Category: Новини

The first trial in the “Operation Varsity Blues” college admissions bribery scandal will begin this week, with the potential to shed light on investigators’ tactics and brighten the spotlight on a secretive school selection process many have long complained is rigged to favor the rich.Jury selection is beginning Wednesday in federal court in Boston in the case against two parents — former casino executive Gamal Abdelaziz and former Staples and Gap Inc. executive John Wilson — who are accused of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to help get their kids into the University of Southern California by falsely presenting them as athletic recruits.Though they were among dozens of prominent parents, athletic coaches and others arrested across the country when the case exploded into the headlines over two years ago, theirs is the first to go to trial. Defense attorneys are expected to argue that their clients believed their payments were legitimate donations and that USC’s treatment of their children was routine for parents with deep pockets.”The government appears to want to present its one-sided evidence that the ‘school wasn’t okay’ with granting preferential admissions treatment for donations while at the same time blocking the defendants’ evidence that, in fact, the school was okay with this arrangement,” the two executives’ lawyers wrote in a court filing.Prosecutors say the defense is merely trying to muddy the waters in a clear-cut case of lying and fraud.Since March 2019, a parade of wealthy parents has pleaded guilty to paying heavily to help get their children into elite schools with rigged test scores or bogus athletic credentials. The group — including TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli — have received punishments ranging from probation to nine months behind bars. Now, prosecutors face the challenge of convincing a jury that two of the few remaining parents still fighting are guilty. Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, is accused of paying $300,000 to the sham charity run by the scheme’s mastermind — admissions consultant Rick Singer — to get his daughter into USC as a basketball recruit. Prosecutors say Abdelaziz signed off on an athletic profile that touted the girl as a star, even though she didn’t even make the cut for her high school varsity team. Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, is charged with paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to help get his twin daughters into Harvard and Stanford. Prosecutors say Singer told Wilson he couldn’t secure spots for both girls on Stanford’s sailing team because – according to Singer — the coach “has to actually recruit some real sailors so that Stanford doesn’t … catch on.” An attorney for Abdelaziz declined to comment ahead of the trial, and a lawyer for Wilson didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Defense attorneys have argued in court documents that their clients had no knowledge of any false information submitted about their children. They say USC can’t be a victim of fraud because the school regularly rewarded donors by giving their kids special treatment in admissions.Prosecutors have accused the defense of trying to turn the case into a trial on USC’s admissions policies instead of whether the parents agreed to lie and trump up their children’s athletic credentials. USC has said it wasn’t aware of Singer’s scheme until 2018 when it began cooperating with investigators.The judge told the defense at a recent hearing that “USC is not on trial.” The parents’ attorneys would be allowed to introduce evidence that the school admitted other unqualified students whose parents donated, the judge said, only if the defendants were aware of it at the time they paid the alleged bribes.Opening statements are expected on Monday. Among issues likely to influence jury selection is the wealth of the defendants.Defense attorneys had sought to block prosecutors from introducing evidence about their incomes, wealth, spending or lifestyles, saying it would do nothing other than “unfairly prejudice the jury.” But U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said such evidence could show the parents were motivated “to have their children admitted to elite universities so they could maintain or improve their status in the community.” Singer, the admissions consultant who began cooperating with the FBI in 2018 and recorded his phone calls with parents, has pleaded guilty and was long expected to be a key witness for the government. But prosecutors have not yet said whether they intend to call him to the stand.Defense attorneys have seized on notes revealed in court documents last year in which Singer claimed investigators told him to lie to get parents to make incriminating statements. In the notes Singer took on his phone in 2018, Singer said the agents instructed him to say he told the parents the payments were bribes. The agents have denied pressuring Singer to lie, but putting Singer on the stand could present the defense with an opportunity to attack his credibility. “He can be directly confronted on statements suggesting that he may have in fact been pressured in saying certain things … which could be devastating to the prosecution if the jury believes that,” said Brad Bailey, a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts who isn’t involved in the case.But at the same time, not calling Singer could be even more problematic for prosecutors by allowing the defense “to raise more questions that really could result in reasonable doubt,” said Bailey, now a defense attorney. Wilson is also fighting another legal battle after filing a defamation lawsuit against Netflix in April over its portrayal of him in its “Operation Varsity Blues” documentary. Wilson’s lawyers wrote that Singer deceived him and insist that his son was not a fake athlete, but “an invited member of the United States Olympic water polo development program” with grades and test scores that “were more than sufficient to gain admission to USC.” Another parent who was supposed to go on trial with Abdelaziz and Wilson pleaded guilty last month to paying $500,000 to get her son into USC as a football recruit though he wouldn’t really play on the team. Marci Palatella, the chief executive officer of a California liquor distribution company, was the 33rd parent to plead guilty in the case.Three other parents are scheduled to go to trial in January. The sprawling Varsity Blues case has been prosecuted out of Boston because authorities there began investigating the scheme years ago thanks to a tip from an executive targeted in a securities fraud probe.
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U.S. (gridiron) football great Sam “Bam” Cunningham, whose performance against Alabama in a 1970 game is credited for prompting major college football programs in the southern United States to integrate their teams with Black players, has died at the age of 71.   The University of Southern California, where Cunningham played his collegiate years, said he died Tuesday at his home near Los Angeles.   Cunningham was a sophomore (second-year student) running back when he rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns to lead USC to a 42-21 rout of Alabama, one of college football’s most dominant programs both in the southern U.S. as well as nationally. His performance led Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama’s legendary head coach, to begin recruiting Black players to his then-predominantly White team, with other college coaches in the south doing the same. The late Jerry Claiborne, a longtime college football coach who was one of Bryant’s assistants, said Cunningham “did more for integration in 60 minutes (the length of a football game) than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.” Cunningham later said the game did not change how White people felt about Blacks, but that Black players “were accepted because they could help their program win football games.” Cunningham became an All-American standout for USC during his three years on the team, capping his collegiate career by scoring four touchdowns in a 42-17 win over Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl, securing the Trojans the national championship for the 1972 season. Cunningham, who earned his nickname for his powerful head-on running style, went on to play nine seasons with the National Football League’s New England Patriots, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading runner with 5,453 yards.  He helped lead the Patriots to a record-setting 3,165 single-season rushing yards in 1978, which stood until it was broken in 2019 by the Baltimore Ravens.   Patriots owner Robert Kraft praised Cunningham as a player who “made a tremendous impact, both on and off the field.” Cunningham was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010, the same year he was inducted in the Patriots Hall of Fame. His younger brother Randall, was a standout NFL quarterback for 16 seasons. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Britney Spears’ father filed Tuesday to end the court conservatorship that has controlled the singer’s life and money for 13 years. James Spears filed his petition to terminate the conservatorship in Los Angeles Superior Court. “As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,” the document says. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.” Judge Brenda Penny, who oversees the case, will need to approve the move. Britney Spears’ attorney, Matthew Rosengart, said in an email the filing “represents another legal victory for Britney Spears — a massive one — as well as vindication for Ms. Spears.” James Spears had been the target of much of the anger surrounding the conservatorship from both his daughter and the public. A petition from Britney Spears’ attorney to remove him was to be heard at the next hearing in the case on September 29. James Spears said in a filing on August 12 that he was planning to step down as the conservator of her finances but offered no timetable. He gave up his control over her life decisions in 2019, keeping only his role overseeing her money.  He has repeatedly said there is no justification for his removal, and he has acted only in his daughter’s best interest. The conservatorship was established in 2008 when Britney Spears began to have very public mental struggles as media outlets obsessed over each moment, hordes of paparazzi aggressively followed her everywhere, and she lost custody of her children.  Tuesday’s filing cites how Britney Spears’ “impassioned plea” to end the legal arrangement in a June 23 speech in court gave a jolt to those who wanted to see her freed from it, quoting from the transcript of that afternoon.  “I just want my life back,” Britney Spears said. “And it’s been 13 years and it’s enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money. And it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested.” Tuesday’s filing notes that Britney Spears said she did not know she could file a petition to end the conservatorship, which she has yet to do. It says that Penny’s decision to allow her to select Rosengart as her attorney demonstrates that the court trusts her with major choices. And it says evidence shows she has apparently “demonstrated a level of independence” by doing things like driving herself around Southern California. It also cites her desire to make her own decisions on therapy and other medical care. Spears had said in her June 23 speech that she was being compelled under the conservatorship to take certain medications and to use an intrauterine device for birth control against her will. James Spears called for a court investigation of these and other allegations, saying they were issues that were beyond his control because he had stepped down as conservator of his daughter’s person, handing the role to court-appointed professional Jodi Montgomery. Rosengart said when he was hired in July that he intended to help end the conservatorship, and questioned whether it needed to be established in the first place, though he had not yet filed to terminate it. He said instead that his first priority was getting rid of James Spears, whom he challenged to resign on the spot in his first appearance before the court. In his email responding to the request to terminate, Rosengart indicated that his tactics wouldn’t change. “It appears that Mr. Spears believes he can try to avoid accountability and justice,” Rosengart said, “including sitting for a sworn deposition and answering other discovery under oath, but as we assess his filing (which was inappropriately sent to the media before it was served on counsel) we will also continue to explore all options.” Britney Spears gave the conservatorship’s initial existence credit for keeping her career afloat, though she has now put her work entirely on hold for more than two years. Fans objecting to her circumstances and seeing what they believed were pleas for help in the pop star’s Instagram posts began calling online to #FreeBritney, and began appearing outside her court hearings to protest. Famous names from Miley Cyrus to Britney Spears’ former boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, have joined the outcry in recent months, especially after Britney Spears made a pair of passionate speeches to the court in June and July. Penny, the judge with the ultimate power over the conservatorship, has not appeared inclined to end it before, but she has also never been presented with such a clear opportunity. 
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Disabled fashion designers have long struggled against discrimination, especially in developing countries such as Malawi. To combat the problem, Malawian fashion brand House of Xandria on Saturday organized the country’s first fashion show featuring creations by designers with disabilities.  Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.
Camera: Dan Kumwenda
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Brazil soccer great Pele said on Monday that he was recovering in a hospital from surgery to remove a tumor from his colon. Pele, the only player to win three World Cups, did not say whether the tumor was malignant, but the 80-year-old former Santos and New York Cosmos player said he was feeling good. “Last Saturday I underwent surgery to remove a suspicious lesion in the right colon,” he wrote in a social media post. “The tumor was identified during the tests I mentioned last week.” The Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo said in a statement that it was keeping Pele in intensive care but expected to transfer him to a room on Tuesday. The tumor has been sent for tests, it added. “Luckily, I am used to celebrating big victories with you,” Pele wrote. “I am facing up to this match with a smile on my face, a lot of optimism and happiness for being surrounded by the love of my family and friends.” The news came just hours after a Brazilian news outlet said Pele had spent six days in hospital after going in for his annual medical. It also came days after Pele refuted reports he had fainted and 18 months after his son Edinho said his father was depressed, something the star quickly denied. As a player, Pele was famous for rarely getting injured, but he has suffered from hip problems for years and cannot walk unaided. His public appearances were already being cut before the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, he has made few unnecessary forays outside his house near Santos.  
 
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Jean-Paul Belmondo, star of the iconic French New Wave film “Breathless,” whose crooked boxer’s nose and rakish grin went on to make him one of the country’s most recognizable leading men, has died at 88.  His death was confirmed Monday by the office of his lawyer, Michel Godest. No cause of death was given. Belmondo’s career spanned half a century. In the 1960s, he embodied a new type of male movie star, one characterized by pure virility rather than classic good looks. He went on to appear in more than 80 films and worked with a variety of major French directors, from Francois Truffaut to Claude Lelouch and Jean-Luc Godard, whose 1960 movie “Breathless” (“Au Bout de Souffle” in its original French title) brought both men lasting acclaim. Belmondo’s career choices were equally varied, from acclaimed art house films to critically lukewarm action and comedy films later in his career. His unconventional looks — flattened nose, full lips and muscular frame — allowed him to play roles from thug to police officer, thief to priest, Cyrano de Bergerac to an unshakable secret agent. Belmondo was also a gifted athlete who often did his own stunts. Reaction from celebritiesFrench President Emmanuel Macron called the actor a “national treasure” in an homage on Twitter and Instagram, recalling the actor’s panache, his laugh and his versatility. Belmondo was at once a “sublime hero” and “a familiar figure,” Macron wrote. “In him, we all recognize ourselves.” FILE – French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and Italian actress Claudia Cardinale attend a cocktail party in the Foreign Press Association in Rome, Nov. 3, 1960.France bounded into Belmondo mode at news of his death, with praise from politicians of all stripes pouring in. The media played old movie clips that caught the athletic Belmondo in the heart-stopping acrobatics he was known to love, from sliding down a rooftop to climbing up a rope ladder from a moving convertible. “I’m devastated,” an emotional Alain Delon, another top cinema star, said of the death of his longtime friend on CNews.  Even Paris police headquarters offered its condolences for Belmondo, who played a police officer in numerous films, tweeting that “a great movie cop has left us.”  Early lifeBelmondo, affectionately known as Bebel, was born on April 9, 1933, in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine into an artistic family. His father was renowned sculptor Paul Belmondo and his mother, Sarah Rainaud-Richard, was a painter. Belmondo played soccer and trained as a boxer before quitting school at 16. He took up acting in the 1950s at the Paris Conservatory, where one of his teachers, Pierre Dux, famously told him that his career as a leading man was doomed because of his looks. People would burst into laughter if they saw an actress in Belmondo’s arms, Dux said, according to biographer Bertrand Tessier. French theater critic Jean-Jacques Gautier wasn’t impressed either, once saying, “Mr. Belmondo will never enjoy success with his ruffian’s mug.” At his final conservatory competition, the jury failed to give him the recognition he thought he deserved — so he gave the judges an obscene parting gesture. The star began acting in small provincial theaters and caught the eye of aspiring filmmaker Godard in Paris in 1958, who asked him to appear in a short film. At first, Belmondo didn’t take Godard seriously. “I spoke to my wife about it, and she said, ‘Go ahead. If (Godard) hassles you, punch him,'” Belmondo told the Liberation newspaper in 1999. Belmondo was given his first important role by director Claude Sautet in “Classe tous risques” (Consider All Risks), in which he starred alongside Lino Ventura in 1960. The same year, Godard called Belmondo back to appear in “Breathless” — which became one of the breakthrough films of the French New Wave. The movement, which included Truffaut, grouped filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s who abandoned traditional narrative techniques and were known for their mood of youthful iconoclasm. FILE – French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, center, is congratulated by actors on stage during the ceremony of the 42nd Cesar Film Awards, at the Salle Pleyel, in Paris, Feb. 24, 2017.Belmondo played opposite American actress Jean Seberg, who appeared as the street-smart aspiring reporter who, in the film’s key moment, sold the International Herald Tribune on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Belmondo sometimes said he acted in Godard’s first film and would act in his last. But he didn’t link his name exclusively with one director and worked with most of France’s top filmmakers — and many of Europe’s well-known actresses, including Jeanne Moreau and Sophia Loren. Following the huge success of “Breathless,” Belmondo showed the vast array of his talent and his versatility in dramas (“Leon Morin, pretre”), arthouse movies (“Moderato Cantabile”) and blockbusters (“Cartouche”). In “Un Singe en hiver,” a French classic directed by Henri Verneuil in 1962, Belmondo impressed the legendary Jean Gabin. “You won’t tell me anymore: ‘If only I had a young Gabin.’ You have him!” Gabin told the director about Belmondo.  In Truffaut’s 1969 “Mississippi Mermaid,” Belmondo played a tobacco farmer and starred opposite Catherine Deneuve. Belmondo and Danish-born Anna Karina played a couple on the run in Godard’s 1965 “Pierrot le Fou.” Belmondo also won a Cesar — the French equivalent of an Oscar — for his role in Lelouch’s 1988 film “Itinerary of a Spoiled Child,” his final big success. Later rolesDuring the second half of his career, Belmondo opted for high-paying roles in commercially successful action films. He played a tough detective in “Cop or Hooligan,” and a World War II ace in “Champion of Champions.” In the 1980s, Belmondo returned to the stage, his first love, and won back the doubting critics. His comeback role was in a 1987 Paris production of “Kean,” about an actor famous for his uncontrollable temper and genius. Belmondo, who had recovered from a stroke in 2001, is survived by three children, Florence, Paul, and Stella Eva Angelina. Another daughter, Patricia, died in 1994. Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately known. 
 
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