”; Henry Winkler, “Barry”; James Marsden, “Jury Duty”; Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”; Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear.”

Best supporting actor in a drama series: F. Murray Abraham, “The White Lotus”; Nicholas Braun, “Succession”; Michael Imperioli, “The White Lotus”; Theo James, “The White Lotus”; Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”; Alan Ruck, “Succession”; Will Sharpe, “The White Lotus”; Alexander Skarsgård, “Succession.”

Best supporting actress in a drama series: Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”; Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”; Meghann Fahy, “The White Lotus”; Sabrina Impacciatore, “The White Lotus”; Aubrey Plaza, “The White Lotus”; Rhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul”; J. Smith-Cameron, “Succession”; Simona Tabasco, “The White Lotus.”

Actors joining movie and television writers on strike would further shut down the industry and be the first time since 1960 that two Hollywood unions are on strike. While show and film releases will continue, work on upcoming projects would cease and the promotional interviews and appearances by actors to support the projects would cease.

The possibility of an industry debilitated by two strikes could dampen any joy for those nominated and could put the damper on the ceremony scheduled for September 18 on the Fox network.

The nominations were announced by “Community” star Yvette Nicole Brown and Television Academy CEO Frank Scherma, who referenced the labor disputes before at the top of Wednesday’s livestream.

“We hope the ongoing guild negotiations can come to an equitable and swift resolution. We are committed to supporting a television industry that stands strong in equity and where we can continue to honor all the incredible work you do,” Scherma said.
…

Vietnam’s move to ban the Warner Bros. film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene showing China’s claimed territory in the South China Sea encapsulates an age-old territorial dispute between the two countries, experts said.

A nine-dash line encompassing about 90% of the South China Sea has appeared on Chinese maps since the 1950s. More recently, China has been aggressive about exercising its claimed sovereignty, to the consternation of the other countries bordering the sea.

Among them is Vietnam, which has rejected China’s claim for decades as an illegal violation of its sovereignty and security — a position endorsed by an international tribunal in 2016. 

This week, Hanoi asked Netflix to remove the Chinese-made romance drama series “Flight to You” from its service in Vietnam because multiple episodes showed a map with the nine-dash line. Netflix complied, according to the entertainment media outlet Variety.

Last week, Vietnam also banned the release of the Warner Bros. film “Barbie,” originally scheduled be released in the country next week, because of a scene in the movie showing a map that appears to depict the nine-dash line.

Also last week, Vietnam ordered the inspection of a website of iMe, a promoter of the K-pop girl group Blackpink, which was scheduled to perform its first concert in Hanoi this month. 

‘A strong signal’

Prashanth Parameswaran, the founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter and a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, said, “Vietnam’s response sends a strong signal that the government does not recognize the legitimacy of the nine-dash line and will take actions to demonstrate its commitment to this.”

Vietnam’s Cinema Department under its Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism reviewed all 39 episodes of “Flight to You,” according to Variety, and said a map showing the nine-dash line depicted in nine episodes of “Flight to You” is “inappropriate.”

Regarding the “Barbie” ban, Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Cinema Department, said on July 3 the film “contains the offending images of the nine-dash line.”

About the Blackpink promotor’s website, Le Thanh Liem, inspector of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said on July 5 that the ministry is looking into the matter.

On July 6, Pham Thu Hang, Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said, “The promotion and usage of products or publications featuring the nine-dash line in Vietnam is a violation of Vietnam’s law and is unacceptable.”

Warner Bros. said on July 6 the dashed lines in the film are a “whimsical, child-like crayon” scribble tracing a “make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world” and do not represent China’s nine-dash line.

On the same day, iMe apologized for an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and pledged to replace images that are inappropriate for Vietnamese audiences, according to Tuoi Tre News.

Cleo Paskal, a non-resident fellow for the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said, “This is a matter of national sovereignty and security to Vietnam — things it perceives as under attack, including from frequent PRC incursions into its waters.”  

China’s official name is the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Paskal continued, “Vietnam is also signaling to neighbors that standing up to China is imperative.”

Ruling against China

An international tribunal at The Hague ruled in 2016 that China had no legal basis to claim the line as its maritime border.

Based on the ruling, not only Vietnam but the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, all countries surrounding the nine-dash line, have been refuting the disputed border.

Bates Gill, executive director for Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis, said via email, “In official maps of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the so-called ‘nine-dash line’ appears to encircle almost all of the South China Sea, signaling that expansive area within the line belongs to China.”

He continued that aside from Vietnam, “a number of other governments – including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam – also claim territory either within or near the nine-dashed line.”

Chinese ships often make incursions into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of these countries to exercise China’s claim on the territory. 

A country’s EEZ extends 200 nautical miles out from its coast. 

The U.S. has been patrolling the South China Sea to exercise the freedom of navigation in the area against Chinese aggressions.

India’s reversal

Late last month, India reversed its previous stance and supported the 2016 ruling in a joint statement released with the Philippines.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said in the statement after their meeting in New Delhi from June 27 to 30 that the dispute over the nine-dash line should be resolved in line with the 2016 ruling. 

At the time, China’s Foreign Ministry described the 2016 ruling as “null and void and has no binding force.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday referred the VOA Korean Service to its Foreign Ministry comments when asked about Vietnam’s rejection of the nine dash-line on a map shown in “Barbie.”

“Relevant country should not link the South China Sea issue with normal cultural exchange,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on July 4.

Promoting disputed line

According to Bich Tran, a fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore and an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing has disregarded the international ruling.

“Beijing has actively promoted the line, and due to the size of the Chinese market, companies face pressure to please China by showing the controversial line on their products [or] websites,” Tran said in a video interview.

“In the case of the Blackpink concert, the map was clear, and an apology statement was issued by iMe. It becomes more complicated in the case of Barbie. The map is abstract, but there is a dashed line that reminds people of the nine-dash line,” he continued.

“I believe the film producer wants to have it both ways. On one hand, they can please China and have access to the Chinese market. On the other hand, they make the map so abstract that they have plausible deniability,” Tran said.

China has been engaged in a campaign to promote the disputed dashed line as its southern maritime border through scholarly journal articles as well as items like maps, globes, postcards and T-shirts.

Paskal at the FDD said, “Vietnam know that the PRC starts on the political warfare front — making grand territorial claims based on little fact, then repeats those claims to the point that they become normalized and a challenge to the claims is perceived as an ‘offense’ to China.”

Last year, Vietnam prohibited Sony film “Uncharted” and, in 2019, banned DreamWorks’ animation “Abominable” for showing a map containing the nine-dash line.
…

The last time Elina Svitolina was a Grand Slam semifinalist — twice, actually, in 2019 — she was pursuing the usual trappings of success in professional sports: trophies, money, fame, etc.

Now Svitolina plays for more important reasons. For her daughter, Skaï, who was born in October. For her country, Ukraine, where a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022 continues.

And Svitolina firmly believes that those factors affect the way she swings a racket and the way she handles important moments on a tennis court. Enough so that she is one of the last four women remaining at Wimbledon after adding to her series of surprising victories over major champions with a 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 victory against No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek on Tuesday.

“War made me stronger and also made me mentally stronger. Mentally, I don’t take difficult situations as, like, a disaster, you know? There are worse things in life. I’m just more calmer,” said Svitolina, 28, who once was ranked as high No. 3 and now is No. 76 after taking time off to start a family with her husband, tennis player Gael Monfils.

She returned to the tour three months ago.

“Also, because I just started to play again, I have different pressures,” Svitolina said after kneeling and covering her face with her hands, when Swiatek missed one last forehand at Centre Court. “Of course, I want to win. I have this motivation, like huge motivation, to come back to the top. But I think having a child — and war — made me a different person. I look at the things a bit differently.”

She received a wild-card entry from the All England Club to get into the field and now will face another unseeded player, 42nd-ranked Marketa Vondrousova, for a berth in Saturday’s final.

Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runner-up, beat fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula.

Swiatek, who was coming off claiming her fourth Grand Slam title at the French Open last month, felt the change in the way Svitolina smacked balls over the Centre Court net. That included a stretch where Svitolina won 20 of 22 points during a stretch that spanned the end of the first set and start of the second.

“She played with more freedom and more guts. Sometimes, she really just let go of her hand,” Swiatek said, pantomiming a forehand, “and she played really, really fast.”

Svitolina certainly did not expect to still be around this deep into the fortnight. She originally wasn’t even planning to get back in action after giving birth until around now. But she and Monfils started working out together on January 2, and Svitolina’s progress was substantial enough that she altered her timeline.

Svitolina’s phone has been inundated by messages of support from her native country, and she’s seen videos of kids there following her matches.

“This really makes my heart melt, seeing this,” she said. “Just happy I could bring a little happiness to the people of Ukraine.”
…

Double Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won an appeal against track and field’s testosterone rules on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights ruled she was discriminated against and there were “serious questions” about the rules’ validity.

World Athletics, which enforces the regulations, said in reaction to the decision that its rules would remain in place, however, meaning there would not be an immediate return to top-level competition for the South African runner.

Semenya’s case at the rights court was against the government of Switzerland, and not World Athletics itself, although the decision was still a major moment in throwing doubt on the future of the rules.

Semenya was legally identified as female at birth and has identified as female her entire life, but regulations introduced by track and field’s governing body in 2019 forced her to artificially suppress her natural testosterone to be allowed to compete in women’s competitions.

World Athletics says she has one of a number of conditions known as differences in sex development, which results in a natural testosterone level in the typical male range and which gives her an unfair advantage in women’s competitions.

Semenya has been challenging the testosterone rules in the courts for years, but had previously lost an appeal at sport’s highest court in 2019 and a second challenge against the rules at Switzerland’s supreme court in 2020. That second rejection of her appeal was the reason why the Swiss government was the respondent in the European Court of Human Rights case.

The Strasbourg-based rights court ruled in Semenya’s favor by a 4-3 majority of judges on the complaint of discrimination and noted she was denied an “effective remedy” against that discrimination through the two previous cases she lost at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss supreme court.

Tuesday’s ruling was in many ways a criticism of the 2019 decision by CAS. The sports court kept in place the rules that require Semenya and others with so-called differences in sex development conditions, or DSDs, to take birth control pills, or have hormone-blocking injections, or undergo surgery to be allowed to run at top competitions such as the Olympics and world championships.

The rules were initially enforced in certain events but were expanded and made stricter by World Athletics this year. Athletes such as Semenya were forced to lower their testosterone further if they wanted to run in any race.

The decision by the Switzerland-based CAS that rejected Semenya’s first appeal had not properly considered important factors such as the side effects of the hormone treatment, the difficulties for athletes to remain in compliance of the rules, and the lack of evidence that their high natural testosterone actually gave them an advantage, the European rights court said.

An unfair advantage is the core reason why World Athletics introduced the rules in the first place.

The European rights court also found Semenya’s second legal appeal against the rules at the Swiss supreme court should have led to “a thorough institutional and procedural review” of the rules, but that did not happen when that court also ruled against Semenya.

The government of Switzerland was ordered to pay Semenya 60,000 euros ($66,000) in respect of costs and expenses by the European rights court.

Ultimately, the rules have sidelined Semenya since 2019 as she has refused to artificially suppress her natural hormone levels in order to run, and the European rights court noted the “high personal stakes” for Semenya in how the regulations interrupted her career and affected her “profession.”

Tuesday’s decision could force CAS and ultimately World Athletics to re-examine the regulations, although the path and timeline to a possible rollback of the rules is unclear.

In a statement, World Athletics said: “We remain of the view that the DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Tribunal both found, after a detailed and expert assessment of the evidence.”

The 32-year-old Semenya is aiming to run at next year’s Olympics in Paris. She was the 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion in the 800 meters but did not defend her title at the Tokyo Olympics because of the regulations.
…

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Megan Thee Stallion will headline this year’s Global Citizen Festival as the anti-poverty nonprofit looks to focus attention on increasing inequality for girls and young women around the world.

Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans said the Sept. 23 event at New York’s Central Park will be the centerpiece of his group’s campaign to encourage supporters, especially those in Gen Z, to take action on gender inequality, climate change and other issues.

Studies show that half of Gen Z “feel disillusioned and powerless to make a positive impact,” Evans told The Associated Press in an interview. “As long as you and I have been alive, there was almost this sense of positive momentum in the world that almost felt like the eradication of extreme poverty could be inevitable,” he said. “But the data suggests the world is now getting worse.”

According to the United Nations Population Fund, 257 million women around the world want to avoid pregnancy, but don’t have access to modern contraceptives. The fund’s partnership to provide reproductive health services is currently underfunded by $100 million.

Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations fund that helps ensure nearly 20 million children in crisis continue learning, needs $670 million for its work.

The Global Citizen Festival, which will also include performances from K-pop sensation Stray Kids and singer-songwriter Conan Gray, provides free tickets to the event in exchange for fans taking actions on the group’s app and website that support these goals.

This year, that may mean asking Canada, Norway and Japan to donate more to the United Nations Population Fund. It may mean pushing companies to join the United Nations Race to Zero to set targets for reducing their carbon emissions. Or urging the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Australia to provide more funding to vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change.

Global Citizen’s use of supporters to convince political, business and philanthropic leaders to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems is designed to appeal to younger generations, Evans said.

“These are pillars of what we know Gen Z cares about, but often they feel powerless because the data isn’t on their side,” Evans said. “We’re talking to Gen Z in a way that they know their actions can have a scalable impact.”

Singer Angelique Kidjo, who was recently named to this year’s Great Immigrants list by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said that her Batonga Foundation found that supporting girls and young women ends up strengthening entire villages in her native Benin and throughout Africa.

“Helping women in a community is like starting a rolling stone that never stops rolling,” said Kidjo, adding that it was the women who kept their villages safe during the COVID-19 pandemic by making masks and soap for hand-washing, as well as enforcing social distancing.

Not only will Hill and Megan Thee Stallion provide examples of female empowerment with their performances, but Evans hopes they will encourage their fans to take action during the event, which will be streamed on numerous digital platforms.

“For many decades, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have occupied that space where music and activism meet,” said Evans, adding that the band’s classic “Under the Bridge” was the first song he learned to play on guitar. “We couldn’t be happier with this lineup.”
…