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Entertainment

Kelly Clarkson granted restraining orders against two alleged stalkers

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Kelly Clarkson may sleep a little more soundly tonight.

The Grammy winner was granted permanent restraining orders against two alleged stalkers on Thursday, TMZ reported.

Per the outlet, the individuals — Victor Fernandez and Huguette Nicole Young — are prohibited from making contact of any kind with Clarkson or her children, daughter River, 8, and son, Remington, 6, for the next five years.

Additionally, Fernandez and Young must reportedly stay at least 100 yards away from the family.

The perpetrators have allegedly shown up at the “American Idol” Season 1 winner’s Los Angeles home on multiple occasions and caused disturbances.

Victor Fernandez and Huguette Nicole Young are reportedly prohibited from making contact of any kind with Clarkson or her children for the next five years.
Instagram/Kelly Clarkson

According to TMZ, Fernandez allegedly appeared at Clarkson’s residence three different times on Thanksgiving 2022.

The singer’s head of security, Michael Lopez, claimed that Fernandez first arrived in a semi-truck, at which time he allegedly peered over Clarkson’s gate and stared into her yard.

Lopez claimed Fernandez returned to the house two more times, once in the same semi-truck and later on foot, at which time he allegedly rang the doorbell and said he was there to see the singer.

The alleged perpetrators must stay at least 100 yards away from the singer and her family.
Instagram/Kelly Clarkson

Fernandez then allegedly returned on foot on Dec. 3, appearing “irritated and confused,” and told house staff that Clarkson instructed him to meet her there.

“This is the second time she has done this … unless I am speaking to a scammer or something,” he allegedly said during the encounter.

Lopez also claimed Fernandez took photos of the car the songstress’ nanny was driving with the kids in tow.

Fernandez and Young have allegedly shown up to Clarkson’s home on multiple occasions and caused disturbances.
NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Young, for her part, has allegedly pulled up to Clarkson’s home nearly 20 times over the past several years.

Lopez claimed Young has left gifts and other items at Clarkson’s front gate, while the former “Voice” judge alleged that Young has been sending her fan mail since 2009.

Reps for Clarkson did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

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World

Putin orders 36-hour holiday weekend cease-fire in Ukraine

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his armed forces to observe a unilateral 36-hour cease-fire in Ukraine this weekend for the Orthodox Christmas holiday, the first such sweeping truce move in the nearly 11-month-old war.

Putin did not appear to make his cease-fire order conditional on a Ukrainian agreement to follow suit, and it wasn’t clear whether hostilities would actually halt on the 1,100-kilometer (684-mile) front line or elsewhere. Ukrainian officials have previously dismissed Russian peace moves as playing for time to regroup their forces and prepare for additional attacks.

At various points during the war that started on Feb. 24, Russian authorities have ordered limited and local truces to allow evacuations of civilians or other humanitarian purposes. Thursday’s order was the first time Putin has directed his troops to observe a cease-fire throughout Ukraine.

“Based on the fact that a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the combat areas, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a cease-fire and give them the opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the Day of the Nativity of Christ,” according to Putin’s order, addressed to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and published on the Kremlin’s website.

While not necessarily the final official word back from Kyiv, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russian forces “must leave the occupied territories — only then will it have a ‘temporary truce.’ Keep hypocrisy to yourself.”

U.S. President Joe Biden declined to comment directly but said at the White House on Thursday it was “interesting” that Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches on Christmas and New Year’s. “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen,” he said.

Putin acted at the suggestion of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, who proposed a truce from noon Friday through midnight Saturday Moscow time (0900 GMT Friday to 2100 GMT Saturday; 4 a.m. EST Friday to 3 p.m. EST Saturday). The Orthodox Church, which uses the ancient Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7 — later than the Gregorian calendar — although some Christians in Ukraine also mark the holiday on that date.

Podolyak had earlier dismissed Kirill’s call as “a cynical trap and an element of propaganda.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had proposed a Russian troop withdrawal earlier, before Dec. 25, but Russia rejected it.

Kirill has previously justified the war as part of Russia’s “metaphysical struggle” to prevent a liberal ideological encroachment from the West.

Independent political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya said Putin’s cease-fire order is intended to make him look reasonable and interested in peace.

The move “fits well into Putin’s logic, in which Russia is acting on the right side of history and fighting for justice,” she said.

“We must not forget that in this war, Putin feels like a ‘good guy,’ doing good not only for himself and the ‘brotherly nations,’ but also for the world he’s freeing from the ‘hegemony’ of the United States,” Stanovaya, founder of the independent R.Politik think tank, wrote on Telegram.

She also linked Putin’s move to Ukrainian forces’ recent strike on Makiivka that killed at least 89 Russian servicemen. “He really doesn’t want to get something like that for Christmas,” the analyst said.

On the rainy streets of Kyiv, some questioned the Russians’ sincerity in discussing a truce.

“Shall we believe Russians?” wondered Svitlana Zhereva after Kirill’s proposal. “On the one hand they have given their blessing to the war and to kill, and on the other hand they want to present themselves as saints who are against blood-spilling. But they should be judged by their actions.”

Putin issued the truce order after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged him in a phone call Thursday to implement a “unilateral cease-fire,” according to the Turkish president’s office. The Kremlin said the Russian president “reaffirmed Russia’s openness to a serious dialogue” with Ukrainian authorities.

Erdogan also told Zelenskyy later by phone that Turkey was ready to mediate a “lasting peace.” Erdogan has made such offers frequently, helped broker a deal allowing Ukraine to export millions of tons of grain, and has facilitated a Ukrainian-Russian prisoner swap.

Russia’s professed readiness for peace talks came with the usual preconditions: that “Kyiv authorities fulfill the well known and repeatedly stated demands and recognize new territorial realities,” the Kremlin said, referring to Moscow’s insistence that Ukraine recognize Crimea as part of Russia and acknowledge other illegal territorial gains.

Previous attempts at peace talks have failed over Russia’s territorial demands, because Ukraine insists that Russia withdraw from occupied areas.

Elsewhere, the head of NATO detected no change in Moscow’s stance on Ukraine, insisting that the Kremlin “wants a Europe where they can control a neighboring country.”

“We have no indications that President Putin has changed his plans, his goals for Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Oslo, Norway.

Individual NATO countries are stepping up their military support of Ukraine with increasingly advanced weapons.

In the latest pledge, the French Defense Ministry said it plans talks soon with its Ukrainian counterpart on delivering armored combat vehicles. France’s presidency says it would be the first time this type of Western-made wheeled tank destroyer would be sent to Ukraine’s military.

In the United States, Biden said Bradley Fighting Vehicles, a medium armored combat vehicle that can serve as a troop carrier, could be sent to Ukraine.

While more weapons arrive, the battlefield situation appears to have settled into a stalemate, increasingly a war of attrition. As winter sets in, troop and equipment mobility is more limited.

In the latest fighting, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said Thursday at least five civilians were killed and eight wounded across the country by Russian shelling in the previous 24 hours.

An intense battle has left 60% of the eastern city of Bakhmut in ruins, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said Thursday. Ukrainian defenders appear to be holding the Russians back. Taking the city in the Donbas region, an expansive industrial area bordering Russia, would not only give Putin a major battlefield gain after months of setbacks, but would rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and open the way for Moscow’s forces to press on toward key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.

In what appeared to be a move to entice more men to join the fight, the first convicts recruited for battle by the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor, received a promised government pardon after serving six months on the front line.

A video the state RIA Novosti news agency released showed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group’s millionaire owner, shaking hands with about 20 pardoned men.

The White House said last month that Wagner had some 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, including 40,000 recruited convicts. The U.S. assesses that Wagner is spending about $100 million a month in the fight.

___

Video journalist Bela Szandelszky in Kyiv and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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US

Arizona judge orders Kari Lake to compensate Katie Hobbs for some fees for election lawsuit, but declines to sanction her

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CNN
 — 

A Maricopa County judge on Tuesday ordered Arizona Republican Kari Lake to compensate Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs for some legal fees related to the election lawsuit Lake had brought challenging her loss, but he stopped short of sanctioning Lake for filing the lawsuit.

Judge Peter Thompson had rejected Lake’s lawsuit on Saturday, concluding that there wasn’t clear or convincing evidence of misconduct and affirming Hobbs’ victory. That Christmas Eve ruling was a major defeat for Lake, who lost to Hobbs by about 17,000 votes in November and sued in an effort to overturn the election.

Attorneys for Hobbs – the current secretary of state – had charged that Lake and her lawyers knew their challenges to the election could not be substantiated, which would violate legal ethic rules. They wanted sanctions against Lake and her team. Thompson did not agree. “The Court finds that Plaintiff’s claims presented in this litigation were not groundless and brought in bad faith,” he wrote on Tuesday.

But he ordered Lake to pay Hobbs $33,040.50 in compensation for expert witness fees and again reaffirmed the election of Hobbs, who will be sworn in on January 5.

The recent rulings are the latest rebuke to election deniers nationwide and harken back to the long stream of legal losses former President Donald Trump suffered in 2020 as he sought to challenge his election loss. Maricopa County, which spans the Phoenix area and houses a majority of Arizona’s population, was a hotbed of unfounded allegations of fraud in the midterms and 2020 election.

In a tweet after the Saturday ruling, Lake, who sat in the courtroom during the trial but did not testify, said she would appeal the decision “for the sake of restoring faith and honesty in our elections.”

A former Arizona television journalist, Lake built her campaign around her support for Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. She had since doubled down, falsely claiming she won the 2022 election.

Thompson had previously dismissed eight counts alleged in Lake’s lawsuit prior to trial, ruling that they did not constitute proper grounds for an election contest under Arizona law, even if true. But he had permitted Lake an attempt to prove at a two-day trial last week two other counts involving printers and the ballot chain of custody in Maricopa County.

According to Thompson’s Saturday ruling, Lake’s team had to show that someone intentionally caused the county’s ballot-on-demand printers to malfunction – and as a result of that, enough “identifiable” votes were lost to change the outcome of the election.

“Every single witness before the Court disclaimed any personal knowledge of such misconduct. The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence,” Thompson wrote.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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World

Taliban orders NGOs to ban female employees from coming to work

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CNN
 — 

The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs.

Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said.

The ministry in the letter – whose validity its spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib confirmed to CNN – cites as reasons for the decision the non-observation of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate.

“Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of National and international non-governmental organizations.”

Earlier this week, the Taliban government suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the university suspension to CNN on Tuesday. A letter published by the education ministry said the decision was made in a cabinet meeting and the order would go into effect immediately.

In a televised news conference on Thursday, the Taliban’s higher education minister said they had banned women from universities for not observing Islamic dress rules and other “Islamic values,” citing female students traveling without a male guardian. The move sparked outrage among women in Afghanistan.

It marks yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the country in August 2021.

The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s announcement.

“Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN statement read.

“This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”

It also added that it would try to obtain a meeting with Taliban leadership to seek clarity.

Amnesty International called for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”

“Women and girls should not be punished for demanding and defending their fundamental rights,” it said in a statement. “The right to work for all people, especially women in Afghanistan, must be fully realized in accordance with international human rights law.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday also spoke out. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

Though the Taliban has repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, it has in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have fought tirelessly for over the past two decades.

Some of its most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

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World

Pope Francis orders Parthenon marbles held by Vatican be returned to Greece | Parthenon marbles

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Pope Francis has decided to return to Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.

The Vatican said in a brief statement that the pope was giving them to Archbishop Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greece’s spiritual leader, as a “donation” and “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth”.

The bearded male head will be ‘donated’ by the Vatican to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church. Photograph: Athens Acropolis Museum Handout/EPA

The Parthenon, which is on the Acropolis in Athens, was completed in the fifth century BC as a temple to the goddess Athena, and its decorative friezes contain some of the greatest examples of ancient Greek sculpture.

The Vatican’s three fragments include a head of a horse, a head of a boy and a bearded male head, which have been held by the Vatican since the 19th century. The head of the boy had been loaned to Greece for a year in 2008.

The decision to “donate” the sculptures to the Greek Orthodox Church and not return them directly to the Greek state is widely seen as a way for the Vatican to avoiding setting a precedent that could affect other treasures in its museums, as many First Nations groups and colonised countries around the world demand that western museums return artifacts and artworks looted during colonisation.

The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports expressed gratitude for the pope’s “generous” decision as well as hope the move would put pressure on the British Museum. The Acropolis Museum also welcomed the decision. It is not yet clear what plans Ieronymos has for the small sculptures.

The Vatican’s decision, which is expected to still take some time to execute, is likely to add further pressure on the British Museum, which has refused to return its larger collection of Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, which has been a centrepiece of the museum since 1816.

For decades, Greece has appealed to Britain to permanently return the 2,500-year-old sculptures, which British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon temple in the early 19th century while ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Greece’s then-ruler.

The British Museum has repeatedly ruled out returning the marbles, which include about half of the 160-metre frieze that adorned the Parthenon, and insists they were legally acquired.

Earlier this month it was revealed that museum trustees had held secret talks with Greece’s prime minister about returning the marbles. The Greek government said no decision was imminent, while the British Museum said though it wanted a “new Parthenon partnership with Greece”, “we’re not going to dismantle our great collection as it tells a unique story of our common humanity”.

The United Nations’ cultural agency Unesco has urged Greece and Britain to reach a settlement.

Associated Press contributed to this report

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US

Judge orders slaughterhouse cleaners not to hire minors

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge ordered a Wisconsin company that cleans hundreds of slaughterhouses nationwide to ensure it is complying with child labor laws after investigators identified at least 50 minors scrubbing and sanitizing dangerous equipment on overnight shifts at five different meatpacking plants in three states.

As part of an agreement with the Labor Department that was announced along with Tuesday’s court ruling in Nebraska, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. also promised to hire an outside consultant to review its hiring policies and provide additional training for its managers.

Investigators with the Labor Department visited three plants owned by JBS and Turkey Valley Farms in Nebraska and Minnesota this fall and found 31 underage workers as young as 13. Since this lawsuit was filed last month, additional underage workers have been identified, including at two additional plants: the Greater Omaha Packing Co. beef plant in Omaha, Nebraska, and a George’s Inc. poultry plant in Springdale, Arkansas.

Investigators also searched a Tyson Foods plant in Sedalia, Missouri, but the Labor Department hasn’t identified any minors working there yet.

Thousands of pages of records from other plants are also being reviewed to determine if any additional minors are working there. At the plants where underage workers have been identified so far, investigators are comparing local school records with Packers Sanitation Services records to identify workers younger than 18. The company employs some 17,000 people working at more than 700 locations nationwide, making it one of the largest firms out there that cleans food processing plants.

“This case should serve as a stark reminder for all employers that the U.S. Department of Labor will not tolerate violations of the law, especially those that put vulnerable children at risk,” said Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri who is based in Chicago.

PSSI Vice President of Marketing Gina Swenson said the company already does what the government recommends to verify the age and immigration status of its employees, but it agreed to take additional steps to ensure compliance and address the Labor Department’s concerns.

“We have been crystal clear from the start: PSSI has a zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18 and fully shares DOL’s objective of ensuring it is followed to the letter at all local plants,” Swenson said.

The company also agreed to fire any underage workers the Labor Department identifies and sanction any managers involved in hiring them. PSSI will also work to identify any minors working for it as well and fire them.

Swenson has said that PSSI is cooperating with investigators although the Labor Department said in court documents that some local managers interfered with employee interviews at the plants.

The underage workers that investigators confirmed included one 13-year-old who suffered a serious chemical burn from the caustic chemicals used to clean the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, every night.

Investigators said in court documents that some of the teens they found working for PSSI told them that “everyone there knew” that they were minors, and in one case, a search of an employment database showed that one employee’s age came up as 129 years old when their Social Security number was checked.

The meat processing companies that own the plants where underage workers were initially identified have said they are monitoring the investigation and will consider taking action against PSSI if necessary. A representative of Greater Omaha Packing didn’t immediately respond to questions Tuesday, and no one answered the phone at the corporate headquarters of George’s Inc.

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World

Chevron Gets U.S. License to Pump Oil in Venezuela Again

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WASHINGTON—The U.S. said it would allow

Chevron Corp.

CVX -0.29%

to resume pumping oil from its Venezuelan oil fields after President Nicolás Maduro’s government and an opposition coalition agreed to implement an estimated $3 billion humanitarian relief program and continue dialogue in Mexico City on efforts to hold free and fair elections.

Following the Norwegian-brokered agreement signed in Mexico City, the Biden administration granted a license to Chevron that allows the California-based oil company to return to its oil fields in joint ventures with the Venezuela national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA. The new license, granted by the Treasury Department, permits Chevron to pump Venezuelan oil for the first time in years.

Biden administration officials said the license prohibits PdVSA from receiving profits from Chevron’s oil sales. The officials said the U.S. is prepared to revoke or amend the license, which will be in effect for six months, at any time if Venezuela doesn’t negotiate in good faith.

Venezuela produces some 700,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with more than 3 million in the 1990s.



Photo:

Isaac Urrutia/Reuters

“If Maduro again tries to use these negotiations to buy time to further consolidate his criminal dictatorship, the United States and our international partners must snap back the full force of our sanctions,” said Sen.

Robert Menendez

(D., N.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The U.S. policy shift could signal an opening for other oil companies to resume their business in Venezuela two years after the Trump administration clamped down on Chevron and other companies’ activities there as part of a maximum-pressure campaign meant to oust the government led by Mr. Maduro. The Treasury Department action didn’t say how non-U.S. oil companies might re-engage with Venezuela.

Venezuela produces some 700,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with more than 3 million barrels a day in the 1990s. Some analysts said Venezuela could hit 1 million barrels a day in the medium term, a modest increment reflecting the dilapidated state of the country’s state-led oil industry.

Some Republican lawmakers criticized the Biden administration’s decision to clear the way for Chevron to pump more oil in Venezuela. “The Biden administration should allow American energy producers to unleash DOMESTIC production instead of begging dictators for oil,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) wrote on Twitter.

Biden administration officials said the decision to issue the license wasn’t a response to oil prices, which have been a major concern for President Biden and his top advisers in recent months as they seek to tackle inflation. “This is about the regime taking the steps needed to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela,” one of the officials said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that the Biden administration was preparing to scale down sanctions on Venezuela’s regime to allow Chevron to resume pumping oil there.

Jorge Rodriguez led the Venezuelan delegation to the talks in Mexico City, where an agreement was signed.



Photo:

Henry Romero/Reuters

Under the new license, profits from the sale of oil will go toward repaying hundreds of millions of dollars in debt owed to Chevron by PdVSA, administration officials said. The U.S. will require that Chevron report details of its financial operations to ensure transparency, they said.

Chevron spokesman Ray Fohr said the new license allows the company to commercialize the oil currently being produced at its joint-venture assets. He said the company will conduct its business in compliance within the current framework.

The license prohibits Chevron from paying taxes and royalties to the Venezuelan government, which surprised some experts. They had been expecting that direct revenue would encourage PdVSA to reroute oil cargoes away from obscure export channels, mostly to Chinese buyers at a steep discount, which Venezuela has relied on for years to skirt sanctions.

“If this is the case, Maduro doesn’t have significant incentives to allow that many cargoes of Chevron to go out,” said

Francisco Monaldi,

director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Sending oil to China, even at a heavy discount, would be better for Caracas than only paying debt to Chevron, he said.

The limited scope of the Chevron license is seen as a way to ensure that Mr. Maduro stays the course on negotiations. “Rather than fully opening the door for Venezuelan oil to flow to the U.S. market immediately, what the license proposes is a normalization path that is likely contingent on concessions from the Maduro regime on the political and human-rights front,” said

Luisa Palacios,

senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy.

The license allows Venezuelan oil back into the U.S., historically its largest market, but only if the oil from the PdVSA-Chevron joint ventures is first sold to Chevron and doesn’t authorize exports from the ventures “to any jurisdiction other than the United States,” which appears to restrict PdVSA’s own share of the sales to the U.S. market, said Mr. Monaldi.

The license prohibits transactions involving goods and services from Iran, a U.S.-sanctioned oil producer that has helped Venezuela overcome sanctions in recent years. It blocks dealings with Venezuelan entities owned or controlled by Western-sanctioned Russia, which has played a role in Venezuela’s oil industry.

Jorge Rodriguez,

the head of Venezuela’s Congress as well as the government’s delegation to the Mexico City talks, declined to comment on the issuance of the Chevron license.

Freddy Guevara,

a member of the opposition coalition’s delegation, said the estimated $3 billion in frozen funds intended for humanitarian relief and infrastructure projects in Venezuela would be administered by the United Nations. He cautioned that it would take time to implement the program fully. “It begins now, but the time period is up to three years,” he said.

The Venezuelan state funds frozen in overseas banks by sanctions are expected to be used to alleviate the country’s health, food and electric-power crises in part by building infrastructure for electricity and water-treatment needs. “Not one dollar will go to the vaults of the regime,” Mr. Guevara said.

Chevron plans to restore lost output as it performs maintenance and other essential work, but it won’t attempt major work that would require new investments in the country’s oil fields until debts of $4.2 billion are repaid. That could take about two to three years depending on oil-market conditions, according to people familiar with the matter.

PdVSA owes Chevron and other joint-venture partners their shares of more than two years of revenue from oil sales, after the 2020 U.S. sanctions barred the Venezuelan company from paying its partners, one of the people said. The license would allow Chevron to collect its share of dividends from its joint ventures such as Petropiar, in which Chevron is a 30% partner.

Analysts said the new agreement raises expectations that will take time and work to fulfill. “Ensuring the success of talks won’t be easy, but it’s clear that offering gradual sanctions relief like this in order to incentivize agreements is the only way forward. It’s a Champagne-popping moment for the negotiators, but much more work remains to be done,” said Geoff Ramsey, Venezuela director at the Washington Office on Latin America.

—José de Córdoba and Ginette Gonzalez contributed to this article.

Write to Collin Eaton at collin.eaton@wsj.com and Andrew Restuccia at andrew.restuccia@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Science

NASA Orders Press Not to Photograph Launch Site After Moon Mission Takes Off

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What don’t they want us to see?

No Photos, Please

NASA barred the press from photographing the launch site of its Space Launch System after it boosted the agency’s Artemis I Moon mission into space earlier this week.

Multiple space reporters said on Twitter that the agency had sent them a message telling them they were prohibited from photographing the Artemis 1 launch tower after the liftoff.

“NASA did not provide a reason,” Eric Berger, Ars Technica‘s senior space editor, tweeted. The reporter added that according to his sources, the ban was apparently an attempt to save face after the launch damaged the tower.

“So now sources are saying that yes, Launch Complex-39B tower was damaged during the Artemis I launch on Wednesday morning,” Berger tweeted. “Basically, there were leaks and damage where there weren’t supposed to be leaks and damage.”

Damaging Reports

Later, Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport posted a statement from NASA that seemed to corroborate Berger’s sources, though he emphasized that there was “no word on damage” to the launch pad.

“Because of the current state of the configuration, there are [International Traffic in Arms Regulations license] restrictions and photos are not permitted at this time,” the statement given to Davenport read. “There also is a launch debris around the pad as anticipated, and the team is currently assessing.”

Whatever NASA’s reasoning, it’s pretty clear that the agency doesn’t want unapproved photos of its expensive and overdue Space Launch System rocket going out to the public. NASA loves positive publicity, it seems — but not negative.

More on the Artemis 1 launch: NASA Says It’s Fine That Some Pieces May Have Fallen Off Its Moon Rocket During Launch



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Science

NASA Orders Press Not to Photograph Launch Site After Moon Mission Takes Off

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© Provided by Futurism
NASA apparently barred the press from photographing the Artemis moon rocket launch when it lifted its Orion capsule off to space earlier this week. 

No Photos, Please

NASA barred the press from photographing the launch site of its Space Launch System after it boosted the agency’s Artemis I Moon mission into space earlier this week.

Multiple space reporters said on Twitter that the agency had sent them a message telling them they were prohibited from photographing the Artemis 1 launch tower after the liftoff.

“NASA did not provide a reason,” Eric Berger, Ars Technica‘s senior space editor, tweeted. The reporter added that according to his sources, the ban was apparently an attempt to save face after the launch damaged the tower.

Load Error

“So now sources are saying that yes, Launch Complex-39B tower was damaged during the Artemis I launch on Wednesday morning,” Berger tweeted. “Basically, there were leaks and damage where there weren’t supposed to be leaks and damage.”

Damaging Reports

Later, Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport posted a statement from NASA that seemed to corroborate Berger’s sources, though he emphasized that there was “no word on damage” to the launch pad.

“Because of the current state of the configuration, there are [International Traffic in Arms Regulations license] restrictions and photos are not permitted at this time,” the statement given to Davenport read. “There also is a launch debris around the pad as anticipated, and the team is currently assessing.”

Whatever NASA’s reasoning, it’s pretty clear that the agency doesn’t want unapproved photos of its expensive and overdue Space Launch System rocket going out to the public. NASA loves positive publicity, it seems — but not negative.

More on the Artemis 1 launch: NASA Says It’s Fine That Some Pieces May Have Fallen Off Its Moon Rocket During Launch

The post NASA Orders Press Not to Photograph Launch Site After Moon Mission Takes Off appeared first on Futurism.

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Entertainment

Amazon Orders Multiple Marvel-Sony Shows, Beginning With ‘Silk’

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Amazon is officially moving forward with multiple live-action shows based on the Marvel characters controlled by Sony, Variety has learned.

The first series under the deal will be “Silk: Spider Society,” which was developed by “The Walking Dead” showrunner Angela Kang along with “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Kang will serve as showrunner and executive producer on “Silk” as part of a new multi-year overall television deal she has signed with Amazon. Kang, Lord, and Miller all executive produce along with former Sony boss Amy Pascal. Sony Pictures Television is the studio, with Lord and Miller currently under an overall deal there.

“Silk: Spider Society” will debut domestically on MGM+’s (nee Epix) linear channel followed by a global launch on Prime Video. The show is based on characters created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos for Marvel Comics. It follows Cindy Moon, described as “a Korean-American woman bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker, as she escapes imprisonment and searches for her missing family on her way to becoming the superhero known as Silk.”

“Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Sony’s recent live-action and animated reimagining of the Spider-Man franchise has represented some of the most dynamic superhero storytelling in film,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “Together with Angela Kang’s creative vision, we couldn’t be more pleased to bring ‘Silk: Spider Society’ to our MGM+ and Prime Video customers.”

The “Silk” series and the other shows based on Sony-controlled Marvel characters were originally reported as being in the works back in September 2020. At that time, Lauren Moon was writing “Silk,” while it was reported in 2021 that Tom Spezialy had joined the series as showrunner as part of his own Amazon overall deal.

“We can’t wait to bring the adventures of Cindy Moon to life, thanks to the creative dream team of Chris and Phil, Angela and Amy, along with our partners at Marvel and Amazon,” said Katherine Pope, president of Sony Pictures Television Studios. “We know this exciting series with new and never-before-seen characters and storylines will wow audiences watching first on linear MGM+ and then around the world on Prime Video.”

“Angela is a pro’s pro whose perspective and creativity we greatly respect and admire,” added Lord and Miller. “She’s also a hell of a lot of fun. She loves these characters and we feel really lucky for the chance to work with her to bring Cindy Moon’s story to the world.”

Kang is best known for her work on “The Walking Dead.” She became a writer on the show in 2011 and co-executive producer in 2013. She was promoted to executive producer and showrunner in 2018 beginning with the hit AMC series’ ninth season. “The Walking Dead” is airing its series finale on Nov. 20, with Kang also co-creating a spinoff centered on Norman Reedus’ character, Daryl Dixon. She launched her own production company, Kang & Co Entertainment, in 2020.

She is repped by UTA, Literate, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole LLP.

“I’m beyond thrilled to be joining the Amazon Studios family for this next chapter of my career,” Kang said. “I look forward to working with the executive team on diverse, character-forward, watercooler shows for a global audience and am so excited to dive in to my first challenge—bringing Korean-American superhero Silk to life on screen.”

It is unknown at this time which other Marvel characters will be featured in the Amazon shows, though Sony currently controls over 900 such characters associated with the Spider-Man franchise.

Sony has released multiple Spider-Man live-action films in the past and currently works with Marvel Studios on the rebooted film franchise starring Tom Holland via Columbia Pictures. Sony is also behind “Into the Spider-Verse,” which won the Academy Award for best animated film in 2019. Two sequels to that film are currently in the works, with the first — “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” — due out in theaters in June 2023.

To date, Sony has also released the live-action films “Venom” and its sequel “Let There Be Carnage” starring Tom Hardy, as well as “Morbius” starring Jared Leto. A third “Venom” film is currently in development, while Sony is also at work on film versions of characters like “Kraven the Hunter” starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and “Madame Web” starring Dakota Johnson, among several others.



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