In Memoriam 2023: The arts and entertainment stars we lost this year

In Memoriam 2023: The arts and entertainment stars we lost this year

Post By World Celebrity News, entertainment, Fine arts, icon, immersive-tpl, obituary

From beloved “Friends” star Matthew Perry to style icon Jane Birkin, Euronews Culture remembers the arts and entertainment stars who died this year.

Join us as we pay homage to some of the most notable figures in the realms of art and entertainment who bid us farewell over the past twelve months.

It’s impossible to do justice to all the people who left an indelible mark on our lives either through their achievements, performances or strength of character but we wanted to celebrate the joy they spread and, the fun, fear, sadness or excitement they made us feel.

For more on the stars from the world of music who passed this year, from Shane MacGowan to Tina Turner, check out our tribute page.

The following names are listed chronologically by the dates of their deaths.

Lisa Loring (1958 – 2023)

Lisa Loring, who was the first actress to play Wednesday, the youngest member of the creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky and ooky Addams Family, died aged 64.

Loring played the princess of all things morbid from 1964 to 1966 in The Addams Family, the first adaptation of Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons.

She was just five years old when she was cast.

Paco Rabanne (1934 – 2023)

Renowned designer Paco Rabanne, one of the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, died aged 88.

Over decades the Franco-Spanish couturier created memorable designs and developed several enticing scents that brought him success both on the catwalk and on the high streets, making him a household name.

Raquel Welch (1940 – 2023)

Hollywood star Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film ‘One Million Years B.C.’ made her an international sex symbol throughout the 1960s and ’70s, died aged 82.

Her curves and beauty also captured pop culture’s attention, with Playboy crowning her the “most desired woman” of the ’70s, despite never being completely naked in the magazine.

In addition to acting, Welch was a singer and dancer.

And she surprised many critics and attracted positive reviews when she starred in the 1981 musical ‘Woman of the Year’ on Broadway, replacing Lauren Bacall.

Lance Reddick (1962 – 2023)

Lance Reddick, the charismatic and prolific actor who appeared in major TV series like ‘The Wire’, ‘Fringe’ and ‘Bosch’, as well as in the John Wick franchise, died of natural causes at the age of 60.

The actor had been in the middle of a press tour for the fourth instalment of the John Wick movies, John Wick: Chapter 4.

He played a recurring character named Charon, the concierge at the Continental Hotel who works alongside Keanu Reeves’ infamous hitman.

Reddick was also slated to appear in the upcoming Ballerina spinoff, starring Ana de Armas.

Michael Lerner (1941 – 2023)

Academy Award-nominated American actor Michael Lerner died at the age of 81.

The late actor was best known for his role as the film producer, Jack Lipnick, in Barton Fink (1991) which earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards.

He has also starred and appeared in other films and series: The Warden in No Escape (1994), Mel Horowitz on the television series Clueless (1996-97), Jerry Miller in The Beautician and the Beast(1997), Mayor Ebert in Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla (1998), Mr. Greenway in Elf (2003), and Senator Brickman in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).

Barry Humphries (1934 – 2023)

Barry Humphries, best known for his comic creation Dame Edna Everage, died at the age of 89.

The Australian entertainer, who was particularly popular in the UK, appeared in West End shows including Maggie May and Oliver!.

His star rose further when the character of Dame Edna, a parody of suburban housewives, became a hit in the 1970s, even landing her own TV chat show, the Dame Edna Everage Experience, in the late 1980s.

Known for her flamboyant glasses, wittily condescending attitude, lilac-rinsed hair and catchphrase “Hello possums!”, Humphries even wrote an autobiography called My Gorgeous Life, as the character.

Jerry Springer (1944 – 2023)

Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor of Cincinnati and news anchor turned legendary TV host, died at the age of 79.

The American presenter was famous for his raucous talk show, The Jerry Springer Show, which featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities, bleep-filled arguments and blurred images of nudity.

At its peak, it was a ratings powerhouse and a US cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama.

Well in advance of Donald Trump’s political rise from reality TV stardom, Springer mulled a Senate run in 2003 that he surmised could draw on “non-traditional voters,” people “who believe most politics are bull.”

Martin Amis (1949 – 2023)

Celebrated British author Martin Amis, known for his seminal novels, Money and London Fields, died at 73.

Amis’ works were rebellious, witty and daring and made him one of the most prominent writers of his generation.

Money: A Suicide Note, a satire published in 1984, is considered one of his finest early works. It was included as one of the 100 best novels written in English by the Guardian which described it as a “zeitgeist book that remains one of the dominant novels of the 1980s.”

A film adaptation of Amis’s novel The Zone of Interest directed by Jonathan Glazer premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Glenda Jackson (1936 – 2023)

Glenda Jackson, the Oscar-winning actress and former MP, died at the age of 87.

The British trailblazer, who won two Academy Awards for Women In Love and A Touch of Class, as well as two more nominations, was an international star in the 1970s.

At the height of her career, she gave it all up for politics, acting as a Labour MP in north London from 1992 until 2015.

Alan Arkin (1934 – 2023)

Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin, who had a decades-long career and won the Academy Award for best-supporting actor for his role in 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine, died at the age of 89.

In the movie about a dysfunctional family on their way to a beauty pageant, he played a frail, foul-mouthed grandfather who was suffering from years of drug abuse.

Throughout his long career, Arkin was very prolific, appearing in more than 100 films and TV shows, nominated for four Oscars in total, including for his roles The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and Argo,and was also a renowned director and author.

Jane Birkin (1946 – 2023)

Jane Birkin, the Franco-British actress, singer and style icon died at the age of 76.

She first came to public attention in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up, where her nudity caused a scandal.

Birkin achieved international fame through her enduring musical and romantic collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg spanning a decade.

In addition to her musical success, she enjoyed a prolific acting career, predominantly in French cinema, working with some of the world’s finest film-makers, including Jacques Rivette and Agnès Varda.

Angus Cloud (1998 – 2023)

Angus Cloud, the actor who starred as the drug dealer Fezco “Fez” O’Neill on the HBO series “Euphoria” alongside Zendaya, died at the age of 25.

To some, Cloud seemed so natural as Fez that they suspected he was identical to the character – a notion that Cloud pushed back against.

The part made Cloud the breakout star of one the buzziest shows on television. He was also cast to co-star in Scream 6 before his death.

Mark Margolis (1939 – 2023)

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul actor Mark Margolis, renowned for his portrayal of Hector Salamanca, passed away at the age of 83.

Margolis, a versatile actor with a career spanning over five decades and more than 60 films, achieved widespread recognition for his role as the resentful former drug lord Salamanca.

The role earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2012.

Margolis also had notable roles in Scarface, Ace Ventura, and The Wrestler.

William Friedkin (1935 – 2023)

Oscar-winning director William Friedkin, who shot to global stardom with the release of the 1973 film, The Exorcist, died at the age of 87.

The Exorcist was a Hollywood blockbuster based on William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel about a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil.

The harrowing scenes of the girl’s possession and a splendid cast, including Linda Blair as the girl, Ellen Burstyn as her mother and Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller as the priests who try to exorcise the devil, helped make the film a box-office sensation.

The film received 10 Oscar nominations, including one for Friedkin as director, and won two, for Blatty’s script and for sound.

But it was two years prior that he won his first Oscar for ‘The French Connection’.

Friedkin continued working until his death. His latest film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, starring Kiefer Sutherland premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

David McCallum (1933 – 2023)

Renowned actor David McCallum, celebrated for his role as a teenage heartthrob in the iconic 1960s series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and later as the eccentric medical examiner in the immensely popular NCIS four decades later, died at the age of 90.

In NCIS, McCallum played Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a bookish pathologist for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service.

Throughout his illustrious career, McCallum also made guest appearances on various TV shows, such as Murder, She Wrote and Sex and the City.

Geneviève de Fontenay (1932 – 2023)

Geneviève de Fontenay, a historic and iconic figure in the Miss France pageant, died aged 90.

She took over sole management of the Miss France Committee in 1981, after the death of Louis de Fontenay.

Known for her strong character, and signature black and white outfits, she boycotted the centenary of beauty pageants in France organised by French channel TF1 at the end of 2020.

Defending a conservative image of femininity, she was gradually ostracised.

Michael Gambon (1940 – 2023)

Veteran actor Sir Michael Gambon, best known for playing Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films, died aged 82.

He was cast as the much-loved character after the death of his predecessor, Richard Harris, in 2002.

Although the Potter role raised Gambon’s international profile and introduced him to a new generation of fans, he had long been recognised as one of Britain’s leading actors.

His work spanned TV, theatre and radio, and he starred in dozens of films from The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Insider, Gosford Park to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou , Hail, Caesar!, The King’s Speech, and the animated family movie Paddington.

Terence Davies (1945 – 2023)

British screenwriter and director Terence Davies, hailed by critics as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, died at the age of 77.

After making several experimental short films in the 70s and 80s, known as the Terence Davies’ trilogy, Davies made his feature debut with 1988’s Distant Voices, Still Lives, a semi-autobiographical film that remains to this day one of his most celebrated works.

The lyrical film, which favoured imagery over dialogue, won the Cannes International Critics Prize in 1988, and in 2002 was voted the ninth-best film of the past 25 years by British film critics.

His final two feature films were centred around influential literary figures, Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion and Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction.

Burt Young (1940 – 2023)

Oscar-nominated actor, Burt Young, who played Paulie, the mumbling-and-grumbling best friend, corner man and brother-in-law of Sylvester Stallone in six Rocky films, died aged 83.

Rocky was nominated for ten Oscars, including best supporting actor for Young. It won three, including best picture.

Young also had roles in acclaimed films and television shows including Chinatown, Once Upon a Time in America and The Sopranos, and guest-starring in MASH and Miami Vice.

Richard Roundtree (1942 – 2023)

Richard Roundtree, the trailblazing actor who starred as the ultra-smooth private detective in several Shaft films beginning in the early 1970s, died at the age of 81.

He was considered as the first Black action hero and became one of the leading actors in the Blaxploitation genre through his New York street smart John Shaft character in the Gordon Parks-directed film in 1971.

Roundtree’s character was part of a change in how Black movies were viewed in Hollywood, which failed to consider Black actors – especially for leading roles – in projects at the time.

The Blaxploitation films were primarily aimed at the African American audiences, and later influenced directors such as Quentin Tarantino.

Through his 50-plus year career, Roundtree appeared in a number other notable films including Earthquake, City Heat, Roots, Maniac Cop, Se7en and What Men Want.

Matthew Perry (1969 – 2023)

Friends star Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated actor whose sarcastic, but lovable Chandler Bing was among television’s most famous and most quotable characters, died at 54.

Perry’s 10 seasons on Friends made him one of Hollywood’s most recognisable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York.

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross.

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life – and found surprising popularity with younger fans – in recent years on streaming services.

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com Fools Rush In and Bruce Willis in the crime comedy The Whole Nine Yards.

Benjamin Zephaniah (1958 – 2023)

Birmingham-born writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah, known for his poetry, music, acting roles, died aged 65.

Zephaniah moved to London in his 20s, where he published his first poetry collection ‘Pen Rhythm’ in 1980.

Over his life, he went on to publish 14 poetry collections, five novels, a non-fiction biography of Mona Baptiste, five children’s books, seven plays, among many other works.

Alongside his writing work, Zephaniah has recorded extensive music, including seven studio albums. He also acted, most notably as recurring character Jeremiah Jesus in the BBC series Peaky Blinders.

Ryan O’Neal (1941 – 2023)

Hollywood actor Ryan O’Neal, who worked across genres with many of the era’s most celebrated directors, including Peter Bogdanovich on Paper Moon and _What’s Up, Doc?_and Stanley Kubrick on Barry Lyndon, died aged 82.

The heartthrob actor went from a TV soap opera to an Oscar-nominated role in Love Story and delivered a wry performance opposite his charismatic nine-year-old daughter Tatum in Paper Moon.

Ryan O’Neal was nominated for best actor for 1970 tear-jerker drama Love Story, co-starring Ali MacGraw, about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer.

The romantic melodrama was the highest-grossing film of 1970, became one of Paramount Pictures’ biggest hits and collected seven Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. It won for best music.

Andre Braugher (1962 – 2023)

Andre Braugher, the Emmy-winning actor known for his role in the US comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the gritty cop drama Homicide, Life on the Streets, died at the age of 61.

Known for his instantly recognisable deep voice, Braugher’s career spanned gritty drama and modern comedy, earning him critical acclaim and accolades, including two Emmys.

He won his first career Emmy for his role as Detective Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life on the Street, a dark police drama based on a book by David Simon.

He went on to play a very different kind of cop on a very different kind of show, shifting to comedy as Capt. Ray Holt on the beloved Andy Samberg-starring Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

It would run for eight seasons from 2013 to 2021 on Fox and NBC.

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In Memoriam 2023: A look back at the music icons who died this year

Post By World hip-hop, icon, immersive-tpl, obituary, Pop music, rock music

From the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” Tina Turner, to the iconic lead singer of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan, here are some of the musical legends that we lost this year and who will be greatly missed.

In the backdrop of a fantastic year for music, we said goodbye to some all-time greats.

Join us as we pay homage to a few of the most notable artists and musicians who bid us farewell over the past twelve months.

The following names are listed chronologically by the dates of their deaths.

Fred White (1955 – 2023)

Fred White, drummer of the legendary US soul and RnB band, Earth, Wind & Fire, died on 1 January this year, aged 67.

White was already an accomplished drummer, playing for Donny Hathaway, before he joined his brothers, Maurice and Verdine, in Earth, Wind & Fire in 1974.

Paired alongside drummer and percussionist Ralph Johnson, the band’s rhythm section was tight and upbeat and set the stage for songs like “Boogie Wonderland” and “September” to become instant favourites.

Jeff Beck (1944 – 2023)

Jeff Beck, one of rock music’s most influential guitarists died on 10 January at the age of 78.

Beck rose to fame in the 1960’s with the Yardbirds and went on the form the Jeff Beck band with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart.

He became known as the guitar player’s guitar player, a virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll; influencing generations of shredders along the way.

Lisa Marie Presley (1968 – 2023)

Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of rock legend Elvis Presley and a singer-songwriter, died aged 54.

Presley, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, shared her father’s brooding charisma – the hooded eyes, the insolent smile, the low, sultry voice – and followed him professionally, releasing her own rock albums in the 2000s, and appearing on stage with Pat Benatar and Richard Hawley among others.

She even formed direct musical ties with her father, joining her voice to such Elvis recordings as “In the Ghetto” and “Don’t Cry Daddy,” a mournful ballad which had reminded him of the early death of his mother (and Lisa Marie’s grandmother), Gladys Presley.

Burt Bacharach (1928 – 2023)

Burt Bacharach, the legendary composer behind the unforgettable melodies of ‘Walk on By’, ‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose’, ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ and dozens of other hits, died aged 94.

Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivalled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written.

He was considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music, most known for his work with Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Dionne Warwick.

Bobby Caldwell (1951 – 2023)

Singer-songwriter and and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Caldwell died at the age of 71 after a long illness.

Caldwell he gained immense popularity in the 1970s and 1980s for his unique blend of R&B, soul, and jazz music, and is best known for his 1978 hit ‘What You Won’t Do for Love’ which reached the top 10 on Billboard and made his self-titled debut album go double platinum.

Over the years, Caldwell’s music has been sampled by various hip-hop artists, from The Notorious B.I.G. to 2Pac, who have incorporating his melodies and lyrics into their own compositions.

Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952 – 2023)

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the world-renowned Japanese maestro and actor who composed for Hollywood hits such as ‘The Last Emperor’ and ‘The Revenant’ died aged 71.

Sakamoto was a pioneer of electronic music in the late 1970s and founded the Yellow Magic Orchestra, also known as YMO, with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi.

He was a world-class musician, winning an Oscar and a Grammy for Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor.’

Sakamoto was also an actor, starring in the BAFTA-winning 1983 film ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.’

Harry Belafonte (1927 – 2023)

Harry Belafonte, who stormed the pop charts and smashed racial barriers in the 1950s with his highly personal brand of folk music, and who went on to become a major force in the civil rights movement, died aged 96.

Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer with his 1956 album ‘Calypso’, which was credited as popularising the Caribbean musical style.

Many know him for his signature hit ‘Banana Boat Song (Day-O)’, and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.”

Andy Rourke (1964 – 2023)

Andy Rourke, the legendary bassist, who played on The Smiths’ most famous songs including ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘This Charming Man’, died at the age of 59.

Rourke played on all four of The Smiths’ studio albums as well as Morrissey’s solo singles after the group’s dissolution in 1987.

After the band split in the 1980s, Rourke’s career was far from over and he was an icon in the music industry, playing with artists including Sinead O’Connor, Badly Drawn Boy, The Pretenders and in a supergroup called Freebass.

Tina Turner (1939 – 2023)

The world of music mourned the loss of an icon as Tina Turner, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, died at the age of 83.

Turner was one of the best-loved female rock singers known for her on-stage charisma and a string of hits, selling more than 180 million albums worldwide in a career spanning seven decades.

She teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ’70s, before triumphing again, but in her own right in middle age, with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

Turner won eight Grammy Awards and was placed in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 as a solo artist.

Astrud Gilberto (1940 – 2023)

Brazilian bossa nova singer, Astrud Gilberto, best known for ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ died aged 83.

The singer, songwriter and entertainer recorded 16 albums and became one of Brazil’s brightest musical stars in the 1960s and 1970s.

Her rendition of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ sold more than five million copies, and made her a worldwide voice of bossa nova.

It also won her a Grammy in 1965 for Record of the Year and Gilberto received nominations for best new artist and best vocal performance.

Tony Bennett (1926 – 2023)

Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless singer who graced a decades long career that brought him admirers such as Frank Sinatra, Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse, died aged 96.

As one of the last great saloon singers from the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create “a hit catalogue rather than hit records.”

He released more than 70 albums, secured 19 Grammys and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.

Sinéad O’Connor (1966 – 2023)

Sinéad O’Connor, the gifted Irish singer-songwriter who became a superstar in her mid-20s, died aged 56.

Known for her shaved head and outspoken nature, O’Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame, becoming a sensation in 1990 with her take on Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U”.

The song’s notoriety was heightened by a promotional video featuring the grey-eyed O’Connor in an intense close-up.

Jean Knight (1943 – 2023)

Jean Knight, best known for her exuberantly funky 1971 hit single, “Mr. Big Stuff” released by Stax Records, died aged 80.

“Mr. Big Stuff” reached No. 2 on the pop chart (prevented from reaching the top spot by the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”) and secured a No. 1 spot on the R&B chart in 1971.

The double-platinum single earned Knight a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female, and solidified her status as an R&B and soul sensation.

Shane MacGowan (1957 – 2023)

Shane MacGowan, the legendary figure of Irish folk and punk music, and the iconic lead singer of The Pogues, passed away at the age of 65.

The pinnacle of his success came with The Pogues’ beloved 1987 hit “Fairytale of New York,” featuring the late Kirsty MacColl.

It became a global phenomenon, reaching number two on the UK charts and establishing itself as a timeless classic of the Christmas season, alongside the likes of Slade, Mariah Carey and Wham!.

Beyond his music, MacGowan became known for his tumultuous lifestyle, marked by excessive drinking, smoking, drug use and his broken, rotten teeth.

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Rosalynn Carter, former US first lady and mental health activist, dies at 96

Post By World Americas, jimmy carter, mental health, obituary, USA, White House

Former US first lady Rosalynn Carter, who President Jimmy Carter called “an extension of myself” owing to his wife’s prominent role in his administration even as she tirelessly promoted the cause of mental health, died on Sunday at age 96, the Carter Center said.

Rosalynn Carter, who in recent days had entered hospice care at home in Plains, Georgia, died with her family by her side, according to a statement released by the Carter Center, a nonprofit organization founded by the couple.

Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, served as president from 1977 to 1981. He and his wife were the longest-married US presidential couple, having wed in 1946 when he was 21 and she was 18.

After his single term as president ended, he also enjoyed more post-White House years than any president before him, and she played an instrumental role during those years, including as part of the Carter Center and the Habitat for Humanity charity.

Her family in May disclosed that she had dementia but was continuing to live at home. Jimmy Carter, 99, himself is in hospice care after deciding in February to decline additional medical intervention.

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” the former president said in the statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

She was seen as unassuming and quiet before coming to Washington in 1977 but developed into an eloquent speaker, campaigner and activist. Her abiding passion, which carried far beyond her White House years, was for the mentally ill, not because of any personal connection but because of a strong feeling that advocacy was needed.

“The best thing I ever did was marry Rosalynn,” Carter told the C-SPAN cable TV channel in 2015. “That’s the pinnacle of my life.”

Before her husband was elected president in 1976, Rosalynn was largely unknown outside of Georgia, where he had been a peanut farmer-turned-governor. He lost his 1980 re-election bid to Ronald Reagan, a Republican former California governor and Hollywood actor.

In Washington, the Carters were a team, with the president calling her “an extension of myself” and “my closest adviser.” She was often invited to sit in as an observer at cabinet meetings and political strategy discussions. In a 1978 interview with magazine editors, Carter said he shared almost everything with his wife except top-secret material.

“I think she understands the consciousness of the American people and their attitudes perhaps better than do I,” he said.

She also was sent on important official missions to Latin America and was part of the unsuccessful campaign for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ensure equal treatment of women under the law.

The Iranian hostage crisis – in which American diplomats and others were held captive in Tehran after the Islamic revolution – occurred when Carter was seeking re-election. The crisis contributed to the downfall of his presidency as he refrained from campaigning while trying to resolve the standoff.

During that time, Rosalynn Carter sought to support her husband by speaking in 112 cities in 34 states during a 44-day tour. Her speeches and forays into crowds were credited with helping Carter defeat Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy in the 1980 primaries, although he went on to lose overwhelmingly to Reagan.

First lady Jill Biden on Sunday paid tribute to Carter during an event in Virginia. Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, in a statement called Carter “a woman of dignity and strength.” Former President Donald Trump in a social media post called her “a great humanitarian.”

Mental health interest

Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born Aug. 18, 1927, in Plains to Edgar and Alice Smith, and married Carter on July 7, 1946. They went on to have four children.

Her interest in mental health issues stemmed from the early 1970s when she began to realize, while helping her husband campaign for governor, the depth of the problem in her home state of Georgia and the reluctance of people to talk about it.

As first lady of Georgia, she was a member of a governor’s commission to improve services for the mentally ill.

In the White House, she became honorary chair of the President’s Commission on Mental Health, key to passage of a 1980 act that helped fund local mental health centers.

After leaving Washington she pursued her work through the Carter Center, which the Carters founded in Atlanta in 1982. She continued to advocate for mental health, early childhood immunization, human rights, conflict resolution and the empowerment of urban communities.

“I hope our legacy continues, more than just as first lady, because the Carter Center has been an integral part of our lives. And our motto is waging peace, fighting disease and building hope. And I hope that I have contributed something to mental health issues and help improve a little bit the lives of people living with mental illnesses,” she told C-SPAN in a 2013 interview.

Speaking about her 1998 book “Helping Someone With Mental Illness,” Carter said she longed for the day when the mentally ill would be free from discrimination.

In their post-Washington years the Carters were also key figures in the Habitat for Humanity charity, helping build homes for needy families. Their humanitarian efforts were crowned in 2002 when Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I am especially grateful to Rosalynn, who has been a part of everything I’ve done,” a teary-eyed Jimmy Carter said in a speech in Plains after learning he had won the award.

Both Carters were active members of the Plains community, including at the Maranatha Baptist Church where Rosalynn served as a deacon and the former president as a deacon and long-time Sunday school teacher.

The Carter Center said she also is survived by her four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

(REUTERS)

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Bill Richardson, a former Democratic governor and UN ambassador, dies aged 75

Post By World Americas, Democratic Party, Hostages, obituary, UN, USA

Bill Richardson, a two-term Democratic governor of New Mexico and an American ambassador to the United Nations who also worked for years to secure the release of Americans detained by foreign adversaries, has died. He was 75.

The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which he founded and led, said in a statement Saturday that he died in his sleep at his home in Chatham, Massachusetts.

“He lived his entire life in the service of others — including both his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” said Mickey Bergman, the center’s vice president. “There was no person that Gov. Richardson would not speak with if it held the promise of returning a person to freedom. The world has lost a champion for those held unjustly abroad and I have lost a mentor and a dear friend.”

Before his election in 2002 as governor, Richardson was the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton and served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico.

But he also forged an identity as an unofficial diplomatic troubleshooter. He traveled the globe negotiating the release of hostages and American servicemen from North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan and bargained with a who’s who of America’s adversaries, including Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was a role that Richardson relished, once describing himself as “the informal undersecretary for thugs.”

“I plead guilty to photo-ops and getting human beings rescued and improving the lives of human beings,” he once told reporters.

He helped secure the 2021 release of American journalist Danny Fenster from a Myanmar prison and this year negotiated the freedom of Taylor Dudley, who crossed the border from Poland into Russia. He flew to Moscow for a meeting with Russian government officials in the months before the release last year of Marine veteran Trevor Reed in a prisoner swap and also worked on the cases of Brittney Griner, the WNBA star freed by Moscow last year, and Michael White, a Navy veteran freed by Iran in 2020.

Armed with a golden resume and wealth of experience in foreign and domestic affairs, Richardson ran for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president in hopes of becoming the nation’s first Hispanic president. He dropped out of the race after fourth place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Richardson was the nation’s only Hispanic governor during his two terms. He described being governor as “the best job I ever had.”

“It’s the most fun. You can get the most done. You set the agenda,” Richardson said.

As governor, Richardson signed legislation in 2009 that repealed the death penalty. He called it the “most difficult decision in my political life” because he previously had supported capital punishment.

Other accomplishments as governor included $50,000-a-year minimum salaries for the most qualified teachers in New Mexico, an increase in the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour, pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds, renewable energy requirements for utilities and financing for large infrastructure projects, including a commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico and a $400 million commuter rail system.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., called Richardson a “giant in public service and government.”

“In his post-government career, he was trusted to handle some of the most sensitive diplomatic crises, and he did so with great success. Here in New Mexico, we will always remember him as our governor. He never stopped fighting for the state he called home,” Lujan said in a statement.

Some of his most prominent global work began in December 1994, when he was visiting North Korean nuclear sites and word came that an American helicopter pilot had been downed and his co-pilot killed.

The Clinton White House enlisted Richardson’s help and, after days of tough negotiations, the then-congressman accompanied the remains of Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon while paving the way for Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall to return home.

The following year, and after a personal appeal from Richardson, Saddam Hussein freed two Americans who had been imprisoned for four months, charged with illegally crossing into Iraq from Kuwait.

Richardson continued his freelance diplomacy even while serving as governor. He had barely started his first term as governor when he met with two North Korean envoys in Santa Fe. He traveled to North Korea in 2007 to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War.

In 2006, he persuaded Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to free Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek.

Richardson transformed the political landscape in New Mexico. He raised and spent record amounts on his campaigns. He brought Washington-style politics to an easygoing western state with a part-time Legislature.

Lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, complained that Richardson threatened retribution against those who opposed him. Former Democratic state Sen. Tim Jennings of Roswell once said Richardson was “beating people over the head” in his dealings with lobbyists on a health care issue. Richardson dismissed criticisms of his administrative style.

“Admittedly, I am aggressive. I use the bully pulpit of the governorship,” Richardson said. “But I don’t threaten retribution. They say I am a vindictive person. I just don’t believe that.”

Longtime friends and supporters attributed Richardson’s success partly to his relentlessness. Bob Gallagher, who headed the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said if Richardson wanted something done then “expect him to have a shotgun at the end of the hallway. Or a ramrod.”

After dropping out of the 2008 presidential race, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. That happened despite a long-standing friendship with the Clintons.

Obama later nominated Richardson as secretary of commerce, but Richardson withdrew in early 2009 because of a federal investigation into an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving his administration in New Mexico.

Months later, the federal investigation ended with no charges against Richardson and his former top aides. Richardson had a troubled tenure as energy secretary because of a scandal over missing computer equipment with nuclear weapons secrets at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the government’s investigation and prosecution of former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Richardson approved Lee’s firing at Los Alamos in 1999. Lee spent nine months in solitary confinement, charged with 59 counts of mishandling sensitive information. Lee later pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling computer files and was released with the apology of a federal judge.

William Blaine Richardson was born in Pasadena, California, but grew up in Mexico City with a Mexican mother and an American father who was a U.S. bank executive.

He attended prep school in Massachusetts and was a star baseball player. He later went to Tufts University and its graduate school in international relations, earning a master’s degree in international affairs.

Richardson moved to New Mexico in 1978 after working as a Capitol Hill staffer. He wanted to run for political office and said New Mexico, with its Hispanic roots, seemed like a good place. He campaigned for Congress just two years later — his only losing race.

In 1982, he won a new congressional seat from northern New Mexico that the state picked up in reapportionment. He resigned from Congress in 1997 to join the Clinton administration as U.N. ambassador and became secretary of energy in 1998, holding the post until the end of the Clinton presidency.

(AP)

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Tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son was killed in crash with Princess Diana, dies at 94

Post By World Egypt, Europe, obituary, Princess Diana, UK

Few things were beyond the reach of billionaire Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed who has died at the age of 94.

Hotels, yachts and a football club were bought with ease but he never acquired the recognition he craved.

His son Dodi’s fateful relationship with princess Diana might have been the moment Fayed finally gained acceptance by the British “Establishment” elite.

Instead it marked his permanent estrangement after he insisted – without evidence – that Queen Elizabeth II‘s husband Prince Philip had ordered the Paris car crash in which Diana and Dodi were killed to prevent her marrying a Muslim.

Fayed lived most of his life in Britain, where for decades he was never far from the headlines.

But to his frustration he was never granted UK citizenship nor admitted into the upper echelons of British society.

Fayed will be remembered most for his outspoken and often foul-mouthed manner, his revenge on the Conservative party, his controversial purchase of the Harrods department store, and his ownership of Fulham football club and the Ritz hotel in Paris.

Al Fayed owned the Harrods department store in west London. © Carl De Souza, AFP

With a business empire encompassing shipping, property, banking, oil, retail and construction, Fayed was also a philanthropist, whose foundation helped children in the UK, Thailand and Mongolia.

His gift for self-invention – he added the “Al-” prefix to his surname and a 1988 UK government report described his claims of wealthy ancestry as “completely bogus” – led segments of the British press to dub him the “Phoney Pharoah.”

Humble origins

Far from being the scion of a dynasty of cotton and shipping barons he made himself out to be, Fayed was the son of a poor Alexandrian school-teacher who, after an early venture flogging lemonade, set out in business selling sewing machines.

He later had the good luck to start working for the arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who recognised his business abilities and employed him in his furniture export business in Saudi Arabia.

He also owned the Ritz hotel in Paris, from where Diana and Dodi made their fateful final journey. © Jacques Demarthon, AFP

He became an advisor to the Sultan of Brunei in the mid-1960s and moved to Britain in the 1970s.

Fayed bought the Ritz in 1979 with his brother and the pair snapped up Harrods six years later after a long and bitter takeover battle with British businessman Roland “Tiny” Rowland.

A subsequent government investigation into the takeover, officially published in 1990, found that Fayed and his brother had been dishonest about their wealth and origins to secure the takeover.

They called the claims unfair. Five years later, his first application for British citizenship was rejected.

Revenge followed swiftly. Soon after, Fayed told the press that he had paid Conservative MPs to ask questions in parliament on his behalf.

This brought down two prominent politicians, while Fayed also exposed Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken’s involvement in a Saudi arms deal.

Aitken was later jailed for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Paris tragedy

The defining tragedy of Fayed’s life came in August 1997: Dodi and Princess Diana died when a car driven by one of Fayed’s employees, chauffeur Henri Paul, crashed in a Paris road tunnel.

For years afterwards, Fayed refused to accept the deaths were the result of speeding and intoxication by Paul, who also died.

Dodi's death in the tragedy was largely eclipsed by Diana's. — Dodi’s death in the tragedy was largely eclipsed by Diana’s. © Mohammed Al-Sehiti, AFP

The distraught Fayed accused the royal family of being behind the deaths and commissioned two memorials to the couple at Harrods.

One, unveiled in 1998, was a kitsch pyramid-shaped display with photos of Diana and Dodi, a wine glass purported to be from their final dinner and a ring that he claimed his son bought for the princess.

The other, a copper statue of the couple releasing an albatross, was entitled “Innocent Victims” – a reflection of his view that Dodi and Diana “were murdered”.

Fayed’s claims against the royal family came at a price.

Harrods lost a royal warrant bestowed by Prince Philip in 2000 after what Buckingham Palace called “a significant decline in the trading relationship” between the prince and the store.

Al-Fayed commissioned two memorials to the couple, insisting they were going to be married © John D. McHugh, AFP

Later that year, Fayed ordered the removal of all remaining royal warrants – effectively a regal seal of approval – for supplying the queen, queen mother and Prince Charles, the now King Charles III.

The Establishment “dislike my outspokenness and determination to get the truth”, he said, as he announced his exile to Switzerland in 2003 because of his claims and what he said was the “unfair” treatment at the hands of the tax authorities.

Sporting success

Fayed sold Harrods in 2010 to the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund for a reported £1.5 billion ($2.2 billion), although it was once reported he wanted to remain there even in death.

He told the Financial Times in 2002 that he wanted his body to be put on display in a glass mausoleum on Harrods roof “so people can come and visit me”.

Despite his paranoia, secrecy and eccentricities, Fayed’s success with the prestige department store was undeniable.

Al Fayed bought Fulham Football Club and commissioned a statue of pop star Michael Jackson for outside its ground. © Glyn Kirk, AFP

Within a decade of his taking over, sales increased by 50 percent and profits rose from £16 million to £62 million.

Other successes included at Fulham, which he transformed from a struggling outfit into an top-flight side. But even here he was ridiculed and he eventually sold up.

He claimed in 2014 they were relegated because a giant statue he had commissioned of Michael Jackson outside the ground was removed.

Critics, he said characteristically, “can go to hell”.

According to Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, Fayed was worth $1.9 billion in November 2022.

(AFP)

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Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower who exposed Vietnam War secrets, dies at 92

Post By World Americas, freedom of the press, obituary, Pentagon, richard nixon, US politics, USA, whistleblower

Daniel Ellsberg, the U.S. military analyst whose change of heart on the Vietnam War led him to leak the classified “Pentagon Papers,” revealing U.S. government deception about the war and setting off a major freedom-of-the-press battle, died on Friday at the age of 92, his family said in a statement.

Issued on: 16/06/2023 – 22:00Modified: 16/06/2023 – 22:04

Ellsberg, who had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in February, died at his home in Kensington, California, the family said.

Long before Edward Snowden and Wikileaks were revealing government secrets in the name of transparency, Ellsberg let Americans know that their government was capable of misleading and even lying to them. In his later years Ellsberg would become an advocate for whistleblowers and leakers and his “Pentagon Papers” leak was portrayed in the 2017 movie “The Post.”

Ellsberg secretly went to the media in 1971 in hopes of expediting the end of the Vietnam War. It made him the target of a smear campaign by the Nixon White House. Henry Kissinger, who was then the president’s national security adviser, referred to him as “the most dangerous man in America who must be stopped at all costs.”

When he went to Saigon for the State Department in the mid-1960s, Ellsberg had an impressive resume. He had earned three degrees from Harvard, served in the Marine Corps and worked at the Pentagon and the RAND Corporation, the influential policy research think tank.

He was a dedicated Cold War warrior and hawk on Vietnam at the time. But Ellsberg, in his 2003 book, “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers,” said he was only one week into a two-year tour of duty in Saigon when he realized the United States was in a war it would not win.

Meanwhile at the behest of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Pentagon officials had secretly been putting together a 7,000-page report covering U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1945 through 1967. When it was finished in 1969, two of the 15 published copies went to the RAND Corporation, where Ellsberg was once again working.

Anti-war rallies

With his new perspective on the war, Ellsberg started attending peace rallies. He said he was inspired to copy the “Pentagon Papers” after hearing an anti-war protester say he was looking forward to going to prison for resisting the draft.

Ellsberg began sneaking the top-secret study out of the RAND office and copying it at night on a rented Xerox machine – using his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter as helpers. He took the documents with him when he moved to Boston for a job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ended up sitting on them for a year and a half before passing pages to the New York Times.

The Times ran its first installment of the “Pentagon Papers” on June 13, 1971, and the administration of President Richard Nixon moved quickly to get a judge to stop further publication.

Nixon’s claim of executive authority and invocation of the Espionage Act set off a freedom-of-the-press fight over the extreme censorship of prior restraint.

Ellsberg’s next move was to give the “Pentagon Papers” to the Washington Post and more than a dozen other newspapers. In New York Times v. U.S., the Supreme Court ruled less than three weeks after first publication that the press had the right to publish the papers, and the Times resumed doing so.

The study said the U.S. officials had concluded that the war probably could not be won and that President John F. Kennedy approved of plans for a coup to overthrow the South Vietnamese leader. It also said Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, had plans to expand the war, including bombing in North Vietnam, despite saying during the 1964 campaign that he would not. The papers also revealed the secret U.S. bombing in Cambodia and Laos and that casualty figures were higher than reported.

On the run

The Times never said who leaked the papers but the FBI quickly figured it out. Ellsberg remained underground for about two weeks before surrendering in Boston.

“I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public,” Ellsberg said at the time. “I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.”

He would say that he regretted not leaking the papers sooner.

Even though the “Pentagon Papers” did not cover Nixon’s handling of Vietnam, the White House’s “plumbers” unit, which would later pull off the Watergate break-in that led to Nixon’s downfall, was ordered to stop further leaks and discredit Ellsberg.

Two and a half months after first publication, two men who later figured prominently in Watergate – G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt – broke into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist to search for incriminating evidence.

Ellsberg and a RAND colleague were eventually charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy. But at their 1973 trial, the case was dismissed on the grounds of government misconduct when the break-in was revealed.

In his later years, Ellsberg, who was born April 7, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, became a writer and lecturer in the campaign for government transparency and against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

He said Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency who gave journalists thousands of classified documents on government information-gathering before fleeing the country, had done nothing wrong. He also said he considered Army Private Chelsea Manning a hero for turning over a trove of government files to WikiLeaks.

When I spoke with Dan one month ago—who knew well how few grains of sand remained in his glass—he assessed the risk of a nuclear exchange to be escalating beyond 10%. He had hoped to dedicate his final hours to reducing it, for all those he would leave behind.

A hero to the end. https://t.co/Sh9ZgKO746

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 16, 2023

His books include “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” in 2017 and “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers” in 2002.

The once-top-secret papers that Ellsberg shepherded into the mainstream can be read online at http://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/.

Ellsberg had been married twice, first to Carol Cummings, with whom he had two children. That marriage ended in divorce.

His second marriage was to Patricia Marx, with whom he a son.

(Reuters)

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Silvio Berlusconi, master populist who dominated Italian politics, dies at 86

Post By World Europe, Features, Italian politics, Italy, obituary, Silvio-Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media tycoon and four-time prime minister who brushed off a litany of legal battles and sex scandals to dominate Italian public life for more than two decades, has died in Milan aged 86.

Italy’s longest-serving prime minister since World War II, Berlusconi had been admitted to Milan’s San Raffaele hospital on Friday for what aides said were pre-planned tests related to leukemia. His admission came just three weeks after he was discharged following a six-week stay at San Raffaele hospital, during which time doctors revealed he had a rare type of blood cancer.

His death was announced on June 12 by Italian media.

Long the country’s richest man, Berlusconi made his fortune in real estate before going on to build Italy’s biggest media empire, Mediaset, which he later enlisted to facilitate his swashbuckling entry into politics.

The scandal-plagued tycoon infamous for the debauchery of his “bunga bunga” parties transformed and monopolised Italian politics at the turn of the century, introducing a skewed left-right divide that pitted his conservative camp against the centre-left anti-Berlusconi front.

Known as “Il Cavaliere” (The Knight), among many other nicknames, he was admired and reviled in equal measure at home – but was mostly derided abroad. After a decade in power, The Economist magazine famously ran a cover story on his record in office with the headline, “The man who screwed an entire country”.

Despite the mockery, his unbounded bravado, unique brand of politics and tumultuous career became a playbook for ambitious politicians around the world, making him a precursor to contemporary populism.

Long before the likes of Donald Trump played the “anti-system” card, Berlusconi had successfully cast himself as the bête noire of a declining and discredited political class. Accused of being as narcissistic, sexist and self-serving as the billionaire former US president, Berlusconi also played an equally piteous victim, railing against the judiciary and once claiming he was “the most persecuted person in the history of the world and the history of man”.

He also played a more inveterate jester than Britain’s Boris Johnson, entertaining Italy as much as he ran it; a more polished macho than his friend Vladimir Putin, adding an affable, cultured touch to his personality cult; and a subtler strategist than Matteo Salvini, the loudmouthed nationalist who briefly supplanted him as leader of the country’s right-wing camp – only to be overtaken in turn by the far right’s Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s current prime minister and once a junior minister under Berlusconi.

02:54

The most talked-about Italian politician since Benito Mussolini, Berlusconi was once described as a “disease that can only be cured through vaccination” by the country’s most respected postwar journalist, the late Indro Montanelli. The vaccine, Montanelli argued on the eve of the 2001 general election, involved “a healthy injection of Berlusconi in the prime minister’s seat, Berlusconi in the president’s seat, Berlusconi in the pope’s seat or wherever else he may want. Only after that will we be immune.”

Montanelli was wrong about immunity, and so were the many other pundits who wrote off the Cavaliere, time and time again, even as his political career – and popularity – powered on.

The dream of America

Berlusconi was born on September 29, 1936, the first of three children raised in a middle-class family in Milan, Italy’s financial capital. Like many of his generation, he was evacuated during World War II and lived with his mother in a village some distance from the city.

The handsome and genial youth made his first money selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and occasionally singing in nightclubs and cruise ships with his friend Fedele Confalonieri, who would remain his loyal business partner to the very end.

After graduating in law in 1961, Berlusconi began a career in construction, establishing himself as a residential housing developer in the Milan area. He got his big break at the start of the 1970s with the construction of Milano 2, a self-contained town his Edilnord company built in the suburbs, soon to be followed by its twin, Milano 3.

With their artificial lakes, sports facilities, churches and shopping malls, Berlusconi’s model towns were designed as the Italian version of American suburbia – functional environments dedicated to work, leisure and watching television.

“I’m in favour of all things American before even knowing what they are,” Berlusconi once told Britain’s Times newspaper. His next challenge was to ensure his fellow Italians felt likewise, embracing American popular culture through soap operas, commercials and chat shows.

Milano 2 is where the Cavaliere built his media empire, Mediaset, launching Italy’s first private channels with the help of his politician friends, chief of whom was the powerful Socialist leader Bettino Craxi, a former prime minister whose name would later become synonymous with corruption.

The leafy suburb is also where Berlusconi’s own four-decade-long battle with the judiciary began in the late 1970s, with the first investigations into Edilnord’s shady funding. The cases were soon shelved, though it later emerged that the investigators had been given senior positions in Berlusconi’s Fininvest holding.

In the following years, several former mafia bosses were quoted as saying that Edilnord had received generous funding from criminal organisations based in Sicily, via Berlusconi’s close friend Marcello Dell’Utri, who was later convicted of collusion with the mafia in a separate case.

Berlusconi himself began feeling the heat in the early ’90s when a sweeping corruption investigation destroyed Italy’s Christian Democracy party, which had ruled the country since the war, along with his friend and protector Craxi. But instead of hiding in the shadows, the Cavaliere sensed an opportunity.

In 1992, at the height of the “Clean Hands” corruption inquiries, the media tycoon was asked whether he would consider running for mayor in his hometown of Milan, where a Berlusconi-owned football club won its 12th league title that year. His answer was an accurate forecast of the years to come.

“Do you know that every day I receive 400 letters from housewives thanking me for freeing them from their daily boredom with my television programmes?” Berlusconi replied. “If I entered politics with this electoral base, I wouldn’t go for mayor. I’d build a party like Reagan’s, win the elections and become prime minister.”

Go, Italy!

Two decades before France’s Emmanuel Macron seemingly pulled a political party out of his hat and conjured an Élysée Palace victory, Berlusconi, a media mogul with no political credentials, pulled the same trick in Italy – and in half the time. Staffed with marketing strategists in business suits, Forza Italia (Go, Italy) was just five months old when its founder swept to power in the spring of 1994 on promises of lower taxes, less encroachment from the state and restored pride in the Italian nation.

Hailed by his followers as “the Lord’s anointed”, the media mogul said he felt compelled to enter politics in order to bar the post-Communist left from power. Critics, however, claimed Berlusconi was primarily motivated by his desire to protect his own businesses – a critique borne out by the many bespoke laws his successive governments would force through parliament over the years.

While his first, grossly inexperienced government soon collapsed, the tycoon politician would go on to dominate Italian politics for the next two decades, bouncing back with further electoral triumphs in 2001 and 2008. Despite leading an unwieldy coalition with southern-based post-fascists and far-right Northern League separatists, he became the only prime minister to serve through a full five-year legislature, between 2001 and 2006 – no small achievement in a country that has known 67 different governments since 1945.

It would take a combination of the eurozone’s debt crisis, the loss of his parliamentary majority following a party split, and lurid accounts of “bunga bunga” orgies featuring showgirls and prostitutes at his private residence to finally push Berlusconi out of office – for the third and last time – in 2011, amid the jeers of protesters gathered in central Rome to celebrate his departure.

Earlier that year, Berlusconi suffered a major blow when Italy’s Constitutional Court struck down part of a law granting him temporary immunity. After years of being cleared of multiple charges – often because the statute of limitations had expired or because his government had changed the law, for instance decriminalising the practise of false accounting – his run of luck came to an end in 2012 when he was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud and barred from public office.

But because Berlusconi was over 75 at the time, he was instead handed community service, working four hours a week with elderly dementia patients at a Catholic care home near Milan.

The next year, he was also found guilty of paying for sex with underage prostitute Karima “Ruby” El Mahroug, 17, a guest at his “bunga bunga” parties, and then abusing his power to have her released from jail. The conviction was later overturned, though Berlusconi faced further charges for allegedly bribing a witness in the trial.

In the meantime, his second wife Veronica Lario, with whom he had three of his five children, decided to divorce him after he was photographed at the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model who referred to him as “Papi”.

Berlusconi’s enduring support

Despite his rapidly declining fortunes, Berlusconi made another comeback ahead of the 2013 general election, overturning a 15-point gap in the polls to come within a whisker of a stunning election win. Though he was barred from office, the result cemented his role as the central powerbroker in Italian

Reflecting on the tycoon’s enduring support, Maurizio Cotta, a professor of politics at the University of Siena, said Berlusconi understood certain aspects of the Italian psyche better than anyone else. Berlusconi spoke “alla pancia” (to the stomach) of Italians, Cotta said. “He knew their weak spots – their fear of discipline, of the state, of losing their homes, of being caught with their hands in the till.”

When the head of aerospace giant Finmeccanica was arrested ahead of the 2013 election for bribing Indian officials to secure a huge helicopter contract, Berlusconi alone of all politicians blamed the magistrates for hurting Italian jobs. “Sometimes you simply cannot sell anything without a bribe,” he remarked.

Never mind the repeated trials, the laws passed to protect himself and his businesses, the lurid campaign jokes about how often a girl would “come” or the fact that he personally intervened to have Mahroug released from custody – claiming he thought she was the niece of Egypt’s then-president Hosni Mubarak – almost a quarter of Italian voters still chose his party, and nearly a third backed his coalition.

“Berlusconi might cause every possible disaster, but he speaks the language and knows the interests of his ‘social bloc’,” wrote Perangelo Battista in the Corriere della Sera, Italy’s best-known daily, referring to the tax-averse small and medium-sized businesses that formed the backbone of his support.

At 81 and just 18 months after undergoing open-heart surgery, the Cavaliere was somehow back on his horse for the 2018 general election, still cobbling together unlikely coalitions and promising Italians a rosy future with unshakeable optimism. His party did reasonably well, though it was overtaken on the right by Salvini’s eurosceptic and anti-immigrant Lega party.

The next year, with his ban on public office lifted, Berlusconi won himself a seat in the European Parliament – 18 years after he delivered one of his most infamous lines there in a slur aimed at German MEP Martin Schulz.

“I know that in Italy there is a man producing a film on Nazi concentration camps,” Berlusconi said as he took over the EU’s rotating presidency in June 2003. “I shall put you forward for the role of a kapo (prison guard) – you would be perfect.”

Berlusconi went on to win yet another general election in September 2022 – this time as an unlikely junior partner in Italy’s most right-wing ruling coalition since Mussolini. From the get-go, he proved to be a troublesome ally for the far right’s Meloni, bragging about vodka gifts from Putin and blaming Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of his country.

The man who claimed credit for “ending the Cold War” was in and out of hospital in his twilight years, battling a string of illnesses. His tenacity earned him another nickname – “the Immortal” – as well as the bipartisan respect that had eluded him throughout his career.

Three years before his final stay at Milan’s San Rafaele clinic, Berlusconi overcame a severe case of Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic. After testing positive for the deadly respiratory disease along with dozens of Sardinia jet-setters in August 2020, he responded with characteristic braggadocio.

“I’ve been diagnosed with one of the strongest viral loads in all of Italy,” he said in a phone call with supporters from his hospital bed in Milan. “It just goes to show I’m still the number one.”

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Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt Dies, Pallbearers To Be A Black, A Woman, Two Jews And A Cripple

Post By Politics affirmative action, astroturf, beach boys, bureau of indian affairs, cliven bundy, communism, conservative jokes, culture war, department of interior, drill baby drill, Environment, environmental devastation, environmentalism, erik loomis, extractive industries, george h.w. bush, grass roots, hoedad reforestation cooperative, hoedads, house interior committee, indian reservations, james watt, james watt dead, joe coors, mountain states legal foundation, obituary, public land, reagan administration, ronald reagan, ryan zinke, sagebrush rebellion, university of oregon, wayne newton

James Watt, the former secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan who no doubt resented coming up second on Google to the inventor of the steam engine, died yesterday in Arizona at the age of 85. Watt was notorious for his devotion to the principle that the best way to protect the natural environment was to make use of it so it wouldn’t be wasted on owls and caribou and other shiftless creatures that didn’t do a damn thing for the economy.

Watt was a rightwing fundamentalist who got his start in the environmental destruction game, as Wonkette’s own labor historian Erik Loomis reminds us, as “head of the loathsome Mountain States Legal Foundation,” the lobbying outfit funded by “fascist and beer capitalist” Joe Coors, who hated Big Government Overreach especially if it kept him and other Western rich guys from exploiting resources on federal land. There, Watt helped promote

the most astroturf movement of all time—the Sagebrush Rebellion, in which rich landowners and their employees started raising havoc in the West over government control of resources, which they were always fine with so long as the government served their interests. But with environmentalism a thing now, they had no use for competing interests and demanded the return of these lands to the states. In other words, Cliven Bundy and his followers are followers of James Watt. This is the kind of person Watt empowered.

Forget the great big New York Times obit of Watt, or at least supplement it with Loomis’s excellent, scathing obituary at Lawyers, Guns & Money, where you get a fuller sense of how Watt became the spiritual forbear of the “drill baby drill” crowd a couple decades later.

To be sure, the Times obit is hardly a love song, either, going straight to this story in the third and fourth paragraphs:

After taking office in 1981, Mr. Watt was asked at a hearing of the House Interior Committee if he favored preserving wilderness areas for future generations. […]

Mr. Watt’s response startled some committee members, but seemed to explain his intention to ease restrictions on the use of millions of acres of public lands. “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns,” he said.

Watt later explained that he’d only been joking, in the way that Republicans like to “joke” about using Second Amendment solutions, with votes and all that.

He believed the Interior Department had gone too far in indulging “environmental extremists,” and griped that environmental regulation “is centralized planning and control of society” like in communist Roosha. Watt considered it his mission to reorient the agency to its true purpose, helping extractive businesses get at all the neat stuff that God put in the Earth so humans could burn it and make stuff out of it. This old Newsweek cover sums it up nicely:

Way better illustration than some damn AI art program, that’s for sure.

Watt was an ideological precursor to Donald Trump’s first Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, albeit minus the open corruption, the 24/7 security detail, or the personal Secure Phone Booth in his office.

Unfortunately, Watt’s 33-month tenure at Interior was also a hell of a lot like what we see in politics now: His anti-environmental policies were full on garbage, and he should have been shitcanned for them, but instead his departure came after a series of idiotic things that had little to do with the substance of his maladministration. For instance there was his silly refusal in 1983 to let the Beach Boys (and the Grass Roots — “la la la la la let’s live for today“) perform for the Fourth of July on the National Mall. The bands had done the concerts without incident from 1980 through 1982, but Watt fretted that Rock and/or Roll would attract the “wrong element” and lead to crime. So instead, he booked Wayne Newton, who at the time was unironically kitschy, not nostalgically cool-kitschy like he is today. (Danke schoen,Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. [Hat tip to alert Wonkette operative Granny Sprinkle])

Watt insulted Native Americans, too, saying in an interview, “If you want an example of the failure of socialism, don’t go to Russia, come to America and go to the Indian reservations.” Not a great look for a guy whose agency oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but Watt wanted to eliminate that, too, and make Native Americans get off the government gravy train for their own good.

Ultimately Watt was pressured to leave office not primarily because he sought to pave paradise, but for a stupid “look at me mock diversity” joke where he said, of an Interior Department panel on coal leasing, “We have every mixture you can have. I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent.” Three weeks later, he was out, not because anyone in the Reagan White House was really bothered, but because Watt had become too embarrassing to keep around. And with the loud embarrassing guy gone, Reagan’s administration went right on weakening environmental protections, but with less public attention.

Finally, we’ll close with this wonderful ephemera Dr. Loomis found in the papers of the Hoedad Reforestation Cooperative, archived at the University of Oregon. He’s been saving it for this very occasion. (The Hoedads were a bunch of hippie environmentalist tree-planters, Crom bless them, and far more worthy of everyone’s time than James goddamn Watt.) Says Loomis, “They did not like James Watt.” Guess not!

Crude cartoon drawing of James Watt fellating a dead bear, with the title 'Watt Blows Dead Bears' and a fake news story saying Watt had been photographed in the act of blowing the bear in Yellowstone National Park

And now Watt is no doubt sharing stories with Pat Robertson in Hell about how mean the liberals are. Haha, we joke, there is no afterlife. But we would suggest that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recognize Watt by naming a parking lot in his memory. Or possibly a tree museum, where they charge the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em.

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Speaking of matters environmental, don’t forget to join us ~~this afternoon~~ tomorrow — Saturday, June 10 — for the fourth meeting of our Wonkette Book Club! We’re reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2020 climate novel The Ministry for the Future. More on the book club and this week’s reading (Chapters 51 through 69, nice) here! As ever, please drop by even if you haven’t finished (or even started) the reading, because we’re all living in the world James Watt and Ronald Reagan and their cronies built, and we’ve been having some excellent discussions of the book and the climate crisis.

Update: Because of IndictmentPalooza, we’re rescheduling the Book Club for Saturday, so hooray, more time to read, unless there’s a nuclear war and your glasses break. That would not be fair!

[AP / Lawyers, Guns, Money / University of Oregon / NYT]

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