German Chancellor Angela Merkel has arrived in Senegal on a three-nation West African visit focusing on economic development and migration.
Merkel is meeting with the presidents of Senegal, Ghana and then Nigeria as she presses for further investment in a region that is a source of many of the migrants who make their perilous way toward Europe.
Migrant arrivals in Europe across the Mediterranean from Africa and Turkey are at their lowest level in five years, but the issue remains sensitive. Merkel, who refused to close Germany’s borders at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, has toughened her stance recently to salvage her government from a rift over the issue.
Some in Europe hope that investing more in West Africa will help keep people in a region widely plagued with unemployment, dodgy infrastructure and now the effects of climate change from leaving.
A day before leaving for Africa, Merkel hosted U2 frontman Bono for a discussion on Africa and its “development opportunities,” the Chancellery said in an Instagram post .
Senegal and Ghana are two of Africa’s fastest-growing economies and among its most stable countries. Both have signed on to the Compact with Africa initiative to promote private investment that Germany launched last year during its presidency of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations.
Nigeria is West Africa’s regional power, Africa’s most populous country and one of the continent’s top oil producers. It is plagued, however, by widespread corruption and security threats that include Boko Haram and Islamic State-linked extremists in the north, violent clashes between herders and farmers in the central region and oil militants in the south.
Merkel on Tuesday spoke with the new leader of another of Africa’s top economies, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and invited him to visit, his chief of staff Fitsum Arega said on Twitter. Germany is just one of the countries responding with curiosity to the recent reconciliation between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea, with Germany’s development minister visiting the long-reclusive country last week.
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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP—Africa
It started with President Donald Trump‘s attacks on Canadian dairy farmers. Then Washington slapped tariffs on Canadian steel, citing national security. There was that disastrous G-7 summit in Quebec. Now it’s a new North American free trade agreement that excludes America’s northern neighbor.
Canadians are stunned by the repeated broadsides from what has long been their closest ally and some have even begun boycotts.
“Everybody is afraid,” said Margot Lajeunesse, who helps run a family-owned bistro in Quebec. “We depend a lot on the U.S.”
About 75 percent of Canada‘s exports go to the U.S. so the tariff threat looms large after Trump snubbed Canada and reached a preliminary deal with Mexico.
LaLa Bistro, owned by the Lajeunesse family, is among Canadian businesses that are boycotting California wines, American ketchup and other U.S. products in protest. Some Canadians have cancelled U.S. vacations, particularly after Trump assailed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G-7 meeting in June, calling him a “weak” and “dishonest” back-stabber.
“It’s not the way you treat a friend,” Lajeunesse said.
“It’s revolting, agreed Raymonde Kennedy, who has ceased buying American products like mustard and clothing. “We won’t be insulted like that, by a man with no brain.”
Luc Routhier, co-owner of Bar Le P’tit Canot in Quebec, also banned American wine from his eatery after Trump announced tariffs on Canadian aluminum and threatened Quebec’s dairy industry.
“I’m not even going to the U.S. this year,” he said. “I’m a golfer, and normally I do two trips a year to the U.S. with my buddies.”
“I’ll only go back to the United States when Trump is gone.”
To intensify the pressure on Canada, Trump threatened this week to impose new taxes on Canadian auto imports if Canada didn’t negotiate “fairly.” Canada must now decide whether to sign onto an agreement it didn’t negotiate, or risk that the U.S. and Mexico will make good on threats to do a two-way deal that excludes it.
Canada could lose 60,000 jobs in a trade war and take a 1 percent hit to its GDP — a significant drop because Canada’s economy is projected to grow just 2 percent next year, according to estimates from the C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based think tank.
Canada had been left out of the trade talks for the past five weeks, but Trudeau said there was still a “possibility of getting to a good deal for Canada” by Trump’s deadline of Friday.
“But,” he added, “as I’ve said all along it has to be the right deal for Canada. We will not sign a bad agreement.”
Trump expressed optimism Wednesday that a deal could be reached.
“We gave until Friday and I think we’re probably on track,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. I love Canada. And you know what, I love Mexico too. … I like them both the same.”
There is some optimism in Canada’s automotive sector despite the Trump tariff threats.
Among other things, the U.S.-Mexico deal mandates that 40 to 45 percent of a car be made in a country with a minimum hourly wage for auto workers of at least $16 to qualify for duty-free status — a requirement that could stem the flow of auto-sector jobs to Mexico, where auto workers earn on average just $5 an hour.
“This should stop the bleeding in Canada,” said Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union.
Bank of Montreal chief economist Douglas Porter said the U.S. deal with Mexico leaves Canada in a near take-it-or-leave-it situation. Still, he noted investors have welcomed the news and that helped push the Canadian dollar up 0.5 percent. Stocks of Canadian auto parts companies were up too.
“Perhaps the clearest indicator that the market is viewing the U.S.-Mexico deal as a positive for Canada is the strengthening of the Canadian dollar,” Porter said.
Reaction in the Canadian press reflected the mixed feeling about the U.S.-Mexico deal.
“Canada scrambles as U.S., Mexico ink NAFTA pact,” headlined the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper.
The Toronto Star had a different take. “PM cool in the face of Trump’s NAFTA heat,” it read.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland hurried to Washington this week to try to repair the damage and was in talks Wednesday with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other U.S. officials.
“Mexico has made significant concessions which will be really good for Canadian workers. On that basis we are optimistic,” Freeland said of the talks.
But the opposition Conservative Party accused Trudeau of mishandling negotiations by letting Mexico and the United States cut a deal without Canada.
“Canada is on the outside looking in while Canadian jobs hang in the balance,” Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer tweeted. Foreign-affairs critic Erin O’Toole said in a statement that “Mexico has usurped our role as the key U.S. trade partner.”
Still, the ties between the U.S. and Canada are without parallel anywhere in the world. Trade between the two neighbors totaled an estimated $673.9 billion in 2017, with the U.S. enjoying a nearly $3 billion surplus with Canada. Each day, about 400,000 people cross the world’s longest international border. There is close cooperation on defense, border security and law enforcement, and a vast overlap in culture, traditions and pastimes.
Trudeau’s father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, offered this take on sharing a continent with the United States. “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant,” he said. “No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
Perhaps the younger Trudeau had his father’s words in mind when he asserted that he wouldn’t let Canada get pushed around by the U.S. at a news conference at the end of the contentious G-7 summit in June — a remark that enraged Trump.
“He made this point that he’s going to make Canadians pay,” said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.
University of Toronto professor Robert Bothwell said the latest trade deal excluding Canada shows Trump is more focused on exerting American economic might than reaching a fair deal with friends.
“This is going to have a horrendous impact on Canada-American relations,” Bothwell said. “Canada may well have to give in to this because of the threat to the auto trade, but it’s going to leave a very bad taste.”
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Associated Press writer Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa, Ontario, contributed to this report.
Bardstown Bourbon Company in Nelson County is the latest Kentucky Distillers’ Association member to join the Kentucky Bourbon Trail experience, becoming the 14th destination on the world-famous journey that showcases the state’s signature spirit.
The announcement comes as the popular tourist attraction, created in 1999 by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, continues to expand across the Commonwealth with distillery destinations hosting over one million visits for the second year in a row in 2017.
“Each Kentucky Bourbon Trail distillery offers a truly unique experience for our visitors,” said KDA President Eric Gregory. “These companies are investing millions of dollars to create something genuinely memorable for each guest, and Bardstown Bourbon Company’s experience is no exception.”
David Mandell, President and CEO of Bardstown Bourbon Company, said, “It’s an honor for us to join the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and stand shoulder to shoulder with Bourbon legends. We’ve built something here that celebrates the tradition they’ve built while offering a distinctly original experience for our guests.”
Set on 100 acres of farmland off the Bluegrass Parkway in Bardstown, BBCo has grown rapidly since the company was founded in 2014. A second 36-inch column still was installed in June, making the distillery one of the largest producers in the country with a capacity of nearly seven million proof gallons per year.
At the heart of this state-of-the-art facility is the Bottle & Bond Kitchen and Bar, a modern, full-service restaurant where guests can dine with a view of the working distillery through floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Culinary offerings include comfort food, a variety of salads and farm fresh meats and cheeses.
The bar offers a well-rounded craft cocktail program, a wine list featuring artisanal wine makers, craft beer on tap, and a vintage whiskey library curated by Bourbon author Fred Minnick. The selections include rare finds like an 1890s Cedar Brook whiskey and a pair of early 1900s Overholt Rye.
The debut menu in the Fred Minnick Signature Spirits Series, the Bottle & Bond collection tells the story of American whiskey, through each bottle, from the late 1800s and pre-Prohibition through the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Bottle & Bond was recently named the “Best Modern Bourbon Restaurant” by the Courier-Journal.
“Bottle & Bond Kitchen and Bar is an experience,” Mandell said. “We’ve created an inviting, fun, and approachable environment where people can enjoy an exceptional meal, great cocktails, and try a wide variety of brands from our unique whiskey collection. “Bottle & Bond is truly designed to bring people together.” While tours of the production side of the facility are not yet available, visitors are offered a complimentary flight of the whiskeys BBCo produces. Mandell said curated tour experiences are being carefully developed to meet his precise measure of elevated hospitality. Bardstown Bourbon Company recently released Coll&boration, developed with Copper & Kings American Brandy Company in Louisville. The two distinct products are made with 10-year-old straight Bourbon whiskey – one finished in Copper & Kings American Brandy barrels and the other in Muscat Mistelle barrels – for more than 18 months in the Copper & Kings basement maturation cellar.
More collaborative releases are planned in the future.
“Bardstown Bourbon Company goes big with everything they do,” Gregory said. “Bottle & Bond allows visitors in to see this exceptional facility, share a delicious meal, and experience one-of-a-kind whiskeys that Bourbon lovers typically can only find in larger cities.”
Located at 1500 Parkway Drive, the company is one of eight KDA member distilleries in the Bardstown area which include, Heaven Hill, Lux Row Distillers, Preservation Distillery, Willett Distillery, Jim Beam (Clermont), Four Roses (Cox’s Creek), and Maker’s Mark (Loretto).
Kentucky Bourbon is one of the Commonwealth’s most historic and treasured industries, a booming $8.5 billion economic engine that generates as many as 17,500 jobs with an annual payroll topping $800 million, pouring $825 million into tax coffers each year.
With 6.7 million barrels of Bourbon currently aging across the state, the Kentucky Bourbon industry is in the middle of a $1.2 billion building boom with companies investing in production and facility expansions as well as state-of-the-art visitor experiences. Adam Johnson, Senior Director of the KDA’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail program said BBCo’s modern spin and small-town charm greatly enhances the Bourbon visitor experience in the area and elevates the community’s culinary scene.
“The Bottle & Bond experience is a great complement to the iconic brand destinations in Bardstown’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail® community,” Johnson said. “Every time I come here I share a drink with someone I know, and someone is always getting up from the table to greet a friend walking in the door. “To me, that is the authentic Bourbon experience.”
Bottle & Bond Kitchen and Bar is open for lunch every day and open evenings for dinner Thursday through Saturday.
For more information on the restaurant or to make reservations, visit http://bottleandbond.com.
Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers
Ingredients:
* 6 large firm ripe tomatoes * 6 large green bell peppers * 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil * 4 large onions- finely chopped or grated * 1 cup long grain brown rice * 2 garlic cloves, chopped * 1/3 cup raisins * 1 1/2 cups of water or chicken broth * salt and pepper * 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley * 1 cup chopped mint * 1/2 cup chopped dill or wild fennel
Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan add the rice and water with salt and pepper and allow to cook the rice through until all of the water has been reduced.
2. In a medium sauce pan add the onions and garlic and saute in olive oil until softened. In a medium bowl combine cooked rice, raisins, sauteed onions and garlic, fresh herbs, fennel fronds, and salt and pepper.
3. Hull out the peppers and tomatoes, removing the seeds and cutting a flat base so they will stand up. Fill with the each one with the rice filling and place in a casserole dish. Drizzle with additional olive oil and season with salt and pepper. IF desired top with parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes at 400 degrees or until tomatoes and peppers are blistered and soft.
4. Let cool for 10 minutes after removing from the oven and serve.
Theories on how they will get “Roseanne” to disappear on the spin-off show, “The Conners”. Abby Huntsman is now a new co-host on “The View”, and BTS beats Taylor Swift, The K-Pop group’s new music video, “idol,” broke the record for the biggest You-Tube debut of all time. It had more than 45-million views in its first 24 hours.
These headlines and more Hollywood gossip in What’s Poppin’!
If you are going to New York city anytime soon “Bee” careful, a swarm of more than 25,000 bees took over a hot dog stand in Times Square, causing it to shut down.
A update about a bride who wanted her guests to help pay for her wedding by having them pay to attend the wedding. Her cousin has spoken out and wrote a post responding to the story, saying that the bride comes from a humble background but recently developed a obsession with “Kardashian Stuff”.
A man known as the “Dine and Dash Dater” is facing felony charges of theft and extortion, leaving eight different women to pay the date bill, totaling more than $950.00.
When are parents being overprotective? A mother shared on a forum that she will not buy her teenagers smartphones, and she wants to limit their internet access by supervising them. She claims that she’s doing this to keep her kids from being exposed to bullying and porn. The responses range from people saying they admire her choices, but others say this is actually a way to encourage her kids to go and do things behind her back.
Watch to see what Troy, Larkin and Amber have to say about these topics in Table Talk.
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan are “in the room where it happens.”
The newlyweds are attending a gala performance of the hit musical “Hamilton” Wednesday at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre.
Harry, 33, and Meghan, 37, and the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, are special guests at the performance, which benefits Harry’s charity, Sentebale.
The trio are expected to meet the cast and crew of “Hamilton” and give speeches after tonight’s performance.
The show about America’s founding fathers is of special significance to Harry and Meghan, a California native.
The couple first saw the show together on a date night at Victoria Palace Theatre in February. Their attendance at the Tony-winning musical was later confirmed by a cast member.
It is believed Wednesday’s performance is Meghan’s third time seeing the blockbuster musical, having previously attended with her close friend, actress Priyanka Chopra, in New York City. Meghan shared a photo of the pair with a Hamilton playbill in hand on her since-deleted Instagram account.
Wednesday’s special performance of “Hamilton” hopes to raise awareness and funds for children and young people affected by HIV and AIDS. Sentebale was co-founded by Harry in 2006 to honor his late mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales.
Meghan and Harry stepped out in July for the annual Sentebale Polo Cup in London that also benefits the charity.
?? The Duchess presented The Duke’s winning side with the trophy #SentebaleISPSPolo pic.twitter.com/0kpZSibYWe
The month prior, in June, Harry made an emotional, private visit to Lesotho for his charitable work.
Harry and Meghan, who recently welcomed a dog into their family, have been enjoying time for rest and relaxation as their busy summer ends and they prepare for an even busier fall.
The couple, who wed in May, will make their first major royal tour this fall to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga on behalf of Queen Elizabeth and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Next spring, Meghan and Harry are scheduled to make their first tour to the United States at the request of the U.K. Foreign Office and the British government.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky’s four veterans centers will be polling places in future elections.
Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced the change on Wednesday. She said the goal is to make it easier for veterans to vote, adding it is the most fundamental way to honor their service.
Kentucky has veterans centers in Hazard, Wilmore, Hanson and Radcliff. They house hundreds of military veterans who need long-term care.
Grimes said those four veterans centers will be polling places for the precincts they are in. She praised the clerks of Perry, Hopkins and Hardin counties as “instrumental” in making the polling places happen. The Thompson-Hood Veterans Center in Jessamine County is already a polling place.
If “Searching,” a mystery about a father looking for his missing teenage daughter told only with smartphone and computer screens, sounds like a gimmick, don’t worry, you’re in good company. Its star, John Cho, and director and co-writer Aneesh Chaganty thought so too initially. It wasn’t even a new concept. The producer for “Searching” was also behind the “screen thriller” ”Unfriended,” and wanted a follow-up that used the same technique.
But even with its inauspicious beginnings, the film has become a late summer must-see propelled by strong reviews from critics and a warm afterglow following the successful launch of “Crazy Rich Asians,” which has only bolstered enthusiasm around “Searching” and its Asian-American leads.
In its first weekend in limited release, actress Karen Gillan hosted a free screening of the film. “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu and star Henry Golding bought out a theater too. It made an impressive $390,000 from nine theaters and distributor Screen Gems is hoping that momentum continues as it expands to 1,200 screens nationwide this weekend.
Chaganty laughs now about how he was more than willing to walk away from a chance to make his first feature just because he didn’t buy into the ploy.
“I like good movies and I want to feel emotional and I don’t want to give that up to do something just because there’s an opportunity,” Chaganty said. “It was a gimmick. I had seen the other films that took place on screens and I thought they were gimmicks.”
But he and his co-writer and producing partner Sev Ohanian decided to think about it, and for two months raked their brains for a way in. Then one day, they hit gold. The film, they decided, would open with a montage showing a young family of three through the years told in digital photo albums, videos and calendar dates. It is a slice of life tearjerker that has been compared to the opening of “Up.” And, perhaps most importantly, it makes you care about David Kim (Cho) and his daughter Margot (Michelle La).
It’s what got Cho on board too, who was put to the test in this role. For the most part, Cho had to act opposite only a blank computer screen and webcam.
“I don’t know how I did it, I was bumbling my way through it really,” Cho said. “It was weird, it was like acting in a black box … Several times on set I was like, ‘Aneesh can we please stop this webcam business and let’s shoot the third act with a bunch of cameras, real cameras and pop out of it? Can we please?'”
According to Cho, Chaganty’s response to this was, “John, shut up and act.”
While the concept may have been frustrating to execute, however, the final product and story is so seamless it almost makes you forget that you’re watching a story unfold through screens.
“After I saw the movie for the first time, I (told Aneesh), ‘You have expanded the vocabulary of cinema, and that is so freaking hard to do,” Cho said.
“Searching,” Cho said, is a kind of bookend to “Crazy Rich Asians” and both are necessary for advancing representation in Hollywood movies.
“That’s an Asian specific story and this one isn’t,” Cho said. “Those are two very important things to say. One is, ‘We’re going to tell our stories’ and the other is, ‘Don’t limit what our stories are.'”
Chaganty simply wanted an Asian-American lead, and specifically Cho, because those are the families he grew up around in San Jose, California, where the film is set. Other than that, there is no story reason that necessitates that the lead be any ethnicity.
“I grew up watching movies that I loved that had nothing to do with race or culture or addressing skin color that just didn’t have people like me in it. ‘Mission: Impossible,’ the ‘Bourne’ movies, the ones that don’t have anything to do with that,” Changanty said. “We’ve become part of the conversation because we’re the first ones to do it in a thriller. It’s insane to me that this is even a conversation. I hope people look back on this and are like I don’t get how this is racially progressive.”
The film’s opening and the enthusiasm around it has also made Cho start to reflect on progress. The 46-year-old Korean-American actor’s name became its own social media movement in 2016 when a tech savvy man, William Yu, started photoshopping Cho into movie posters for Hollywood blockbusters like “Spectre” along with the hashtag #StarringJohnCho.
“I’ve been asked so much about it and it’s kind of awkward. The common question is, ‘Did it work?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know!’ In a way I was thinking it didn’t work because they were like, ‘Oh he’s supposed to be Captain America’ or something in these big tent-pole movies and while I really appreciated that sentiment, I’m not in any of these franchises. I’ve got my own, but I’m not in any of those,” Cho said.
And yet, he also sees a silver lining. The two movies he’s starred in since #StarringJohnCho, “Columbus” and “Searching” were directed by Asian-Americans and found their own grassroots success.
“It’s an incredible story about what the people can will to be,” Cho said.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
The National Enquirer has long explained its support for Donald Trump as a business decision based on the president’s popularity among its readers. But private financial documents and circulation figures obtained by The Associated Press show that the tabloid’s business was declining even as it published stories attacking Trump’s political foes and, prosecutors claim, helped suppress stories about his alleged sexual affairs.
The Enquirer’s privately held parent company, American Media Inc., lost $72 million for the year ending in March, the records obtained by the AP show. And despite AMI chairman David Pecker’s claims that the Enquirer’s heavy focus on Trump sells magazines, the documents show that the Enquirer’s average weekly circulation fell by 18 percent to 265,000 in its 2018 fiscal year from the same period the year before — the greatest percentage loss of any AMI-owned publication. The slide follows the Enquirer’s 15 percent circulation loss for the previous 12 months, a span that included the presidential election.
More broadly, the documents obtained by the AP show that American Media isn’t making enough money to cover the interest accruing on its $882 million in long-term debt and that the company expects “continued declines in circulation and advertising revenues” in the current year. That leaves AMI reliant on debt to keep its operations afloat and finance a string of recent acquisitions that are transforming the tabloid news industry.
That creditor backstopping AMI is a New Jersey investment fund called Chatham Asset Management. Its top executive dined with Pecker and Trump at the White House last year, and the fund has both a history of Republican political donations and ties to the administration of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, which awarded it hundreds of millions of dollars in state retirement funds to manage.
AMI’s current debts stem from the declining fortunes of the magazine industry and a series of acquisitions. Chatham has kept this number from ballooning further by converting some of the debt it is owed into shares in the company.
The publisher’s precarious financials and reliance on Chatham are a backdrop to the publisher’s growing entanglement in a federal investigation of allegations of hush money payments and violations of campaign finance laws.
Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty last week to criminal violations of campaign laws, accepting prosecutors’ claim that he, Trump and the National Enquirer were involved in buying the silence of an adult-film actress and a former Playboy model who claim to have had affairs with Trump. Pecker and his top editorial deputy, Dylan Howard, have both received immunity in exchange for their cooperation. Along with Cohen, they are among the latest longtime Trump loyalists to be swept up in the federal investigations engulfing the president and his inner circle.
Neither AMI nor company officials have been charged in the case.
AMI did not provide an on-the-record response to detailed questions from the AP sent to Howard, Pecker and its outside spokesman. But a confidential financial document obtained by the AP argues that investors should focus on its current cash flows and not its profitability. Over the last two years, it has generated a combined $12 million cash flow from operations even as it has posted $160 million in overall losses.
AMI’s brush with a campaign finance probe comes amid its recently announced efforts to refinance as much as $450 million in debt. Despite the company’s recent purchases of US Weekly and rival gossip publisher Bauer Media, revenue from AMI’s existing publications continues to drop, the financial report obtained by the AP shows.
Pecker has long maintained an aura of absolute control over the Enquirer and its sister publications, boasting of his willingness to spend AMI’s money to benefit Trump.
“The guy’s a personal friend of mine,” he told The New Yorker magazine last summer, explaining why AMI paid former Playmate Karen McDougal $150,000 in a deal that prevented her from going public with her claim that she’d had an affair with Trump.
But Pecker owns only a small fraction of AMI, around 8 percent, according to the company. More than 80 percent of AMI — as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of its debt — belongs to Chatham Asset Management, with billionaire investor Leon Cooperman owning an additional 7 percent.
Chatham declined to address questions about the Enquirer’s relationship with Trump or the future of its investment in AMI. But the firm released a statement saying Chatham “has no involvement in the editorial process or the day-to-day business decisions of the company.”
David Larcker, a Stanford Business School professor who studies private equity and corporate governance, said it is normal for a firm like Chatham to give a company like AMI a long leash. But the firm would be expected to investigate any time “something large and unexpected happens” at a company it controls on behalf of the investors who are its limited partners. A firm like Chatham “would owe the LPs an explanation,” he said.
Among Chatham’s largest investors, according to public records, is New Jersey’s public pension fund. Chatham manages investment decisions for more than $300 million in pension holdings for the state.
Asked about AMI’s alleged involvement with campaign finance law violations and hush money payments, state Treasury spokeswoman Jennifer Sciortino told the AP that “we expect our investment partners to invest in good businesses with strong management teams that follow all applicable laws.” She declined to say whether New Jersey had discussed AMI with Chatham, but said, “We are in regular contact with our investment partners regarding underlying portfolio companies and we provide feedback when appropriate.”
In an interview last Friday, Cooperman deferred most questions to Chatham and AMI, describing himself as a passive investor and calling his 7 percent stake in the company “negligible.” Cooperman didn’t offer any thoughts about AMI’s alleged involvement with hush money payments, but he expressed confidence in Pecker. “I think he’s a very good quality guy, and is doing a good job running the company,” he said.
The confidential financial document obtained by the AP states that AMI’s $882 million in long-term debt owed to creditors as of March is a competitive disadvantage that may compromise its ability to launch new projects, borrow additional money or even pay for “general corporate requirements.”
Cooperman told the AP that AMI has lined up a prominent investment bank to help with its upcoming effort to raise capital and that he expects a prospective deal to be launched after Labor Day. He said he expects AMI to convert more of its debt to shares in the company as part of that refinancing.
While the details of AMI’s financial difficulties described in the confidential document haven’t been previously reported, the prospect that Pecker and AMI might not protect Trump’s secrets forever has long been a concern. Trump and Cohen even discussed the possibility that the ties between Trump and the National Enquirer might someday unravel.
In July, Cohen released an audio recording in which the men discussed plans to buy McDougal’s story of an affair with Trump from the National Enquirer. Such a purchase was necessary, they suggested, to prevent Trump from having to permanently rely on a tight relationship with the tabloid.
“You never know where that company — you never know what he’s gonna be,” Cohen says.
“David gets hit by a truck,” Trump says.
“Correct,” Cohen replies. “So, I’m all over that.”
According to the documents accompanying Cohen’s guilty plea last week, Trump’s purchase of McDougal’s story never occurred.
Elvis, Whitney, Prince, Biggie and, now, Aretha: The funerals and public memorials of music royalty have been as varied as the work they created, from small family affairs to days of tributes as huge in death as they lived their lives.
One Aretha Franklin fan said it best as she made her way to the front of a Detroit museum Tuesday to pay her respects.
“I know people are sad, but it’s just celebrating — people dancing and singing her music,” said Chicagoan Tammy Gibson, who arrived at 5:30 a.m. “I saw the gold-plated casket — it dawned on me: She’s gone, but her legacy and her music will live on forever.”
A look at the sometimes elaborate send-offs for some of the industry’s greats:
JAMES BROWN
He died Dec. 25, 2006. Along with thousands of fans, Michael Jackson, Little Richard and Stevie Wonder were among dozens of celebrities who attended or performed at various events. There was a public memorial at New York’s Apollo Theater on Dec. 28. Another memorial drew more than 8,000 fans to the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia, on Dec. 30.
A private funeral was held in North Augusta, in Brown’s native South Carolina.
Brown’s body (which underwent three wardrobe changes in Augusta) was placed in a bronze casket polished to a high shine. It was driven through the streets of New York to the Apollo in a white, glass horse-drawn carriage. There was a similar procession in Georgia, where fans screamed when Jackson entered the arena.
And the music? It was ever-present, shown on video screens and performed live, as was the case with the send-offs for many other luminaries in the business.
Jackson spoke briefly in Augusta: “James Brown is my greatest inspiration. … When I saw him move, I was mesmerized.”
MICHAEL JACKSON
The sudden death of Jackson himself at age 50 convulsed fans around the globe on June 25, 2009. After a private service, a public memorial on July 7 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles was broadcast live around the world. The audience has been estimated at more than 1 billion.
Jackson’s bronze casket, similar to Brown’s, was plated with 14-karat gold and lined with blue velvet. Each of Jackson’s brothers wore a single white sequined glove to honor him. The celebrities on hand included Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson.
Queen Latifah read “We Had Him,” a poem written for the service by Maya Angelou. Jackson’s daughter, Paris, only 11 at the time, wept as she spoke of her love for the “best father you could ever imagine.” The ceremony was televised around the world.
Jackson was buried weeks later, on Sept. 3 in Glendale, California at a private burial attended by Elizabeth Taylor among others.
SAM COOKE
The soul and gospel superstar was shot to death at a Los Angeles motel on Dec. 11, 1964. He was just 33. The details of his death have been disputed over the years and accounts of funeral and public memorials vary.
One report had thousands of fans clogging streets for a public viewing in Chicago, where he had lived as a boy and where Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, showed up. The crowd at a church service was so big that Cooke’s wife and two daughters had to be lifted over the people to get inside.
Cooke’s body was on view in Los Angeles for three days, shielded in a plastic case.
A second church service, also in Los Angeles more than a week after his death, included Ray Charles singing “The Angels Keep Watching Over Me.”
THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.
Considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, Biggie Smalls was shot to death on a Los Angeles street in a drive-by on March 9, 1997.
On March 18, thousands of fans lined the route of a hearse that carried his body from Manhattan through the streets of Brooklyn, passing his childhood home. People hung out of windows, climbed lampposts and hopped on top of cars for a glimpse.
The procession came after a private, star-studded service at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. Rap and other music royalty of the time turned out: Queen Latifah, Flava Flav, Mary J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, Lil’ Caesar, Run-DMC, DJ Kool Herc, Busta Rhymes, Salt ‘N Pepa, and Foxy Brown among them.
Biggie’s body sported a white double-breasted suit and cap, and was in a mahogany coffin, according to one report. His mother, Voletta Wallace, read scripture in a room alive with the scent of roses.
His estranged wife, singer Faith Evans, sang “Walk With Me, Lord.”
WHITNEY HOUSTON
Her family declined to hold a public service after her sudden death in Los Angeles on Feb. 11, 2012, at age 48, choosing to honor the pop icon with a televised, invitation-only funeral at New Hope Baptist Church in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey.
And what a funeral it was on Feb. 18. It lasted four hours at her childhood church that seated 1,500. Her shining casket was transported by a gold-colored hearse and topped with roses of soft purple and off-white.
Performances by Stevie Wonder, CeCe Winans, Alicia Keys and others were mixed with hymns sung by the church choir. Houston’s musical mentor, record mogul Clive Davis (she died right before she was to attend his pre-Grammy party), and Houston’s cousin, Dionne Warwick, spoke. So did Kevin Costner, her co-star in the 1992 film “The Bodyguard.” And Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer were among the guests.
ELVIS PRESLEY
It was a procession fit for a king.
Presley died at Graceland in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977. The crowds in the aftermath got so thick that then President Jimmy Carter called out 300 National Guard troops to manage things.
After a trip to a funeral home for embalming, the body was returned to Graceland and set up in the foyer for public viewing. More than 30,000 fans were let in, according to one account.
The funeral on Aug. 18 was modest, held in Graceland’s living room. It was attended by celebrities, of course, including his “Viva Las Vegas” co-star Ann Margret, along with James Brown. More impressive was the long line of cars following Presley’s white hearse on the way to Forest Hill Cemetery for burial next to his beloved mother, Gladys Love.
An estimated 80,000 people lined the street with handmade signs to watch the procession.
After a thief tried to snatch his body, the remains of both Elvis and his mother were moved to a garden at Graceland.
PRINCE
Death, as in his personal life, was a private affair for Prince Rogers Nelson, but the world mourned after he was found unresponsive in the elevator of his Paisley Park home and studio complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on April 21, 2016. He was 57 and an autopsy revealed an accidental drug overdose from fentanyl.
Some fans continue to question the circumstances of his death, and he was quickly cremated, but at the time shock and sadness took over around the world.
The U.S. Senate passed a resolution praising his achievements. Vigils and tributes multiplied for days, with cities lighting buildings, bridges and other venues in his trademark purple.
At Paisley Park, fans stood sobbing outside the chain-link fence, leaving flowers, drawings and other tributes.
The funeral was held in Minnetonka, Minnesota, at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall where he often worshipped. His many collaborators and bandmates over the years, including Sheila E. and Larry Graham, attended.
JANIS JOPLIN
The bluesy rock queen with the psychedelic Porsche joined the burgeoning 27 club on Oct. 4, 1970, the day she died of a heroin overdose. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered by plane in the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach in Marin County, California.
Her funeral was tiny and very private, but she had one last party left. Her will set aside $2,500 for an all-night bash for her friends, both famous and those behind the scenes, held Oct. 26 of that year at a popular Marin club, The Lion’s Share.
Everyone was treated to performance from The Grateful Dead, thanks to Joplin.
Ed Sheeran plays himself in Danny Boyle’s next film, his first significant role on the big screen.
In the movie written by Richard Curtis, former “EastEnders” star Himesh Patel plays a singer-songwriter who wakes up one day as the only person in the world who remembers the Beatles.
“And then I discover him and take him on tour. Then he gets much, much bigger than me through doing stuff. Yeah, it’s very clever,” Sheeran said in an interview this week. “I got to actually kind of learn how to act. … With the ‘Game of Thrones’ thing, that was literally me popping in for a day and making a cameo. Or ‘Bastard Executioner’ was me popping in for a day. But this was like full days on set, like full 12-hour days.”
Sheeran completed his part of production earlier this year, in the middle of his latest tour. The as-yet-untitled movie is set for release in September 2019.
“They shot it around loads of my gigs. So it was a very intense two months. Because I would have four days of gigging and then three days of shooting a film,” Sheeran said. “I was playing myself, so I don’t think I was that bad. There wasn’t much to (mess) up.”
The 27-year-old British pop star says his long-term goal in Hollywood is to make a movie musical in the vein of the 2007 Irish romance “Once.”
“I want to make something like that. Something like that where songs dictate the film in a way,” he said. “I can’t see myself playing an Avenger, you know? I don’t really want to be actor.”
Sheeran was promoting a new Apple Music documentary “Songwriter,” focused on the creation of his last album.
Directed by his cousin Murray Cummings, it includes a scene featuring Sheeran’s fiancée Cherry Seaborn but doesn’t delve into his personal life.
“I give so much of myself in my songs and in just me. And there are just certain choices that I can make, that I can keep certain things private, basically,” Sheeran said. “And I think my home and my family and my partner – I think those are things that they are very private, and they are the best things in my life. So I don’t want to ruin them.”
Sheeran declined to answer any questions about lawsuits alleging he improperly copied other artists’ work in his hit “Thinking Out Loud” and in a song he wrote for Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
“I really can’t talk about that,” he said. “After they’re done, I will talk about it.”
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ryanwrd
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A grand jury indicted a man for murder Tuesday for an attack on an elderly woman during a home invasion almost two years ago.
According to Fayette County Circuit Court, David Williams was indicted on murder and burglary charges for the August 2016 attack at the home of Hilda Pike.
During that attack, the 80-year-old was choked, knocked unconscious and stabbed at least 10 times, according to investigators.
Pike died July 15, 2018.
Investigators say they were able to link Williams to the crime based on DNA evidence.
They say Williams targeted Pike after she purchased a vehicle from Williams’ family.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday again defended the widely criticized original investigation of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, an apparent massacre that shook confidence in his government.
In a short video released via Twitter, Pena Nieto said he remained convinced that the students from the teachers college at Ayotzinapa were killed by a drug gang and incinerated in a massive fire.
The Sept. 26, 2014, incident in Iguala, Guerrero, knocked Pena Nieto’s administration off its axis after early success passing structural reforms, and it never appeared to regain balance as the country’s crime rate soared.
The case was especially damaging for public confidence in officials because local police allegedly turned the students over to the gang and later investigators found that an army base in the town had been closely monitoring the situation and at best did not intervene.
International experts cast doubt on what the then-attorney general had called the “historic truth” and the students’ families never accepted it. The investigation has been strongly criticized inside Mexico and abroad for the alleged use of torture to coerce confessions and failure to follow leads.
In June, a federal court ordered a new investigation into the students’ disappearance that would be supervised by a truth commission. The Attorney General’s Office challenged the court’s decision.
“Personally, and with the pain it causes, and the sorrow it signifies for the families, I’m convinced that unfortunately it happened just like the investigation showed,” Pena Nieto said.
Amnesty International Americas director Erika Guevara Rosas called Pena Nieto’s defense of a discredited investigation “negligent.”
“It is another sign of the political decision of President Pena Nieto’s government to invest all available resources in hiding the facts instead of guaranteeing truth, justice and reparations for the victims and their families,” Guevara Rosas said in a statement.
Pena Nieto went on to say that he will leave office unsatisfied with Mexico’s security situation.
“Regrettably, at the close of this six-year term, there was a rise in criminality,” he said. “We have not achieved the objective to give Mexicans peace and calm in any part of the national landscape.”
Three months remain in Pena Nieto’s term and he appears to be trying to give some final framing to key moments of his presidency. His party’s candidate was soundly defeated in the July 1 election in what many saw as a referendum on his administration.
In another video released Tuesday, Pena Nieto defended his decision to host then-Republican nominee Donald Trump. He conceded that he had underestimated how angry Trump’s candidacy had made Mexicans, but said ultimately the meeting opened a line of communication that has served Mexico.
On Monday, the U.S. and Mexico announced that they had reached a bilateral agreement that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexican officials say they expect Canada to join as well.
It’s a place that makes artisan cheeses in Lexington. Not only do they create their own products, they also offer free cheese making tours, and they can even teach you how you can make your own cheese. It’s a “cheesy” but unique experience for the whole family. In addition, they have a retail store that sells the largest collection of Kentucky Proud products in the state.
For more information:
Website – boonecreekcreamery.com
Facebook Page – bcccheese
Email – info@kycheese.com
Phone number – 859-402-2364
Lip fillers are almost as much art as they are science, so why not have an expert do it, especially when they have something new to offer for your hands?? Bluegrass Medical Aesthetics came on Midday to talk about a new program that’s FDA approved as well as their “Pouts and Prosecco” event on September 11. This all falls under Bluegrass Medical Aesthetics’ desire to get you to feel like you again through a holistic approach to health and wellness.
For more information:
Website – bmaky.com
Phone number – (502) 868-0806
Facebook page – /bluegrassmedicalaesthetics
He’s considered to be an old soul with a molasses-thick voice and dreamy acoustic picking. Nicholas Jamerson tries to fill his songs with heart. The singer-songwriter began his career as part of the band Sundy Best. Since the band split in March this year, Nicholas went on to be a solo artist. His debut album called “NJ” released in January, receiving glowing reviews from names like “Rolling Stone”.
For more information:
Website – https://www.nicholasjamerson.com/
Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/nicholasjamersonmusic/
Email – nicholasjamersonmusic@gmail.com
Phone number – 606-434-4410
KNOX COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – A Knox County man left the hospital and was immediately taken to jail following a pursuit where shots were fired.
Kentucky State Police say a Knox County Sheriff’s deputy spotted a pickup truck Wednesday night that matched a possible stolen vehicle and had expired registration plates from 2016.
State Police say the deputy tried to stop the driver on South KY 11 but the driver took off, turning onto Little Brush Creek.
During the pursuit, a Barbourville police officer threw out a tire deflation device, causing all four of the vehicle’s tires to lose air, according to police.
Police say the driver kept going and hit head-on with a cruiser being driven by a Knox County Sheriff’s deputy.
The deputy then fired at the pickup and police say that’s when the driver got out and ran.
He was caught after a struggle with deputies.
State Police say 32-year-old Brian Lee, of Barbourville, was taken to the hospital to be checked out was then booked into the Knox County Detention Center.
Two deputies were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Lee is charged with wanton endangerment involving a police officer, menacing, resisting arrest, probation violation, driving on DUI suspended license and other charges.
The passenger inside of the vehicle was not charged.
Britain and Nigeria signed a security and defense agreement during a one-day visit by Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday as Africa’s most populous country struggles to defeat Boko Haram extremists and others linked to the Islamic State organization.
The British prime minister is on a three-country Africa visit with a large business delegation as Britain seeks to boost economic ties ahead of a bumpy exit from the European Union in March. This is the first visit by a British prime minister to Africa in five years. May also stopped in South Africa, another of the continent’s top economies, and she goes next to Kenya.
After meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, May said the countries will work together on “shared security threats like Boko Haram and human trafficking.”
The defense aid includes more training and equipment for Nigeria’s military, which has been criticized by human rights groups over alleged abuses that it denies.
Last week, Buhari attracted headlines when he told troops in northwestern Zamfara state that “as your commander-in-chief, I want you to be as ruthless as humanly possible” against bandits in the region: “Nigerians deserve some peace.”
As elections approach next year Buhari is under pressure to deliver on promises to improve the country’s security, in particular to defeat Boko Haram’s years-long insurgency in the northeast. The extremists, known both for mass abductions and for using young women as suicide bombers, continue to carry out attacks on military bases and in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the insurgency’s birthplace.
Buhari and his government more than once have declared that Boko Haram had been crushed.
As Europe worries about migration and human trafficking from West Africa, May also announced a new project with France to help Nigeria, the region’s powerhouse, and neighboring Niger improve border cooperation along one of the main migration routes north. Nigeria and other West African countries in recent months have brought hundreds of migrants stranded in Libya home after reports of abuses, but the dream of employment remains a draw for some in the region where poverty and climate change can bite hard.
As it tries to assert itself more across Africa, Britain also is opening new embassies in Niger and Chad and expanding its embassy in Mali, calling it support to countries “on the front line of instability” as West Africa’s vast, arid Sahel is threatened by a number of extremist groups with shifting allegiances.
Britain and Nigeria, Britain’s second-largest trading partner on the continent, also signed an agreement on economic cooperation. May welcomed the commitment from two major Nigeria companies, Dangote Cement and Seplat Petroleum to make listings on the London Stock Exchange.
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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP—Africa
John Krasinski comes across in conversation as a disarming match to his screen image, the sort of easy-going, decent guy he played on TV’s “The Office” and in the romantic comedy “Away We Go.”
Make that his former image. In a burst of creative versatility, he’s fashioned himself into an acclaimed film director with “A Quiet Place” (in which he plays opposite wife Emily Blunt) and muscular heroes in the movie “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” and the new Amazon series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” debuting Friday.
In low-key style, Krasinski is proving that expectations are to be ignored. Who could have predicted that gangly, deskbound Jim of “The Office” would be hunting Middle Eastern terrorists as fledgling CIA analyst Ryan, or that the latest iteration of Clancy’s big-canvas work would arrive — cinematically intact — on the small screen?
Such boundary-busting can be traced back to Krasinski’s 2005-13 “Office” days, in the sitcom that he considered “the best thing out there, movie or television.”
“I felt so proud to be a part of it, and so my definition of television and film was always blended. I never saw it as film or television, but rather just the best project going, the best character I can play,” he said, something that’s easier than ever to find on TV with the explosion of “really great shows.”
The specific attraction of “Jack Ryan,” his first series since “The Office,” was both its form and content.
With the debut season’s eight episodes (filming on season two is already underway), it’s possible to reimagine and delve into the title role in ways not possible in a time-constrained movie, Krasinski said. And then there’s the character himself, something of a childhood obsession for the actor.
“It may sound hokey, but I think that Jack Ryan was always one of those characters that you actually thought you could be one day. You can’t grow up to be Superman or Spider-Man,” he said. It was plausible to imagine becoming Ryan, a man who “used his brain and his instincts and was able to do extraordinary things.”
Casting the part was critical, said series creators and executive producers Carlton Cuse (“Lost”) and Graham Roland (“Mile 22”).
“Carlton told me, ‘We could write the best show either of us have ever written, but if don’t have the right guy playing Jack Ryan the show is just not going to work,'” Roland recalled. A winning “everyman quality” needed for Ryan came across in Krasinski’s work in “The Office,” they said, but it was “13 Hours” that cinched the deal.
“We felt, wow, this is the guy who not only has (Ryan’s) charm and intelligence … but he also had the physicality to be an action hero,” Roland said.
The Amazon series rolls the videotape back to Ryan’s early days with the CIA in an original story by Cuse and Roland. Viewers meet him butting heads with new boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce), a vice admiral and top-ranking CIA official in the late Clancy’s works but in career-rebuilding mode here.
“Jack Ryan” also stars Abbie Cornish as Cathy Mueller, Ryan’s future wife but for now an epidemiologist who catches his eye at a party; Ali Suliman as Suleiman, a terrorist with a tragic family history, and Dina Shihabi as his wife, Hanin.
Whatever changes have been introduced don’t clash with Ryan’s steadfastness, said Roland, describing it at odds with the “age of the anti-hero” such as Claire Danes’ troubled character in “Homeland.”
“It felt really novel in a weird way to come back to a classic hero, a hero whose morality is his strength,” he said. It’s not just Ryan who’s the good guy: The CIA also wears a white hat, unlike other dramas depicting the agency as what Roland called a “cabal” filled with back-stabbers.
“We did an extensive amount of research, spent a lot of time with military people, with former and current members of the intelligence community, and we witnessed such a high level of professionalism,” Cuse said. “We had a great appreciation for the role that these people play in keeping us safe and keeping the world safe and the importance of the United States as a beacon of democracy.”
That said, the producers reject the possibility that the show might be seen as a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s criticism of U.S. intelligence agencies and his public war of words with some former chiefs.
“Our intention was to entertain people and to give Clancy fans the portrayal of the military and the CIA that they remember from the books and from the early movies,” Roland said.
Krasinski, a Massachusetts native whose extended family has a deep record of military service, salutes the approach. His said his research for the series gave him a newfound respect for the CIA and those in it.
“I remember somebody there saying, ‘You know, politics come and go, but it’s the soul of America that we’re on the front line for,'” he said. “I’m certainly one of those people that grew up with incredible parents who reminded us to be very, very proud of the country that we’re from.”
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Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber .
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe in rebel-held Idlib province in Syria if there’s a full-scale military operation.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday that Guterres urgently appeals to the Syrian government and opposition forces to exercise restraint and make the protection of civilians a priority.
He said Guterres calls on Russia, Iran and Turkey as guarantor states trying to end the violence in Syria to find a peaceful solution in Idlib.
The Syrian government is gearing up for an expected offensive in Idlib, home to nearly 3 million people. The U.S., Britain and France have warned they will respond to any use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Dujarric said Guterres “reaffirms that any use of chemical weapons is totally unacceptable.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss developments in Syria in a previously unannounced meeting.
The two men met on Wednesday at the headquarters of Erdogan’s ruling party, according to video footage provided by the president’s office. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters the talks would focus on “bilateral issues and Syria.”
The surprise meeting comes as Syrian government forces are expected to mount an offensive in Syria’s northern Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the country.
Erdogan is expected to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russia‘s Vladimir Putin in Iran on Sept. 7 when they hold their third summit meeting on Syria, according to Turkish media reports.