Trump could ‘inspire a ‘disaster movie’ – Spain’s Almodovar

(L-R) Actress Rossy de Palma, director Pedro Almodovar, and actress Marina Ambramovic attend the Pedro Almodovar Retrospective Opening Night at the Museum of Modern Art on November 29, 2016 in New York City. Jason Carter Rinaldi/Getty Images/AFP

Donald Trump would be the perfect protagonist for a disaster film, said Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, as a retrospective of his movies got underway in New York.
“I think that Trump is going to provide a lot of creative inspiration, especially for comedians,” said Almodovar at an event late Tuesday marking the launch of the film series at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art.
The MoMA exhibition, encompassing every movie made by Almodovar, coincides with the release of “Julieta,” his 20th feature-length film, which was also previewed at MoMA Tuesday. The movie opens in US theaters on December 21.
Almodovar, Spain’s most celebrated living movie director, made it clear that he is no fan of the US president-elect but said Trump’s larger-than-life persona is the stuff of filmmaking lore.
“He seriously would inspire a disaster movie,” Almodovar said.
“This kind of personality type have no parallel in real life. He’s like a great fictional character,” the director said.

Gun that nearly killed poet Rimbaud sells for almost half million euros

The revolver with which French poet Paul Verlaine tried to kill his lover Arthur Rimbaud is displayed at Christie's auction house before the most famous gun in French literature goes under the hammer in Paris on November 30, 2016.Thomas Samson/AFP

The most famous gun in French literary history, the revolver with which Paul Verlaine tried to kill his lover and fellow poet Arthur Rimbaud, sold for 434,500 euros ($460,000) at an auction in Paris on Wednesday.
The staggering price for the seven mm six-shooter — which almost changed the course of world literature — was more than seven times the estimate, auctioneers Christie’s said.
Verlaine bought the weapon in Brussels on the morning of July 10, 1873, determined to put an end to his torrid two-year affair with his teenage lover.
The 29-year-old poet had abandoned his young wife and child to be with Rimbaud, who would later become the symbol of rebellious youth, idolised by 1960s singers like Jim Morrison.
But after an opium- and absinthe-soaked stay in London, which would inspire Rimbaud’s “A Season in Hell”, Verlaine wanted to go back to his wife.
He fled to the Belgian capital to get away from Rimbaud only for the younger man to follow him.
It was in a hotel room there at two in the afternoon where, after the lovers had rowed, cried and got drunk

UK experts give green light to ‘three-parent babies’

British scientists on Wednesday approved the use of so-called "three-parent baby" fertility treatments, paving the way for the country to become the first in the world to officially introduce the procedures.AFP

British scientists on Wednesday approved the use of so-called “three-parent baby” fertility treatments, paving the way for the country to become the first in the world to officially introduce the procedures.
An independent panel of experts tasked with reviewing the safety of mitochondrial gene therapy said the practice should be “cautiously adopted” to prevent certain genetic diseases from being passed on to future generations.
British MPs voted in February to allow the creation of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) babies with DNA from three people.
However, the country’s fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said it would wait for Wednesday’s report before green-lighting use of the treatments in clinics.
The technique would allow women who carry disease-causing mutations in their mitochondrial genes to give birth to genetically-related children free of mitochondrial disease.
– ‘Designer babies’ –
But opponents have questioned its ethics and say it opens the way to “designer babies”.
The treatment involves the embryo receiving the usual “nuclear” DNA from the mother and father, as well as a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) from a female donor.
The review panel recommended its clinical use “in specific circumstances… where inheritance of the disease

Colombia’s congress approves revised deal with FARC

Colombia’s Congress has approved a revised peace deal with the FARC rebel group, paving the way to end a conflict that has lasted more than 50 years.
The lower house voted 130-0 on Wednesday to approve the text adopted a day earlier by the Senate.
President Juan Manuel Santos said the vote provided “landmark backing” for a deal he personally pushed for. Santos, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, shepherded the revised deal through Congress after voters shocked the world by rejecting an earlier version in a referendum last month.
The government’s chief peace negotiator with the FARC, Humberto de la Calle, had urged lawmakers to ratify this deal, warning the army’s ceasefire with the leftist guerrillas was “fragile”.
The first agreement was rejected in a referendum in October, with majority of voters saying they felt it was too lenient toward the rebels, who have battled the government for 52 years.
Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Medellin, said the approval was a significant step towards peace in the country, but added that the deal still faced hurdles.
“A few more obstacles remain,” he said, adding the constitutional court still needed to rule on a mechanism allowing Congress to pass implementing regulations, including an amnesty law.
Resistance remains

Refugee protests disrupt Australian parliament

Protesters, angered by Australia’s refugee policy, have disrupted parliament for a second day by abseiling down the building and erecting a banner that read “close the bloody camps now”.
In the early hours of Thursday the group also poured red dye – representing blood – into a fountain in front of the building, the national broadcaster ABC reported.
The incident came after a protest on Wednesday during which the group stopped parliamentary proceedings for half an hour, shouting slogans and gluing their hands to railings in the public gallery.
The group was protesting specifically against Australia’s offshore prisons which hold 1,300 asylum seekers who were picked up trying to reach Australia by boat.
Canberra sends asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by sea to isolated outposts on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, with the prison conditions widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals.
Speaker Tony Smith suspended question time in what cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said was the most serious intrusion into parliament in 20 years.
The group of around 30 protestors began chanting loudly soon after the session began, shouting “close the