Section:GDN 1N PaGe:42 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 18:32 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Saturday 7 September 2019
(^42) World
In brief
United States
Opera cancelled over
Domingo allegations
Turkey
Opponent of president
jailed for nine years
United States
Airline mechanic
‘sabotaged plane’
The Dallas Opera has cancelled a
March 2020 gala at which Plácido
Domingo was due to perform after
the growing number of sexual
harassment allegations against the
Spanish singer. Twenty women
have accused Domingo, the general
director of the Los Angeles Opera,
of sexually harassing them in
incidents dating back to the late
1980s. Domingo, 78, has described
the accusations as “deeply troubling
and, as presented, inaccurate”.
Among the latest accusers are
LA Opera staff , who said Domingo’s
alleged behaviour was common
knowledge. The Metropolitan
Opera in New York said it would
await LA Opera’s fi ndings before
making any fi nal decisions about
Domingo’s future at the Met, where
he is scheduled to perform from
25 September. Sam Jones Madrid
An American Airlines mechanic
has been accused of sabotaging a
plane after stalled union contract
negotiations. According to court
papers , Abdul-Majeed Marouf
Ahmed Alani admitted on Thursday
that he had tampered with a
navigation system on the aircraft so
that he could collect overtime work.
The plane, with 150 people on
board, was scheduled to fl y to
Nassau in the Bahamas on 17 July.
As the pilots powered up the plane
at Miami international airport, they
saw an error message and aborted
the takeoff. A piece of foam was
found inside an air data module.
Video from a surveillance camera
captured a person later identifi ed as
Alani working on the plane. He was
charged with wil fully damaging or
disabling an aircraft. AP
A Turkish court yesterday sentenced
a prominent opposition offi cial
to nine years and eight months in
prison for insulting the president,
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and
spreading terrorist propaganda, the
main opposition party said.
The Republican People’s party
(CHP) said Canan Kaftanc ıo ğlu,
head of its Istanbul branch, would
not immediately go to jail pending
appeals. The indictment also
accused Kaftancı o ğlu of insulting
the government and public servants,
inciting hatred and enmity. Speaking
outside Istanbul’s main courthouse ,
Kaftancioglu said “Neither you all,
nor I deserved this” as supporters
chanted: “Shoulder to shoulder
against fascism.” The appeals court
will deliver a verdict within six
months. Reuters Instanbul
German tourist sued over posts
about hotel’s ‘Nazi portrait’
Philip Oltermann
Berlin
A German man is being sued by the
owners of a four-star hotel in Austria
after posting online reviews in which
he criticised them for decorating
their lobby with a portrait of a “Nazi
the other an older man. Using a pseu-
donym, K posted reviews on Booking.
com and TripAdvisor under the sub-
ject header: “At the entrance they
display a picture of a Nazi grandpa.”
The owners of the hotel contacted
both sites and ask ed for the reviews
to be removed on the grounds the
description “Nazi grandpa” was libel-
lous and defamatory. They then fi led
a lawsuit against K with a court in
Innsbruck.
A lawyer acting on behalf of the
owners said the portraits had been
hung in remembrance of late relatives,
and the picture of the uncle in a Wehr-
macht uniform had been the only
picture in the family’s possession.
After researching the identity of the
men in the photographs , K was able to
prove they had joined the Nazi party.
The owners said they had not been
aware of their relatives’ membership.
The court granted the hotel a pre-
liminary injunction against K , arguing
that his review had also implied that
the owners shared or sympathised
with National Socialist ideas.
The trial is expected to continue
later this year.
Jay-Z and NFL stage fi rst concert
despite Kaepernick backlash
Tom Dart
The billionaire rapper and business
magnate Jay-Z yesterday pressed
ahead with his controversial partner-
ship with the NFL in the face of the
continuing backlash over the league’s
treatment of the activist and former
San Fran cisco 49ers quarterback Colin
Kaepernick.
Roc Nation , the company founded
by Jay-Z, began its role as “live music
entertainment strategist” for the
world’s richest sports league with a
free concert featuring Meghan Trainor
and rappers Meek Mill and Rapsody
prior to the opening game, between
the Chicago Bears and Green Bay
Packers.
The deal includes support for
community initiatives and input on
selecting performers for one of the big-
gest gigs in the world, the Super Bowl
half-time show. Critics have accused
the music mogul, who last year rapped
about saying “no to the Super Bowl”, of
damaging his standing as a social jus-
tice advocate by going into business
with a league that appeared to ostra-
cise Kaepernick for sparking a protest
movement against racism and police
brutality.
Kaepernick’s friend and former
teammate Eric Reid wrote on Twitter
last month: “Now the NFL is ‘cham-
pioning’ social justice to cover their
own systemic oppression in black-
balling Colin. So we will fi ght to get
Colin’s job back as well. Jay-Z know-
ingly made a money move with the
very people who’ve committed an
injustice against Colin and is using
social justice to smooth it over with
the black community.” He told report-
ers the deal is “kind of despicable”.
Kaepernick began protesting in
2016 by sitting or kneeling when the
national anthem was played before
kick-off. Donald Trump – who has
benefi ted from political donations
made by at least nine current or for-
mer NFL owners – derided the actions
on Twitter as “disrespecting our fl ag
and country”.
Kaepernick has not played since
he became a free agent in 2017. The
31-year-old and Reid, who now plays
for the Carolina Panthers, reached a
confi dential settlement with the NFL
last February after fi ling complaints
that teams colluded to deny them jobs
because of their activism.
Jay-Z – the fi rst billionaire rapper ,
according to Forbes – has a history
of supporting a variety of social jus-
tice causes. He told reporters he ha d
spoken with Kaepernick about the
deal but that the conversation would
remain private. He called Kaepernick
an “iconic fi gure” on CNN last year.
His attitude appears to have
softened. Sitting next to NFL com-
missioner Roger Goodell at a press
conference in New York last month,
he said: “I think we’ve moved past
kneeling. I think it’s time to go on to
actionable items ... We get stuck on
Colin not having a job, you know what
I’m saying? And this is more than that.”
Goodell framed the deal as a way
for the league to improve its outreach
to minority communities. More than
two-thirds of NFL players are black but
none of the 32 teams have black major-
ity owners. News of the deal with Roc
Nation has led to speculation that Jay-
Z is interested in becoming the NFL’s
fi rst black principal team owner.
Jay-Z
attending the
2011 season
opener. In recent
years the league
has seen protests
against racism
PHOTOGRAPH:
JOE ROBBINS/
GETTY IMAGES
‘I think we’ve
moved past
kneeling. It’s
time to go on
to actionable
items. We
get stuck on
Colin ...’
Jay-Z
Rapper
▲ Colin Kaepernick kneeling with
fellow San Francisco 49ers in 2016,
top ; Roger Goodell of the NFL seal ing
a deal with Jay-Z last month, above
grandpa” in a uniform adorned with
a swastika.
The man, named in court
documents as Thomas K, and his wife
visited the hotel in the village of Gerlos
in the Tyrolean Alps last August. The y
noticed two pictures on a wall. One
showed a young man wearing a uni-
form with an eagle and swastika badge,
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