dere43e e by freolpdoe4

SPACE: WHERE WE’RE HEADED IN THE 2020S

CES GADGET SHOW: SURVEILLANCE IS IN - AND IN A BIG WAY

WHITE HOUSE PROPOSES GUIDELINES FOR REGULATING THE USE OF AI

66 LED BY ‘MARRIAGE STORY,’ NETFLIX DOMINATES GOLDEN GLOBE NOMS

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INSIDER Q&A: HOW YOUTUBE DECIDES WHAT TO BAN 20 FACEBOOK BANS DEEPFAKES IN FIGHT AGAINST ONLINE MANIPULATION 26 GYM CLASS WITHOUT THE GYM? WITH TECHNOLOGY, IT’S CATCHING ON 34 CALIFORNIA TO EXAMINE EFFECT OF BLACKOUTS ON COMMUNICATION 60 A TECHNICAL FEAT, ‘1917’ IS GREAT STORYTELLING, TOO 74 GERVAIS’ 5TH — AND FINAL? — TURN LEADS RAUCOUS GOLDEN GLOBES 118 ‘JOKER’ TOPS NOMINATIONS FOR BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS 132 ‘RISE OF SKYWALKER’ IS A SOUR END TO A GRAND SAGA 136 EX-HBO HEAD TO MAKE TV, MOVIES FOR APPLE’S STREAMING SERVICE 146 TITANIC WAVE OF STAR-FORMING GASES FOUND IN MILKY WAY 150 HONG KONG STEPS UP RESPONSE TO MYSTERY DISEASE FROM CHINA 164 SPACE-BAKED COOKIES, ‘MIGHTY’ MICE BACK ON EARTH VIA SPACEX 168 CELEBS DONATE MILLIONS TO HELP AUSTRALIA WILDFIRE EFFORTS 172 COMMERCIAL AIRLINES REROUTE FLIGHTS AMID US-IRAN TENSIONS 178 WILDFIRES THREATEN UNIQUE CRITTERS ON AUSTRALIAN ‘GALAPAGOS’ 184

iTUNES REVIEW 86 TOP 10 SONGS 154 TOP 10 ALBUMS 156 TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 158 TOP 10 TV SHOWS 160 TOP 10 BOOKS 162

CES GADGET SHOW: SURVEILLANCE IS IN - AND IN A BIG WAY

From the face scanner that will check in some attendees to the cameras-everywhere array of digital products, the CES gadget show is all-in on surveillance technology — whether it calls it that or not. Nestled in the “smart home” and “smart city” showrooms at the sprawling Las Vegas consumer tech conference are devices that see, hear and track the people they encounter. Some of them also analyze their looks and behavior. The technology on display includes eyelidtracking car dashboard cameras to prevent distracted driving and “rapid DNA” kits for identifying a person from a cheek swab sample. All these talking speakers, doorbell cameras and fitness trackers come with the promise of making life easier or more fun, but they ’re also potentially powerful spying tools. 9

And the skeptics who raise privacy and security concerns can be easily drowned out in the flashy spectacle of gee-whiz technology. “Many, many horrible stories have come out of consumer electronics,” said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who is speaking on a CES panel about the future of internet-connected devices. “It’s often about hyping the next thing you can buy and not considering the trade-offs.” The annual showcase is where big companies and startups unveil and promote their latest gadgets, many of them infused with microphones, cameras and artificial intelligence. Though weighted toward the consumer market, much of what’s on display may also be useful to law enforcement, not to mention prying employers or heavy-handed governments. Marcus Yang, CEO of the camera startup Amaryllo, said he’s had a difficult time persuading customers to pay more for safeguards such as faster processors to enable end-to-end encryption, when an array of cheaper, but less secure options are available. CES attendees “want to see technology and something fresh,” Yang said. “They’re only interested in looking at your cameras and what kind of features they have.” Yang said he’s hopeful that “something is changing this year” after a series of privacy scandals and security breaches has brought attention to the dangers of unfettered surveillance technology. And eventually, he said, regulators are likely to step in with security requirements.

Amazon’s security camera division Ring, which has set up a “Ring House” to show off its home devices, recently had to defend its safety practices following reports of hackers breaking into Ring camera systems and harassing children. It’s also faced criticism from privacy advocates and U.S. lawmakers over its growing partnerships with police. At CES on Monday, the company announced a new “control center” for camera owners to adjust their privacy settings and opt out of police requests for footage. Ring competitor Wyze Labs, an honoree in the CES 2020 innovation awards, announced a data breach just after Christmas affecting 2.4 million customers. And widely used voice assistants made by Google, Amazon and Apple all came under scrutiny in 2019 for data retention practices that allowed employees and contractors to listen to users’ audio recordings. There’s been some push back, at least on facial recognition and other surveillance technology from China. Hikvision and iFlytek, two Chinese tech companies that showed off their artificial intelligence at CES 2019, now face U.S. export restrictions because the Trump administration says the technology has been used in the repression of China’s Muslims. But China isn’t the only place where the lines have blurred between consumer technology and government surveillance operations. Watchful residents of American neighborhoods are increasingly encouraged by Ring to share their doorbell video footage with police detectives. And device-makers are counting on consumers buying into ever-more elaborate forms of computer vision and other AI technology to give them peace of mind. 13

Camera-maker Arlo this week launched its first wireless floodlight camera, with night vision, a siren, two-way audio to converse with intruders and an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust its brightness. Another company, Sunflower Labs, is using CES to show off its “home drone security” system. If trespassers step onto your lawn, a cameraequipped drone flies out from its resting place to take a look at them and streams the live video to your phone. Sound like something that might guard the lair of a James Bond villain? CEO Alex Pachikov says it’s actually less intrusive to neighbors than your run-of-the-mill doorbell camera, because it’s only looking down at your own property. Serious talk about privacy protections and regulations isn’t completely absent at CES.

Image: Ross D. Franklin

The schedule includes panel talks connecting policymakers with privacy executives from companies like Apple and Facebook. Venture capitalist Rajeev Chand, who is moderating one of those panels, said tech companies are getting better at seeing themselves as custodians, not the owners, of user data, but much more needs to be done. “We are probably at the first or second inning for how privacy re-shapes the consumer tech industry,” said Chand, a partner and head of research at Wing Venture Capital. But even as some U.S. policymakers seek to restrict or ban facial recognition, the conference is getting its attendees more accustomed to everyday uses of surveillance technology in commercial and security settings. Attendees at the gadget show can use their face to pick up their event badges for the first time. “We’re experimenting with it,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES. He dismissed privacy concerns, saying that attendees have a choice. “You’re opting in,” he said. “If you want to do it, you’ll have an opportunity to do it.” Cohn, of EFF, said she plans to skip the face scanners because she doesn’t know who has control over the images they collect. She said there’s only so much that consumers can do to guard against misuse. “There is a risk treating this as an individual decision,” she said. “That’s not really fair or right to do to people. We need to fix the policies.” 17

INSIDER Q&A: HOW YOUTUBE DECIDES WHAT TO BAN

Image: Gabriela Hasbun

Matt Halprin, the global head of trust and safety for YouTube, has a tough job: He oversees the teams that decide what is allowed and what should be prohibited on YouTube. The Google-owned site has come under fire recently for allowing videos that feature what many find offensive or violent, and for not doing enough to protect kids online. Halprin has to make difficult decisions to craft policies that keep the site as safe as YouTube wants it to be, while balancing what the company considers one of its core tenets: peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free speech. The Media spoke recently with Halprin about how his team works. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How does your team operate? A: Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re separated into policy development and policy incubation. Policy development starts with the highest level of principles: We are an open platform. We do have a bias to allow freedom of expression on our platform and only remove content that we think is egregious and could cause real harm. We want to be a place where a variety of perspectives can be heard, and sometimes that even means things that people disagree with or are even offended by. We kicked off a process a couple of years ago to essentially re-review all of our policies. We look at which policies seem to be most out of kilter with what our enforcement teams are telling us, the gray area cases or which policies are regulators talking about or the press asking about. As an example, in Q2 (June) we relaunched our hate speech policy.

Q: What does the process look like to make or change a policy? 21

A: The team first does the research and puts together the framework and essentially a proposal. Once it gets through me, then we bring in our cross-functional partners and people on public policy and public relations, in product, in legal. We often get sent back to the drawing board on a few issues. Then we go to an executive steering review, which is chaired by our chief product officer. Finally, the fourth and final step is the top executives. We have these meetings every single week. As we go through this process, these guys are watching a ton of video examples.

Q: How do you think about balancing free expression with safety?

A: That is probably the toughest thing that we do. There is not a right answer. Not all of us agree. One person will think that, “Hey, we should have more civility. We shouldn’t let something like this come up.” And another person will say, “Yeah, but if you get rid of that uncivil comment, you lose some really valuable, you know, free expression or political discourse.”

And so we have seriously huge debates about this. Sometimes we think that if we are not criticized by all sides for the policy, we’ve probably done something wrong. If you’re only upsetting one side, then you probably haven’t gotten it right.

Q: How do you ensure that things aren’t slipping through the cracks when it comes to enforcement?

A: We’ve always had community guidelines and that’s what defines our rules. We measure how much exposure occurs on content that we think goes against the line. And that’s going down. For every workflow, for every policy, I get a measure of how accurate our reviewers have been regularly.

FACEBOOK BANS DEEPFAKES IN FIGHT AGAINST ONLINE MANIPULATION

Facebook says it is banning “deepfake” videos, the false but realistic clips created with artificial intelligence and sophisticated tools, as it steps up efforts to fight online manipulation. But the policy leaves plenty of loopholes. The social network said this week that it’s beefing up its policies for removing videos edited or synthesized in ways that aren’t apparent to the average person, and which could dupe someone into thinking the video’s subject said something he or she didn’t actually say. Created by artificial intelligence or machine learning, deepfakes combine or replace content to create images that can be almost impossible to tell are not authentic. 27

“While these videos are still rare on the internet, they present a significant challenge for our industry and society as their use increases,” Facebook’s vice president of global policy management, Monika Bickert, said in a blog post. However, she said the new rules won’t include parody or satire, or clips edited just to change the order of words. The exceptions underscore the balancing act Facebook and other social media services face in their struggle to stop the spread of online misinformation and “fake news,” while also respecting free speech and fending off allegations of censorship. The U.S. tech company has been grappling with how to handle the rise of deepfakes after facing criticism last year for refusing to remove a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words, which was viewed more than 3 million times. Experts said the crudely edited clip was more of a “cheap fake” than a deepfake. Then, a pair of artists posted fake footage of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showing him gloating over his one-man domination of the world. Facebook also left that clip online. The company said at the time that neither video violated its policies. The problem of altered videos is taking on increasing urgency as experts and lawmakers try to figure out how to prevent deepfakes from being used to interfere with the U.S. presidential election in November. The new policy is a “strong starting point,” but doesn’t address broader problems, said Sam Gregory, program director at Witness, a nonprofit working on using video technology for human rights. 28

“The reality is there aren’t that many political deepfakes at the moment,” he said. “They’re mainly nonconsensual sexual images.” The bigger problem is videos that are either shown without context or lightly edited, which some have dubbed “shallow fakes,” Gregory said. These include the Pelosi clip or one that made the rounds last week of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that was selectively edited to make it appear he made racist remarks. Gregory, whose group was among those that gave feedback to Facebook for the policy, said that while the new rules look strong on paper, there are questions around how effective the company will be at uncovering synthetic videos. Facebook has built deepfake-detecting algorithms and can also look at an account’s behavior to get an idea of whether it’s intention is to spread disinformation. That will give the company an edge over users or journalists in sniffing them out, Gregory said. But those algorithms haven’t been used widely for deepfakes in the wild. “So it is an open question how effective detection will be,” he said. “This is an algorithmic kind of game of cat and mouse, where the forgeries will get better alongside the detection.”

Facebook said any videos, deepfake or not, will also be removed if they violate existing standards for nudity, graphic violence or hate speech. Those that aren’t removed can still be reviewed by independent third-party factcheckers and any deemed false will be flagged as such to people trying to share or view them, which Bickert said was a better approach than just taking them down. “If we simply removed all manipulated videos flagged by fact-checkers as false, the videos would still be available elsewhere on the internet or social media ecosystem,” Bickert said. “By leaving them up and labeling them as false, we’re providing people with important information and context.” Twitter, which has been another hotbed for misinformation and altered videos, said it’s in the process of creating a policy for “synthetic and manipulated media,” which would include deepfakes and other doctored videos. The company has asked for public feedback on the issue. The responses it’s considering include putting a notice next to tweets that include manipulated material. The tweets might also be removed if they’re misleading and could cause serious harm to someone. YouTube, meanwhile, has a policy against “deceptive practices” that the company says includes the “deceptive uses of manipulated media” that may pose serious risk of harm. For instance, the company removed the Pelosi video last year. Google, which owns YouTube, is also researching how to better detect deepfakes and other manipulated media.

Image: Jacquelyn Martin

GYM CLASS WITHOUT THE GYM? WITH TECHNOLOGY, IT’S CATCHING ON

Grace Brown’s schedule at West Potomac High School in northern Virginia is filled with all the usual academics, and she’s packed in Latin, chorus and piano as extras. What she can’t cram into the 8:10 a.m. - 2:55 p.m. school day is gym class. So she’s taking that one minus the gym, and on her own time. The 14-year-old freshman is getting school credit for virtual physical education, a concept that, as strange as it may sound, is being helped along by availability of wearable fitness trackers. For students whose tests and textbooks have migrated to screens, technology as gym equipment may have been only a matter of time. 35

Grace, who lives in Alexandria, wears a schoolissued Fitbit on her wrist while getting in at least three 30-minute workouts a week outside of school hours. She has an app on her computer that screenshots her activity so she can turn it in for credit. While online physical education classes have been around for well over a decade, often as part of virtual or online schools, the technology has made possible a new level of accountability, its users say. “We’re asking kids to wear this while they do an activity of their choice, and they can change the activity as they desire, as long as it’s something that they understand is probably going to get their heart rate up,” said Elizabeth Edwards, department head for online physical education at Fairfax County Public Schools, which includes Grace’s high school. Though a physical education instructor isn’t shouting from the sidelines, teachers do guide assignments by setting goals such as fat burn, cardio or peak, relying on the technology to be their eyes and ears. Students also are required to sign in for a weekly 60-minute to 90-minute classroom session with the teacher. Teenagers who play soccer, swim or dance all year may satisfy the workout requirements without doing anything extra. Grace has been adding bike rides and jogs to her days. For her, online PE freed her up to take three elective courses, instead of two in school. For others, it’s a welcome way to take a required class that students otherwise may find socially or physically challenging.

Image: Jacquelyn Martin

“We definitely exercise more in online PE,” Grace said. “There’s a lot of standing around in regular PE. Online, I do much harder workouts.” A survey of more than 3,000 fitness professionals by the American College of Sports Medicine named wearable technology the top trend in fitness for 2020. It’s not clear how many schools are embracing the trend. It comes with some cautions. Technology and the collection of any student data always raises the specter of student privacy concerns. And some worry that students exercising on their own may miss out on important social concepts such as teamwork. “There is a difference between physical activity and physical education,” said Chris Hersl, former vice president for programs and professional development at SHAPE America, which wrote national standards for K-12 physical education. “Physical activity is great for the body. We want everybody to move,” he said, “but physical education is a class where students are taught how to move their body and the social context in which to do that.” Joliet Township schools in Illinois uses fitness trackers as part of a blended learning conditioning program that has students who sign up for it work out two to three times a week in the gym with an instructor and the other days on their own. “It’s a flexible schedule where they still have in-person physical education classes and there’s still instruction happening, but they’re able to use the Fitbit to monitor how students are working outside the classroom,” said Karla Guseman, the district’s associate superintendent for educational services. 39

She said it’s one of numerous blending learning options that Joliet Township High School offers to give students both more control over the pace and time of their work, and more responsibility to get it done. “We’re trying to give them an opportunity to see what post-secondary might look like,” Guseman said, “when you don’t meet every day but you’re still expected to do work for a course or preparation between class periods.” A virtual school that is part of the Springfield, Missouri, public school district started with a single class -- physical education, said Nichole Lemmon, the creator of the program, called Launch, which uses Garmin fitness trackers. “Eight years ago, it was the very first online class by our developers to meet a really niche student who could not fit PE courses into their schedule,” Lemmon said. “Maybe they wanted to take more honors level courses, or advanced placement, or international baccalaureate classes and PE was hard to fit in, so we allowed them to do it outside of the school day.” A telling illustration of the technology-driven 24/7 school day is the peak log-in time on the school’s portal system: 10:03 p.m. “They may not be working out at 10 p.m., but that’s when they’re turning in their workout. The notion that education now runs 7:30-4, 8-3, is really antiquated,” Lemmon said, “and our students are begging to be able to have more flexibility in the time of day they learn.” During the past summer session, there were 22,600 students enrolled, and the most popular courses were PE, she said. 40

Image: Jacquelyn Martin

Teachers help students set up their fitness devices, entering the student’s height, weight and

Grace’s mother, Rhonda Brown, remembers how hard gym class soccer and softball games were

age, and coming up with a target heart rate. As an added layer of instruction and accountability,

for her because of blindness in one eye.

Launch students are required to send video back to the teacher, who checks their technique as they stretch or lift weights, for example. “They work with their PE instructor to set a fitness goal and then they get their workout however they want to,” Lemmon said. Ït really does promote lifelong fitness because it’s about working out the way they want to, not they’re required to do a particular activity in gym. ... We have a lot of kids -- a locker room is their worst nightmare. It’s not where they want to be.”

“You’re talking to someone who was always picked last for every sporting activity. I have nightmares sometimes,” she said. She’d like to see the county go even further and grant waivers from PE to kids that play school sports. “We’re so stuck in the traditional classroom setting. These kids are burning 2,000 calories during a practice and more at every game.,” she said. “I wish the schools would catch up with the times.”

Image: SpaceX

Though the 2010s saw incredible advancements in space exploration, including the Curiosity Lander, SpaceX reusable rockets and a stunning image of the black hole, it’s the 2020s where innovations will take us to new heights, with out-of-this-world opportunities awaiting.

EXCITING PARTNERSHIPS With the space exploration battle heating up and NASA committed to making innovations and discoveries before other nations, it came as no surprise to hear that they had recruited a series of commercial lunar lander companies to work on their new Artemis moon program. Back in November, the company confirmed that SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp, Ceres Robotics and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc would join their Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, working together to return astronauts to the moon by 2024. The partnership not only helps to drive innovation and help the United States stay ahead of growing competition from Asia and Russia, but it reduces NASA’s costs and ensures the American taxpayers’ bill remains low. And that’s not the only partnership that is changing the landscape of space exploration. In 2019, NASA announced it would open the International Space Station to private astronauts, and the first short missions are expected to kick off this year. This may sound unremarkable on the face of it but means private companies can manufacture, experiment, advertise and even host tourists in space, lowering the cost and the risk for NASA and creating immense opportunities that will change the way we think about space. 46

The company is also innovating with its Tipping Point awards, granting groups more than $120 million in resources. The idea behind this is to allow NASA to work on and develop new space technologies and save costs in the process, partnering with other organizations and companies to share the workload and financial pressure, rather than competing on tech. One of the biggest grants was given to Blue Origin, who received $10 million to focus on its work on cryogenic technology. The organization is testing out ways to cool hydrogen and oxygen into fuel and storing that before launching, cutting costs and reducing environmental impact. Commercial Crew is another cost-cutting solution from the company, designed to end reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft it currently uses to send astronauts to the space station. Boeing and SpaceX were awarded $4.8 billion and $3.1 billion respectively to develop new capsules to launch US astronauts into space. Rather than building their own capsules, NASA is buying the services from these companies and expects to pay $90 million per seat when Boeing rolls out its Starliner and $55 million per seat when SpaceX rolls out its Crew Dragon. NASA currently pays around $86 million for each seat aboard Russiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Soyuz spacecraft, meaning significant per-seat savings over time. Boeing has been developing the Starliner space capsule that will take people to and from lowEarth orbit for several years, diversifying in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s competitive aerospace market. The ship is designed to dock within the space station and stay in orbit for around a week, before Image: SpaceX

undocking and returning to Earth. The Starliner’s first mission ended historically in December when it became the first American orbital space capsule to land on American soil rather than in an ocean. What’s even more impressive about the Starliner is that it can be reused up to ten times with a six-month turnaround, significantly cutting the environmental and financial impact of future missions and ultimately increasing the likelihood of manned missions to the moon and Mars.

HUMANS ON MARS One of the biggest advancements in space in the 2010s involved Mars. In the 2020s, we’re expecting even bigger developments, perhaps even the discovery of life on the red planet. Over the past decade, scientists have learned a great deal about Mars, with NASA’s Curiosity leading the way and confirming that at least some parts of the planet would be capable of supporting human and Earth-like life for long periods of time. The next step for NASA is the 2020 Mars Rover, slated to take off in Florida in July or August of this year. The new mission will focus on hunting for habitable environments on Mars and looking for signs of past microbial life. The new rover joins Curiosity, InSight, Mars Odyssey, MRO, MAVEN, MOM, Mars Express and TGO, all of which are still in operation on the planet. But where the 2020 Mars Rover is different is in its ability to collect samples to return to Earth for analysis, which could unlock the key to humans inhabiting the planet in the future as climate change threatens Planet Earth.

Image: SpaceX

By 2021, the ExoMars rover will touch down in Oxia Planum, an area of the planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s northern

mission to the planet over the summer, which will mark the first Chinese probes on

hemisphere where evidence of ancient water activity has been previously recorded. Using

Mars. The United Arab Emirates has also said it will launch the Hope Mars Mission over the

its cameras and scientific instruments, the Rosalind Franklin machine, with its drill that

summer, whilst Japan will send a lander to the planet in 2022 and another sample-return

can bore 2 meters into the surface, will look for morphological and chemical signs of life on

mission in 2024. India is also getting involved, with MOM 2 expected to lift off in the same

the planet.

slot, before NASA puts humans on Mars in the 2030s.

And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just the United States planning to make a mission to Mars this decade. China has announced plans to launch an orbiter-rover

One organization that is tearing up the rulebook is Elon Muskâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SpaceX. Musk has

Image: ESA/ATG medialab

already said that he hopes to set up a millionperson city on Mars within the next 50 to 100 years. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an ambitious timeline, particularly when considering its first prototype Starhopper blew up on its test flight, though the company has a track record of achieving impressive spaceflight feats and has a startup culture that allows it to push ahead of independent space bodies.

BACK TO THE MOON Though many are turning their attention towards Mars and other planets, returning to the Moon remains a key target. Europe is expected to launch a spacecraft to the Moon in the new space race this decade, with the Paris-based European Space Agency (ESA) confirming plans to land its robotic rover on the surface, before sending manned missions. Europe is not on its own - the ESA is partnering with Canadian and Japanese agencies to prepare its Heracles Moon space mission, which is expected to kick off in the mid-2020s. China is also tipped to launch another moon mission in 2020, codenamed the Chang’e-5. The country has said it would like to send a sample of the moon back to Earth for analysis and will land on Mons Rümker, a mountain that is close to the basaltic lunar area Oceanus Procellarum. India, too, is expected to make an unmanned moon landing in 2020 after previous missions failed. The country confirmed that work on Chandrayaan-3 was running “smoothly” and that a $35 million propulsion module, lander and surface rover was in development for mid-2022. Finally, Russia is planning a moon exploration in the next decade, with the country training cosmonauts for a landing on the moon by 2030. What’s more, Russia has set its sights on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter, and has promised to have accomplished unmanned spacecraft landings and explorations on all three by the end of 2029. Though ambitious, Russia’s spaceflight goals are already underway, with the country testing a new six-seat spaceship, and test flights 54

Image: SpaceX

will launch from a purpose-built $20 billion Vosotchny cosmodrome in 2020.

EARTH TO EARTH ROCKET TRAVEL Though the vast majority of innovation in space exploration centers around sending astronauts or robots to faraway lands for research and innovation, consumer space travel has been hotting up. In the 2020s, several companies have promised to offer willing clients a trip to Mars, with Virgin Galactica and SpaceX two of the most prominent figures in the area. SpaceX, for example, has vowed to send consumers around the world in less than half an hour, developing a spaceship called the Starship, a true behemoth made from stainless steel. The vessel “represents a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit,” the company says on its website. The rocket would enable travelers to jump from New York to London in around half an hour, compared to the seven and a half hours through a commercial passenger jet. Of course, the speed at which the vessel will travel will mean you’ll have to say goodbye to some of your creature comforts, like in-flight entertainment and meal service, with Elon Musk confirming travelers would need to wear a restraint similar to Disney’s Space Mountain roller coaster bars. Bigger than an Airbus A380 jet plane, Musk’s Starship is expected to hold up to 120 people for 57

“long-haul” cross-planetary travel, with a voyage from Earth to Mars taking between three to six months. However, for Earth-bound trips, such as “around the world in half an hour” experiences, it’s been confirmed that SpaceX hopes to pack 1,000 people into the vessel. Of course, the biggest question surrounding consumer earth-to-earth travel is the cost. An insider told Space Review that it would cost around $1 million to transport 853 passengers around the world, equating to around $1,200 per person before taking into consideration external costs like marketing and profit markups.

Image: SpaceX

It seems as though every major nation is planning a moon landing or space mission in the 2020s, and, naturally, many have questioned whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a worthwhile investment, and why governments and private bodies are pumping billions of dollars into their space exploration activities. But exploring space is about much more than saying you were there first - itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about creating technologies, making discoveries, and building wealth for corporations. In the years ahead, expect to see truly futuristic concepts announced and tested; space travel is closer than you might think, and with the right technology, we could all be vacationing on Mars soon!

CALIFORNIA TO EXAMINE EFFECT OF BLACKOUTS ON COMMUNICATION

When the nation’s largest electric utility preemptively shut off power last fall to prevent wildfires in California, customers lost more than just their lights — some lost their phones, too. Data from the Federal Communications Commission shows 874 cellphone towers were offline during an Oct. 27 power shutoff that affected millions of people. That included more than half of the cell towers in Marin County alone. The outages mean people who depend solely on cellphones couldn’t call 911 or receive emergency notifications, compounding the dangers associated with an unprecedented power outage in an era dominated by wireless communication. 61

On Wednesday, representatives from AT&T and Verizon are scheduled to testify before state lawmakers about the outages and ways to prevent them. It’s the second time state lawmakers will have hauled in private companies to account for the effects surrounding the widespread blackouts in the fall, the largest planned power outages in state history. In November, lawmakers questioned executives from the state’s largest investor-owned utilities, including the leadership of troubled Pacific Gas & Electric, whose equipment has been blamed for sparking the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed roughly 19,000 buildings. The company filed for bankruptcy last year. Telecommunications outages have worsened in recent years as wildfires have become more common and more destructive. A report from the California Public Utilities Commission found 85,000 wireless customers and 160,000 wired customers lost service during the 2017 North Bay Fires. Most recently, the FCC says up to 27% of Sonoma County’s wireless cell sites were offline during the Kincade Fire in October. In advance comments to the legislative committee, California’s four largest wireless companies — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon — say they generally make sure their major telecommunication hubs have at least between 48 hours and 72 hours of on-site backup power. They use mobile generators at other sites, but said the generators don’t work at every cell tower. 62

Also, the companies said the electric company warns them about blackouts just two hours ahead of time, making it hard for them to get their mobile generators in place and to keep them fueled. AT&T spokesman Steven Maviglio said the company is experienced in managing largescale outages, but noted “the power companies’ decision to shut off power to millions of Californians in October was the largest event our state had ever seen.” “Today, we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in our network resiliency to address these new challenges and will continue to work to ensure our customers have the connectivity they need,” Maviglio said. Last year, the state Legislature passed a law requiring telecommunications companies to report large outages to the Office of Emergency Services within one hour of discovering them. State officials are still developing regulations for that law.

WHITE HOUSE PROPOSES GUIDELINES FOR REGULATING THE USE OF AI

The Trump administration is proposing new rules to guide future federal regulation of artificial intelligence used in medicine, transportation and other industries. But the vagueness of the principles announced by the White House is unlikely to satisfy AI watchdogs who have warned of a lack of accountability as computer systems are deployed to take on human roles in high-risk social settings, such as mortgage lending or job recruitment. The White House said that in deciding regulatory action, U.S. agencies “must consider fairness, non-discrimination, openness, transparency, safety, and security.” But federal agencies must also avoid setting up restrictions that “needlessly hamper AI innovation and growth,” reads a 67

memo being sent to U.S. agency chiefs from Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. “Agencies must avoid a precautionary approach that holds AI systems to such an impossibly high standard that society cannot enjoy their benefits,” the memo says. The rules won’t affect how federal agencies such as law enforcement use facial recognition and other forms of AI. They are specifically limited to how federal agencies devise new AI regulations for the private sector. There’s a 60-day public comment period before the rules take effect. “These principles are intentionally high-level,” said Lynne Parker, U.S. deputy chief technology officer at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. “We purposely wanted to avoid top-down, one-size-fits-all, blanket regulations.” The White House said the proposals unveiled this week are meant to promote private sector applications of AI that are safe and fair, while also pushing back against stricter regulations favored by some lawmakers and activists. Federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration will be bound to follow the new AI principles. That makes the rules “the first of their kind from any government,” Michael Kratsios, the U.S. chief technology officer, said in a call with reporters Monday. Rapid advancements in AI technology have raised fresh concern as computers increasingly take on jobs such as diagnosing medical conditions, driving cars, recommending stock investments, judging credit risk and recognizing individual faces in video footage. It’s often not 68

clear how AI systems make their decisions, leading to questions of how far to trust them and when to keep humans in the loop. Terah Lyons of the nonprofit Partnership on AI, which advocates for responsible AI and has backing from major tech firms and philanthropies, said the White House principles won’t likely have sweeping or immediate effects. But she said she was encouraged that they detailed a U.S. approach centered on values such as trustworthiness and fairness. “The AI developer community may see that as a positive step in the right direction,” said Lyons, who previously worked for the White House science and technology office during the Obama administration. “It’s a little bit hard to see what the actual impact will be.” What’s missing, she added, are clear mechanisms for holding AI systems accountable. Another tech watchdog, New York University’s AI Now Institute, said it welcomed new boundaries on AI applications but it “will take time to assess how effective these principles are in practice.” Kratsios said he hopes the new principles can serve as a template for other democratic institutions such as the European Commission, which has put forward its own AI ethical guidelines, to preserve shared values without impeding the tech industry. That, he said, is “the best way to counter authoritarian uses of AI” by governments that aim to “track, surveil and imprison their own people.” The Trump administration has sought to penalize China over the past year over AI uses the U.S. considers abusive. 70

The U.S. Commerce Department last year blacklisted several Chinese AI firms after the Trump administration said they were implicated in the repression of Muslims in the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Xinjiang region. On Monday, citing national security concerns, the agency set limits on exporting AI software used to analyze satellite imagery. 72

A TECHNICAL FEAT,‘1917’ IS GREAT STORYTELLING, TOO

It’s been a good time for World War I buffs — especially if they’re also movie buffs. A year ago director Peter Jackson applied state-of-theart technology to century-old war footage to bring the Great War alive with sudden, stunning immediacy in his documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old.” And now, in the feature film “1917,” another of our most talented directors, Sam Mendes, has similarly taken top technology — and the best cinematography, courtesy of Roger Deakins — to give us a different, equally compelling look at that cruel war, through the eyes of two ordinary soldiers asked to perform an extraordinary task. 75

The special sauce here, which you may have heard about: “1917” appears as if it were shot in one seamless take — or two, if you include one spot where it seems clear a break probably occurred. Actually, there are dozens of cuts, but they’re ingeniously hidden by editor Lee Smith, and the longest continuous shot is only about eight minutes. Yes, it’s a dazzling technical feat. One could also consider it a gimmick, or at least a method that threatens to distract the viewer’s attention. But that ignores the fact that this very filmmaking style is also hugely effective at delivering this particular story, in the most visceral way possible. It’s a tale — inspired by stories Mendes heard from his own grandfather, who fought as a teenager — of two frightened young men, utterly unprepared for what they’re asked to do. And really, who WAS prepared? These were boys. If in Jackson’s documentary the most sobering sight of all was those frightened faces, many belonging to teens who’d lied about their youth in order to enlist, these shellshocked faces come alive here in the form of lance corporals Schofield and Blake — George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman, relative newcomers chosen to enforce the idea that these were unremarkable, ordinary men. The action begins in the afternoon of April 6, 1917, in northern France. Schofield and Blake are resting under a tree when a commanding officer orders Blake to “pick a man and bring your kit” — it’s not clear why. Blake enlists Schofield, and the two men head to the trench. As they walk, the camera gradually pans wider and we see a field full of soldiers, more and more of them, resting, talking, doing their laundry. 76

1917 - Official Trailer I

1917 - Official Trailer II

In the trench, General Erinmore (Colin Firth, one of several British stars, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong and Richard Madden, who appear in brief cameos) describes their mission. It’s immediately clear why Blake was chosen. His older brother is part of a battalion planning to attack the Germans, believed to be retreating, the next morning. But the men — 1,600 of them — are heading into a trap, and will suffer catastrophic losses unless they can be stopped. The enemy has cut off all communications. “They have no idea what they’re in for,” says Erinmore, tersely. The mission: to venture out into No Man’s Land and make the daunting journey on foot to warn the battalion, waiting in the woods near the town of Ecoust. Their only supplies: maps, torches, grenades, a little food, and their kits — oh, and a flare pistol given to them by Lt. Leslie, commander of the Yorks (a wonderfully wry Andrew Scott of “Fleabag,” providing a few seconds of what passes for levity), who seems fairly sure the lads won’t make it back alive. As they climb out of the trenches and head into perilous territory — abandoned and desolate, piled with corpses of men and horses — they get to know each other better. Blake, the younger at 19, is chatty, humorous, good with maps and always at the ready with an amusing anecdote. He’s also starry-eyed about battlefield glory, and aspires to a medal. Schofield, a few years older with a bit more experience, is less talkative, more stoic, and also more cynical. He won a medal but traded it for a bottle of French wine.

We travel with these two young men as they traverse a hellish landscape, sometimes stepping on bloated bodies or running into a sun-bleached skeleton or burned corpse encased in barbed wire, with the camera usually following just behind as we share this realtime adventure. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re drawn into a recently abandoned German trench, where the men marvel at how even the enemyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rats are bigger and stronger. They survive explosions, nearly get hit by a crashing plane suddenly plummeting into the screen, and suffer a horrible setback at one point on the journey.

1917 - Behind The Scenes Featurette

Both young actors are hugely appealing. MacKay in particular delivers a breakout performance that somehow feels both contemporary and timeless. You could call his Schofield a reluctant hero, but that doesn’t seem to sufficiently capture the essence of a young man who didn’t choose his fate — “Why did you choose ME?” he rails at Blake at one point — but slowly and surely rises to the occasion with determination and assurance born of utter necessity. You may not soon forget MacKay’s face. You also won’t soon forget a moment of sheer beauty that suddenly materializes amid the terror: A ruined French town at night, floodlit against the dark sky by a raging fire in the distance, while the score by Thomas Newman soars. There’s also a climactic visual sequence that takes the breath away — to say any more would risk revealing too much plot. By the end, chances are you also won’t remember that you began the film trying to outwit the filmmakers and figure out the tricks behind their technical magic. Some good, old-fashioned storytelling magic has taken over. Mendes has done justice to his grandfather’s tales. “1917,” a Universal Studios release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America “for violence, some disturbing images, and language.” Running time: 119 minutes. Four stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

by Ang Lee Genre: Action & Adventure Released: 2019 Price: $19.99 Gemini Man (2019) - Official Trailer Paramount Pictures

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Gemini Man Henry Brogan (Will Smith) retires from work as an elite assassin for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), only to later be attacked by an assassin startlingly similar to his younger self. Brogan later discovers that the assailant is a clone of himself, but dispatched to kill him.

FIVE FACTS: 1. Development of this film started back in 1997 but halted due to technical difficulties in creating what would be a digitally deaged clone of the lead actor. 2. Screenwriter Darren Lemke devised the original concept and is still credited as a contributor to the finished screenplay. 3. The film almost entered production in 2008, when Nicolas Cage was linked to the lead role. 4. This is Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fourth team-up with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, after the first two Bad Boy films and Enemy of the State. 5. Johnny Depp was also considered for the lead role but turned it down in 2012.

‘Gemini Man’ Director Ang Lee Studied Every Era Of Will Smith’s Life

The Addams Family After the dysfunctional Addams family moves into an isolated New Jersey home, daughter Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) befriends Parker (Elsie Fisher), the neglected daughter of Margaux Needler (Allison Janney), a reality TV show host with a vendetta against the Addams clan.

FIVE FACTS: 1. This film was originally conceived as a stop-motion animation directed by Tim Burton, but the idea was scrapped in 2013, three years after it was announced. 2. Oscar Isaac voices Gomez Addams, while Charlize Theron voices the character’s wife Morticia. 3. Co-director Conrad Vernon also voices three characters in the film, including butler Lurch and a priest who oversees Gomez and Morticia’s nuptials. 4. Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg, the voice behind Gomez’s cousin Itt, features on “My Family”, a song for the movie’s soundtrack.

by Conrad Vernon & Greg Tiernan Genre: Kids & Family Released: 2019 Price: $19.99

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5. The movie includes various echoes of the 1964 cartoon of the same name.

Rotten Tomatoes

The Addams Family Trailer #1 (2019) Movieclips Trailers

THE ADDAMS FAMILY | Chloë Grace Moretz “Wednesday Addams” On-studio Interview

“Drink About Me”

Music

Now or Never Brett Kissel The eighth studio album of Canadian country music singer Brett Kissel covers various stylistic bases. “I just felt there was a little bit of something for everybody on this record, which was by design,” the Alberta native has said.

FIVE FACTS: Genre: Country Released: Jan 1, 2020 8 Songs Price: $7.97

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1. The musical styles covered on the album include conventional modern country, power balladry and acoustic folk rock. 2. Kissel has said of the album’s variety: “I’m so deep-rooted in tradition that I feel I’m allowed to push the boundaries of country music, because my heroes did that too.” 3. On the subject of his heroes, he has admitted that the track “That Country’s Music” is an “ode” to them, adding: “It’s my favorite song possibly I’ve ever written, because I love this genre so much.” 4. Fellow country artist Christina Taylor features on “I’m Not Him, I’m Not Her”, which Kissel says is “about all the baggage of past relationships.” 5. Kissel and his partner Cecilia married in 2011 in Edmonton, Alberta, and now reside in Nashville, Tennessee.

“I’m Not Him, I’m Not Her”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) John Williams This is the score for the currently screening film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The score has been composed and conducted by John Williams, who announced in February 2018 that The Rise of Skywalker was set to be the final Star Wars film to which he would contribute the score.

FIVE FACTS: 1. Williams’ association with Star Wars started with the very first film released in 1977. 2. George Lucas recruited Williams for that film’s score following a recommendation from Lucas’s friend and fellow director Steven Spielberg. 3. Since then, Williams has scored all nine of the Star Wars films across the original, prequel and sequel trilogies. 4. Before the new score was released, Williams’ brother Don said it would incorporate all of the Skywalker saga’s major themes. 5. Williams cameos in The Rise of Skywalker itself as a bartender called Oma Tres.

Genre: Soundtrack Released: 2019 19 Songs Price: $9.99

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John Williams - Finale (From “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”/Audio Only)

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The Rise of Skywalker (From “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”/Audio Only)

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LED BY ‘MARRIAGE STORY,’ NETFLIX DOMINATES GOLDEN GLOBE NOMS

A Netflix wave swept over the 77th Golden Globe nominations, where the streaming company dominated with 34 total nominations, including four films up for best picture and four series nominated for the top television awards. Noah Baumbach’s divorce drama “Marriage Story” led all films with six nominations including best picture, drama, and acting nods for its two leads, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, in nominations announced Monday by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in Beverly Hills, California. “Marriage Story,” which landed on Netflix on Friday after a three-week run in theaters, also earned nods for Baumbach’s script, Laura Dern’s supporting performance and Randy Newman’s score. The only notable category it missed on was Baumbach for best director. 103

Three other Netflix films landed best picture nods, chief among them Martin Scorsese’s mob epic “The Irishman,” which landed five nominations including best drama picture, best director for Scorsese and supporting acting nods for Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Surprisingly left out was its lead, Robert De Niro. Quentin Tarantino’s 1960s Los Angeles fable “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” a Sony Pictures release, also scored five nominations, including best film comedy or musical and nods for Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. Tarantino is also up for best director. In a statement, DiCaprio called it “a love letter to Los Angeles” and “a celebration of cinema.” But the degree to which cinema — that word that Scorsese has passionately argued for this season — is changing was overwhelmingly apparent in Monday’s nominations. And just as it is girding for battle with a host of new streaming services, Netflix flexed its muscles across all categories. HBO Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock are set to join the streaming fray next year, on the heels of the launch of Apple TV-Plus and Disney-Plus. For now, Hollywood belongs to Netflix. It also scored best picture nods for the Vatican bromance “The Two Popes” in the drama category (along with nominations for its stars, Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins); and the Eddie Murphy-led “Dolemite Is My Name” in the comedy category (along with an acting nod for Murphy). Before landing four on Monday, Netflix had never earned a Golden Globes best picture nomination. 104

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Two Netflix series tied HBO’s “Chernobyl” with the most nominations on the TV side with four nods: “The Crown” and “Unbelievable.” Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method” and “The Politician” additionally landed best series, comedy or musical, nominations alongside Emmy favorites “Fleabag,” from Amazon, and HBO’s “Barry.” Led by “Succession,”“Big Little Lies” and “Chernobyl,” HBO still had a strong showing with 15 nods overall, second to Netflix’s 17 television nominations — even if the final season of “Game of Thrones” failed to make it into the best drama series category. But streaming services made greater inroads to one of Hollywood’s premier parties than ever before, reflecting the industry’s quickening realignment. Amazon had eight nominations in total, boosted by “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Fleabag.” The recently launched Apple TV Plus scored its first Globes nominations with “The Morning Show,” including nods for Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Broadcast networks were shut out entirely. But shed a tear for Baby Yoda. Disney Plus’“The Mandalorian” didn’t make the cut. Yet if the Globes nominations gave a snapshot of the changing media landscape, some saw a notable lack of progress in other areas. The press association again fielded an all-male directing category, nominating Scorsese, Tarantino, Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Sam Mendes (whose World War I thriller “1917” was also nominated for best picture, drama) and Todd Phillips (“Joker”). Among those left out were Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”), Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) and Marielle Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”). 107

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Marriage Story | Official Trailer | Netflix

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The Globes have only ever nominated five women for best director. At the 2017 awards, Natalie Portman pointedly introduced the category’s “all-male nominees.” None of this year’s 10 nominees for best picture were directed by women, either. Most notably overlooked was Gerwig’s upcoming Louisa May Alcott adaptation “Little Women,” which was nominated for Saoirse Ronan’s lead performance and Alexandre Desplat’s score. Adding to the trend was the omission, on the TV side, of Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed Central Park Five miniseries “When They See Us.” Alma Ha’rel, director of the acclaimed “Honey Boy,” on Twitter listed nine female filmmakers whose movies touched audiences, writing: “That’s our awards. No one can take that away.” In a statement, Ronan emphasized her director: “My performance in this film belongs to Greta as much as it does to myself and I share the recognition completely with her.” Rebecca Goldman, Time’s Up chief operating officer, said the omission was reflective of “an industry-wide crisis” and was “unacceptable.” “This year, there have been twice as many women-led features than ever, with more films by female directors on the way,” said Goldman. “And yet, as today’s nominations show, women — and especially women of color — continue to be pushed to the sidelines by a system that holds women back, onscreen and off.” The awards campaign of “Joker” got a lift Monday, also landing nods for best film, drama, and for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance. With more than $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales, it’s easily the biggest blockbuster to crash the Globes. 111

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A handful of likely best-actress Oscar contenders nabbed a nomination, including Renee Zellweger (“Judy”), Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”) and Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”). Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”) secured her expected nod for best supporting actress, as did Tom Hanks, for best supporting actor, for his Mister Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” It was a good day for crowdpleasers, including Rian Johnson’s star-studded whodunit “Knives Out” (best picture, comedy or musical; acting nods for Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas), the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” (best picture, comedy or musical; best actor for Taron Egerton); and the madcap Nazi Germany coming-of-age tale “Jojo Rabbit” (best picture, comedy or musical; best actor for its young star, Roman Griffin Davis). James Mangold’s racing drama “Ford v Ferrari,” though, could have used a bigger boost from the press association; it landed a sole nomination for Christian Bale. “There are only two things I let interrupt my beauty sleep: fire alarms and the Golden Globes nominations,” said “Jojo Rabbit” writerdirector Taika Waititi. “Thank you HFPA for acknowledging that comedy can be a powerful tool against hate and supporting ‘Jojo Rabbit.’” The nominees for best foreign language film went to “The Farewell,” which also earned a best actress earned for Awkwafina; Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” for which Antonio Banderas was also nominated for best actor; Bong’s “Parasite”; Ladj Ly’s French police thriller “Les Miserables”; and Celine Sciamma’s period romance “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” 113

Several possible Academy Awards favorites weren’t eligible in the Globes’ top categories. Even though the press association is a group of foreign journalists based in Los Angeles, they don’t nominate international films for best drama or best comedy/musical. That ruled out Bong’s social satire “Parasite” (which the Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted the year’s best on Sunday) and Wang’s family drama “The Farewell.” Both are expected to be in the Oscar mix. “For me, foreign language film is best picture,” Bong said by phone. “Directors like Almodovar and Scorsese, who are nominated for best director, I’ve studied them since I was young, so just to be among them was an honor, regardless of the category. Because Almodovar is also only nominated for best foreign language film, it makes it an honor for me.” Vying for best animated feature are: “Frozen 2,” “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” “The Lion King,”“Missing Link,” and “Toy Story 4.” The award wasn’t necessarily one sought by “The Lion King.” Disney has argued that Jon Favreau’s remake, made largely with computer generated imagery, is live-action. The Globes, with 87 voting members, differ wildly from the Academy Awards, which are decided by 9,000 industry professionals. But the press association’s choices sometimes line up with the academy’s, like last year when “Green Book” (entered as a comedy at the Globes) triumphed at both. This year could give the Globes slightly more sway because the awards season is especially truncated. The Academy Awards are being held several weeks early, on Feb. 9, giving Oscar campaigns less time to find momentum. 114

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Ricky Gervais will host the Globes, broadcast on NBC, for the fifth time on January 5. In addition to being a supporting acting nominee, Hanks will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award. The Carol Burnett Award will go to Ellen DeGeneres. One movie that didn’t scratch out much love Monday: “Cats.” Press association members screened Tom Hooper’s upcoming, muchmemed adaptation of the Broadway musical but rewarded it with only a nod for the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Taylor Swift song “Beautiful Ghosts.”

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Image: Chris Pizzello

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GERVAIS’ 5TH — AND FINAL? — TURN LEADS RAUCOUS GOLDEN GLOBES

Ricky Gervais made a big deal Sunday about how this was the fifth and final time he was going to host the Golden Globes. Maybe that’s true. Maybe not. But it’s the frame he used this time for his devilmay-care act of jokes that provoke a swift intake of breath. Harvey Weinstein and Ronan Farrow references. A Felicity Huffman license plate line. A biting commentary that actors would line up for work if ISIS ran a streaming service. A bleeped, bawdy punchline about Judi Dench. Gervais has a sterling track record; that’s why he’s been back five times. But it was hard to miss the weariness in some of the faces of audience members watching him Sunday. With two awards to go Sunday and an 11 p.m. Eastern deadline already slipped past, Gervais appeared on the stage and looked at his watch. 119

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“Kill me,” he said. “We’re nearly done.” Joke or not, and even if most audience members could surely appreciate the sentiment, it’s not the sort of thing you want from a host. Here are some highlights and lowlights of the annual show:

SIGHT UNSEEN An awkward by-product of today’s splintered entertainment world is that awards shows frequently honor work that few people know. That’s been true with the streaming services’ takeover of the television awards, as Ramy Youseff immediately referenced when he won best actor in a TV comedy for his self-titled Hulu series. “I know you guys haven’t seen my show,” he said (although his humor and charm will guarantee some will seek it out). This time it reached into the movie category, with director Sam Mendes’ World War I epic “1917” winning best drama even though it hasn’t been widely released in theaters. That changes next weekend, and Mendes didn’t miss a chance for some free advertising.

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‘ROCKETMAN’ BESTS SWIFT, BEYONCÉ Some young fans of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift may have wondered about the doddering Elton John, who had to be rescued from tripping as he took the stage. That was his only stumble of the night. The Globes were a showcase for the 1970s superstar and his longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, after voters showed love for the “Rocket Man” biopic and their song, “I’m Gonna Love Me Again.” John noted it was the first time he’d won an award with Taupin. “It’s a relationship that doesn’t happen very much in this town — a 52-year marriage,” John said. Professionally speaking, of course: his real husband, David Furnish, was in the audience.

PRESIDENTIAL FAN Phoebe Waller-Bridge thanked former President Barack Obama for including her Globewinning comedy on his annual list of favorite entertainment. “As some of you know, he’s always been on mine,” she said, a reference to how her character was, um, excited to see Obama in a scene during the first season.

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TRIBUTE TIME Special awards given to Ellen DeGeneres and Tom Hanks provided emotional high points. When Kate McKinnon of “Saturday Night Live” spoke, it put into focus that it has been two decades since both DeGeneres and the ABC sitcom character she played came out as gay, and the impact that had. “I was in my mother’s basement lifting weights in front of a mirror and thinking, ‘Am I gay?’” McKinnon recalled. “And I was. And I still am. That’s a very scary thing to suddenly know.” She saluted DeGeneres for forging a path she could follow. DeGeneres gave an acceptance speech laced with her sly humor, from poking fun at endless acceptance speeches and joking that she “couldn’t do it without my husband Mark.” Hanks, while suffering a cold, broke down at the sight of wife Rita Wilson and his five children in the audience and gave a typically open-hearted speech about fellow actors in the room. “He has made easy work of breaking our hearts and stealing our tears,” actress Charlize Theron said in tribute.

LONG TIME Director Martin Scorsese and actors in “The Irishman” surely gritted their teeth at jokes about the movies’ three hour-plus length. “We’re going to see a short clip from ‘The Irishman,’” Gervais said. “It’s 88 minutes long.” Hanks quipped about wanting to see the outtakes. The jokes would have gone more easily if the movie grabbed some awards, but instead came up empty. There’s always the Oscars.

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POLITICALLY SPEAKING Gervais urged actors to leave their politics at the door, but, really, who expected that? The first political speech came from someone not even in the room: actor Russell Crowe, who left behind a speech for Jennifer Aniston to read when he won for playing media mogul Roger Ailes in “The Loudest Voice in the Room.” It was fortunate that Ailes wasn’t around to watch: seeing an actor who portrayed him speak about the dangers of climate change would have driven him nuts. Actress Michelle Williams spoke about a woman’s right to choose, Patricia Arquette urged people to vote and Joaquin Phoenix touted activism. Australia’s bush fires caught the most attention. Gervais broke his own rule by the show’s end, urging people to “please donate to Australia.”

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ONCE UPON A TIME There was a certain joylessness that accompanied Golden Globe wins for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time .... In Hollywood.” In accepting an award for screenwriting, Tarantino made sure to note that it’s usually a solitary award for people who do work without much help. But this time, he said he had a marvelous cast, “and not just a BS marvelous cast.” If he was reaching for irony, he missed. It was odd, also, that stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt stayed in the audience when the movie won best comedy. Pitt flashed some movie-star charm in winning a supporting actor award, and joked that he wanted to bring his mother to the awards “but I couldn’t because any woman I stand next to they say I’m dating.” It was right after NBC’s cameras caught his ex-wife, Aniston, smiling broadly from the audience.

I NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE HERE Credit actress Olivia Colman of “The Crown” for the most eloquent — and honest — take on an awards show staple: the I-never-thought-I’dwin-with-so-many-wonderful-people-in-mycategory speech. “I got a little bit boozy because I thought this wasn’t going to happen,” she confided to several million people.

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‘JOKER’ TOPS NOMINATIONS FOR BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS

The film “Joker” has topped the nominations for the British Academy film awards announced Tuesday. The movie about the origins of the comic book villain received 11 BAFTA nominations including best film, best actor for Joaquin Phoenix, and best director. Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic “The Irishman” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” were close behind with 10 nominations each, including for best picture. Sam Mendes’ war film “1917” also earned a best picture nomination two days after winning that award at the Golden Globes. The Korean film “Parasite” also is on the best picture list. 133

In addition to Phoenix, the best actor nominees included Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Driver, Taron Egerton and Jonathan Pryce. The best leading actress will be chosen from among Scarlett Johansson, Saoirse Ronan, Charlize Theron, Renee Zellweger and Jessie Buckley. BAFTA executives expressed dismay at the lack of diversity reflected in the nominations, which put only white actors up for the major acting prizes and have no women competing in the best director category. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Being totally honest, we are disappointed, and that is not to take anything away from the people who have been nominated,â&#x20AC;? British Academy Chief Executive Amanda Berry said. The nominees in the majority of categories are selected in a vote by 6,500 BAFTA members around the world. The winners will be announced at a Feb. 2 gala event hosted by comedian Graham Norton, a past BAFTA winner for his TV chat show.

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‘RISE OF SKYWALKER’ IS A SOUR END TO A GRAND SAGA

Not much has caused a disturbance in the “Star Wars” galaxy quite like Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi,” an erratic but electric movie that, regardless of how you felt about it, was something worth arguing about. The same can’t be said for J. J. Abrams’“Rise of Skywalker,” a scattershot, impatiently paced, fan-servicing finale that repurposes so much of what came before that it feels as though someone searching for the hyperspace button accidentally pressed the spin cycle instead. A laundry list of plot points cluster like an asteroid field in “Rise of Skywalker.” It’s a spirited, hectic and ultimately forgettable conclusion of the Skywalker saga begun 42 years ago by George Lucas. 136

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It was also surely a lot to ask for. Abrams, having already ably and nimbly resuscitated Lucas’ space opera with the far less cluttered “The Force Awakens,” was brought back (like seemingly everyone is in “Star Wars,” dead or alive) with the task of not only wrapping up a trilogy but repairing the divides stirred up by “The Last Jedi” and stabilizing the franchise’s revolving door of directors. Abrams here took over for the jettisoned Colin Trevorrow, who retains a “story by” credit. More significantly, “The Last Jedi” had to solve the underlying existential crisis in “Star Wars,” a franchise in search of a reason beyond nostalgia (and, cough, billions of dollars) for continuing. The film, for sure, tries its damnedest to come up with something. It is one busy, hardworking movie. But if anything has been proven by the many attempts to rekindle the magic of the original trilogy, it’s that Lucas’ cosmic amalgamation of Flash Gordon and Akira Kurosawa isn’t so easily refabricated. As the trilogy’s third act, “Rise of Skywalker” takes the general shape of “Return of the Jedi,” even resuscitating its villain: Emperor Palpatine (the very spooky Ian McDiarmid, now mostly a shadowy heap of CGI). He was last seen exploding in a Death Star air shaft, thrown to his apparent death by Darth Vader. Yet as “Star Wars,” the most forever war there is, marches into its fifth decade, the undying demands of a pop culture phenomenon and corporate revenue generator has led to some unsettling resurrections.

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Friendship Featurette

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This third “Star Wars” trilogy began with a plan: the first movie would belong to Han (Harrison Ford), the second to Luke (Mark Hamill) and the third to Leia (Carrie Fisher). Life interfered. Fisher, who along with Ford did more to enliven the original trilogy than any special effect, died of a heart attack in 2016. But she, too, has been brought back for “Rise of the Jedi,” via bits and pieces of old footage. For an actress of such live-wire verve, the composite result — a handful of brief lines and gazes — is a hollow non-performance. Palpatine, residing in a dark Sith lair, essentially sets the table. He summons Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) with an order to “kill the girl” (Daisy Ridley’s Rey) and thereby inherit the throne. With the wave of his hand, Palpatine unearths an entire fleet of Star Destroyers. They rise from the depths, a new armada of doom for the First Order.

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complex plot that sends a crowded Millennium Falcon in search of the hidden Sith base, a quest But this is only a piece of the movie’s manic start. Abrams, who penned the screenplay with Chris

that includes a series of MacGuffins including — like a relic from a more earthbound adventure

Terrio (“Argo,”“Justice League”), races to catch up with the many characters of the Resistance,

— a secret-wielding dagger. “Star Wars” has never lacked for velocity but

among them Leia, Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac), Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), Chewbacca

the pace here is schizophrenic. The movie

(Joonas Suotamo) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels). From the start, there’s a rush to speed through a

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can’t sit still. Everyone’s yelling and most of the bits of humor along the way are too blandly inserted. (C-3PO, at least, is in fine form.) Part

of the rush, it seems, is to dismantle some of

Some of the tropes that Johnson deconstructed

Johnson’s groundwork and refocus the spine of the story on Rey’s destiny and her complicated

have been reassembled. Poe, the Han Solo heir apparent, is again central. New worlds bring new

relationship with Ren. Whether that’s a gesture

friends — a Stormtrooper-turned-rebel played

to the toxic fandom unleashed by “Last Jedi” or not, some characters suffer for it, most notably

by Naomi Ackie; an old rival of Poe’s named Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell); a cute Muppet-like creature

Rose. She was the highlight of “The Last Jedi,” which stirringly realigned the traditional power

named Babu Frik — and old (Billy Dee Williams’ Lando). Many of them make a good impression

dynamics of “Star Wars.” But she’s regrettably sidelined for much of the action this time.

but the encounters proceed predictably.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker | Featurette

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Star Wars | The Evolution of the Stormtrooper

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To go too much into the narrative of “Rise of Skywalker” isn’t necessary and, besides, I’m not totally sure I could explain it all, anyway. That, in itself, is one of the movie’s most disappointing aspects: It’s trying too hard. What the streaming spinoff “The Mandalorian” has proven (besides that people will go absolutely gaga over infant Jedi Masters) is that simplicity of story line pays in “Star Wars,” just as it does in westerns. “Rise of Skywalker” aims for the brilliant parallel action of “Return of the Jedi” but ends up with mounted horse-like creatures charging on the wing of a Star Destroyer. Somewhere, Jar Jar Binks is celebrating. He might not be the most misplaced thing in the galaxy far, far away, after all. But even if “Rise of Skywalker” has its fair share of missteps, it gets some things right. The grief of a Wookie, for one. Kylo’s new black helmet, laced with blood-red cracks, for another. A lightsaber fight amid the sea-strewn rubble of a Death Star swells with watery grandeur. And most of all, the anguished Rey-Ren duel finally takes on the mythical dimensions of earlier “Star Wars” tugs between good and evil. Yt for a movie predicated on satisfying fans, “The Rise of Skywalker” is a distinctly unsatisfying conclusion to what had been an imperfect but mostly good few films. But hope springs eternal among “Star Wars” fans. Some will likely emerge from this latest installment paraphrasing Leia: “Help us, Baby Yoda. You’re our only hope.” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for sci-fi violence and action. Running time: 142 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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EX-HBO HEAD TO MAKE TV, MOVIES FOR APPLE’S STREAMING SERVICE

The former head of HBO, Richard Plepler, has signed an exclusive production deal with Apple to make TV shows and movies for the iPhone maker’s new streaming service, Apple TV Plus. Plepler is well known in the entertainment industry and cultivated HBO’s reputation for “prestige” TV. He left the company after AT&T bought its owner, Time Warner. AT&T began changing Time Warner, now known as WarnerMedia, to fuel the creation of more 147

content for its own streaming service, HBO Max, which is expected to launch this spring. AT&T has kept the HBO name for the service but made it more mass-market than the cable channel, including adding old hit TV shows like “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Apple TV Plus launched last fall with a significantly smaller catalog than Netflix, Disney Plus and other streamers. It’s aiming for quality, stocking its TV shows and movies with Hollywood stars and power players. Its handful of shows landed mixed reviews from TV critics, but one of the most high-profile, “The Morning Show,” received several Golden Globe nominations. Apple has not disclosed how many subscribers it has. It has a potentially huge customer base among Apple’s loyal users and the cheapest price of the major streamers at $5 a month. Apple says Plepler’s new production company, Eden Productions, based in New York, will be a “boutique” shop that makes a “few select” shows and movies — a strategy that could bring to mind HBO’s old approach. Plepler said in a statement that he’s excited to work with the team at Apple, which he called “one of the most creative companies in the world” and the “perfect home” for his “next chapter.” Plepler is a good fit with Apple, which for now is focusing on quality original programming over building a big library of shows and movies, said Michael Greeson, the president of Diffusion Group, a media research firm. The New York Times first reported Plepler and Apple’s new deal. 148

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Image: Alyssa Goodman

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TITANIC WAVE OF STAR-FORMING GASES FOUND IN MILKY WAY

Astronomers have discovered a titanic wave of star-forming gases practically right under our noses in the Milky Way. Harvard University scientists reported that this massive structure has been hiding out in the Milky Way galaxy’s spiral arm closest to Earth. The researchers were building a 3-D map of our galaxy’s interstellar matter, using a star census gathered by Europe’s Gaia spacecraft when they spotted the wave-shaped structure. It’s an astounding 50 quadrillion miles (85 quadrillion kilometers) long and it’s home to tens of thousands of baby stars, with the potential for countless more stellar births, according to the paper published in the journal Nature. All these stellar nurseries, or star-forming blobs of gas, are interconnected, according to Harvard’s Catherine Zucker. Together, they form this wavy, 151

gassy filament, why this shape is still a puzzle.

What’s more, the structure dubbed Radcliffe

The sun is just 500 light years away from the

Wave — after a Harvard institute — contains stellar nurseries once thought to belong in a

wave at its closest point, according to lead author Joao Alves. The team was shocked by the discovery. No one expected “we live next to a giant, wave-like collection of gas — or that it forms the local arm of the Milky Way,” Harvard’s Alyssa Goodman said in a statement.

ring-shaped band around the sun. The wave contains gases equivalent to 3 million times the mass of the sun. “It has completely transformed our understanding of our galactic `neighborhood’, ” Zucker said in an email. It “has been right in front

Image: Alyssa Goodman

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of our noses ... for millions of years, but we could

able to see our corner of the Milky Way in a new

not see it clearly until now.”

light, revealing this gigantic wave before us.”

Launched in 2013, the Gaia spacecraft has

The wave was invisible in 2-D, requiring new

measured the distances to close to 1 billion stars in our galaxy, providing a precious, colossal data

3-D mapping techniques to be detected, the researchers said at the American Astronomical

base for uncovering huge structures like the Radcliffe Wave, according to scientists.

Society’s meeting in Hawaii.

Zucker said by charting the 3-D positions of nearby stellar nurseries, “we have finally been

and determine whether there are more massive waves lurking out there.

The next step, she said, is to figure out its origin

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DANCE MONKEY Tones and I

YUMMY JusTIn BIeBer

MEMORIES Maroon 5

CIRCLES PosT Malone

THE BOX roddy rIcch

GOOD AS HELL lIzzo

DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T START NOW dua lIPa

10,000 HOURS dan + shay

WINTER FLOWER younha

SOMEBODY LIKE THAT TenIlle arTs

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FROZEN 2 (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) VarIous arTIsTs

HOLLYWOODâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BLEEDING PosT Malone

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? BIllIe eIlIsh

TREASURE EPILOGUE : ACTION TO ANSWER aTeez

LOVER Taylor swIfT

FINE LINE harry sTyles

CUZ I LOVE YOU (DELUXE) lIzzo

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET luke coMBs

LOOK UP CHILD lauren daIgle

THE SEARCH nf

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YUMMY JusTIn BIeBer

THE GIT UP Blanco Brown

STRAIGHT TO HELL (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) ozzy osBourne

OLD TOWN ROAD (FEAT. BILLY RAY CYRUS) lIl nas X

CIRCLES PosT Malone

BOP ON BROADWAY (HIP HOP MUSICAL) daBaBy

DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T START NOW dua lIPa

PAID MY DUES nf

HOLD THE LIGHT (FEAT. S. CAREY) dIerks BenTley

SLOW DOWN skIP Marley & her

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WITCH-HUNT Below deck, season 7

LIVING ON THE EDGE The real housewIVes of aTlanTa, season 12

SPYFALL, PT. 2 docTor who, season 12

GRADUATION DAY dePuTy, season 1

2401 The Bachelor, season 24

FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS ManIfesT, season 2

LOOK BACK IN ANGER Bull, season 4

THE KEY VIkIngs, season 6

KICKED OUT sIsTer wIVes, season 14

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW The real housewIVes of new Jersey, season 10

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HUNTER KILLER Brad Taylor

TREASON sTuarT woods

MORAL COMPASS danIelle sTeel

LOVER PeneloPe sky

THE LAST WISH andrzeJ saPkowskI

THE WIVES Tarryn fIsher

COME BACK FOR ME corInne MIchaels

DEAR EDWARD ann naPolITano

THE INDIGO GIRL naTasha Boyd

A SEALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S STRUGGLE cora seTon

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Image: Andy Wong

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HONG KONG STEPS UP RESPONSE TO MYSTERY DISEASE FROM CHINA Hong Kong authorities activated a newly created “serious response” level as fears spread about a mysterious infectious disease that may have been brought back by visitors to a mainland Chinese city. Eight possible cases have been reported of a viral pneumonia that has also infected at least 44 people in Wuhan, an inland city west of Shanghai, about 900 kilometers (570 miles) north of Hong Kong. The outbreak, which emerged last month, has revived memories of the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic that started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in the mainland, Hong Kong and elsewhere. The serious response level indicates a moderate impact on Hong Kong’s population of 7.5 million people. It is the second highest in a three-tier system that is part of a new government plan launched Saturday to respond to infectious diseases of unknown cause. The city’s health department added an additional thermal imaging system at Hong 165

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Kongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s airport on Friday to check the body temperature of arriving passengers. More staff have been assigned for temperature checks at the West Kowloon high-speed rail station that connects Hong Kong to the mainland. City leader Carrie Lam, on a visit to the train station Friday to review the health surveillance measures, urged any travelers who develop respiratory symptoms to wear surgical masks, seek medical attention and let doctors know where they have been. The Wuhan health commission said 11 of the 44 people diagnosed with the pneumonia were in critical condition as of Friday. All were being treated in isolation and 121 others who had been in close contact with them were under observation. Most of the cases have been traced to the South China Seafood City food market in the suburbs of sprawling Wuhan, where offerings reportedly include wild animals that can carry viruses dangerous to humans. The commission said the market has been disinfected. The most common symptom has been fever, with shortness of breath and lung infections in a small number of cases, the commission said, There have been no clear indications of humanto-human transmission of the disease. The latest cases in Hong Kong are two women and one man, aged between 4 and 50 years old, who had been to Wuhan in the past 14 days and had fever and respiratory infection or pneumonia symptoms, the Hospital Authority said. They were in stable condition and being treated at hospitals in isolation. Besides SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, Hong Kong also was hit by bird flu in 1997 and swine flu in 2009. 167

SPACE-BAKED COOKIES, ‘MIGHTY’ MICE BACK ON EARTH VIA SPACEX

The first batch of space-baked cookies is back on Earth, along with muscle-bound “mighty” mice and other space station experiments. SpaceX provided the ride home Tuesday, a month after its Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station. The capsule parachuted into the Pacific, returning 3,800 pounds of gear. Researchers want to inspect the handful of chocolate chip cookies baked by astronauts in a special Zero G oven just in time for Christmas. The oven launched to the space station in November, so astronauts could pop in premade cookie dough provided by DoubleTree. 168

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A spokesman for the hotel chain said five cookies were baked up there, one at a time. The company plans to share details of this first-of-itskind experiment in the coming weeks. “We made space cookies and milk for Santa this year,” NASA astronaut Christina Koch tweeted late last month from the space station, posing with one of the individually wrapped cookies. Scientists also are getting back 40 mice that flew up in early December, including eight genetically engineered to have twice the normal muscle mass. Some of the non-mighty mice bulked up in orbit for the muscle study; others will pack it on once they’re back in the lab. “We’re anxious to welcome the mice home! ” Dr. Se-Jin Lee of the Jackson Laboratory in Connecticut said in an email.

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CELEBS DONATE MILLIONS TO HELP AUSTRALIA WILDFIRE EFFORTS

Elton John and Chris Hemsworth are among the celebrities donating big bucks for relief efforts as wildfires engulf Australia. Hemsworth, the Australian actor who plays Thor in the Marvel movie franchise, took to social media Monday to share that he will donate $1 million and asked his millions of followers to show support as well. He said that “every penny counts.” So far, the wildfires have scorched an area twice the size of the U.S. state of Maryland. The blazes have killed 25 people and destroyed 2,000 homes. The fires, fueled by drought and the country’s hottest and driest year on record, have been raging since September, months earlier than is typical for Australia’s annual wildfire season. 173

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Image: Jordan Strauss

John announced during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert in Sydney, Australia, that he will also donate $1 million. The singer said he wanted to bring attention to the devastation that wildfires have caused, saying it has reached a “biblical scale.” Hemsworth and John join a growing list of celebrities who have pledged to donate toward relief efforts, including Nicole Kidman, Pink and Keith Urban. “I am totally devastated watching what is happening in Australia right now with the horrific bushfires,” Pink wrote in a recent social media post. “I am pledging a donation of $500,000 directly to the local fire services that are battling so hard on the frontlines. My heart goes out to our friends and family in Oz.” Metallica announced a donation on Tuesday night of $750,000 to a firefighting agency and emergency services agency in Victoria. 175

An emotional Rose Byrne, who is Australian, spoke about the crisis and the relief efforts on Tuesday night at the New York premiere of her movie “Like a Boss.” “Really what people need is just donations because it’s all volunteer based, the firefighters and all the rural services and the wildlife services trying to rescue the animals,” she told The Associated Press. She added: “It’s devastating. It’s such a beautiful country. There’s always drought but this is the hottest year on record and they need rain but a lot of rain, not just a little bit which is what’s happening now. They need like a downpour, downpour and it’s just getting hotter and it’s getting more and more out of control. It’s a climate crisis is what it is.” At the Golden Globes on Sunday, Phoebe Waller-Bridge said she would auction off her Globe outfit and have the proceeds go to firefighter relief. Russell Crowe wasn’t at the Globes to accept his trophy for best actor in a limited series or TV movie for playing former Fox CEO Roger Ailes in the Showtime miniseries “The Loudest Voice.” Instead, the actor was in Australia trying to protect his home from the wildfires, sending a speech that Jennifer Aniston read. “Make no mistake, the tragedy unfolding in Australia is climate change-based,” Crowe’s statement said. “We need to act based on science, move our global workforce to renewable energy and respect our planet for the unique and amazing place it is. That way, we all have a future.”

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Image: Rob Grabowski

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COMMERCIAL AIRLINES REROUTE FLIGHTS AMID US-IRAN TENSIONS

Commercial airlines are rerouting flights throughout the Middle East to avoid potential danger during heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. Jumbled schedules could effect as many as 15,000 passengers per day, lengthen flight times by an average of 30 to 90 minutes, and severely bruise the bottom line for airlines, industry analysts said. There is anxiety that the conflict between the longtime foes could intensify following Iranian ballistic missile strikes Tuesday on two Iraqi bases that house U.S. troops. The attacks were retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad last week. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In a war situation, the first casualty is always air transport, said Dubai-based aviation consult Mark Martin, pointing to airline bankruptcies during the Persian Gulf and Yugoslav wars. 179

At least 500 commercial flights travel through Iranian and Iraqi airspace daily, Martin said. A Ukrainian passenger jet crashed shortly after taking off from Iran’s capital Wednesday killing 167 passengers and nine crew members just hours after Iran’s ballistic missile attack, but Iranian officials said they suspected a mechanical issue brought down the 3½-year-old Boeing 737-

A suite of other European carriers followed on Wednesday, and the restrictions were expected to “further depress” air travel between Iran and Western Europe, which saw strong growth after the Iran nuclear deal but a sharp dive when President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement and reimposed sanctions, according to the Sydney-based Center for Aviation consultancy.

800 aircraft. Ukrainian officials initially agreed, but later backed away and declined to offer a cause while the investigation is ongoing.

Air France and Dutch carrier KLM both said Wednesday that they had suspended all flights over Iranian and Iraqi airspace indefinitely.

Still, at least two Kazakh airlines — Air Astana and SCAT — were considering rerouting or canceling their flights over Iran following the crash, which killed all 176 passengers.

German airline Lufthansa and two of its subsidiaries also canceled flights to Iraq.

Poland’s national carrier, PLL LOT, said Saturday that it was changing routes to bypass Iran’s airspace.

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The Russian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, issued an official recommendation for all Russian airlines to avoid flying over Iran, Iraq, the Persian

Gulf and the Gulf of Oman “due to existing risks for the safety of international civil flights.”

Malaysia Airlines said that “due to recent events,” its planes would avoid Iranian airspace.

Russia’s biggest private airline, S7, said it would reroute its twice-a-week flight from the Siberian

Singapore Airlines also said that its flights to Europe would be re-routed to avoid Iran.

city of Novosibirsk to Dubai. Asia-Pacific carriers, which operate many of the world’s long-haul flights, were also expected to be hit hard by the ad hoc no-fly zone over Iran, Martin said. Australian carrier Qantas said it was altering its London to Perth, Australia, route to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice. The longer route meant that Qantas would have to carry fewer passengers and more fuel to remain in the air for an extra 40 to 50 minutes.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation advised Indian commercial carriers to avoid Iranian, Iraqi and Persian Gulf airspace. Buta Airways, an Azerbaijani low-cost carrier, said Wednesday that it was not planning to suspend or reroute daily flights between Baku, the country’s capital, and Tehran. In North America, Air Canada rerouted its flight from Toronto to Dubai through Egypt and Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling over Iraq.

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was barring American pilots and carriers from flying in areas of Iraqi, Iranian and some Persian Gulf airspace. The agency warned of the “potential for miscalculation or mis-identification” for civilian aircraft amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Such restrictions are often precautionary in nature to prevent civilian aircraft from being confused for ones engaged in armed conflict. The FAA said the restrictions were being issued due to “heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the Middle East, which present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations.” In the Middle East, United Arab Emiratesowned budget airline flydubai said it had canceled a scheduled flight Wednesday from Dubai to Baghdad but was continuing flights to Basra and Najaf. Etihad Airways, the second-largest airline in the UAE, continued to operate on a regular schedule, but asked travelers who want to change flights to contact the carrier. Emirates airline flights between Dubai and Baghdad were canceled. “The safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority and will not be compromised,” Emirates said in a statement. Qatar Airways, however, said its flights to Iraq were operating normally. “The safety of our passengers and employees is of the highest importance, and we continue to closely monitor developments in Iraq,” the airline said in a statement. 183

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WILDFIRES THREATEN UNIQUE CRITTERS ON AUSTRALIAN ‘GALAPAGOS’

It has been described as Australia’s Galapagos Islands and has long been a refuge for some of the country’s most endangered creatures. But devastating wildfires over recent days have undone decades of careful conservation work on Kangaroo Island and have threatened to wipe out some of the island’s unique fauna altogether. Experts working on the island say the fires have killed thousands of koalas and kangaroos, and also have raised questions about whether any members of a mouse-like marsupial species that carries its young in a pouch have survived. Similarly, it remains unclear how many from a unique flock of glossy black-cockatoos got away from the flames and whether they have a future on an island where much of their habitat has gone up in smoke. 185

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Located off the coast of South Australia state, Kangaroo Island is about 50% larger than Rhode Island and home to 4,500 people and what was a thriving ecotourism industry. But the wildfires that have been ravaging swaths of Australia have burned through one-third of the island, killing a father and his son and leaving behind a scorched wasteland and a devastated community. They also have left people scrambling to help the critters that have survived. “Caring for all these animals is quite amazing,” said Sam Mitchell, co-owner of the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. “However, we are seeing a lot that are too far gone. We are seeing kangaroos and koalas with their hands burned off — they stand no chance. It’s been quite emotional.” Inspired in part by the late Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin, Mitchell and his wife, Dana, bought the commercial park seven years ago in their early 20s, and have been renovating the place and taking in rescue animals since. With the fire approaching, Dana fled with their 18-month-old son, Connor, while Sam stayed behind to defend the park and their dream. A wind change spared the park from the wildfire’s path. Mitchell said the fires have killed thousands of koalas on the island, a particularly devastating loss because the creatures have remained largely disease-free there, while many koalas on mainland Australia suffer from chlamydia. The couple are currently caring for about 18 burned koalas, and they’ve had to euthanize many more. 187

Meanwhile, Heidi Groffen could do nothing, as all eight monitoring stations she and her partner had set up to keep track of the mysterious Kangaroo Island dunnart, the mouse-like marsupial, melted in the flames. An ecologist and coordinator for the nonprofit Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife, Groffen said the population of 300 or so dunnarts may have been wiped out altogether because they are too small to outrun wildfires, although she remains hopeful that some may have sheltered in rock crevices. “Even if there are survivors, there is no food for them now,” she said. “We’re hoping to bring some into captivity before they are completely gone.” She said the creatures have long fascinated her because so little is known about them. Also uncertain is the future for the 400 or so Kangaroo Island glossy black-cockatoos. Once prevalent on the South Australia mainland, the birds retreated to the island after humans destroyed much of their traditional habitat. “Unlike some of the other animals, the birds are in the best position to escape. They can get away from the fires a bit more,” said Daniella Teixeira, who is working on a doctoral degree about the birds at The University of Queensland. But much like the dunnarts, the cockatoos could find they don’t have enough food left on the island, particularly because they eat only from a single type of tree known as a drooping she-oak. And many hot spots on the island continue to burn. 188

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Teixeira said careful conservation work over the past 25 years has seen the glossy black-cockatoo population increase from 150, but those gains have been wiped out in the space of a week. She said she is currently writing the final chapter of the thesis she began in 2016, but that suddenly everything has changed. “It’s pretty hard to sit here and write a paper on them when I don’t know their status today,” she said. 190

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