A12 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019
The World
SWEDEN
Not-guilty plea entered
in U.S. rapper’s trial
American rapper A$AP Rocky
entered a not-guilty plea Tuesday
as his assault trial began in
Sweden.
The singer, whose real name is
Rakim Mayers, and two people in
his entourage are accused of
assaulting a 19-year-old man in
Stockholm on June 30.
The rapper’s attorney said
Tuesday that his client had acted
in self-defense. If convicted,
Rocky faces up to two years in
prison.
Prosecutors presented CCTV
footage and text messages that
they said show that Rocky and his
entourage had initiated the
confrontation. Rocky has denied
responsibility for the assault.
Several celebrities, some U.S.
lawmakers and even President
Trump have urged Sweden’s
government to intervene and
release Rocky.
Trump’s attempt to get Rocky
freed has fixed an international
glare on the case and provoked a
low-level diplomatic standoff
with Sweden, a U.S. ally.
Trump first waded into the
case two weeks ago, urging
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan
Lofven to help secure the rapper’s
release. The tweets have
alternated between flattering
Lofven and criticizing him for not
acting on behalf of the rapper.
On Thursday, Trump implied
that the rapper’s race — Rocky is
black — was a factor in Swedish
authorities bringing charges.
A Lofven spokesman rejected
Trump’s criticism and said Rocky
is subject to the rule of law.
— Rick NoackINDIAParliament votes to end
Muslim instant divorceIndian lawmakers on Tuesday
approved a bill to end the
Muslim practice of instant
divorce two years after the
Supreme Court ruled that it
violated the constitutional rights
of Muslim women.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad said the bill’s approval by
the upper house of Parliament
reflects the empowerment of
women and India’s changing
profile.
The more-powerful lower
house approved the bill last
week. It will become law after
India’s president approves it,
which is a formality.
Most of the 170 million
Muslims in India are Sunnis
governed by the Muslim Personal
Law for family matters. The law
has included allowing Muslim
men to divorce their wives by
saying “talaq,” the Arabic word
for divorce, three times — and
not necessarily consecutively,but at any time, and by any
medium, including telephone,
text message or social media
post.
More than 20 countries,
including neighboring Pakistan
and Bangladesh, have banned
the practice.
— Associated Press2nd Ebola case confirmed in
major Congolese city: Officials
in Congo said a second Ebola case
has been confirmed in Goma, a
city of more than 2 million people
whose first confirmed case in this
year-long outbreak was reported
earlier this month. There seemed
to be no link between this caseand the previous one, an Ebola
response coordinator said. The
World Health Organization has
declared the Ebola outbreak a
rare global emergency.Pakistani army plane crashes,
killing 19: A Pakistani military
plane crashed into a residentialarea on the outskirts of the city
of Rawalpindi, killing at least 19
people, most of them in their
homes, officials said. Rescue
officials said 14 civilians,
including children, and all five
crew members on the aircraft
were killed. The cause of the
crash is not known. The military
said the aircraft was on a routine
training flight when it crashed.Ex-Tehran mayor sentenced to
death in wife’s killing: Iranian
state TV said a former mayor of
Tehran who also once served as
vice president was sentenced to
death in the fatal shooting of his
wife. The verdict can be appealed
within 20 days. Police detained
Mohammad Ali Najafi in May,
after he went to authorities and
confessed to the killing. At the
time, officials said Najafi and
Mitra Ostad, his second wife,
were having domestic problems.South Africa’s jobless rate
climbs sharply: South Africa said
unemployment in the country
had reached its highest level in a
decade, at 29 percent. Second-
quarter figures show that the
number of unemployed rose by
573,000 over the past year, with
only 21,000 jobs created. It is the
latest grim report for Africa’s
most developed economy, which
in May said growth had dropped
by the most in a decade in the
first quarter.
— From news servicesDIGESTANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Children sit aboard their canoes and kayaks amid green algae on a canal in London. Record-breaking
heat has increased the levels of green algae in Regent’s Canal, which runs just north of central London.BY JAMES MCAULEYparis — The wine wars rage on.
Last week, French President
Emmanuel Macron officially
signed into law a bill that allows
the French government to levy
special taxes on certain revenue
that large U.S. tech companies
such as Google, Amazon, Face-
book and Apple earn in France.
That incensed President
Trump, who immediately threat-
ened a trade war of sorts, by
imposing retaliatory tariffs on
French wines.
“They shouldn’t have done
this,” Trump said Friday, speak-
ing to reporters. “I told them, I
said, ‘Don’t do it because if you
do it, I’m going to tax your
wine.’ ”
In France, where wine re-
mains one of the most sacred
national products, these were
seen as fighting words. But
Trump — a self-proclaimed tee-
totaler — escalated the situation
even further.
“I’ve always liked American
wines better than French wines
— even though I don’t drink
wine,” he said. “I just like the way
they look, okay?”
As might be expected, this
particular value judgment did
not sit well in France.
“It’s absurd, in terms of having
a political and economic debate,
to say that ‘if you tax the GAFAs,
I’ll tax wine.’ It’s completely
moronic,” French Agriculture
Minister Didier Guillaume said
Tuesday morning, speaking on
France’s BFM TV.
But he also added a crucial
distinction. “American wine is
not better than French wine,”
Guillaume said.
GAFA is the acronym used
widely in Europe to denote
Google, Amazon, Facebook and
Apple. The new French law
would impose a 3 percent tax on
certain revenue these firms earn
in France, on the grounds that
digital companies should pay tax
based on where they do business
and not just where their physical
headquarters are located. (Ama-
zon founder and chief executive
Jeff Bezos owns The Washington
Post.)
French Finance Minister Bru-
no Le Maire has attempted to
calm the waters and avert a
potential trade standoff.
“It’s in our interest to have a
fair digital tax,” Le Maire told
reporters Friday. “Please do not
mix the two issues. The key
question now is how we can get
consensus on fair taxation of
digital activities.”
[email protected]In France,
Trump’s tax
threat called
‘moronic’
President targeted wine
after Macron signed law
affecting U.S. tech giantsBY MARINA LOPESsao paulo, brazil — It has the
glamour, betrayal and thin plot
of any soap opera, but the activ-
ist tone of “Aruanas,” the latest
drama to sweep Brazil, is undeni-
able. The producers of the coun-
try’s newest television series,
which premiered this month to
an audience of 23 million peo-
ple, hope to bring the deadly
fight for control of the Ama-
zon into living rooms across the
country.
The show, beautifully shot
with a star-studded cast, follows
the lives of four female activists
as they attempt to save the rain-
forest from miners, tycoons and
corrupt politicians.
“You don’t even know what is
happening right under your
nose,” a gold mogul says in the
series trailer.
Brazil’s prime-time soap op-
eras, called novelas, have a long
tradition of setting the public
debate — and sometimes effect-
ing change — on labor condi-
tions, drug policy and other is-
sues.
Now several shows are direct-
ing their focus — and that of
their tens of millions of viewers
— on President Jair Bolsonaro’s
agenda.
“Aruanas,” named for the fic-
tional nongovernmental organi-
zation for which the women
work, was written and produced
with activists from the environ-
mental group Greenpeace. “Ev-
ery Way to Love” follows Sao
Paulo’s LGBT community and a
transgender woman as she con-
templates gender reassignment
surgery. “Earth Orphans” chroni-
cles the trials of Syrian refugees
resettling in Brazil.
Each takes the opposite side of
a debate Bolsonaro promoted
during his successful run for
office last year. But at a time
when Brazil’s mainstream news
media is losing audience to parti-
san outlets, analysts say, viewers
might be open to hearing points
of view with which they might
disagree, when they’re expressed
by characters in whom they’re
emotionally invested.
“The press is facing a very
delicate time, being discredited
and accused of inventing news
when it doesn’t coincide with
what some viewers want to be
true,” said Daniela Ortega, a
researcher who studies soap op-
eras at the University of Sao
Paulo. “But fiction tends to bring
these topics up in a way that is
softer, less imposing. From the
moment you identify with a char-
acter’s problems, you see their
world with different eyes.”
Novelas, watched by men and
women, young and old, have a
record of changing hearts and
minds.
The 2012 series “Full of
Charm” offered a sympathetic
look into the lives of Brazilian
housekeepers — and questioned
some of the country’s accepted
practices around vacation time
and pay. The following year,
Congress passed the first set of
laws aimed at setting fair condi-
tions for domestic workers.
The 2003 series “Women in
Love” chronicled domestic abuse
against a set of grandpar-
ents. It led to a law protecting the
rights of the elderly.
Bolsonaro won election last
year on promises to tighten im-
migration laws, restore con-
servative social values and cut
environmental red tape.
In his first week in office, he
portrayed environmental activ-
ists as hippies willing to sacrifice
economic progress to save the
trees. On his second day on the
job, he passed a decree to moni-
tor nongovernmental organiza-
tions. His chief of staff suggested
the NGOs were foreign agents,
trying to preserve the Amazon so
their governments could exploit
its resources.
Critics have warned that
those comments could further
imperil activists. Brazil led the
world in killings of environmen-
tal activists in 2017 with
57 deaths.
“Aruanas” attempts to recast
the environmental activist as a
cool and tough defender of the
earth.
“This is not the annoying vege-
tarian,” said Estela Renner, a
documentary filmmaker who co-
created the show.
Its characters stride around
beautiful offices in tailoredsuits, issuing orders and intimi-
dating interns. The dramatic set
pieces are spliced with footage
of real Greenpeace stunts, set to
rock music.
The creators borrow free-
ly from actual events. When a
tycoon asks a lobbyist to fight to
open protected reserves to devel-
opment, the request could have
been lifted straight from the
mouths of the country’s recent
presidents, who faced interna-
tional backlash when they
pushed the same policy.
“When we were in doubt about
how to write an episode, we
would just open the newspa-
per, and the episode would be
written for us,” producer Marcos
Nisti said.Further blurring the line be-
tween fact and fiction, producers
wrote the series finale from
Greenpeace’s offices, and the
show’s protagonists were
trained in nonviolent resis-
tance, alongside actual activists.
Tica Minami, Amazon cam-
paign director for Greenpeace
Brazil, helped coordinate the
partnership with the show.
“People are confusing activism
with turmoil, thinking it is a
crime, that it is terrorism when
in reality, it is none of that,” she
said. “We thought it was impor-
tant to show that within activism
at Greenpeace, there is a basic
principle of nonviolence.”
The show’s creators hope
it has an impact in the real world.Half of the streaming proceeds
go to organizations fighting for
the conservation of the Amazon.
Not everyone has been
charmed. Commenters on social
media have called the show “ac-
tivist trash” and “an enemy of
Brazil.” Bolsonaro’s supporters
have rallied to his defense.
“So confused at how people
are convinced by this,” one wrote
on Agência Caneta, a right-wing
website. “You won’t influence
anyone.”
Bolsonaro’s Environmental
Ministry did not respond to re-
quests for comment.
“The soap operas transform
what happened in the news and
turn it into fiction,” said Ortega,
the researcher. “They bring polit-
ical debates, social debates, to
the mouths of characters.”
It’s not only liberal values that
have been advanced by telenove-
las. Some say the shows’ tradi-
tional focus on Brazil’s wealthy
elite, as in last year’s “Second
Sun,” helped spread the con-
servative social values, individu-
alism and fear about violence
that propelled Bolsonaro to of-
fice.
The format can be effective for
promoting causes, Ortega said,
because it’s “not watched in iso-
lation.”
“It is being discussed socially,
at the dinner table, at the hair-
dressers, at the bakery,” she said.
“The plot and lives of the charac-
ters are discussed, but these
real-life situations end up being
discussed as well.”
[email protected]For soaps, a role in the anti-Bolsonaro resistance
Brazilian novelas, long
part of public debate,
target leader’s agenda
PRODUCERS OF “ARUANAS”
ABOVE: A scene from “Aruanas,” a new prime-time soap opera in Brazil that follows the lives of four activists trying to save the Amazon
from destruction. As part of his right-wing agenda, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to cut environmental red tape. BELOW:
Backstage at “Aruanas.” Other novelas are focusing attention on Bolsonaro’s views toward the LGBT community and immigrants.CAROL QUINTANILHA