Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 87

Farewell to Superheroes: A Fall-Movie Preview

This might be hard to believe, but over the next two months of cinema releases, there’s not one superhero in sight. Sure, there are a couple remakes, a half-hearted sequel, and even an attempt to start a young-adult franchise, but the fall movie season looks to be a distinct improvement from the summer. So far, 2016 has been a mixed year for Hollywood: While dollar revenues are steady thanks to inflation and 3D upcharges, actual ticket sales are at their lowest rate in history, and a poorly-received summer of half-baked franchise flops and sequels did nothing to help that. The question now is whether a slate of literary adaptations, true-story recreations, and yes, eventually a Halloween-centered superhero (hello, Doctor Strange!) will be enough to drive audience interest.

Snowden / Open Road Films

The fall kicks off with the stodgiest Oscar-bait of them all, Clint Eastwood’s Sully (September 9), a stirring drama that sees Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) land a plane on the Hudson River after catastrophic engine failure, then suffer through a press conference or two. It’s the kind of true story that typically appeals in awards season, but outside of the plane crash itself, there’s not a whole lot of drama to this one. (Put it this way: There’s a reason it’s only one hour and 35 minutes long.) The true stories keep coming with Snowden (September 16), Oliver Stone’s take on a more exciting figure in recent history, the former NSA contractor and whistleblower (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Stone hasn’t had a hit in years, but in theory, the conspiratorial nature of Snowden’s story should fit his milieu perfectly.

The Magnificent Seven / Columbia

The rest of September is a mixed bag of nostalgia. Bridget Jones’s Baby (September 16) is a 12-years-delayed third entry in the Bridget Jones saga, with Renee Zellweger returning to the big screen for the first time in six years to choose between Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey. Blair Witch (September 16) is a reboot/sequel to the 1999 horror phenomenon that sees the brother of poor Heather Donohue (hers was the tearful face that became synonymous with The Blair Witch Project) trying to find her in the woods. The Magnificent Seven (September 23) is a new take on the classic Western (and, in turn, the Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai), this time starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke as a ragtag group of cowboys enlisted to save a town from evildoers. Antoine Fuqua, who has updated King Arthur and The Equalizer with mixed results, directs.

The Queen of Katwe / Disney

It’s not just a month of nostalgia for old hit movies, though. Deepwater Horizon (September 30) takes viewers all the way back to the halcyon days of 2010 and the disastrous oil rig explosion that led to one of the worst environmental disasters in history. It’s directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor), who excels at tales of blue-collar folk doing gritty work, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, and John Malkovich. In lighter fare, there’s Disney’s Queen of Katwe (September 23), a sports biography about the Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi (played by the newcomer Madina Nalwanga); David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o co-star. Andrea Arnold’s American Honey (September 30), a 163-minute road trip drama starring Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough, has drawn raves for its energetic style and won the Cannes Jury Prize. Finally, Tim Burton adapts the young-adult series Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (September 30) in a play for a new Harry Potter-style franchise, this one starring Eva Green as the headmistress of a school of magical youngsters.

The Birth of a Nation / Fox Searchlight

In October, Oscar season really kicks off with the debut of Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation (October 7), a retelling of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion that drew plaudits at the Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million. (The film’s buzz has since been overshadowed by the horrifying details of a past rape allegation against Parker.) The adaptation of the novel The Girl on the Train (October 7), starring Emily Blunt, seems to be aiming for viewers who enjoyed the similarly thrilling Gone Girl, but can the director Tate Taylor (The Help) bring the same kind of artistry to a hit potboiler that David Fincher did two years ago? Meanwhile, Ben Affleck has moved on to an even darker role in The Accountant (October 14), where he plays an autistic math savant who keeps the books of dangerous criminal organizations, and gets caught up in a web of intrigue. Gavin O’Connor (Warrior, Jane Got a Gun) directs.

Moonlight / A24

Tom Cruise continues his career reinvention (one in which he only appears in reliable action sequels) with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (October 21), which will suffer from the loss of Werner Herzog, such an oddly compelling villain in the 2012 original. Ewan McGregor is also making a play for reinvention, but as a writer and director, adapting one of Philip Roth’s greatest novels, American Pastoral (October 21) and starring as “Swede” Levov, a Jewish businessman whose daughter Merry (Dakota Fanning) is drawn into a frightening world of left-wing radicalism. The promising young American director Barry Jenkins, who made the underseen delight Medicine for Melancholy, has drawn raves for Moonlight (October 21), a drama about a gay, young African American man trying to find his place in the world.

Inferno / Columbia Pictures

The acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook, whose foray into Hollywood was the appealing thriller Stoker, is back in his homeland with The Handmaiden (October 21), an erotic psychological thriller set in the 1930s. If you’re looking for sillier fare, there’s always Inferno (October 28), where Dan Brown’s heroic cryptologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) tries to unravel yet another medieval conspiracy, this time in Florence, Italy. It’s possible the director Ron Howard and Hanks just wanted to take a vacation to the Mediterranean, but the film looks set to make a fortune worldwide no matter what.

Doctor Strange / Marvel Studios

Come November, audiences will get a Marvel superhero in the form of Doctor Strange (November 4), starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the trippy sorcerer supreme, which promises to be slightly darker fare thanks to its fall release date and its director, the horror-film vet Scott Derrickson. Mel Gibson is attempting another comeback with Hacksaw Ridge (November 4), a World War II drama about the conscientious objector and Medal of Honor winner Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield). Gibson has always been a thrilling director of action, but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough for audiences to put aside his long and checkered history. Another major Oscar player dropping that week is Jeff Nichols’s true-story drama Loving (November 4), about the plaintiffs in the 1967 Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage around the country; the film, starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, drew warm praise at Cannes.

Arrival / Paramount

It seems every up-and-coming director these days tries to make a sci-fi drama (Nichols, in fact, did so just this year with Midnight Special). For Denis Villeneuve, who’s made his mark with dramas like Prisoners and Sicario, that’s Arrival (November 11), an intriguing-looking work starring Amy Adams about a linguist trying to communicate with a mysterious race of aliens. Perhaps just as ambitious is Ang Lee’s Iraq War epic Billy Flynn’s Long Halftime Walk (November 11), an adaptation of Ben Fountain’s award-winning novel that was shot in an unprecedented 120 frames per second (the usual speed is 24). That should give it an unusual visual pop if nothing else, something Lee (whose last film was Life of Pi) excels at. Perhaps the biggest Oscar player of all is Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea (November 18), a sober family drama starring Casey Affleck and Kyle Chandler that drew acclaim at Sundance, where it premiered out of competition and was picked up by Amazon.

Moana / Disney

Finally, as Thanksgiving rolls around, the franchises fire up again, including the Harry Potter-verse, which has been dormant since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 2011. No longer, with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (November 18), an original script by J.K. Rowling set in her wizarding world, but this time in 1920s New York. Will Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander inspire as much devotion as The Boy Who Lived? Let’s hope, since Fantastic Beasts is the first of a trilogy. Disney is also releasing its original musical Moana (November 23), a Pacific Islands-set adventure starring Dwayne Johnson as the legendary Polynesian demigod Maui alongside the newcomer Auli’i Cravalho; maybe as big a draw is the original music from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Allied / Paramount

Thanksgiving also brings Allied (November 23), a romantic thriller from Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back to the Future) set in World War II and starring Brad Pitt as an assassin who falls for a spy played by Marion Cotillard. Rules Don’t Apply (November 23) is Warren Beatty’s return to directing after 18 years of semi-retirement, in which he plays the legendary Hollywood magnate Howard Hughes, interfering in a romance between an aspiring actress (Lily Collins) and a young businessman (Alden Erenreich). After that, it’s on to Christmas season, home to Star Wars and the accelerated Oscar-hype cycle.

The Violent Post-Election Protests in Gabon

NEWS BRIEF At least three people were killed and more than 1,000 arrested in violent protests that broke out after the re-election of President Ali Bongo in Gabon, Reuters reports.

Gabonese opposition leader Jean Ping said the deaths occurred after police forces attacked his party’s headquarters Wednesday night in Liberville, the capital, where residents say the internet has been cut.

Mes pensées vont vers les anonymes qui ont été capturés, blessés ou tués durant les récents évènements. Dieu vous protège et bénisse #gabon

— Jean Ping (@pingjean) September 1, 2016

“My thoughts go out to the anonymous who were captured, injured, or killed during the recent events. God protect you and bless you,” Ping tweeted Thursday.

Pacome Moubelet Boubeya, the country’s interior minister, said at least 1,000 people were arrested, the majority of them in Liberville. Jean-Thierry Oye Zue, the police chief, told Agence France-Presse six officers were killed in the post-election protests, though he declined to give a total number of fatalities.

The protests in Liberville first erupted Wednesday following the announcement Bongo won re-election by a narrow margin of 5,594 votes—a process Ping’s supporters are calling rigged. Thousands of people took to the streets and the National Assembly building was set on fire. Photos and videos from the protests posted on Twitter show people shouting and chanting, injured protesters being carried away on stretchers by paramedics, and security forces dispersing the crowds using tear gas.

Protests continued Thursday in Liberville, where witnesses have reported gunshots, blasts, and looting.

Bongo addressed the violence a series of tweets Thursday, in which he reaffirmed his respect for the electoral process and acknowledged the deaths of those killed.

Je veux exprimer ma grande tristesse devant le décès de certains de nos concitoyens #DirectABO

— Ali Bongo Ondimba (@PresidentABO) September 1, 2016

“I want to express my great sadness at the death of some of our citizens,” he tweeted.  

Ping rejected the election results and echoed calls made by the United States, France, and the European Union for the Gabonese government to release the election results by individual polling stations.

“The citizens of Gabon peacefully and respectfully exercised their right to freely and fairly choose our country’s next president,” Ping said in a statement Wednesday. “The current president, Ali Bongo, did not approve of their choice, so he substituted his will for theirs.”

Bongo was first elected president of Gabon in 2009, succeeding his father, Omar, who ruled the oil-rich west-central African country for 42 years. The country faced similar violent protests following the 2009 election, in which two people were killed.

John Hinckley Nears Freedom

NEWS BRIEF John Hinckley was a mentally disturbed 25 year old in 1981 when he tried to assassinate President Reagan. A jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity, and ever since then he has lived in treatment at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. But on September 10, he will take up new residence as a free man in Virginia in line with a judge’s order last month.

Hinckley’s long-time lawyer, Barry Levine, announced the date Thursday, saying, “I think he will be a citizen about whom we can all be proud.” Hinckley will move in with his mother, who has a home in Williamsburg.

More than 30 years ago, Hinckley obsessed over Jodi Foster and her role in the 1976 film Taxi Driver, a story of a cab driver played by Robert De Niro who stalks a woman (played by Foster) and hopes to win her affection by killing a presidential candidate. Hinckley suffered from major depression and a psychotic disorder at the time, and he sought to emulate the movie’s plot in real life. He stalked Foster at Yale University, where she was a student, and later followed President Jimmy Carter. When Reagan won the presidential election in 1980, Hinckley focused his obsession on him. On March 30, 1981, Hinckley shot Reagan in the chest and also wounded three others, including press secretary James Brady. Reagan eventually recovered.

Here’s a photo of the moment just after the shooting:

Would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. adjusts to life in Virginia https://t.co/26ao6MNSDw via @CBS6 pic.twitter.com/J3vqWV8MQ5

— WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) August 31, 2016

Hinckley has spent 34 years as a patient at St. Elizabeths Hospital. In the past decade, he has been given more freedom, traveling alone to visit his mother’s home in Williamsburg. In that time, he’s made more than 80 unsupervised trips out of the hospital, according to a court order released in July. In that order, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman wrote that Hinckley, now 61, no longer poses a danger to himself or others, and for almost 30 years has shown “no signs of psychotic symptoms, delusional thinking, or any violent tendencies.” The U.S. Secret Service has closely monitored Hinckley on many of his trips outside the hospital, usually while Hinckley makes visits to Wal-Mart, Petsmart, or Subway, like in this photo taken last month when Hinckley stopped for a sandwich.

Tastes like… freedom! A gray-haired, paunchy John Hinckley enjoys a Subway sandwich after… https://t.co/geWVtMmdG1 pic.twitter.com/6wgbVwFx94

— The Voice Gh (@TheVoicegh) August 14, 2016

After the jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity, many U.S. states rewrote their laws to make it harder for the accused to prove they are insane. Hinckley’s case also changed gun-control laws. Brady, the press secretary injured in the shooting, spent much of his life fighting for stricter background checks for gun sales. He died in 2014, and police ruled his death a homicide.

Reagan ultimately forgave Hinckley. But when his release was announced in July, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said, “Contrary to the judge’s decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others, and we strongly oppose his release.”

Hinckley’s lawyer, Levine, has said Hinckley’s actions all those years ago do not reflect the motives of an inherently evil man. Instead, he said, they’re the result of a mental illness. “He is profoundly sorry,” Levine told The Washington Post in July, “and he wishes he could take back that day, but he can’t.”

Marvel, Jack Kirby, and the Comic-Book Artist’s Plight

One week ago, Marvel put out a press release announcing something special: a five-day celebration of the life and work of Jack Kirby, the spectacularly talented and influential artist whose work underlies the majority of modern superhero comics. “Jack ‘The King’ Kirby is one of the founding fathers of the Marvel Universe,” the release trumpeted. “From August 22nd to the 28th—what would have been Kirby's 99th birthday—Marvel will pay homage to the incredible and iconic contributions Kirby has made to the House of Ideas, entertainment, and pop-culture.” On offer were articles about Kirby’s creation of famous Marvel characters, podcast interviews with his son and granddaughter, and retrospective collections of Kirby’s art.

Born Jacob Kurtzburg in 1917, Kirby was the son of immigrant Jewish parents who settled in the lower east side of Manhattan. Kirby started drawing young, teaching himself the rudiments of the fast, explosive style that became his calling card. He drew monster comics, romance comics (a genre he had a hand in creating), westerns, and science fiction. In 1940, he and his fellow artist Joe Simon created Captain America. In 1961, he and Stan Lee collaborated on Fantastic Four, the first modern Marvel superhero comic. It was the start of a partnership that produced a pantheon of characters: Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther, The Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom, The Inhumans and the X-Men, and far too many others to name. The Marvel comics universe and its accompanying blockbuster films simply would not exist without the cigar-chomping Jack Kirby. (Indeed, it’s possible that Star Wars, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Kirby’s Fourth World saga for DC Comics, wouldn’t exist either.)

Marvel’s “Kirby Week” covers all of this in glowing fashion. But the articles all gloss neatly over the other side of the story: namely, the fact that Marvel fought a decades-long battle to keep Kirby from claiming creative and financial control over his creations, culminating in a legal dustup with his heirs that very nearly landed in front of the Supreme Court. The story of Kirby’s struggle with Marvel is also one of the most public examples of the lengths to which even the greatest of creators had to go in order to get credit—and compensation—for his work.  

The origin of Kirby’s battles with Marvel go all the way back to his collaborations with Stan Lee, who, as part of the “Marvel Method,” assigned plot summaries to artists, left while they plotted and penciled the comic, and then wrote dialogue over their work. This was a method born partially of necessity: The overworked Lee wasn’t just Marvel’s primary writer, he was also the main editor with a stable of books to get out. As a result, though, Kirby was often the driving influence behind many of the stories they worked on. (In one oft cited example, Lee told Kirby simply: “Have the Fantastic Four fight God.” Kirby came back with a fully plotted saga of Galactus the World Eater and the Silver Surfer, characters who went on to become major figures in the Marvel Universe.)

As their comics grew incredibly popular, Kirby began to push for recognition for his role in plotting stories and creating characters. He made little headway. Frustrated with his lack of both credit and creative control, and angry at Marvel’s continual refusal to offer him a share of the money his creations were raking in, he eventually left for DC Comics in 1970. As recorded in Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, Kirby gave an interview shortly after his departure: “I was never given credit for the writing I did,” he said. “It was my idea to do [The Fantastic Four] the way it was...I had to come up with new ideas to help the strip sell. I was faced with the frustration of having to come up with new ideas and then having them taken from me.”

In the mid-1970s, Congress revised the laws around copyright, offering longer periods of ownership for copyright holders—if the proper paperwork could be provided. Marvel realized that many of its previous contracts were legally questionable, remnants of the comics industry’s fly-by-night origins with regards to creative work. In 1978, the company began handing out freelancer contracts that guaranteed the company “forever all rights of any kind and nature in and to the work.” As Michael Dean wrote in a 2002 issue of The Comics Journal, these “work for hire” contracts were partly a result of the superhero boom Kirby himself had a hand in creating. “It wasn’t just monthly comic books that were at stake any more,” Dean wrote. “It was the vast ancillary potential of licensing and merchandising the content of those comics.” The contracts legally formalized what had previously been loosely assumed to be corporate policy, but having it in writing gave many comics freelancers pause for thought. When Kirby got the contract, he refused to sign it and left Marvel for good.

Marvel’s contract only offered 88 pages out of the thousands of pages of work Kirby had produced for them.

But Marvel wasn’t done with him. When the company began offering to return original artwork it had long held in storage, it did so by referring to the art as a “gift.” In exchange, the creators had to sign a one-page release agreeing that the art had been produced as work for hire. Most did, though with reservations. Kirby himself, sick of fighting over ownership, indicated his own willingness to sign.  But instead of the standard release, Marvel sent him—and him alone—a four-page document in 1984.

The contract offered a parade of indignities, Dean wrote: Kirby would have no ownership of the physical artwork, would be unable to copy, reproduce or sell any portion of it, and in effect had only the right to store the work for Marvel. Marvel could call the work back at any time to be “revised” or “modified.” More galling, signing the contract would not only turn over Kirby’s legal rights to his characters, it would force Kirby to surrender any rights Marvel wasn’t already entitled to, forbidding him from assisting others in disputing copyrights or complaining—even in private—of the document’s unfairness. Worst of all, the contract only offered 88 pages out of the thousands of pages of work Kirby had produced for them. By signing, Kirby would acknowledge that he was entitled to nothing more.

Kirby hit the roof. For three years, he and Marvel fought over the return of his art. Enraging him further, some of his original pages began appearing for sale by private dealers (likely the result of thefts from the famously disorganized Marvel storage.) Part of Marvel’s intransigence, Dean wrote, came from their concern that any ground they gave Kirby could be interpreted as legal proof of ownership. Eventually, though, the sheer hurricane of bad publicity and pressure from the rest of the comics industry forced them to cave. In return for signing the original release guaranteeing Marvel’s ownership, Kirby got 1,900 pages of artwork back and creator credits on many of his characters. He would not, however, see financial compensation or residuals for his work.

All of this might seem like ancient history. But as the comics writer Kurt Busiek noted, the ’70s change in copyright law didn’t just extend periods of ownership, it also provided a window whereby copyright sellers could renegotiate sales. Kirby didn’t live to see that window open: He died in 1994. But in 2009, Kirby’s heirs filed notices of termination with Marvel, which the law allowed them to do.

For Marvel, which had been profiting mightily off of the boom in superhero films, this sparked a panic. The company had recently been bought by Disney for $4 billion and had begun releasing its own superhero films—Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk—all of which were making a healthy profit, and all of which were based directly on Kirby’s work. Marvel sued Kirby’s heirs to stop the copyright termination, arguing once again that Kirby’s creations had been work for hire. But this proved an unexpectedly difficult point to nail down. “It’s not about whether Kirby knew Marvel got all rights,” Busiek explained. “It’s about whether Kirby owned the rights and sold them, or whether he was just an employee, and Marvel owned all his ideas before they even came out of the pencil.” Marvel was gambling on the latter.

Kirby’s vast legacy of imagination marches on. So, unfortunately, does its shadow.

The resulting legal fight lasted five years, with claims, counterclaims, and appeals. In 2014, it came within a whisker of landing before the Supreme Court, with the Writer’s Guild, Directors Guild, and Screen Actors Guild—among others—filing amicus briefs arguing against Marvel. The day before the Court went into conference to decide whether or not to take the case, Marvel opted to settle. As Dominic Patten noted in his coverage for Deadline, the resulting agreement likely came from panic. The company would have had to negotiate with the Kirby family for everything, including back-royalties on hits like Guardians of the Galaxy and rights for the Avengers characters (something the family could have fairly demanded millions for).

There were further implications Marvel wanted to avoid as well. “A wide variety of copyrights across the industry, including those at Warner Bros and DC Comics, would suddenly be in play,” Patten wrote. Freelancers or those with work-for-hire status—such as writers and composers—could gain rights to their work, as if they were traditional employees.

The long battle between Kirby and Marvel had—for now—been laid to rest.

While the details of the 2014 settlement between Marvel and the Kirby family are secret, it’s likely—given the amount Marvel stood to lose if the case went to trial—that the terms were generous. But while Kirby’s family may have finally gotten some measure of compensation, they are very much the exception.

The history of comics creators getting shafted as their work went on to make thousands is a long one. A quick sampling of names: Siegel and Shuster, the creators of Superman, who lost ownership of their creation and were cast aside, only receiving cover credits and meager financial compensation in the late 1970s. There’s also Bill Finger, who did the majority of work creating Batman only to see his co-creator Bob Kane walk away with a contract for sole credit and royalties, which he largely maintains to this day.

Bill Mantlo, the creator of Rocket Raccoon, depends on charity for his medical care, while his character stars in a film that made $773.3 million at the box office. Gary Friedrich, one of the creators of Ghost Rider, attempted to sue Marvel for control of the character, only to be hit with a countersuit demanding $17,000 in damages for the author’s sale of unlicensed merchandise at conventions, a commonly accepted practice. And who can forget Alan Moore, who produced the seminal graphic novel Watchmen under an agreement that the rights would revert to him when it went out of print, only to find that DC had no intention of allowing that to happen.

It’s a well known fact in the comics industry and fandom that while superhero films make hundreds of millions at the box office, many creators of classic characters rarely see a dime for their work. They often have to rely on charity organizations like the Hero Initiative—founded to help comic artists in financial need—if they’re alive, and they have little to leave to their families after they’re dead. This is, of course, completely legal under current definitions of copyright law, regulations that have been repeatedly altered to help protect the corporations that hoard intellectual property. But it’s also the sort of thing the companies in question largely prefer not to talk about. Marvel’s “Kirby Week” content all links to Kirby4Heroes, a program created by Kirby’s granddaughter Jillian that raises money for the Hero Initiative while neglecting to discuss why such a program might need to exist.

All of which makes Marvel’s celebration of “Kirby Week” so bittersweet. Kirby’s vast legacy marches on. So, unfortunately, does its shadow: the long history of the industry using up artists and tossing them aside like so much crumpled paper. There’s a famous anecdote told by James Romberger, the artist of the graphic novel Seven Miles a Second. In the 1980s, Romberger met Kirby at a convention and showed him some of his work. “Kid, you’re one of the best,” The King said, looking over the portfolio. “Don’t do comics. Comics will break your heart.”

Gabon's Presidential Election Ends in Flames

NEWS BRIEF The National Assembly building in the capital of Gabon was set ablaze Wednesday night in protest of presidential election results announced earlier that day.

Demonstrators set #Gabon parliament on fire as protests intensifies following disputed election results #Gabon2016 pic.twitter.com/f1rDfDqEUu

— Alhagie Jobe (@freejobe39) August 31, 2016

The protests in Liberville began Wednesday following the announcement that the West African country’s incumbent President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a narrow victory, with 49.8 percent of the vote, Reuters reports. Supporters of rival candidate Jean Ping, who secured 48.2 percent of the vote, called the election rigged.

Thousands of people took to the streets after the results were announced, Agence France-Presse reports. Police forces reportedly began using tear gas

Trump in Mexico: 'Who Pays for the Wall? We Didn't Discuss it'

Updated on August 31 at 7:07 p.m.

On an ordinary day, Donald Trump can’t stop talking about the wall.

His promise to build a huge wall on the U.S border with Mexico at Mexico’s expense has been among the most consistent refrains through his presidential campaign. (He has spent the last two weeks backing away from another, his vow to deport undocumented immigrants.) His plan to compel Mexico to pay is one of the most detailed items on the otherwise sparse policy section of his website. He can’t help but bring it up at every campaign event, as he explained to The New York Times: “If it gets a little boring ... I just say, ‘We will build the wall!’ and they go nuts.”

But this was no ordinary day, and when Trump met Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Wednesday afternoon, the Republican presidential nominee didn’t even bring it up.

Related Story

What Does Enrique Peña Nieto Want From Trump's Visit?

“Who pays for the wall? We didn’t discuss it,” he said during a brief press conference after the meeting.

When Trump made that comment, Peña Nieto was standing just to his right and said nothing. Two hours later, however, the Mexican president said in a statement that he had told Trump during their meeting that Mexico would not pay for the wall. Because no press was present in the room, it’s impossible to know who is telling the truth and who is lying. Throughout his campaign and career, Trump has shown a willingness to embellish, equivocate, and sometimes simply tell untruths. But Peña Nieto, under pressure from a Mexican public furious at the visit, said nothing in the moment and has an incentive to show his own citizens he stood up to Trump.

Trump’s decision not to bring up paying for the wall during what he described as a lengthy and candid discussion is surprising, and it leaves one of the most important questions about his visit to Mexico unanswered. The trip, hastily arranged and announced only Tuesday night, comes on the eve of what’s being billed as a major speech on immigration. But in his second journey abroad as a presidential candidate, and his first meeting with foreign leaders, Trump avoided the most controversial issue. He did assert the U.S. right to construct a wall—a far cry from the promise that Mexico would fund the construction.

Trump arrived in Mexico City earlier Wednesday afternoon, and met with the Mexican president, who is often referred to as EPN, at Los Pinos, the Mexican executive mansion. As they met, conflicting reports suggested they might or might not hold a press conference, but eventually the two men emerged and stepped to a pair of lecterns. A Mexican flag stood behind Peña Nieto; there was no flag behind Trump.

EPN went first, speaking in Spanish. For a leader who had previously likened Trump to Hitler and Mussolini, Peña Nieto was restrained. But his statement was a firm, methodical rebuttal to Trump’s campaign rhetoric, even as he offered a few openings for collaboration with the U.S. He emphasized that he would be ready to work with either a President Trump or a President Hillary Clinton.

“Our countries are very important to each other,” he said. “Mexico is very important for the United States, just as the United States is very important for Mexico.” He said the two nations innovate together and noted close collaboration on security.

Peña Nieto then embarked on a live fact-check on Trump’s platform. First up: NAFTA, the 1994 treaty that Trump has pledged to either renegotiate or tear up.

“I expressed my conviction that NAFTA has done a lot of good for the United States and Mexico,” EPN said, noting major U.S. experts to Mexico and studies that find up to 6 million American jobs rely on trade with Mexico. Rejecting Trump’s manichean approach to trade. “I don’t think that commerce can be considered a zero-sum game. It must be seen as an effort that generates value to both parties and makes North America the most competitive and innovative region in the world.”

But Peña Nieto acknowledged that NAFTA was now more than two decades old, and he said he would be willing to discuss updating the treaty, as long as any changes were mutually beneficial.

Next up: Immigration. While acknowledging American anger about illegal immigration, EPN noted that it peaked 10 years ago and is now net negative. He also complained about the flow of cash and guns into Mexico from the United States, and noted that many of the people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without documents are not Mexicans.

Peña Nieto acknowledged that every country has a right to secure its borders, but added, “I also think that a real collaboration between friends and allies is the best way to attain this.” As he did in a tweet last night, he spoke of his duty to protect Mexicans “wherever they may be,” and he asserted the need to respect Mexican citizens, presumably a reference to Trump’s statements last year that Mexican immigrants are “bringing crime. They're rapists.”

But Peña Nieto failed to extract any apology from Trump for his various attacks, nor did he chastise the American. This may stir more backlash for a Mexican populace already disaffected with its president and upset about his invitation to Trump.

Then it was Trump’s turn. He spoke carefully, reading a prepared statement. He said it was an honor to meet with the president, and he added, “I happen to have a tremendous feeling for Mexican Americans, not only in terms of friendships but in terms of the tremendous numbers that I employ in the United States, and they are are amazing people.”

“The United States must take action to stem this tremendous outflow of jobs from our country. It’s happening very day. It’s getting worse and worse and worse.”

He pushed back on EPN’s view of NAFTA, saying he had shared his view that Mexico had benefited far more than the U.S. and insisting on “fair and reciprocal trade.”

“I expressed that the United States... must take action to stem this tremendous outflow of jobs from our country. It’s happening very day. It’s getting worse and worse and worse,” Trump said. (In fact, recent trends show insourcing of manufacturing jobs to the United States after years of losses.)

Trump outlined five steps he said the U.S. and Mexico could collaborate on: Ending illegal immigration; the right to build a physical wall on the border; dismantling drug cartels; updating NAFTA; and keeping manufacturing wealth in the hemisphere.

Trump more than once mentioned the importance of keeping economic gains in the Western Hemisphere. It’s a new motif for the Republican, if a somewhat uneasy one: The idea of hemispherical collaboration undergirds NAFTA, the very treaty he has so harshly denigrated. The America First candidate was extolling the benefits of an Americas First policy. He closed by calling Peña Nieto—the president of a country Trump called an “enemy”—a friend.

Trump’s visit to Mexico was a major risk, and despite 11th hour planning, it went off without major hitches. The press conference didn’t end with an acrimonious Love Actually moment. In meeting with a foreign leader, Trump perhaps achieved a measure of looking presidential, something his aides told CNN was a major motivation behind the brief trip. Trump might be graded on a curve on this issue; his trip was far shorter than the one Mitt Romney took in 2012 or the one Barack Obama made in 2008, offering far less depth but also fewer settings for disaster. He avoided that.

But the he-said-he-said on paying for the wall casts a shadow over the whole visit. Assuming it is Trump and not EPN who is telling the truth about the wall, Trump wasn’t willing to gamble by putting the negotiating skills he frequently boasts about to test by asking the question he’s usually so eager to spring: “Who’s gonna pay for the wall?” The risk that Peña Nieto might contradict him publicly was simply too great.

Tim Tebow's Baseball Dream

Tim Tebow, the star college quarterback turned washed-up NFL quarterback turned ESPN analyst, is attempting to make yet another career pivot—this time, to professional baseball. But after his workout in front of Major League Baseball scouts Tuesday in Los Angeles, that career change might be a stretch.

Tebow’s name alone was enough to guarantee that a sizeable audience showed up to his special one-person tryout. And the fact that Tebow, 29, looks as fit as he ever has probably didn’t hurt, either. But the former football player’s actual baseball ability, as one unnamed scout told ESPN after the workout, “has a long way to go.”

Another scout was less generous. The anonymous source told USA TODAY the tryout “was a complete waste of time. It was like watching an actor trying to portray a baseball player.” The scout added, “He tried. He tried. That’s the best I can say. He is crazy strong, and could run well in one direction, but that’s it. He only had one good throw of all his throws.’’

At the plate, Tebow struggled to make contact, though he did crush one fastball well out of the park. In the field, ESPN reported, he “looked mechanical at times, had a misstep or two with his footwork, and showed a throwing arm that one scout gave a 40 grade.” (On baseball’s 20 to 80 scouting scale, with 80 being the highest, baseball website Fangraphs says 50 is the major league average). Still, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick wrote, “A few big league teams talked privately with Tebow after the workout, and he seems unlikely to have trouble finding an organization willing to give a chance to a celebrity with clear baseball ability, however rudimentary.” Tebow hasn’t played organized baseball since high school.

After his tryout, Tebow said, “For me, you pursue what you love regardless of what else happens. If you fail or fall flat on your face, and that’s the worst thing that can happen, it’s OK. When did pursuing what you love become such a bad thing? I’ll make all the sacrifices to be the best I can.”

That’s easy for him to say. Tebow has been a household name since his days as Florida’s Heisman-winning, God-praising quarterback. He can hold a tryout and have 28 MLB teams show up out of curiosity. If he fails, he faces no consequences, beyond perhaps, bruised pride. Pursuing what you love is great advice. And when you’re a rich and famous celebrity with nothing to risk except embarrassing yourself, you can afford to do it. It’s not difficult to believe Tebow when he says he’s not doing this for publicity or money.

After a stellar college career, Tebow was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft and signed a five-year deal that guaranteed him $8.7 million. After two up-and-down seasons with the Broncos, he was traded to the New York Jets in 2012, where he spent one season, followed by a brief stint with the New England Patriots before the 2013 season. Nearly two years later in April 2015, Tebow signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, but was released before the season began.

After that, Tebow tried his hand at broadcasting for ESPN, wrote an autobiography, grew his charity foundation, and starred in a documentary about his life. He might have stopped playing football, but he didn’t fade out of public consciousness. People know who Tebow is, and more importantly, baseball teams know that people know, and they’ll consider signing him for publicity alone.

For his part, Tebow continues to frame his path to professional baseball in terms of hard work and practice, emphasizing his commitment to working his way up through the minors. According to ESPN, Tebow’s agent Brodie Van Wagenen said, “the ideal scenario” would be Tebow signing with a team in time to play for MLB’s development league in Arizona in the fall.

But even Tebow knows that if he’s signed by a team, he’ll have his fame to thank. MLB catcher Chad Moeller, who’s been training Tebow, told USA TODAY earlier this month, Tebow “knows he’s partially a sideshow to start with.”

Moeller added, “But he does want a team that actually thinks this is for real.”

There's a Hidden Eulogy to Mussolini Buried Under an Obelisk in Rome

NEWS BRIEF Beneath the base of a 300-ton obelisk in Rome dedicated to the fascist rise of Benito Mussolini rests a 1,200-word eulogy, written on parchment in Latin and dedicated to the legacy of the long-departed Italian dictator.

But the text remains underground, unreachable to the classics professors who announced its existence Wednesday. The professors, who work for universities in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, learned of the document through records dating back to 1932, the year the obelisk was completed. The records, which are stored in libraries and archives in Rome, explained that Mussolini’s regime buried the text underneath the monument in hopes that it would be discovered by archaeologists in the distance future. The obelisk was constructed at a time when archaeologists were discovering ruins and treasures from their ancient Roman past. Mussolini’s supporters wanted the text to be uncovered in a similar age of discovery, many years into the future, according to the professors.

The eulogy is written in three parts. Here’s the description from the BBC:

The first is a general history of the achievements of fascism and the rise of Mussolini. It describes Italy as on the brink of disaster following World War One only to be rescued by Mussolini, “regenerating the country through his superhuman insight and resoluteness,” said Dr. Lamers, who works at Humboldt University Berlin and Catholic University of Leuven.

“The text presents Mussolini as a kind of new Roman emperor, but also, by using biblical language, as the savior of the Italian people.”

The second section concerns the Fascist Youth Organisation (the obelisk was being constructed at its headquarters) and youth programs.

The third part deals with the construction of the Foro Italico—then known as the Foro Mussolini—and the erection of the obelisk.

Records show the parchment is buried alongside gold coins and a medal that depicts Mussolini as some sort of lion figure. Mussolini served as Il Duce from 1922 until 1943. Two years later, he was killed by Italian communists and hung upside-down for public viewing.

When the obelisk eventually topples, like so many Roman equivalents, archaeologists will excavate the text and tokens for display.  

The Supreme Court Won't Intervene in North Carolina's Voting Law

NEWS BRIEF The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in North Carolina’s election laws, meaning the crucial swing state will see 17 days of early voting in this fall’s election and that voters will not have to present photo IDs to vote.

On July 29, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state’s strict voting law, passed in 2013. The law, passed by Republicans in the General Assembly and signed by Governor Pat McCrory, shortened early voting by a week to 10 days, ended same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting, and stopped a pre-registration program for teenagers. A group of plaintiffs including the North Carolina NAACP and the U.S. Department of Justice challenged the law. Their challenge was rejected by a federal district judge, but a court of appeals reversed the decision, ruling the law deliberately discriminated against black voters.

McCrory asked the Supreme Court to stay that ruling, and he is appealing it. But the Court voted 4-4 on Wednesday not to grant the stay. Five justices would have had to vote to grant it, but with only eight justices on the Court since Antonin Scalia’s death, it’s tougher to reach that threshold. All four conservative justices—John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy—would have granted the stay, at least in part.

BREAKING: #SCOTUS denies NC voting rights stay request, mostly on a 4-4 vote. pic.twitter.com/2Q7Lm2BiVX

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) August 31, 2016

North Carolina has emerged as an important swing state in the presidential election, with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as well as their running mates making frequent visits. Longer early voting and same-day registration have been shown to be used in greater proportions by minority voting blocs that lean Democratic, which means the decision could help Clinton.

It could also have an effect on down-ballot races. McCrory, a Republican, is running for reelection, and most recent polls have shown him trailing Democratic Roy Cooper. Senator Richard Burr is also in a contested election against Democrat Deborah Ross.

Even without the law however, Republican-led boards of elections in some counties have been working to limit the number of hours and locations devoted to early voting, even with the 17-day period mandated by the Fourth Circuit, drawing fierce objections from voting advocates.

Stormy Weather, Bound for Hawaii and Florida

NEWS BRIEF Two U.S. states are preparing for severe weather this week: Two hurricanes are nearing Hawaii, while a tropical storm is headed toward Florida. Both storms are already dropping heavy rains on the states, and both are bracing for high winds with the potential to cause severe damage.

Hurricanes are rare in Hawaii. Since 1949, only two hurricanes have directly hit the islands. In the same period, just 13 hurricanes have come within 200 nautical miles. The waters surrounding the island chain typically aren’t warm enough to support their formation, and the land is also protected by wind shear, which either prevents hurricanes from forming or diverts them to the north or south. This week’s hurricanes, Madeline and Lester, are both on a path toward Hawaii but the state is expected to narrowly avoid a direct hit. Two hurricanes this close together is rare for any part of the world, although it has become slightly more common in the past decade.

Here’s a look at Madeline and Lester:

Hurricanes #Madeline and #Lester churning westward across the Pacific, latest NHC / CPHC forecast tracks included pic.twitter.com/2ldwQ1F3Qg

— NWS OPC (@NWSOPC) August 29, 2016

By Wednesday morning, Madeline’s winds had slowed to 80 miles per hour, making the storm a Category 1 hurricane. Madeline spun about 355 miles southeast of Honolulu. Lester moved further east, with winds of 130 miles per hour, and was expected to pass just north of the islands. Both hurricanes are expected to bring severe rains, and a hurricane warning and flash flood watch are in effect for several of the islands.

In Florida, the governor has declared a state of emergency as a violent tropical storm—which could turn into a hurricane—approaches the Gulf Coast and could make landfall as early as Thursday. The state of emergency covers 42 of Florida’s 67 counties. Heavy rains, in some area as much as 15 inches, hit the state Wednesday as the tropical storm neared. The storm’s winds had not yet reached the required 75 miles per hour for hurricane designation, but forecasters expect they will by the time the storm hits land, if it sustains its power.