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China censors maskless crowd footage in World Cup broadcasts | China

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Chinese state television has censored World Cup games to remove shots of maskless crowds after the sight of joyous fans celebrating in packed stadiums stoked anger back home, where hundreds of millions remain under strict pandemic restrictions.

A well-attended opening ceremony in Qatar – with no social distancing – led to users of Chinese social media platforms complaining that it contrasted with the severe isolation they felt under President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy.

Chinese netizens said it was “weird” to see hundreds of thousands of people gathering in a carnival-like atmosphere while they were still forced to live under a draconian system that most other countries have long abandoned.

This is amazing. Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches. pic.twitter.com/vg0qozUawc

— Mark Dreyer (@DreyerChina) November 27, 2022

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This is amazing. Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches. pic.twitter.com/vg0qozUawc

— Mark Dreyer (@DreyerChina) November 27, 2022

The official Global Times newspaper acknowledged some fans were “choosing to watch the games at home with their families” due to Covid restrictions under which people have been discouraged from gathering to watch the tournament.

Mark Dreyer, who runs the China Sports Insider blog, noticed that games broadcast on the state-owned channel, China Central Television (CCTV), were being edited to avoid live shots of cheering crowds and instead show closeups of the players and coaches.

“Of course, there are going to be times when you still see crowd shots – wider shots, after some goals when a cutaway shot would be too jarring etc,” Dreyer wrote on Twitter. “But there is clear reduction.”

Broadcasters at sporting tournaments are typically given the option by organisers to choose their own camera angles, and can set a delay so that the game can be edited quickly before the public sees it.

Dreyer, the author of Sporting Superpower: An Insider’s View on China’s Quest to Be the Best, said such “pre-emptive censorship” was not a new policy for Beijing. “Chinese broadcasters are notoriously cautious of crowd shots at international sporting events because of what might be seen – like Tibetan flags, for example,” he said.

The Fifa World Cup has come at a particularly explosive time for China, just weeks after Xi secured a historic third term in power. Coronavirus case numbers have hit record highs, prompting yet more lockdowns in cities across the country. Beijing has defended its policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system.

But in the past few days, hundreds of demonstrators and police have clashed in Shanghai over the restrictions. Such a wave of civil disobedience has been rare in mainland China in the past decade, with Xi having cracked down on any public display of dissent.



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US

California teachers union leader under fire for maskless picture at Rams game

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The Five – Monday, February 14

On today’s episode, ‘The Five’ debate when the hypocrisy of mask mandates will end after celebrities weren’t wearing them at the Super Bowl. Plus, the Clinton campaign hacked into Trump Tower servers to link Donald Trump to Russia.

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A member of the California Teachers Association Board of Directors is under fire for the union’s continued support of school mask mandates despite being pictured at a recent Los Angeles Rams game without a mask.

“This California Teachers Association Board of Directors Member, Jesse Aguilar, isn’t interested in a ‘cautious’ approach for adults, only our kids. This is Jesse Aguilar. He went to NFC championship game with 70k strangers – he is #DoneWithCovid but his Union wants kids masked,” the LA Parent Union, a group advocating for an end to California’s school COVID-19 restrictions, posted on Twitter Monday.

Masked students wait to be taken to their classrooms at Enrique S. Camarena Elementary School, Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in Chula Vista, California.
(AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

CALIFORNIA MASK MANDATE IGNORED BY HIGH-PROFILE CELEBRITIES SPOTTED ENJOYING SUPER BOWL LVI

Pictured in the tweet was CTA Board of Directors member Jesse Aguilar, who appeared to be celebrating the Rams NFC Championship win last month. A Facebook profile belonging to Aguilar features the same photo from Jan. 31.

Attached to the LA Parent Union post was a recent statement from the California Teacher’s Association, which included CTA President E. Toby Boyd applauding the state’s decision to keep COVID-19 restrictions such as masks in place for K-12 students.

Photo of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Magic Johnson 
(@MagicJohnson)

“We support the administration’s decision to pause and gather more information to make a science-based decision on school masking that responds to this moment in the pandemic and helps the state transition with an eye on equity,” the statement reads.

The picture of Aguilar comes from the same game that saw California Gov. Gavin Newsom generate controversy for his own maskless photograph, a move he defended despite a policy in place that required all spectators to wear masks.

“I was very judicious yesterday, very judicious, and you’ll see the photo that I did take where Magic was kind enough, generous enough, to ask me for a photograph, and in my left hand’s a mask and I took a photo,” Newsom said of the photo he took with NBA legend Magic Johnson. “The rest of the time I wore it as we all should — not when I had a glass of water or anything, and I encourage everybody else to do so.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

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Aguilar took a similar line of defense to his maskless picture in a Facebook post Monday, claiming that he only took off his mask to snap the photo.

“This person wants to know where my mask was. It was in my pocket. I took it off for the picture. There was nobody in front of me,” Aguilar said in the post. “I’m glad to wear my mask in a pandemic. It’s not hard and it shows I care about the people around me. I was glad SoFi required proof of vaccination. Getting vaccinated is the sane thing to do in a pandemic. I’m glad sane people behave in a sane manner in an insane time. Where’s your mask?”

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US

Unruly, maskless passenger forces London-bound flight to return to Miami | Airline industry

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For airline staff, navigating the pandemic has meant grappling with a surge in bad behavior, ranging from temper tantrums to punching flight attendants in the face.

In the latest incident, 129 passengers paid a remarkable price: a maskless “disruptive customer” forced American Airlines’ flight AAL38 flying from Miami to London to turn around and go back, the New York Times reported. The reversal occurred off the North Carolina coast, after the flight had traveled about 500 miles.

The customer, described by police as a woman in her 40s, was “refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement”, American Airlines said in a statement to the newspaper.

“Once the plane made it to the gate, the passenger was escorted off the plane by MDPD officers without incident. The passenger was then dealt with administratively by American Airlines staff,” a police detective said, according to CNN.

The unusual flight pattern for American Airlines flight 38, as tracked by FlightAware. Photograph: Screen shot/FlightAware

Though the outcome was dramatic in this case, such unruliness has become commonplace. “This is happening every day now,” Sara Nelson, president of the national flight attendants’ union, told the Guardian in October after a man, asked to wear a mask and stop talking on his phone, flew into a rage, stormed out of his seat and threatened to break someone’s neck.

In fact, it’s happening about 16 times a day. That’s according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, which lists 5,981 unruly passenger reports last year. A total of 4,290 of those were listed as “mask-related incidents”. This year – mere 20 days old – has already seen 151 incidents, 90 of which were mask related, though the FAA says the figure has dropped by about half since early 2021.

Last year’s incidents included a woman, who swore at flight attendants and was asked to leave, reportedly punched another woman holding a baby on her way out; a man who was duct-taped to his seat after allegedly groping a flight attendant; and a man who allegedly left a flight attendant with a concussion after punching her in the nose.

Another flight attendant, who wished to remain anonymous, described the situation in stark terms to the Guardian in September: “I go to work now and I always worry what’s going to happen, what’s going to trip somebody up, trigger their anger. It’s a whole new ballgame out there right now and it’s a different type of passenger we’re seeing.”

But there have also been moments to offer hope for better behavior: this month, an American woman noticed her throat hurting while flying from Chicago to Iceland. She went to the restroom, took a Covid test and found she was positive – so she stayed in the bathroom for the rest of the flight, she said.

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Sports

Aaron Rodgers violated COVID protocol by doing maskless indoor press conferences

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The NFL won’t come right out and say it. Then again, the NFL doesn’t have to.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been conducting in-person press conferences in the Green Bay facility without wearing a mask. Because he was secretly unvaccinated, Rodgers violated the rules.

The rules come straight from the regular-season COVID protocol, to which the NFL and NFL Players Association agreed. Here’s the operative sentence: “All players and staff who are not fully vaccinated must wear masks (surgical masks are preferred; gaiters and masks with valves or vents are prohibited) at all times when inside the Club facility.”

Because interview rooms are in the club facility, unvaccinated players must wear masks in the interview rooms. Rodgers consistently hasn’t.

The Packers possibly will say it’s not for them to enforce the league’s protocols; the league would disagree. As NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT earlier tonight, the “primary responsibility is on the club, which can discipline a player or personnel.” If the team wasn’t disciplining Rodgers for his violations of the league’s protocols, the Packers will have a major problem — and other teams already are paying attention.

As one source explained it to PFT on Wednesday, the league can’t monitor every team for compliance by every unvaccinated player. If the Packers didn’t fine Rodgers for not wearing a mask during press conferences in the facility, Green Bay will (or at least should) get whacked by the league office.

Other questions become relevant. Will the NFL be as aggressive with the Packers as they would have been with, for example, with the Saints or the Patriots? How close was/is NFL general counsel Jeff Pash with Packers CEO Mark Murphy? (As one source told PFT on Wednesday, they’re good friends.)

The league presumably doesn’t want to make the biggest story of the week even bigger by publicly acknowledging that Rodgers was violating the protocols and/or that the Packers failed to discipline him. Still, there’s a decent chance that the Packers gave Rodgers a pass given the broader strain and stress on the relationship. If they did, will the NFL give Green Bay a pass, too?

The NFL is surely hoping for the next wave of bright, shiny objects to take attention away from this issue, starting with Jets-Colts on Thursday night. But with the reigning MVP out for 10 days at a minimum, it’s not going away. And when he finally comes back and talks to the media, it will be interested to see what he says, how he says it, and how the various constituencies in the media react to it.

Separately, it will be very interesting to see what the league does about all of this, given the manner in which the league has hammered other teams for other violations.

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Sports

Chicago Mayor Lightfoot posts maskless photo at WNBA game, apparently violating indoor mask mandates

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot appears to have violated both local and state mask mandates at the WNBA finals in the Windy City.

The Chicago Sky clinched the WNBA title over the Phoenix Mercury at home Sunday with Lightfoot and fans packing Wintrust Arena for the final game.

After the Sky took the title, Lightfoot posted a picture online of her celebrating without a mask among legions of masked fans — going against her own city’s mask mandate.

BARI WEISS TELLS BRIAN STELTER HOW ‘THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD,’ LISTS ‘PEOPLE WHO WORK AT’ CNN AS A CAUSE

In fact, Lightfoot’s maskless gallivanting skirted both the Chicago local ordinance as well as Illinois’ statewide mask mandate.

“The Wintrust Arena is following all state and local mandates which require guests to wear masks indoors at all times, except when eating or drinking,” the arena’s website states. Lightfoot did not appear to be eating or drinking in the photo. 

Lightfoot’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on the photo or questions on why they posted a photo showing an apparent violation of the ordinances and what kind of example the mayor sets with the posted photo.

The Windy City’s mask mandate went back into effect in August, requiring face coverings indoors for everyone, including toddlers as young as 2 years old, regardless of vaccination status.

Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner, said she hopes the mask mandate will be removed again by the end of 2021.

“For the next few weeks, at least, it is here to stay,” Arwady said Sunday. “We’re a little over 300 cases right now, so when we’re halfway in that substantial mark, we will recommend taking them off.”

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Chicago’s top doctor said that if cases of COVID-19 fall below the 200 mark in the city of 2.7 million people, the mask mandate could end.

The Chicago Sky defeated the Phoenix Mercury for the 2021 WNBA championship by six points, 80 to 74.

Houston Keene is a reporter for Fox News Digital. You can find him on Twitter at @HoustonKeene.

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US

DC Mayor Bowser photographed maskless at wedding reception after reinstating mask mandate

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Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser was reportedly spotted without a face mask during an indoor wedding reception Saturday night, hours after her indoors mask mandate went into effect.

The Democratic mayor officiated a wedding at The Line DC hotel in the district’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, where she and hundreds of others went maskless, the Washington Examiner reported.

PHOTOS APPEAR TO SHOW DC MAYOR CELEBRATING BIRTHDAY MASKLESS HOURS BEFORE MANDATE WENT INTO EFFECT

“When approached by the Washington Examiner to explain why she was maskless at an event now legally obligated to enforce mask compliance, security blockaded the free press,” the outlet reported.

The event came just hours after Bowser’s order reinstating the district’s indoor mask mandate for everyone over 2 years old, regardless of vaccination status, went into effect at 5 a.m. Saturday.

The order specifies that enforcement provisions do not apply to members of the “federal government or legislative branch of the district government while those persons are on duty.”

Representatives for Bowser and The LINE hotel did not return Fox News’ requests for comment.

Just hours before the mandate was set to go into effect, photos on social media also appeared to show Bowser celebrating her upcoming birthday and posing for photos without a mask alongside comedian Dave Chappelle.

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“When your asked to Dj for the Mayor!!! Happy Birthday @mayor_bowser,” a caption on an Instagram post published by user Jeffrey Mercer Friday night says, accompanied by photos of Bowser and Chappelle attending a party. 

Bowser’s birthday is on Monday. 



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Entertainment

The Cannes Film Festival Is Back, Lavish and Maskless

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Enforcing that rule is another matter entirely. Before the start of “Annette” — an esoteric musical with songs from the band Sparks — three-fourths of the moviegoers around me had removed their masks, and the ushers simply shrugged. (There’s a reason the French gave us the phrase “laissez-faire.”) After the movie ended, as the standing ovation went into its fifth minute, Driver and his director, Leos Carax, both lit up cigarettes inside the theater.

Attendees were then taken to crowded shuttle buses and transported to the opening-night dinner at Palm Beach, which got underway after midnight. Instead of the bustling dance parties that usually end each evening in Cannes, the festival has encouraged a switch to dinners, which are ostensibly more spread apart, civilized and Covid-safe.

But in practice, all that up-close hobnobbing is still the same, even if it doesn’t happen on a dance floor. As I entered, Mirren was leaning over a banquette to greet Gyllenhaal; later, Mirren and her husband, Taylor Hackford, plopped down next to Andie MacDowell. At a table nearby, Foster chatted in fluent French with a slew of well-wishers, while Bong embraced his “Parasite” lead Song Kang Ho, who is also serving on this year’s Cannes jury.

The director Pedro Almodóvar spent most of the night in deep conversation with Chastain, though he and I spoke long enough for Almodóvar to praise Driver’s committed performance in “Annette” — “He always takes such risks!” — and to promise that his next film, the Penélope Cruz drama “Parallel Mothers,” would be out stateside in December. “You will see it soon,” he said — though not at Cannes, where his last movie, “Pain and Glory,” premiered.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped by the “Annette” after-party. Though Driver had beat a hasty retreat after the film’s premiere (he caught a flight back to Cleveland to shoot Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise”), the room was full of drunken revelers anyway.

As they shouted over the music and clinked champagne glasses, I realized that while Gyllenhaal was still adjusting to the full-on crush of Cannes, plenty of people here needed no such grace period. After a year and a half of Zoom and sweatpants, these film professionals were all too eager to get back to the business of pleasure.

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US

Texas police handcuff maskless woman who asked: ‘What are you going to do, arrest me?’ | US news

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An arrest warrant was issued for a woman who refused to wear a mask at a Texas bank, saying to a police officer: “What are you going to do, arrest me?”

Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Terry Wright, 65, of Grants Pass, Oregon. The incident on Thursday at a Bank of America in Galveston was captured by the officer’s body camera, the Galveston County Daily News reported.

Police said they had obtained an arrest warrant on resisting arrest and criminal trespassing charges.

Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, has ended statewide orders requiring people to wear face masks in public places, declaring businesses should decide for themselves what Covid-19 precautions to take on their properties. Many businesses have kept their own mask rules in place.

Police said a bank manager called police after Wright refused to wear a mask while inside, and then refused to leave the building when asked.

The police department released the officer’s body camera video footage. In the video, Wright can be seen standing in the middle of the bank’s lobby, surrounded by other customers, all of whom are wearing masks.

Wright told the officer she had come to the bank to make a withdrawal. The officer asked her to go outside or put on a mask. She refused.

“What are you going to do, arrest me?” she asked.

He replied: “Yes, for intruding on premises.”

She said: “That’s hilarious.”

Wright told the officer the law said she didn’t have to wear a mask. As the officer took out handcuffs, she pulled away and began to walk toward the door. The officer stopped her and forced her to the ground. After she was handcuffed, she complained her foot was injured.

“Police brutality right here people,” she said. Replies of “no” and “no, it’s not” could be heard.

Police said Wright suffered minor injuries during the struggle and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Wright told the Washington Post she has never covered her face inside stores, even when the statewide mandate was in place. She said she lives in an RV park across the bay from Galveston in Hitchcock, Texas.

She told the newspaper she was “attacked” and compared mask requirements to the way that Nazi Germany forced Jewish people to identify themselves with a Star of David.

She also said she believed in a “plandemic” in a reference to a documentary-style video in which an anti-vaccine activist promotes a string of questionable, false and potentially dangerous coronavirus theories.

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