White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promoted to senior adviser
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been promoted to senior adviser to the president while retaining her current duties, as reported by ABC News. Jeff Zients, the president’s chief of staff, stated, “Karine has been a trusted advisor to the President” and her advice will be vital moving forward.
Jean-Pierre will begin her new role immediately and is the first press secretary in decades to hold both titles until Biden’s administration ends. The move also shows increased influence by communications and press staff in the White House.
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Hurricane Milton LIVE cam: Traffic cameras in Tampa Bay, Florida
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Hurricane Milton Regains Category 5 Status
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Hurricane Milton 'could be one of the worst storms in 100 years in Florida,' Biden says
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Ron DeSantis: This is the most serious threat to lives
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Evacuations underway, gas stations busy ahead of Hurricane Milton landfall
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When will Hurricane Milton hit Florida? | BBC News
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Hurricane Milton: More than 1m people warned to evacuate
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
USA: Biden wydał proklamację z okazji Dnia Pułaskiego
Prezydent USA Joe Biden wydał w czwartek prezydencką proklamację ogłaszającą piątek 11 października Dniem Pamięci Generała Pułaskiego. Podkreślił, że święto honoruje Amerykanów polskiego pochodzenia i ich wkład w walkę o fundamentalne wartości Ameryki.
"Dzisiaj oddajemy hołd generałowi Kazimierzowi Pułaskiemu, polskiemu imigrantowi, który służył u boku amerykańskich żołnierzy w wojnie o niepodległość i złożył najwyższą ofiarę dla naszego Narodu. I oddajemy hołd kulturze i wkładowi wszystkich polskich Amerykanów naszego kraju, którzy podążają jego śladami, stając w obronie wolności w kraju i na całym świecie" - napisał Biden w wydanym przez Biały Dom dokumencie.
Biden wspomniał o zasługach polskiego generała w walkę o wolność w Polsce i Ameryce, w tym o jego zasługach na polu bitwy i uratowaniu życia George'a Waszyngtona. Zaznaczył, że to dziedzictwo kontynuują dziś Amerykanie polskiego pochodzenia oraz Polacy, którzy pokazują to wspierając Ukrainę.
"Nikt nie wie lepiej niż Polacy, że w chwilach wielkich wstrząsów i niepewności ważne jest to, co sobą reprezentujesz, a to z kim trzymasz robi wielką różnicę. Dzisiaj świętujemy generała Kazimierza Pułaskiego, który postanowił stanąć z naszym Narodem, aby walczyć o naszą wolność. I oddajemy hołd wszystkim polskim Amerykanom, którzy nadal popychają nasz Naród do przodu i walczą o przyszłość opartą na naszych najbardziej podstawowych wartościach: godności, wolności i możliwościach" - napisał Biden.
Proklamacje ustanawiające święto upamiętniające Pułaskiego wydawane są przez prezydentów USA niemal co roku poczynając od uchwały Kongresu z 1929 r., kiedy została ona ogłoszona po raz pierwszy. W 1984 r. Kongres ogłosił z kolei październik miesiącem polskiego dziedzictwa. W minioną niedzielę w kilku miastach Ameryki, w tym Nowym Jorku i Filadelfii, przeszły coroczne parady Pułaskiego.
Kazimierz Pułaski był jednym z dowódców konfederacji barskiej w 1768, powstania szlachty przeciwko Imperium Rosyjskiemu i popieranemu przez nie królowi Stanisławowi Augustowi Poniatowskiemu. Po klęsce konfederacji przyjął zaproszenie markiza Lafayette'a do włączenia się do amerykańskiej walki o niepodległość, podczas której walczył u boku George'a Waszyngtona i zasłynął jako "ojciec amerykańskiej kawalerii". Pułaski zginął na skutek ran odniesionych podczas bitwy o Savannah w Georgii w 1779 r.
(выделено а.п.)
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky says Putin’s war can be stopped in 2025 as Kyiv destroys 400 Russian drones
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says he believes Kyiv has the opportunity to end the war with Russia by next year, as long as his country receives sufficient support from its allies.
“In October, November and December we have a chance to move things toward peace and lasting stability,” he told the Ukraine-South East Europe summit in Dubrovnik.
“The situation on the battlefield creates an opportunity to make this choice for decisive action to end the war no later than in 2025.”
Zelensky also used the summit to call on southeastern European countries to invest in weapons production in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said its forces had struck a base in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region storing hundreds of Shahed drones yesterday. “According to available information, nearly 400 strike drones were stored there,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement.
“Based on objective control results, a direct hit was made on the target. Secondary explosions were observed at the site,” it said.
And the Russian military is looking to make significant advances in the Donbas region before muddy ground conditions in the autumn set in, a US-based think-tank has said.
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Putin 'threatened NUCLEAR war over Ukraine - prompting US president to warn him of 'catastrophic consequences' as Washington scrambled to avoid WW3'
Biden administration increased probability of Russia using nukes to 50 per cent
Vladimir Putin seriously considered unleashing nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, US intelligence suggested, prompting Joe Biden to threaten 'catastrophic consequences' if he did so, a bombshell new book reveals.
Months after the invasion in 2022, the US uncovered evidence of 'highly sensitive, credible conversations inside the Kremlin' that the Russian President could use nukes to avoid major battlefield losses, according to journalist Bob Woodward.
In his new book, War, the famed Watergate reporter describes the Biden administration increased the probability of Russia using nukes up from 5 to 10 per cent up to 50 per cent.
National Security adviser Jake Sullivan reportedly stared 'with dread' at the chilling intelligence assessment, with Biden telling him to 'get on the line with the Russians. Tell them what we will do in response.'
He said to use language that was threatening but not too strong, the book says. Biden also reached out to Putin directly in a message, warning of the 'catastrophic consequences' if Russia used nuclear weapons.
Joe Biden reportedly reached out to Putin directly in a message, warning of the 'catastrophic consequences' if Russia used nuclear weapons
Vladimir Putin seriously considered unleashing nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, US intelligence suggested
Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile launch on April 20, 2022
Putin, his ministers and propagandists, have all frequently threatened the West with Russia's nuclear arsenal.
One of his cronies, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, recently urged Putin to obliterate 'damned' Britain by sinking it under the sea.
In a strong, new warning to the West late last month, the Russian dictator said any nation's conventional attack on his country that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.
The threat was aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia's nuclear arsenal.
Biden has held off on allowing Ukraine to hit military targets deeper inside Russia with US-provided missiles over fears of escalating the war, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleads for permission and Ukraine argues it is nothing more than sabre-rattling from Russia.
In another heated conversation laid out in Woodward's book, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confronted his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, in October 2022.
'We know you are contemplating the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine,' Austin said, according to Woodward.
'Any use of nuclear weapons on any scale against anybody would be seen by the United States and the world as a world-changing event. There is no scale of nuclear weapons that we could overlook or that the world could overlook.'
National Security advisor Jake Sullivan reportedly stared 'with dread' at the chilling intelligence assessment
As Shoigu listened, Austin pressed on, noting that the US had not given Ukraine certain weapons and had restricted the use of some of those it had provided. He warned that those constraints would be reconsidered.
He also noted that China, India, Turkey and Israel would isolate Russia if it used nuclear weapons.
'I don't take kindly to being threatened,' Shoigu responded, according to Woodward's book.
'Mr Minister,' Austin said. 'I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don't make threats.'
According to a US official, Austin's October 21, 2022, call to Shoigu was indeed to warn Russia against any use of nuclear weapons.
The Russian Ministry of Defence released the footage of the military drills on October 7
A propaganda channel recently simulated a Russian nuclear strike on London that would cause 850,000 deaths with two million injured
The official described the call as contentious, and confirmed there were intelligence reports at the time that referred to increased indications of Russia's potential use of nuclear weapons and they triggered growing concerns within the administration.
The official said leaders across the government were instructed to call their counterparts to deliver the same message.
Two days after the first call, Shoigu reportedly called Austin back and falsely claimed the Ukrainians were planning to use a 'dirty bomb,' which the US believed the Kremlin was putting out as a pretext to deploy a nuclear weapon.
'We don't believe you,' Austin said, according to Woodward. 'We don't see any indications of this, and the world will see through this… Don't do it.'
'I understand,' Shoigu is reported to have responded.
In another part of the book, Woodward describes US General Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asking his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, to state the conditions for a Russian use of nuclear weapons.
Gerasimov reportedly responded that one of them involved 'the right to use tactical nuclear weapons in the event of catastrophic battlefield loss.'
Milley is said to have hit back by saying 'none of those conditions are going to obtain.'
US intelligence reportedly pointed to a 50 per cent chance that Putin would use tactical nukes if Ukrainian forces surrounded 30,000 Russian troops in the southern city of Kherson.
Just months before, in the far northeast, Ukrainian troops had stunned the Russians by recapturing Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and were pivoting to liberate Kherson, strategically located on the Dnieper River not far from the Black Sea.
Путин не планирует поздравлять будущего президента США с победой, так как это крайне недружественное государство — Песков.
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«А что, если Путин скажет: «Пока нет. Украина должна капитулировать. И никакого вступления в НАТО»?»
Так Дмитрий Медведев ответил на слова республиканца Майка Джонсона.
Тот ранее заявил, что Трамп, если станет президентом США, якобы положит конец конфликту на Украине — позвонит Путину и скажет, что «уже хватит».
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Заместитель руководителя российского ЦПВС в Сирии Олег Игнасюк сообщил, что беспилотник MQ-9 Reaper коалиции, возглавляемой США, опасно сблизился с российским самолетом Су-35. Благодаря грамотным действиям российского летчика столкновения удалось избежать.
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БПЛА MQ-9 Reaper коалиции, возглавляемой США, опасно сблизился с российским самолетом Су-35 в Сирии, сообщил заместитель руководителя российского ЦПВС в республике Олег Игнасюк.
Мы уже рассматривали этот конфликт в разделе
Украина очень переживает и выступает с дипломатическими демаршами периодически.
Это очередной.
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МИД Украины выступил с очередным заявлением, в котором осудил использование кадров разрушений в Украине для агитации в предвыборной кампании.
На это заявление ответил спикер парламента Грузии Шалва Папуашвили, передает SOVA.
Он заявил, что агитация «Грузинской мечты» приобрела такой резонанс потому, что украинские чиновники «посмотрели в глаза собственному преступлению», поскольку это они «впутывали» Грузию в сценарий, изображенный на этих баннерах.
Как говорит Папуашвили, на эти баннеры должны посмотреть все, «особенно те, кто подталкивал Грузию к сценарию, изображенному на баннерах».
«Это были самые важные наши баннеры, и каждый должен посмотреть на эти фотографии, особенно те, кто подталкивал эту страну к сценарию, который мы видим на этих баннерах. Нас вдохновляли изменить яркую реальность и безопасность, которые у нас есть сегодня, на реальность, которая есть сегодня в Украине», — заявил Папуашвили.
Он добавил, что подобные картины видели не только в Украине — грузинский народ тоже хорошо знает, что означают разрушенные школа, дорога и мост.
Он напомнил об акциях, которые в феврале и марте 2022 устраивала оппозиция. По его словам, митингующие потребовали отправить добровольцев из Грузии на войну в Украине, а за этим «стояли иностранные политики».
«Премьер-министр Украины публично призвал грузинский народ: "Идите в здание парламента и попросите свое правительство отправить добровольцев на войну". Сегодня украинская власть говорит: "Не втягивайте нашу войну в свои политические дебаты", так почему они вмешивались в свое время?» – подчеркнул Папуашвили.
Он также упомянул, как в начале украинской войны Грузию попросили присоединиться к санкциям ЕС против РФ и закрыть небо и границы. Он заявил, что таким образом Грузию «пытались ногой загнать на войну».
Kamala and the Vogue curse: Harris risks election meltdown due to bizarre pattern haunting magazine's cover stars
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After Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, covered Vogue's digital issue on October 11, people flocked to X (formerly Twitter) in fear that there was a 'Vogue curse.'
President Biden's wife Jill Biden was on the cover of Vogue in July 1, 2024, and he dropped out of the race on July 21.
Because Kamala is now the Vogue cover star, some people on social media believe it's possible she's going to experience the same 'curse.'
'Vogue cover means curse in 2024,' Connecticut-based portfolio manager Andrew Fisher tweeted, stoking fears by sharing Jill Biden's cover.
Andrew explained, 'Remember the last time Vogue featured Dr. Jill on the cover? Just days later, Joe was out. Is this what they call the Vogue curse?'
The Democratic presidential nominee, 59, posed for the October digital issue of the fashion magazine Vogue
President Biden's wife Jill Biden was on the cover of Vogue in July 1, 2024, and he dropped out of the race on July 21
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Andrew continued, 'She should be more concerned about the Vogue Curse 2024 than some debate that’s never going to happen.'
Another X user clarified, 'Wouldn't Doug Emhoff have to be on the cover for this "curse" to apply?' referencing Kamala's husband, the potential Second Gentleman of the United States.
Doug on the cover would be the equivalent, as Jill was the First Lady at the time, and Joe did not appear on the cover.
One X user responded, 'There's a Sports Illustrated curse, not a Vogue curse, but do you dude....smh.'
The Sports Illustrated cover jinx is a belief so strong it was covered by Psychology Today, as it showcases players who were featured in the magazine and then had terrible seasons afterwards.
PT explained, 'When a player or team does something exceptional enough to earn a place on the cover of Sports Illustrated or Madden NFL, there is essentially nowhere to go but down.'
Another person brought up the sports mag curse, tweeting, 'Kind of like the Sports Illustrated curse, Vogue cover, you’re gone! Dr Jill ring a bell!'
SI gained another comparison as someone said, 'Last time Vogue put a political figure on the cover it was Jill Biden. The minute it was published, Joe Biden was pushed off the ticket. Perhaps Vogue is the new Sports Illustrated "curse."` And this is going to make Dr. Jill go ballistic.'
Some didn't see the comparison as Biden stepping down was unprecedented.
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Vogue previously released two covers, one for the print issue, and one digital alternative (pictured) in 2021
In the weeks before Inauguration Day in 2021, Harris was featured on an issue of Vogue looking casual in Converse sneakers
'Why are you calling it a curse after one negative incident?' one person questioned.
The Vogue cover called the Democratic presidential nominee the 'candidate for our times' as she posed in a Gabriela Hearst suit and her infamous $800 Tiffany & Co. pearl earrings, which are part of her extensive jewelry collection.
However, some people on social media believed Kamala's photographs appeared too airbrushed and thought the cover looked like AI.
Kamala previously covered Vogue in 2021, appearing dressed down in her signature Converse sneakers along with a black suit jacket, black skinny jeans, and a white T-shirt.
Лучшим десертом к такому фильму, по скромному мнению а.п., памятная статья 8-ми летней давности об особенностях англосаксонского этикета...
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Knives out for British table manners
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Lots of American customs have invaded British culture over the past few decades, but I wouldn’t have bet on this one: apparently, British people have begun to brandish their forks in the American fashion.
In accordance with US “cut-and-switch” etiquette, diners begin with the fork in their left hand and the knife in their right, but after they’ve cut whatever it is they’re about to eat, the knife is put down and the fork is transferred to the right hand. According to a new survey, 23% of UK adults have forsaken the traditional European style – where the fork remains in the left hand – in favour of the American way. Up to a third of young Britons are said to have adopted the American-style fork-switching.
As an American who has never done it (I’m left-handed – why would I switch?), I would have sworn that while the practice might persist in the US, it would never catch on elsewhere. Why would anyone adopt something so cumbersome, pointless and perversely formal? Fork-switching is said to have its origins in 19th-century France, but it fell out of fashion there more than 150 years ago. North America was, until recently, the only place where this obscure bit of pretension clung on.
The fork is a relative latecomer to the place setting. Pronged implements had long been used as cooking utensils, but forks didn’t arrive on European tables until the 11th century, and for hundreds of years afterward were regarded by many as a decadent and vulgar extravagance. Knives and spoons were necessary tools; the fork was just a dainty substitute for one’s fingers. Apparently, Louis XIV forbade his children to eat with forks. It should perhaps come as no surprise that such an instrument would attract a bit of counterintuitive etiquette.
In fact, both styles of eating are now considered “correct” in North America, and it’s rare that you find anybody in the States arguing the case for the cut-and-switch technique. As long ago as 1928, American etiquette expert Emily Post wrote that “to zig-zag the fork from left hand to right at nearly every mouthful is a ridiculous practice of the would-be elegant that is never seen in best society”. Usually, I’m quietly pleased when American customs and practices migrate to Britain, but I’ve been running away from this fork thing my whole life.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
BREAKING: Riverside County Sheriff says his deputies probably prevented Trump assassination attempt, suspect calls accusation 'complete bullsh*t'
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Sherrif Chad Bianco of Riverside County, California held a press conference on Sunday evening to address the arrest of Vem Miller inside the perimeter surrounding Donald Trump's Coachella rally on Saturday. Miller was arrested and found to have questionable credentials along with two guns and ammunition for guns in his car.
Bianco had previously said that he believed his deputies had thwarted a third assassination attempt on Trump. Sources close to the campaign told Fox News that there had been no attempt on Trump's life. Miller spoke with Southern California News Group on Sunday and said he was "shocked" to have been arrested and accused of wanting to harm the former president.
"These accusations are complete bullsh*t," Miller said. "I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody."
"There has been a lot of media stir," Bianco began, "beginning last night with social media, and futher today about the arrest."
"So to begin with," he told reporters, "yesterday afternoon, before President Trump arrived to the rally, we made contact with an individual on the inner perimeter of our operation at the rally. As you can imagine, this as a very large event in regard to the previous attempts on the former president's life. This was not something we were taking lightly." Bianco said he and his deputies had detailed plans in place to protect Trump and the supporters who were in attendance.
"If you're asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the 3rd assassination attempt" he said.
The Secret Service later released a statement saying after their assessement, "the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger. While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing." They expressed their thanks to local law enforcement officials.
To access the perimeter a person needed to have "documentation that said you were going to this rally in the form of an email with VIP credentials or press credentials." No other vehicles, he said, were allowed in.
As to the man who was arrested, Bianco said that as "he approached the outside of the perimeter," he "gave all indications that he belonged there, that he was, that he had, that he was a participant that was allowed to get into VIP and to—and a press corps." However, as he entered the inner perimeter, Bianco said, where a more thorugh investigation would take place by deputies before individuals were allowed into the event itself, "there were many irregularities that popped up."
Bianco said that the "interior of the vehicle was in quite disarray. The vehicle had an obviously fake license plate, and that prompted further investigation from our deputy." As part of that investigation, multiple drivers licences were found with different names, it was discovered that the car was not registered, two guns and ammunition for those guns were found, and that the man, named as Vem Miller, was likley part of the sovereign citizens group.
Miller was taken into custody, booked and arrested on fire arms charges, and while he was released, he is expected to appear in court. Bianco said that his office is working with the FBI and Secret Service "to ensure that this person is followed up on and and all of the information that they can gather." If there are additional charges, they would be federal.
The first reporter to ask a question said that he has spoken to Miller and that he'd said that "accusations" that was he was attempting to assassinate Trump were "complete bullsh*t." Miller, the reporter said, relayed to him that he had "a special access pass" and that he'd told deputies he had firearms in his trunk "as a courtesy."
Bianco said he was "not really concerned with the statement that he gave the media after he was released from custody."
A second reporter asked what about the incident made Bianco say that he believed it had been a third assassination attempt and Bianco said "I don't remember saying that, but it certainly would be something I did say."
When asked about the suspect's background and political party, which appears to be Republican, Bianco said "I couldn't care less what political party he belongs to. I honestly, I think that's the stupidest thing in the world, that we have to label something, and we're labeling this as politics. He was a lunatic." Miller was released on $5,000 bond.
"He was, in, from my perspective, in law enforcement, he was it's that group, if, in fact, it turns out that he is part of of the sovereign sovereign citizens group," Bianco said.
"They are certainly considered a far right group. I wouldn't from, in my own personal belief, I wouldn't say it's a militant group. It's just a group that doesn't believe in government and government control. They don't believe that the government and laws apply to them. So I think it's, it's fringe, one way or the other. I couldn't care less. It's, it's, it's people trying to do harm, and thank God we prevented it."
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Man arrested with illegally possessed weapons near Trump rally Saturday
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A man illegally possessing a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine was arrested Saturday near former President Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, California, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.
Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was arrested just before 5 p.m. PT after deputies assigned to the rally found him in a black SUV at a checkpoint near the rally, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“Miller was taken into custody without incident and later booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine,” the statement said.
The sheriff’s office added that the “incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event.”
Miller was released on a $5,000 bail, according to the Riverside County Inmate Information System.
The sheriff’s department is asking anyone with information to contact the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station.
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign and the US Secret Service for comment.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office is expected to hold a news conference Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.
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This is a drawing of the first White House designed by architect James Hoban, who won the competition to design the president’s new house in 1792. (AP Photo)
In 1792, the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid by President George Washington during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.
Jokes and Offbeat Auctions for the Troops: Standup Comedy Sweeps Ukraine
Even as the conflict with Russia grinds on, a new generation of comics in Ukraine is trying to make people laugh — and raise money for the war effort.
Anton Tymoshenko performing at a stand-up comedy show in July in Kyiv, Ukraine.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Onstage in a Kyiv theater, Anton Tymoshenko tells a joke about Ukrainians who are never satisfied with the weapons their country gets from the West — if they got nuclear weapons, he says, they would probably grumble about the quality of the uranium. He mocks the Odesa mayor (for being allegedly pro-Russian) and the Kyiv one (for being allegedly pro-himself).
Then Mr. Tymoshenko turns his attention to President Volodymyr Zelensky, once a comedian, and his speeches aimed at rallying the Ukrainian people that he has broadcast daily since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Who still watches Zelensky’s videos? Please applaud,” Mr. Tymoshenko asks his audience. A few clap, with little enthusiasm. “Every day, there’s a new one. And you don’t watch them. Neither do I.” He adds, “The first season was great, but now …” He pauses for comic effect. “Maybe he should just rerun old episodes.”
Being a comedian during a war might seem a bit like being a clown at a funeral. But the crowd laughs.
In the third year of the full-scale war with Russia, stand-up comedy, relatively new to Ukraine, is having a moment. Mr. Tymoshenko, 30, is one of a new crop of stand-up comics trying to make people laugh even as Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian cities.
The comedians have performed in the war-ravaged city of Kharkiv; for troops near the front lines in the east; and in the capital, Kyiv, in venues including a bomb shelter and an outdoor stage of a high-rise shopping mall.
Audience members at a stand-up comedy show in July at a shopping mall in Kyiv.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
In a somewhat absurdist twist, stand-up comics are also now seen as important to the war effort by raising millions of dollars for the army through ticket sales and auctions at the end of their shows — some of which they perform in Europe or North America — that they turn into part of their comedy acts.
They have auctioned off things as improbable as an empty Ukrainian grocery bag, a bit of stage lint, stolen maple syrup from Canada, a packaged Russian military meal, key chains made of downed Russian missiles, and a jar of honey made by the bees of a former Ukrainian president. (The honey alone went for more than $1,100.)
Mr. Tymoshenko said in an interview that he had raised almost $300,000 during a recent tour in the United States and Canada. Another Ukrainian comedian, Vasyl Baidak, said he had raised $277,000 during a three-week European tour. Those numbers could not be independently verified.
Like other stand-up comics in Ukraine, they say they donate their proceeds to Ukrainian brigades to buy things like drones, drone-defense systems and body armor.
“Everything can be sold, including a sock,” said Serhiy Chyrkov, another stand-up comic.
Dark humor is sometimes the best way to get through difficult times, build a sense of community and improve morale, as any military veteran knows.
“It’s about what we live in, this crisis,” said Zoya Melnyk, sitting in the audience before Mr. Tymoshenko’s recent show. “It’s about funny things we don’t notice at first.”
A moment of silence at the comedy show.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Stand-up comedy is a recent Ukrainian import. In the Soviet Union, comedians faced censorship and performed vetted material, or risked reprisal.
(выделено а.п.)
After the fall of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence in 1991, comedy remained pretty stale, mostly censored, driven by Moscow’s tastes and performed largely in Russian.
Comedy troupes, including one led by Mr. Zelensky, eventually gained popularity in Russia, mainly performing skits, and not stand-up comedy. Mr. Zelensky eventually became a comedy star in Ukraine, culminating in his role in the TV show “Servant of the People” as a history teacher who accidentally becomes the Ukrainian president. And then, in a dramatic real-life turn that few saw coming, he parlayed that show into an actual successful run for president.
The first official Ukrainian stand-up show opened in Kyiv in about 2012, said Mr. Baidak, who has studied the history of comedy in Ukraine. A year later, there was a stand-up show in Kharkiv, then one in Lviv.
Stand-up comics said in interviews they were inspired by watching performances on YouTube by comedians like the American Doug Stanhope — whom they really, really want to perform in Ukraine. (Mr. Stanhope, who was himself unsure why he’d taken off in Ukraine, specifically, said he was open to visiting Kyiv this fall. “In my life, everything sounds boring, except for this,” he said in an interview.)
The war changed things in Ukraine. Many comics wrestle with the sometimes uncomfortable fact that they are not fighting on the front lines, although they are eligible for the military draft. Some enlisted — including Mr. Chyrkov, who joined the army in September.
Stand-up comedy itself has become more serious, more intentional. For a profession founded on the idea of mocking institutions, many Ukrainian comedians seem downright patriotic, saying they tell jokes to lift Ukrainians’ spirits.
Mr. Baidak, an absurdist comedian, once told jokes about horses and flies. One involved a tornado and a bathroom. Now, he is more grounded in reality.
“I must do jokes about the war because I feel a responsibility,” he said. At the beginning of the invasion, he would not joke about the front lines or explosions. But after going to the front lines, performing, talking to soldiers and hearing explosions for himself, he said, “I just want to tell you what I feel, how it is to be there.”
The comedian Anastasiia Zukhvala in July in Kyiv.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
While most comedians are men, women are also taking the stage.
On a recent Sunday, Anastasiia Zukhvala performed a set outside the high-rise Gulliver shopping mall, riffing on normal non-war concerns — hating summer heat, being a terrible driver. And, like many of her fellow comedians, she took the opportunity to poke fun at Russians.
In an interview, she said she would not joke about the tragedies in Ukraine. She said that everyone knew the crisis the country faced, adding that she and her fellow comics had “resting Shevchenko face” — a reference to the Ukrainian poet whose droopy mustache and dour expression are featured on busts that are ubiquitous in Ukraine.
Despite the blossoming of stand-up comedy, the former Soviet republic still wrestles with the ideals of democracy and free speech.
At the Atlas Weekend music and arts festival in July in Kyiv, Mr. Chyrkov’s set consisted of reading Mr. Zelensky’s 2019 election promises verbatim, about ending poverty and nepotism and the fighting with Russia in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. As he spoke, a security guard yanked him off the stage. Festival officials later called the episode an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and blamed an employee for having “a false interpretation of what was happening.”
In an interview, Mr. Chyrkov said he had no interest in talking about the Atlas festival and said he believed it was a misunderstanding.
Mr. Tymoshenko, however, had some choice words for Atlas at his recent show in Kyiv, saying the festival should “go to hell” for not respecting stand-up. “It’s never happened before, no matter who was onstage,” Mr. Tymoshenko told the audience.
At the end of his set, he switched into auctioneer mode, selling off things like a drink with him in his dressing room after the show (raising almost $725); remnants of a Russian infantry fighting vehicle destroyed in the Kyiv suburb of Hostomel in March 2022 (about $1,200); and, somewhat inexplicably, a T-shirt signed by both Andriy Shevchenko, a former Ukrainian soccer star, and the American actor Liev Schreiber, who is of Ukrainian descent (about $1,325).
Mr. Tymoshenko ended by auctioning off his microphone. “You can remove the mic from me,” he said. “Raise your hand if you are interested.”
A man named Kostya beat out his competitors with an offer of almost $850. It was a lucrative mic drop.
A comedy show on an outdoor terrace of a shopping mall.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times.
Простите им их убожество.
В России, в СССР, в том числе stand-up-функцию, выполняли профессиональные деятели искусств, в свободное от основной профессии время, перед отраслевой аудиторией, как любители, в качестве пародистов и импровизаторов.
Цитата:
Ираклий Андронников. «Первый раз на эстраде». 1971 г.
Цитата:
И.И.Соллертинский. Переводчик вечности.
Цитата:
Ираклий Андроников - "Вариации на тему: С.Я.Маршак"
Dawn Sturgess: UK inquiry into Novichok death to start
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LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A public inquiry into the death of a woman who Britain says was unwittingly killed by the Novichok nerve agent following the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal six years ago will begin on Monday.
Dawn Sturgess died from exposure to Novichok in July 2018 after her partner found a counterfeit perfume bottle which police believe had been used by Russian intelligence operatives to smuggle the poison into the country.
Skripal, who sold Russian secrets to Britain, and his daughter Yulia had been found slumped unconscious on a public bench in the southern English city of Salisbury four months earlier.
Both they, and a police officer who went to Skripal's house, were left critically ill from the effects of the military-grade nerve agent, but recovered.
On Monday, an inquiry into Sturgess's death finally opens, with hearings held initially in Salisbury. Its aim is to provide her family with answers to how her death came about, and it will hear some confidential evidence in secret from the government and the security services.
While British police have charged in absentia three Russians, who they say are GRU military intelligence officers, over the attack on Skripal and his daughter, no formal case has been brought against them over the death of Sturgess, 44.
The three men and Moscow have denied any involvement.
Last month, the inquiry chair, former Supreme Court judge Anthony Hughes, ruled that the Skripals would not give evidence themselves, saying there was an "overwhelming risk" they still faced physical attack if they could be identified and their current whereabouts revealed.
Two of the Russians accused by Britain of carrying out the poisoning later appeared on Russian TV to deny involvement, saying they had been innocent tourists visiting the city's cathedral.
The incident led to the biggest East-West diplomatic expulsions since the Cold War, and relations between London and Moscow have since got even worse following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian embassy in London said last week the British foreign ministry's "references to the alleged use of the mythical Novichok are quite preposterous".
"Following the Salisbury provocation in 2018 it was the UK side that refused to follow established procedures and cooperate with Russia to uncover the truth," it said on X.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
С прошлой недели почти по всей Украине идут масштабные рейды ТЦК.
Это, пожалуй, самая мощная активизация «улично-принудительной» мобилизации с момента начала войны.
«Страна», поговорив с источниками в ТЦК и в Минобороны, выяснила, что это означает и с чем связано.
Прежде всего, нужно различать два процесса.
Первый – «показательные выступления» ТЦК на концертах, в ночных клубах и в ресторанах. Они, как мы уже писали, носят, в основном, информационно-пиарный характер. И призваны показать армии и обществу, что «неприкасаемых нет». В реальности, же, как говорят источники «Страны», эффект для пополнения армии от подобных мероприятий мизерный – в основном, «бусифицированные» таким образом мужчины откупаются. Причем, военкомы, благодаря таким рейдам, снимают «двойную кассу» - «обилечивают» и задержанных, и заведения. Таксы за то, чтоб ТЦК не беспокоили клиентов ресторанов и ночных клубов существовали всегда. Но сейчас о прежних «откупных» по команде сверху было приказано забыть. Но это не значит, что не будет новых договоренностей. Они будут. Только уже дороже.
Однако, как говорят источники, эти «показательные выступления», хоть и привлекают всеобщее внимание, но, тем не менее, носят вспомогательный характер. Их задача - обеспечить пиар-прикрытие второму и главному процессу – резкой активизации уличной мобилизации и облав по всем местам скопления людей: рынки, торговые центры, любые массовые мероприятия.
Причина такой активизации – тотальный (до 70%) срыв планов по мобилизации.
«Официально заявляется, что, после принятия закона о мобилизации, ее темпы выросли чуть ли в три раза. Но, в реальности, таких цифр нет и близко. На самом деле рост был, но в пределах 50% плюс минус. И был обеспечен он, в основном, не новым законом о мобилизации, а резким снижением требований по пригодности к службе по состоянию здоровья. Прохождение ВЛК стало, в большинстве случаев, абсолютной формальностью. Это и дало прирост. Но с сентября пошел сильный спад. Кроме того, закон об ужесточении мобилизации пока не дал особого эффекта. Основная надежда была на то, что обновят свои данные люди, которые не имеют право на бронь и отсрочку. Предполагалось, что это ответственные граждане, которые добровольно идти на фронт не готовы, но если им придет повестка, то прятаться не будут. Но реальность оказалось иной. Во-первых, большинство тех, кто обновили свои данные, имеют либо бронь, либо право на отсрочку. Во-вторых, тем, кто обновили свои данные, но не имеют брони или права на отсрочку повестки начали массово рассылать лишь недавно. Но тот опыт, который уже есть, показывает, что процент добровольной явки очень небольшой. Есть подозрение, что многие просто указывали фейковые адреса. В-третьих, начало очень быстро расти число забронированных работников, которое уже достигло полутора миллиона человек. На брони возник свой рынок по «откосу» от мобилизации, альтернативный взяткам в ТЦК или в МСЭК. На предприятия, имеющие право на бронь, люди устраиваются за деньги, выплачивая их руководству. В ответ на эти проблемы было принято три решения. Первое – активизировать рассылку повесток. Второе – начать аудит предприятий, которые бронируют сотрудников. Третье – начать массовые уличные облавы с целью выявить тех, кто данные не обновил и массово забирать их в ТЦК с последующей мобилизацией. Это и причина того, что сейчас происходит на улицах», - говорит источник из сферы ТЦК.
Но, по его мнению, эффект от рейдов ТЦК очень низок из-за тотальной коррупции – даже если забрали на улице, есть возможность выйти за деньги.
Цитата:
Продолжение...
«Если забрали на улице и нет отсрочки, то есть возможность выйти из бусика сразу, еще до прибытия в ТЦК – это стоит около тысячи долларов. Половину от этой суммы нужно сдать начальству после рейда, если утаишь деньги – рано или поздно сдадут свои же и тогда уже тебя задержат на взятке. Есть возможность уйти домой и из ТЦК. Но это дороже. Цена вопроса – уже от 3 до 5 тысяч долларов, в зависимости от аппетита руководства. Кроме того, могут обязать еще заносить от 500 до тысячи долларов ежемесячно как гарантию того, что снова не задержат. В итоге остаются лишь самые неплатежеспособные и без связей. Коррупция массовая. После некоторых рейдов на мобилизацию отправляют лишь 10-15% задержанных», - говорит источник.
Но даже с теми, кого все ж таки удалось мобилизовать, есть много проблем.
Из-за снижения требований по здоровью годными к службе признают мужчин с хроническими заболеваниями и даже алко- и наркозависимых.
«Потом происходит так – в учебку привозят больного астмой, диабетом или хромого парня, который не сможет пробежать более пяти метров или откровенного наркомана или алкаша. Начальник учебной части наотрез отказывается принимать такого в подразделение. Так как если он возьмет к себе больного или наркозависимого, то проблемы будут уже у него. Больной может умереть в учебке, наркоман продолжит колоться или употреблять соли. При том, что есть доступ к боевому оружию, могут быть различные залеты, от суицида до разборок в казарме со стрельбой. Но даже если этого не случится, потом после учебки «инвалидов», как называют хронически больных в войсках, и наркоманов с алкашами, все равно откажется брать на службу боевое подразделение, их командирам тоже такое «счастье» даром не надо. «Инвалиды» небоеспособны. А воевать нужно реально, людей не хватает катастрофически. Поэтому «инвалидов» потом возят неделями по разным областям, буквально уговаривают забрать их в учебки. Правда, в последние два месяца такой контингент все же начали забирать и в учебки, и в боевые подразделения из-за усилившейся нехватки людей. В учебках их не тренируют и не учат ничему. Чаще всего они выполняют какие-то хозработы. Потом, после трех недель такой условной подготовки, их отправляют в самые обескровленные бригады на самых жестких участках фронта – командиры бригад просто поставлены перед фактом отсутствия выбора и необходимостью хоть кем-то закрывать дыры на позициях. Поэтому «инвалидов» сразу кидают на ноль», - рассказывает о том, что происходит после мобилизации один из украинских офицеров.
Источники в военных кругах говорят, что в связи с проблемами с пополнением армии вновь активизировались разговоры о снижении возраста мобилизации (сейчас нижний порог составляет 25 лет). Но, по их словам, политического решения пока не принято. Власти пока еще ожидают эффекта от уличных облав и массовой рассылки повесток. Кроме того, в целом, они хотят понять какая будет дальнейшая стратегия войны или ее завершения исходя из итогов выборов в США, а также исходя из общей ситуации на фронте. Но если будет ясно, что война уходит в «долгую», вопрос о снижении возраста может быть поставлен на повестку дня.
Bath and Body Works apologizes for selling candles that looked like Ku Klux Klan hoods
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Bath and Body Works has stopped selling a candle that was emblazoned with a winter theme that many commenters online compared to a Ku Klux Klan hood.
The candle’s label, called “Snowed In,” was decorated with a stylized paper snowflake. But many people on social media compared it to the hoods and robes worn by Klansmembers. The KKK is the one of the “oldest and most infamous” hate groups in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Anti-Defamation League says that the imagery of the KKK hood itself has become a hate symbol.
The candle has since been pulled from Bath and Body Works’ website and retail locations, with the company telling CNN in a statement its design was “unintentional.”
“At Bath and Body Works, we are committed to listening to our teams and customers, and committed to fixing any mistakes we make-even those that are unintentional like this one,” a spokesperson said. “We apologize to anyone we’ve offended and are swiftly working to have this item removed and are evaluating our process going forward.”
Commenters on Reddit jumped on the design choice, calling it a “klandle” or a “Klan Krismas Kandle.” Some people who tried ordering the candle after the controversy erupted late last week said on social media that their orders had been canceled.
The canceled candle has appeared on eBay, however, with one person attempting to sell the candle for $350. The website’s policies ban listings that include racist terms or language, however the candle will remain on eBay since it’s not explicitly racist.
“EBay policies prohibit listings that include racist terms or language,” a company spokesperson said. “Any items being marketed using racist language will be blocked or removed.”
Candles are a staple of Bath and Body Works’ collection, which has evolved beyond soaps and lotions. Every year, the retailer rolls out its collection of holiday-scented candles that amount to nearly 40% of its annual sales, according to an analyst.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
France bans Israel from defense show, Gallant: A disgrace
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“French President Macron’s actions are a disgrace to the French nation and the values of the free world, which he claims to uphold. The decision to discriminate against Israeli defense industries in France a second time - aids Israel’s enemies during war. This builds on the decision to place an arms embargo on the Jewish State,” said Gallant.
“France has adopted, and is consistently implementing a hostile policy towards the Jewish people. We will continue defending our nation against enemies on seven different fronts, and fighting for our future - with or without France,” he added.
Gallant’s comments came hours after organizers of the major Euronaval defense show, which is set to take place in France next month, announced that Israeli delegations taking part in the show will not be permitted to set up any stand or exhibit hardware.
"The French government informed Euronaval of its decision to approve the participation of Israeli delegations at Euronaval 2024, without any stand or exhibition of equipment," said the organizers of the show which is due to start on November 4 in Paris, as quoted by the AFP news agency.
Euronaval, a biennial event that attracts naval defense exhibitors from around the world, said seven Israeli companies are affected by the decision.
"In accordance with the French government's decision, Israeli companies and citizens who wish to attend will be welcomed at the show under the conditions listed above," it added.
The decision comes amid tense relations between France and Israel. Macron has grown increasingly critical of Israel’s counterterrorism operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Just last week, the French President said that "stopping the export of weapons" used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to end fighting there.
"We all know it. It's the unique lever that would end it," Macron said at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Cyprus.
Macron also claimed that Israel was “deliberately targeting” UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon and said this was "absolutely unacceptable".
Those comments were the second time in a week that Macron has called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel. Netanyahu responded to Macron’s first call and said, "As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet President Macron and other western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel."
"Shame on them. Is Iran imposing an arms embargo on Hezbollah, on the Houthis, on Hamas and on its other proxies? Of course not. This axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this terror axis call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace!" he added.
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America revolted against Tostitos and Ruffles. Now they’re making big changes
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The owner of Lay’s, Doritos, Tostitos and Ruffles chips will put more chips in some bags to claw back customers tired of higher prices with skimpier bags. Shoppers have balked at downsized chips, cookies, paper towels and other products, widely known as shrinkflation, and turned to cheaper options or stopped buying altogether.
A PepsiCo spokesperson told CNN that Tostitos and Ruffles “bonus” bags will contain 20% more chips for the same price as standard bags in select locations. PepsiCo is also adding two additional small chip bags to its variety-pack option with 18 bags, the spokesperson said.
“It’s the football season. There’s a lot of gatherings,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said on an earnings call last week.
It’s a reversal of years of shrinking bags of Tostitos, Ruffles and other chip brands.
In 2021, Edgar Dworsky, a consumer protection lawyer and founder of the website Consumer World, who meticulously tracks shrinkflation, found that Tostitos’ “Hint of Guacamole” version shrank by one ounce from 12 to 11 ounces, while its “Hint of Lime” version dropped from 13 ounces to 11. Dworsky also found that Ruffles shaved off a half-ounce to a “Sour Cream & Onion” bag in 2013.
“It’s about time,” Dworsky said of PepsiCo’s move. “Chip lovers have suffered through years of downsizings.”
PepsiCo is the largest manufacturer of salty snacks in the United States, and its competitors are likely to follow its lead with increased sizes of their own, Robert Moskow, an analyst at TD Cowen, told CNN.
Higher prices, lower sales
PepsiCo is making these changes because consumers, strained by a run-up in inflation, have been buying fewer snacks. When they do, they often switch from pricier big brands like Tostitos to Walmart, Costco and other retailers’ private-label brands.
During the third quarter of 2024, snack sales declined 0.5% from the same period a year ago, and retail snack volumes declined by 1.1%, according to research by Bank of America analysts.
PepsiCo’s snack sales dropped 1% last quarter and its snack volumes dropped 1.5%.
Snack prices have gone up more rapidly than other store items.
The price per ounce of salty snacks has increased 36% compared to 2020, outpacing a 21% increase in overall grocery store prices, Moskow said.
The average price of 16-ounce potato chips in September was $6.46. In September 2020, the average price was $5.02, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Consumers and lawmakers in recent years have also protested companies downsizing products while simultaneously raising prices. Everyone from President Joe Biden to the Cookie Monster has complained about shrinkflation.
PepsiCo, General Mills, Mondelez and other snack giants have ramped up promotions to try to win back customers, but the promotions have been ineffective, according to Bank of America.
Other companies are also trying to respond to consumers’ frustration with shrinkflation.
Domino’s last month offered a limited-time deal called “Moreflation.” Online customers who ordered two or more medium two-topping pizzas could upgrade one of their pizzas to a large for free.
“Consumers are getting fed up of actually seeing a smaller portion for the same price,” Domino’s finance chief Sandeep Reddy said on an earnings call last month.
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Цитата:
America’s french fry king sounds an alarm
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Americans are revolting against McDonald’s and fast-food chains. That’s hurting french fry suppliers like Lamb Weston.
Lamb Weston, the largest producer of french fries in North America and a major supplier to fast-food chains, restaurants and grocery stores, is closing a production plant in Washington state. The company announced last week that it would lay off nearly 400 employees, or 4% of its workforce, and temporarily cut production lines in response to slowing customer demand.
Shares of Lamb Weston (LW) have dropped 35% this year.
The potato giant is oversupplied at a time when demand is sluggish. Restaurant prices in recent years have increased faster than grocery store prices, leading customers to pull back at fast-food chains.
This shift has taken a toll on Lamb Weston because people are less likely to cook french fries at home. Around 80% of french fries consumed in the United States come from fast-food chains, according to Lamb Weston.
Fast-food chains like McDonald’s are dangling value menus to try to lure customers back. McDonald’s has launched a $5 meal, which includes a McDouble cheeseburger or a McChicken sandwich, small french fries, 4-piece chicken nuggets and small soft drink. But these deals aren’t helping Lamb Weston because people are buying smaller portions of fries.
“Many of these promotional meal deals have consumers trading down from a medium fry to a small fry,” Lamb Weston CEO Thomas Werner said last week on an earnings call.
Lamb Weston did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
McDonald’s, its largest customer, accounts for 13% of Lamb Weston’s sales. As McDonald’s goes, so goes Lamb Weston.
And McDonald’s is struggling. Sales at US restaurants open at least a year fell 0.7% last quarter from the same period a year earlier, dragged down by fewer customers visiting the chain.
Lamb Weston is also highly exposed to other fast-food chains, analyst R.J. Hottovy at analytics firm Placer.ai said in a research note to clients last week.
Customer traffic to fast-food chains dropped 2% last quarter and 3% the previous quarter compared to the same time last year, according to Lamb Weston.
Цитата:
Red Lobster is a mess. Here’s why the new 35-year-old CEO wanted the job anyway
New YorkCNN —
TikToks of customers stuffing their faces with a $20 endless shrimp. More than 100 restaurant closures and thousands of layoffs. A revolving door of CEOs. Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Damola Adamolekun, the new chief executive of Red Lobster, is taking over a chain in turmoil. And he’s only 35.
“There’s a hole to climb out of, for sure, and that will be the hardest part,” Adamolekun told CNN last Friday in his first on-camera interview as CEO over lobster tail, snow crab legs, garlic shrimp scampi, crispy dragon shrimp and cheddar bay biscuits.
“It’s been a painful period in bankruptcy, and the closures have affected a lot of people,” he said as couples and families began trickling into the remodeled — but largely nondescript — Red Lobster in a Long Island, New York, outlet mall, complete with a tank of lobsters at the entrance, a bar and friendly waitstaff.
Adamolekun, born in Nigeria to a neurologist and a pharmacist, was raised in Zimbabwe and the Netherlands before moving to Springfield, Illinois, when he was nine. Red Lobster was one of the first chain restaurants he visited in the United States, and it became a “staple” for his family.
Red Lobster's new chief executive Damola Adamolekun during an interview with CNN at a Red Lobster in Long Island, New York, last week.
CNN
In Springfield, he first ate at a Red Lobster with his parents and two siblings after church one Sunday. Red Lobster was where he, like millions of Americans, experienced eating lobster and cracking crab legs for the first time.
Adamolekun wanted to lead Red Lobster’s turnaround because of its history as the “first really successful casual dining chain in America at scale.” Bill Darden, a pioneer of the casual dining revolution in America, opened Red Lobster in 1968. The chain grew rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s under General Mills’ ownership.
He was also drawn to Red Lobster because of its “cultural impact.” Celebrities such as Chris Rock and Nicki Minaj worked there before they became famous. Beyoncé sang about taking a romantic partner to Red Lobster in her 2016 hit song “Formation.”
After Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy, Flava Flav ordered the whole menu to try to save the company.
“Mr. Flav has done a lot,” Adamolekun said. “We’re very appreciative of him.”
Improving service and menus
Red Lobster emerged from bankruptcy last month under new ownership, led by one of its lenders, Fortress Investment Group. Fortress has initially committed $60 million to revitalize the chain.
Adamolekun’s plan for the business does not call for a massive overhaul. Instead, it is one of “incremental changes.”
Red Lobster is done closing restaurants, he said, and he will focus on improving table service, tightening the menu to simplify kitchen operations and sprucing up dining rooms.
The chain must hold onto Red Lobster’s customer base of Baby Boomers — around 40% are older than 55, a demographic Red Lobster calls “quality traditionalists” — while also drawing in a new generation of diners.
A Red Lobster in Alexandria, Virginia, shown this year. Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy protection in May.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
So flounder is staying on the menu because it’s popular with older customers, he said. But Adamolekun wants to improve the atmosphere to appeal to younger customers, who are more loyal to casual dining rivals like Olive Garden.
That means dishes that sizzle when they drop on a hot stone plate at the table and cakes that arrive with sparklers on customers’ birthdays. It was a similar playbook he ran while CEO of P.F. Chang’s, one he called “theater at the table.”
Red Lobster has also struggled to consistently attract middle-income consumers with more disposable income, said Clarence Otis Jr., the former CEO of Darden Restaurants from 2004 to 2014, when Darden owned Red Lobster.
Some analysts say Adamolekun needs a bolder strategy to grow Red Lobster.
“It can be incremental change to start, but he has to build it into something more sustainable,” said RJ Hottovy, an analyst at analytics firm Placer.ai. Hottovy believes that Red Lobster will close more restaurants in the future, despite Adamolekun’s pledges.
“In five years, I bet it’s smaller in terms of unit count, but probably in a more stable position with a slightly more upscale image,” Hottovy said.
‘A lot of chaos’
Adamolekun will inherit a chain that has slipped for more than a decade, but whose decline accelerated under seafood conglomerate Thai Union Group.
In 2020, Thai Union, a longtime shrimp supplier to Red Lobster, gained 49% control of the chain, becoming its majority shareholder. Former Red Lobster employees previously described to CNN a toxic and demoralizing environment under Thai Union. As Thai Union installed executives at the chain, dozens of veteran Red Lobster leaders were fired or resigned in rapid succession.
“I have to believe (Thai Union) wanted to do as well as they could. The fundamental problem is they’re not restaurant operators. They’re vendors for shrimp,” Adamolekun said.
Red Lobster closed more than 100 restaurants this year, including a location in Orlando, Florida, shown this year.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Last year, Red Lobster made $20 endless shrimp a permanent menu item for the first time. It had been a limited-time offer for nearly two decades.
When Adamolekun saw the $20 endless shrimp deal, he thought, “that’s a very expensive product to give away endlessly.”
The move backfired spectacularly for Red Lobster. Customers sat at tables for long stretches of time, eating course after course of unlimited shrimp. Service slowed and wait times grew. Red Lobster lost $11 million in the quarter following the deal, and Thai Union divested from the chain this year, taking a $530 million loss on its investment. Thai Union’s CEO vowed to stop eating lobster.
“You stress out the kitchen. You stress out the servers. You stress out the host. People can’t get a table,” Adamolekun said. “It creates a lot of chaos operationally.”
Thai Union did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Taking over P.F. Chang’s in crisis
Adamolekun’s family moved to Columbia, Maryland, before he was in high school. He played free safety on the football team and then at Brown University.
After graduating from Harvard Business School in in 2017, Adamolekun joined Paulson & Co., the investment firm founded by hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson.
While he worked at Paulson, P.F. Chang’s owner put the Chinese restaurant chain up for sale.
Adamolekun saw an opportunity to grow P.F. Chang’s small delivery business, and he pitched the investment idea to John Paulson. The company took a controlling stake in P.F. Chang’s in 2019, and Adamolekun took a seat on the chain’s board of directors.
Adamolekun, born in Nigeria, was formerly the CEO of P.F. Chang's.
Courtesy Red Lobster
Over the next year, Adamolekun traveled every week from New York City to P.F. Chang’s headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona. He became P.F. Chang’s chief strategy officer, developing its mobile app and delivery business.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, and P.F. Chang’s CEO stepped aside a month later. John Paulson asked the 30-year-old who had never been a chief executive to take over.
Under Adamolekun, P.F. Chang’s was able to hang on during the pandemic. Bolstered by its strong takeout and delivery business, it survived even as dozens of other restaurant chains filed for bankruptcy.
Adamolekun stepped down as CEO last year. John Paulson and P.F. Chang’s thanked him for steering the chain through the crisis.
His radar soon shifted to Red Lobster.
Reviving Red Lobster
In March, as Red Lobster slipped toward bankruptcy, he began doing consulting work on the chain for Fortress, said the firm’s managing director Morgan McClure. In August, Fortress named him Red Lobster’s CEO.
“We wanted someone who was dynamic,” McClure said. Adamolekun “can inject some energy into (Red Lobster) and is willing to roll up his sleeves and dig into the nitty gritty of it.”
Red Lobster has suffered from a noticeable lack of investment. It has not kept up with technology that helps hosts determine wait times for customers at tables or manage inventory in kitchens. Customers have also complained about staffing levels. To save money, Red Lobster stopped using a bartender or a host at certain times.
A Red Lobster in Austin, Texas, shown here. Adamolekun plans to improve table service and spruce up restaurants.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
“Those are the most glaring issues — when there’s something really missing from a staffing position,” he said. “Everybody notices.”
Red Lobster is working on a “brand refresh program” to try to make the restaurants more exciting with new layouts, décor, lighting, music and waiter uniforms. The challenge will be to change the environment without turning off Red Lobster traditionalists.
The endless shrimp deal alienated traditional customers, he said, who were used to coming in for a quiet lunch. Instead, they found themselves sitting next to large groups stuffing their faces with shrimp and filming on TikTok.
Adamolekun did not rule out bringing back an endless shrimp promotion in the future but promised it would not overwhelm staff and disrupt restaurants.
“I never want to say never, but certainly not the way that it was done,” he said. “We won’t have it in a way that’s losing money in that fashion and isn’t managed.”
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
Massive influx of shadowy get-out-the-vote spending floods swing states
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Volunteer Justin Berkheimer speaks to an Erie resident while knocking on doors in support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Erie, Pa., on Sept. 25. (Hannah Beier/Reuters)
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has offered Americans $47 for each swing state voter they recruit to his effort to elect Donald Trump.
Democratic groups have started paying at least $160 to more than 75,000 voters who agree to contact dozens of their friends and relatives with requests to support Kamala Harris.
In Philadelphia, a nonprofit plans to mail 102,000 copies of a comic book this weekend to every voter under the age of 32, featuring the Liberty Knights, a superhero squad that defeats Dr. Mayhem’s quest to steal the city’s spirit, entomb it in ruby shards and stop the youth from voting.
For those who would still rather party than do politics, there are free concerts, street festivals, coat drives, tailgates and daytime raves popping up near early voting centers in key states that blur the difference. Other operations are hiring thousands of people and organizing many more volunteers to knock on doors, place phone calls and share social media about how to vote.
None of these get-out-the-vote efforts are the work of the presidential campaigns or political parties. They belong instead to a vast, shadow machinery built by partisans often under nonpartisan banners to provide the final nudge that delivers the White House by mobilizing unlikely voters in about seven states. Funded largely without public disclosure, through local outfits and national networks, most of the operations have been lying in wait for years in preparation for this moment.
“We are registering tens of thousands of voters, signing up tens of thousands to vote by mail, and we are maximizing early vote,” said Kevin Mack, whose tax-deductible nonprofit, the Voter Project, created the comic book and has tried to juice voting by giving away $1,000 Target gift cards, $2,000 rent checks and $10,000 grants to community groups around the Democratic-heavy neighborhoods of Philadelphia. “At the end of the day, the combined efforts will increase youth turnout in Pennsylvania by over 100,000 people.”
There is no centralized way to know how much money they will spend or just how many people they will reach. Many of the national groups refuse to disclose their budgets, while hundreds of local groups fly entirely under the national radar, funded through tax classifications that will not report their income until next year and will never disclose their donors.
But people involved expect independent field and mobilization machines to easily be measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Given the razor thin margins dividing Trump and Harris in the target states, they could easily prove decisive in one or more states.
“Groups like ours grew over time to become these behemoths because we could do this cheaper and more efficiently than a campaign,” said Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, which he says has deployed about 4,000 part-time paid staff and many more volunteers in the battlegrounds with the goal of knocking 10 million doors, including repeat visits. “A presidential campaign stands up in 12 to 15 months, and building this takes much longer than that to do right.”
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Competing campaign signs outside Johnny Mercer Theatre in Savannah, Ga., on Sept. 24. (Erik S Lesser/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
On the left, a long-standing national network, America Votes, has a goal of knocking on doors in the seven states more than 30 million times this year. Organizers say their focus is on about 2.5 million suspected Democratic-leaning voters who started voting in federal elections after Trump’s 2016 victory. The field operation is done in partnership with dozens of other groups — including BlackPAC, Somos PAC and the Unite Here union — and includes tens of millions of dollars transferred from Future Forward, the largest independent advertising operation supporting Harris.
One of their partners, the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, which is focused on supporting Harris and expanding the federal social safety net, is budgeted at $40 million with a focus on eight states, including four of the core presidential battlegrounds, according to a briefing document obtained by The Washington Post. They claim to have already deployed more than 4,200 paid canvassers to knock on more than 3 million doors and make contact with more than 150,000 voters.
“With Trump on the ballot, we assume there will be another huge turnout from Trump’s base. Winning these battleground states means a Blue Surge matching the MAGA Surge’s turnout,” said Greg Speed, America Votes’ president, in a statement. “In a numbers game, there are more of us than them, but mobilizing our young and diverse coalition requires a massive mobilization not only online, but especially on the doors to break through the noise and get out the vote.”
That numbers game has become an obsession in the closing weeks of the campaign, as more money is pushed into a smaller battlefield than any recent presidential contest, largely because Florida, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District have become less competitive. All told, the seven primary states in play — Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina — cast 31 million votes in 2020, or 20 percent of the ballots nationwide.
But the share of voters still undecided in those places — not knowing whether to vote or whom to vote for — is just a fraction of that group, dominated by people who are disconnected from mainstream political conversations. The least attentive now find themselves the targets of an avalanche of political spending, invading their phones, infiltrating their friend networks, knocking on their doors and showing up in advertising where they consume media.
“We are talking about maybe 5 million human beings out of 42 million who are registered in seven battleground states,” said Dmitri Melhorn, a Democratic strategist at Oakland Corps who has worked to develop the outside infrastructure on the left. “You are talking about one out of eight or one out of nine people. You are talking about people who are different in how they consume politics.”
No single independent group compares to the size of the two major-party campaigns and their affiliated national and state parties, which have all begun to ramp up operations.
The coordinated Harris campaign boasts 2,500 staff and 353 offices in the seven targeted states, while the smaller Trump operation claims more than 300 offices for “hundreds of staff.” Both have been deploying small armies of weekend volunteers — the Harris campaign said it knocked on 800,000 doors and made more than 10 million calls last weekend — though the campaigns have been selective in the numbers they release. The Trump campaign has an elaborate system for rewarding about 40,000 trained “super volunteers,” who can earn a special hat, apparel and other memorabilia if they hit certain benchmarks of voter contact.
But neither campaign has designed their program to work in isolation. Both are counting on their independent allies to fill in gaps and multiply their efforts.
“It is very much the field goal unit, and here we are in the fourth quarter,” said Donald P. Green, a political scientist who studies voting behavior at Columbia University. “Polls tend to report likely voters. Turnout efforts tend to target unlikely voters, and of course a few percentage points could turn any of the seven contested states.”
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A drawing on the wall of the Erie County Harris campaign headquarters on Sept. 25 depicts how many doors have been knocked on in Erie, Pa. (Hannah Beier/Reuters)
Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon released a list of voter mobilization organizations in September that she said “will play a critical role” in the campaign’s success, in a clear signal to donors interested in writing unlimited checks. They included America Votes, SOMOS, BlackPAC and Galvanize, a group that targets White women.
Another group on O’Malley Dillon’s list, the Strategic Victory Fund, is funding an organization called ProgressNow that has announced $60 million in spending across 10 states, including the seven battlegrounds, with the goal of creating “a surround sound environment” for targeted voters through digital ads, organic viral posts and other social media, said Anna Scholl, ProgressNow’s president.
The group has 90 paid organizers and more than 20,000 volunteers creating and sharing content. Some of the most successful pieces of content, including messaging about getting to the polls, have involved digital ads meant to look like horoscope readings or viral ASMR, a whispered type of video meant to give listeners tingling feelings.
“It’s one of those things that you look at and say I don’t know entirely why that works, but it does,” said Scholl.
Two other Democratic-leaning efforts, Relentless and the Empower Project, have been recruiting tens of thousands of lower propensity voters in Democratic-leaning communities across the battlegrounds to work as paid relational organizers. For a few hours’ work, more than 75,000 people will make real money calling, texting, emailing or posting in the social feeds of their friends and family with messages to support Harris and urge people to get to the polls.
“You can see 100 TV ads about how great a movie is, but if your best friend tells you it’s horrible, you believe them. We believe the same thing is true in politics,” said Mike Pfohl, Empower Project’s president, who expects to hire more than 40,000 “mobilizers” to reach 10 million voters across 10 states, including the seven battlegrounds, through the effort.
Relentless is active in five of the presidential battlegrounds states with a target of 35,000 paid communicators. They offer $160 for a few hours’ work, and then $40 more if they do more texting and calling on Election Day, when data will be updated to make clear who has still not voted.
“What we look for in a participant is someone who is a low-turnout voter but interested in getting involved this year,” said Davis Leonard, the chief executive officer of Relentless, an effort funded by the Progressive Turnout Project. “Their sphere of influence is bigger than they think.”
The Trump campaign has boasted about its recent partnerships with multiple outside efforts, including relative newcomers to the field organizing space: Turning Point USA and Musk’s America PAC, a group that has been sending canvassers, mail and text messages into swing states, spending more than $87 million in recent months. (Musk has donated nearly $75 million to the group through late September, about 90 percent of the money raised, according to federal filings.) Both groups have struggled in recent weeks as they have tried to rapidly scale up their operations, with Turning Point recently merging its operations in Wisconsin with America PAC.
Outside groups on the right have also so far dominated the postal get-out-the-vote or early-vote efforts, according to the tracking firm Mintt. Two-thirds of such mail has come from outside groups, and eight of the top 10 organizations sending mail with those messages are Republican, including America PAC, the National Sports Shooting Foundation, a gun manufacturer trade group, and Women Speak Out Fund, an affiliate of SBA Pro-Life America.
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Alysia McMillan holds campaign information as she canvasses for Elon Musk’s America PAC on Oct. 13 in Dalton, Ga. (Elijah Nouvelage/For The Washington Post)
Women Speak Out has announced plans to reach 10 million persuadable and low-turnout voters in the 2024 cycle. The National Sports Shooting Foundation effort, which is focused on driving registration and turnout among gun owners, does not endorse any candidate but has tried to highlight the contrast in the presidential contest between Trump and Harris, said Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the group. “We think she has made her position on gun rights pretty clear,” he said.
Groups that benefit Democrats, meanwhile, have been dominating another category of outside spending: free giveaways and party promotion to make voting feel fun.
The Detroit Pistons in partnership with Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan nonprofit that holds events largely in Democratic areas, will hold a downtown Detroit “tip off early voting” event on Saturday called “Pistonsland,” with carnival rides, food and performances by hip-hop artists Lil Baby, Tay B and Skilla Baby. Other “Vote City” events have been planned for Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Rock the Vote has also partnered with the WNBA and the NFL on voter education and mobilization efforts.
“Teaming up with musicians and sports teams for these on-the-ground activations enable us to reduce barriers and create opportunities to participate,” said Carolyn Dewitt, Rock the Vote’s president, in a statement.
Daybreaker, a daytime party promoter championed by Democratic donor advisers, has a packed schedule of officially nonpartisan midday dance parties planned for cities across the battleground map over the coming weeks to promote voting and registration. One Detroit event in New Center Park is promoted as featuring both “pole dancers” and “poll dancers” — and free breakfast.
“We’re bringing the collective joy back to collective action — So dress in purple — and let’s party to the polls!” announce the promotions for the events, which include stops in places like Las Vegas; Flagstaff and Phoenix in Arizona; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Kenosha and Green Bay in Wisconsin.
In major cities, the Harris campaign has begun paying for weekend street festivals near early-voting centers, but their effort joins other groups that have already been in the communities for a while. One group called ShowUpStrong24 has been holding neighborhood events for months around voter registration in Philadelphia, a program that is now shifting to early-vote activation.
Christian Leonzo Vargas, a marketing consultant who has been leading many of the efforts, has organized coat giveaways, rent check giveaways, free “brews and ballots” events at a local brewery and backpack giveaways in recent months. This week he will hold a silent journaling event in one neighborhood, followed by a walk to an early-voting place with headphones that allow everyone who gathers to listen to the same songs.
One recent sweepstakes organized on social media gave away two $1,000 Target shopping sprees. Participants had to check their voting registration online, resulting in more than 1,000 new voting registrations, Vargas said. He said the offer of help for people struggling makes the conversation about voting easier.
“We went into low-propensity neighborhoods at their low-propensity apartment complexes,” Vargas said about the back-to-school giveaway that distributed 1,500 backpacks. “One of the things the community members said was, ‘Thank you for helping us before asking for something.’”
ShowUpStrong24 and the Voter Project are fully tax-deductible, nonpartisan nonprofits that do not expressly show support for any party or candidate. Like dozens of other similar groups that could impact the result next month, they will never have to disclose either their donors or how much they spent on all the free stuff they gave away.
Other efforts are far more conventional. On an early Thursday in Detroit, at a job site at the Gordie Howe bridge, volunteers for the AFL-CIO union members handed out fliers on one side explaining Harris’s role in casting the tiebreaking vote for the American Rescue Plan, which shored up pension plans, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowered prescription drug prices. On the other side of the flier, the union warned of Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s policy plan for Trump that the nominee himself has largely disavowed.
Kecia Harper, an operating foreperson and union member, said some of the other workers have said they are swayed to vote for Trump. But she wanted them to know that she thought Trump was distracting them with misinformation about immigration from the real issues that affect working people.
“He does the whole, ‘Get everyone over here talking about the dogs and the cats,’ instead of talking about the real things,” Harper said.
There’s more to the Brothers Grimm than princesses and witches
On any list of the world’s most translated books, you are likely to find the Bible, “The Communist Manifesto” — and a collection of stories featuring witches, talking animals, goose girls and ogres, as well as a fish that grants wishes and a frog that turns into a handsome young man.
Sound familiar? Here’s how its first story begins: “Once upon a time, when wishes still came true, there lived a king who had beautiful daughters. The youngest was so lovely that even the sun, which had seen so many things, was filled with wonder when it shone upon her face.”
“The Frog King or Iron Heinrich,” quoted here in Maria Tatar’s English version, appears in “Kinder und Hausmarchen,” sometimes translated as “Children’s and Household Tales,” but universally referred to as simply “Grimms’ Fairy Tales.” Few books have given more pleasure or done as much to shape our imaginations.
Yet as Ann Schmiesing, a professor of German and Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, makes clear in her new biography, “The Brothers Grimm,” Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were far more than just compilers of fairy tales. They were, above all, scholars and celebrants of medieval German language and culture. During their lives, whether working together or separately, they edited the epic “Nibelungenlied,” produced an 1,100-page “German Grammar,” compiled a four-volume survey of Teutonic mythology, outlined the phonological shift among Indo-European languages known as “Grimm’s law” — it explains how the Latin “pater” becomes the German “Vater” and English “father” — and spent their last years on a multivolume historical dictionary of the German language. They got only up to the letter E, but other lexicographers finished the job, even though it took — this sounds like a fairy tale — more than a hundred years.
In general, much of the Grimms’ scholarship might be described as nationalist antiquarianism, promulgating a romanticized vision of the German past as natural, innocent and authentic. A return to true Germanness, they believed, could counter the dominant French culture of the time, which they regarded as artificial, sophisticated and fundamentally shallow. Bear in mind that the brothers passed the first half of their lives under the shadow of Napoleon, whose conquests were imposing French laws and manners on half of Europe.
Born in Hanau, in the electorate of Hessen-Kassel, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) were the two oldest children in a close-knit family. Their childhood was idyllic, even privileged, but when their father, a high-ranking administrator in the government, died at an early age, the two brothers became the breadwinners for their mother and four younger siblings. Eventually, both managed to earn law degrees at the University of Marburg, though even then scholarly research was their passion. Jacob focused mainly on philology, while Wilhelm wrote frequently about medieval literature.
Through friendship with Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, who had together compiled a famous 1805 collection of German folk songs and ballads, “The Boy’s Magic Horn” (“Des Knaben Wunderhorn”), the brothers began to collect traditional stories, those they thought reached back into early German history and were somehow characteristic of its Volk, or people.
As Schmiesing emphasizes, they didn’t scour the countryside for peasants with tales to tell, as is still commonly believed. In fact, they heard many of the stories from educated young women in their own social circle. For instance, Henriette Dorothea Wild — whom Wilhelm would eventually marry — is the likely source for “Hansel and Gretel.” Presumably, she and other informants had learned these tales from their nursemaids or servants, while some may even have been adapted from printed books. In the second edition of “Children’s and Household Tales,” the Grimms mentioned a tailor’s widow named Dorothea Viehmann, who related as many as 40 of the 211 stories they would ultimately publish. Yet two of the most powerful were given to them by the painter Philipp Otto Runge: “The Fisherman and His Wife” — my own favorite, by the way — and the eerie and shocking “The Juniper Tree.”
First published in 1812 when the Grimms were in their late 20s, “Children’s and Household Tales” was initially presented as mainly a scholarly project, complete with voluminous research notes. Over time, though, Wilhelm enhanced and shaped the stories and their narration to make them more appealing to parents and children. Nonetheless, all the way up to the seventh edition of 1857, the last issued during their lifetimes, the Grimms maintained that they were always faithful to the words of their informants and that in all fundamentals the tales were genuine, orally transmitted relics of ancient times. Today we recognize that these fairy tales are part of the world’s ocean of story and that variants of “Cinderella” or “The Sleeping Beauty” can be found in numerous cultures. The brothers were aware that the Countess d’Aulnoy and Charles Perrault had spearheaded a vogue for fairy tales in late-17th and early-18th-century France.
Setting aside questions of historicity and accuracy of transcription, it’s nonetheless clear that Wilhelm pretty much established the strangely flat tone and unflappable, dreamlike narration, in effect the transcendental timelessness, that we associate with fairy tales. No one in these stories is ever surprised by the most extraordinary occurrences. The characters are one-dimensional: Princesses prove largely interchangeable, and one wicked stepmother is much like another. Nonetheless, this simplicity and terseness only enhance their hypnotic, archetypal power. Start reading or listening to any of the greatest stories, and it’s hard to stop until you reach “And they lived happily ever after” or its analogue.
In recent years, the Grimms and the fairy tales have been closely and critically reexamined. Schmiesing’s biography doesn’t shy away from pointing out strains of racism, misogyny, sexism and antisemitism in the brothers themselves, especially Jacob, and in their writing. For instance, obedience, piety and self-sacrifice in the stories are virtues typically associated with women, while heroes get to be cheeky and daring. Moreover, the Grimms’ tales, like Wagner’s operas, were readily co-opted by Nazi Germany as emblematically Aryan.
In the end, though, there’s one immense challenge facing any biographer of the Brothers Grimm: Jacob and Wilhelm lived through tumultuous times, but their own lives were remarkably dull and relatively void of incident. They hated to be separated from each other, and Jacob, essentially solitary by nature, found that residing with Wilhelm’s family provided all the society he needed. Mainly, the two brothers just wanted to get on with their research.
Consequently, to make up for this paucity of striking biographical detail, Schmiesing proffers careful descriptions of the brothers’ research, while also tracking the multiple ways the politics of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic eras affected Jacob’s and Wilhelm’s careers. Admittedly, some of this contextual material risks seeming dry or excessive to those readers primarily interested in the background to one of the world’s most influential books.
To my own mind, besides populating our imaginations with immortal characters and the plot arcs of much of our fiction and drama, the Grimms’ fairy tales also impart two important life lessons: True heroes and heroines typically exhibit high spirits, and, with a few exceptions, kindness to animals always brings unexpected rewards.
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Is Hugh Grant’s Most Convincing Character ‘Hugh Grant’?
“I used to do interviews where I was Mr. Stuttery Blinky, and it’s my fault that I was then shoved into a box marked ‘Mr. Stuttery Blinky,’” Hugh Grant said.
Hugh Grant has been suffering from brand confusion since 1994, when his performance in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” established him as a quintessentially British romantic hero of winning charm and diffidence. But his recent run of strange and sometimes creepy characters plays so effectively against type that you begin to suspect you were mistaken about his type all along.
He would be the first to say that something darker and more complicated lurks beneath his easy surface.
“At school I had a teacher who used to take me aside and say, ‘Who is the real Hugh Grant? Because I think the one we’re seeing might be insincere,’” Grant said as he strolled through Central Park last month. He was comparing himself — or at least his powers of persuasion — to Mr. Reed, the charismatically articulate villain he plays in “Heretic,” a religious-horror movie due in theaters on Nov. 8. “The ability to manipulate and sort of seduce — I might be guilty of that.”
At 64, Grant is enjoying what he calls “the freak-show era” of his career, playing an unlikely rogue’s gallery of suave miscreants (“The Undoing,” “A Very English Scandal”), seedy gangsters (“The Gentlemen”), power-hungry tricksters (“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”) and self-deluded thespians (“Paddington 2” and “Unfrosted”), not to mention the bumptious little Oompa-Loompa in “Wonka.” That abashed, floppy-haired, benign early version of himself — that was never who he was anyway, he says.
“My mistake was that I suddenly got this massive success with ‘Four Weddings’ and I thought, ah, well, if that’s what people love so much, I’ll be that person in real life, too,” he said. “So I used to do interviews where I was Mr. Stuttery Blinky, and it’s my fault that I was then shoved into a box marked ‘Mr. Stuttery Blinky.’ And people were, quite rightly, repelled by it in the end.”
Grant had just come from Toronto, where “Heretic” had its premiere. In New York it was a blazingly beautiful day, and he greeted the park like an old friend, passing some of his favorite landmarks: the Delacorte Clock, whose bronze animals were doing their delightful dance to music to mark the hour, and the statue of Balto, the heroic medicine-transporting Siberian husky posing imperiously on his rock not far from the children’s zoo.
“Have you noticed that we’re being drawn irresistibly to Balto?” Grant asked, patting the statue. “Hi, Balto!” He added: “I’ve had an experience with some huskies before.”
He mentioned one of his first roles, in a 1985 mini-series about Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed Antarctic expedition in 1911. “I played a rather pathetic scientist whose name, appropriately enough, was Cherry-Garrard,” Grant said. He was required to mush a team of huskies across the snow.
“He may feign disinterest in the profession and downplay his own abilities, but he’s a great talent who works bloody hard on set,” said Hugh Bonneville, a frequent co-star of Grant’s.
“I said, ‘Go forward’ in Inuit, but those bastard dogs turned 180 degrees around and dragged me away onto the ice,” he said. “They were just laughing at me.”
IT MIGHT SEEM ODD
to cast Grant, with his British facility for telling droll anecdotes against himself, in a horror film. Among other things, he is terrified of them and recently walked out of one at a multiplex he had wandered into by mistake with his brother, a banker who lives in New York. (Don’t get him started on “Midsommar.”)
But Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who wrote and directed “Heretic,” said in a joint video interview that Grant’s ability to subvert expectation made him perfect for the part.
“This is an actor who is revolutionizing what his career was known for — and revamping it and turning it against his audience,” Beck said.
The pair, whose writing credits include “A Quiet Place,” recalled seeing Grant in the 2012 movie “Cloud Atlas,” in which he plays six characters, all despicable.
“The first thing out of Scott’s mouth when we came out of the movie was, ‘Hugh Grant,’” Woods said. “We got so excited about the challenging, bold and weird choice of him being in that movie. And in the next 10 years, for our money he became the best character actor around to play edgy, dark characters.”
Grant, whose youthful handsomeness has given way to a distinguished rumpledness, was a recognizable figure in the park. While most pedestrians affected a cool New York distance even as they clocked his presence, there were a few shouts of “I love you, Hugh!” At one point a woman approached, babbling about her obsession with “About a Boy” (2002), in which Grant plays a roguish bachelor who embraces the responsibilities of human connection and succumbs to monogamy. (There are definitely parts of himself in that character, said Grant, who — after years of enthusiastic single-dom and high-profile girlfriends like Elizabeth Hurley and Jemima Khan — finally married six years ago.)
Grant is enjoying what he calls “the freak-show era” of his career, playing murderers and miscreants like Mr. Reed in “Heretic.”Credit...Kimberley French/A24
“I know that movie word for word,” the woman said. She gestured vaguely toward her husband, who was tending to their baby and looking like he dearly wished to be somewhere else. “I literally make him watch it about once a year.”
“You’re very nice,” Grant said. (“Poor man,” he added, after they’d gone.)
Grant grew up in what he called “genteel poverty” in London, where his father worked in the carpet business. He won a scholarship to Oxford, then fell by chance, at least in his telling, into acting. He has always exuded ambivalence about the job, wistfully mentioning his half-written novel and grumbling about whether he even likes the profession. “I realize it’s not a good look,” he said, laughing.
He doesn’t love the Hollywood machine. Though he is reliably hilarious in interviews (and delightfully raunchy on British TV), his ironic wit and curmudgeonly affectations can land him in trouble. After a stream of anodyne enthusiasm from his fellow “Wonka” actors in a news conference last year, Grant mixed it up by declaring that “I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more.” (Taken out of context, that sounds terrible. But that sort of humor is normal in Britain; just watch the Richard Curtis movies starring Grant: “Four Weddings,” “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually.”)
“One confusing thing about him is that you don’t know what he’s serious about,” said Chloe East, who plays one of two young Mormon missionaries in “Heretic,” which was filmed in Vancouver. “He’s very British. You would say, ‘How is your weekend?’ and he would say, ‘It was terrible; I hate Vancouver.’ And you wonder, did he really have a dreadful weekend, or is that just his way of communicating?”
Grant takes his work, at least, utterly seriously. To prepare for roles, he writes out elaborate back stories for his characters and peppers directors with questions and notes in long email exchanges.
“He would send us three pages of, like, ‘I was thinking about Richard Dawkins, and what does this line mean, and this is how I would interpret it,’” Woods said. “We loved working with an actor who cared so much.”
“This is an actor who is revolutionizing what his career was known for — and revamping it and turning it against his audience,” Scott Beck, a director of “Heretic,” said.
Among other actors, he has a reputation for rigor.
“That whole ‘I don’t like acting and I wish I could be an accountant’ thing — that’s nonsense,” said the British actor Hugh Bonneville, a.k.a. Lord Grantham of “Downton Abbey,” who appeared with Grant in “Notting Hill” (1999) and again in “Paddington 2” (2018). “He may feign disinterest in the profession and downplay his own abilities, but he’s a great talent who works bloody hard on set.”
Bonneville recalled Grant’s bravura turn in the “Paddington 2” closing credits, a musical extravaganza that was shot on the first day of filming and features Grant dressed in a saucy outfit of bedazzled kick-flare pants. (He plays Phoenix Buchanan, a louche, self-regarding has-been actor in what is widely considered one of his finest roles.)
“It took a great deal of commitment — and it also established him as a wonderful song-and-dance man,” Bonneville said. Grant aficionados might recall the actor’s Wham!-esque fake music video in the 2007 rom-com “Music and Lyrics” and his little Oompa-Loompa dance in “Wonka.” In a particularly hair-raising moment in “Heretic,” he sings a snippet of Radiohead’s “Creep.”
His approach often includes ad-libs. The risqué lines uttered by his character, Daniel Cleaver, as he seduces Bridget (Renée Zellweger) in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001) — including his iconic “Hello, Mummy!” response to Bridget’s enormous underpants — were all Grant’s idea. (A fourth “Bridget Jones” film, in which Cleaver has moved on from “cruising around the Kings Road eyeing up young girls in short skirts,” as Grant put it, is to be released in February.)
There are definitely bits of Cleaver, the toxic but intoxicating boyfriend who drove everyone mad in their 20s, in Grant, too. Asked in a video interview which version was closer to reality — nice in-person Hugh or wicked onscreen Daniel — Zellweger laughed.
“Do we have to choose? Can’t we have them all?” she said. “There are so many Hughs, and your guess is as good as mine. Whichever one he wants to be.”
Grant with Renée Zellweger in “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” There were bits of him in the toxic but intoxicating Daniel Cleaver.
Another side of Grant comes from his persistent and, given the British media landscape, courageous campaigning role for Hacked Off, a group working to expose phone hacking and other illegal activities by the country’s tabloid newspapers.
In April, Grant, one of hundreds of public figures whose phones were hacked by the now-defunct News of the World, reluctantly settled a lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun. He had accused the company of hiring a private investigator to break into his house and bug him, among other things.
“I would love to see all the allegations that they deny tested in court,” he said on X. But under English law, if he won the case in court but was awarded damages that were “even a penny less than the settlement offer” put forward by the company, Grant would have had to pay both sides’ legal costs — upward of 10 million pounds.
“I’m afraid I am shying at that fence,” he said, adding that he planned to donate his settlement money to the anti-hacking campaign.
GRANT MAY SEEM RELAXED
onscreen, but “it takes great skill to make it look that easy,” Bonneville said. In fact, Grant said, he’s often terrified of freezing up on set or of his self-consciousness overcoming his spontaneity. When he met East on the first day of filming “Heretic,” he confessed to being filled with anxiety about some of the dialogue-heavy scenes.
“In my head I was like, ‘You’re Hugh Grant, you’ve worked on a million trillion movies, and if anyone should be nervous it should be me,’” East said.
The scenes were endlessly workshopped and rehearsed in myriad ways, with Grant thinking through every action and intonation and inserting new snippets of movement, dialogue and even some strange little noises to break up the big blocks of talk.
“They have made me absurdly sentimental,” Grant said of his wife and children.
“It was really interesting watching him,” said Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets”), who plays the other missionary. “This was a whole other level of preparation. He was so precise about finding little quirks to make his character feel just a little bit off.”
Forced to do publicity for their projects, many stars can seem utterly fascinated by the conversation during an interview (they are actors, after all), only to instantly glaze over if it turns to a topic other than themselves. Grant, by contrast, comes across as genuinely curious and engaged. Well-read, hyper-intelligent and amusingly snarky, he has a fine British ability to talk endlessly, and often not altogether seriously, about virtually anything.
We discussed, among other topics, religion and death and politics and euthanasia and Sept. 11 and New York City and whether we believed in the afterlife (probably not, though he said he once saw a ghost floating around in a castle in Yorkshire). We were just moving to the subject of smartphones, which Grant believes to be “the devil’s tinderbox,” when he spotted a lithe, dark-haired runner on a distant path in the park.
“Is that my wife?” he asked.
It wasn’t, though the wife in question, Anna Elisabet Eberstein, had traveled with him to New York and is indeed an avid runner. The two met at a bar in 2010. Grant, nearing 50, was still in his incorrigible-bachelor phase and had been “drunk for about three years,” he said; Eberstein, who is Swedish but was living in London, was mourning the end of her first marriage.
Their wedding took place eight years later. “I can’t believe she likes me,” Grant said. “But it’s a very happy marriage.”
As he talked about his wife and children — they have three together and he has two others from an earlier relationship with the actress Tinglan Hong — his tone softened and the irony fell away. “They have made me absurdly sentimental,” he said.
Teary, too.
Grant likened himself to his “Heretic” character in at least one way: “The ability to manipulate and sort of seduce — I might be guilty of that.”Credit...Dana Scruggs for The New York Times
Grant cried when he saw “Finding Nemo.” He cries when he watches “The Sound of Music.” (“Every time I hear him talk about ‘The Sound of Music,’ I think that’s his Rosebud,” Beck said.) He cries while reading aloud children’s books, especially ones about animal parents and babies.
He mentioned a story about a middle-aged bachelor rabbit whose self-centered life gives way to “total chaos in his burrow” when some unruly ducklings move in. He finds that he loves them very much.
“Of course, that was the story of my life,” he said. “I was living on my road, playing golf, perfectly happy. And then my life was turned upside down.”
He paused. “Have you heard of ‘Stick Man’?” he added, referring to the Julia Donaldson picture book.
“He’s a stick,” he explained. “He has to go off and do something, and terrible things happen to him — dogs pick him up and people want to put him in the fire. And he keeps saying, ‘I’m not a stick, I’m Stick Man, and I have to get back to my children.’”
“Anyway, he does get back to them, and they’re very pleased to see him.”
Grant looked a little sheepish, but he also looked utterly sincere. “That always makes me cry,” he said.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
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