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☆ The First Chinese American Movie Star and the Cost of Glittering Fame
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Jennifer Szalai | More About Jennifer Szalai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Unlike “Daughter of the Dragon” the film, “Daughter of the Dragon” the book is clearly intended as a form of reclamation and subversion. “Anna May drew attention to or even exploded the stereotype by overacting these roles,” Huang writes, not entirely convincingly. “She has to take what is offered.” Especially when she is an Asian American woman at a time when Asian roles often went to white actors in adhesive tape and yellowface. The Production Code of 1930, which banned onscreen portrayals of miscegenation and interracial relationships, was a “virtual form of foot-binding for Anna May,” Huang writes. (The only film in which she was kissed by a white man was “Java Head,” a British production.)

Persons: Huang, ”, Anna May, ” Huang, Julian Barnes, ” Wong, Wong, — “ Dietrich, Anna, Mary, Mary despaired, Pearl Organizations: Java Locations: ”, Asian American, Hollywood, British, China, yellowface

☆ The Covid Origins Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Did Covid jump from an animal to a person at a food market in Wuhan, China — or leak from a research lab there? — David LeonhardtIn the early days of the pandemic, I was speaking to a variety of U.S. intelligence officials who believed that China was hiding the truth of what happened with Covid. In the name of safety, Chinese officials ordered that coronavirus samples be destroyed. At best, this hampered the later investigation into Covid’s origins, and at worst it was a sign of a cover-up. In this context, some of those intelligence officials believed that people were not paying enough attention to the lab-leak theory.

Persons: David Quammen, Julian Barnes, — David Leonhardt, Covid Organizations: Times Magazine Locations: Wuhan, China, Washington

☆ Ukraine’s Struggles
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( German Lopez | More About German Lopez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If Ukrainian forces then break through, the rest of the Russian lines could panic and fall apart, allowing Ukraine to take back a lot more territory. “The big push could still come.”This scenario could look similar to Ukraine’s recapture of the southern city of Kherson last year. Ukraine spent months in the summer using smaller strikes to wear down Russian forces and exhaust their supplies around the city. Ukrainian forces moved into Kherson starting in late August, and Russia announced its retreat in November. It seemed like a sudden turn of events at the time, but it came after months of grinding work by Ukraine.

Persons: Putin, ”, Julian Barnes Organizations: Times Locations: Ukraine, Kherson, Ukrainian, Russia

☆ Russia's War in Ukraine: Live Updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Anushka Patil | Nataliia Novosolova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday. Frontline fighting has repeatedly damaged the facility, disrupted its power supply and contributed to a staffing crisis that is “not sustainable,” Mr. Grossi said on Tuesday. Even as Russia and Ukraine accused each other of causing damage and outages, Mr. Grossi largely avoided placing blame on either country while he sought to negotiate an agreement. Speaking after Mr. Grossi’s briefing, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., denounced Russia’s actions as a “clear escalation” of Moscow’s efforts to “undermine Ukrainian sovereignty and authority” over the plant. “And this undermines our ability to have confidence in the level of nuclear safety at the plant,” she said.

Persons: Rafael Mariano Grossi, Mr, Grossi, Grossi’s, Linda Thomas, Greenfield, ”, Sergiy Kyslytsya, Vassily Nebenzia, Julian Barnes Organizations: International Atomic Energy Agency, . Security Locations: New York, Russia, Ukraine, Kyiv, gunpoint, United States, U.S, Ukrainian, Russian

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

That hearing discussed an unclassified report issued by a Department of Defense task force in 2021. There is precedent for the Defense Department, scientists and the media playing down reports of UFOs rather than prioritizing truly open scientific inquiry. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Air Force established a UFO task force named Project Blue Book and commissioned an independent scientific study of the phenomena. There is now a danger that the NASA study, which is also supposed to be objective, may not live up to this scientific ideal. If government and academia don’t do so with UFOs, we may end up with another independent scientific panel in another 50 years, but be no closer to the truth.

☆ ‘Confessions’ Review: More Than the Dust
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Brenda Cronin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The brash young writers who transformed British literature some 40 years ago nourished a tabloid bonanza of parties, passions and swagger. Led by Martin Amis, their ranks included Julian Barnes, Salman Rushdie—and a sedulous outlier named A.N. Andrew Norman Wilson, however, was more likely to be in church or at home writing than on a profile-burnishing bender. That industriousness might portend a dreary memoir, but in “Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises,” Mr. Wilson makes up in wit what he lacks in celebrity antics.

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