29 May 2015

FIFA Corruption Scandal

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News broke this week of a massive corruption scandal at FIFA after multiple high ranking members were arrested by Swiss Police on Wednesday morning followed by warrants for arrest for other members.

Arrest & Allegations


The initial arrests took place at luxury Baur au Lac hotel while the leadership of FIFA gathered in Zurich, Switzerland days before voting on a presidency of FIFA. The Swiss police arrested multiple high ranking FIFA member who are now set to be deported to the US and face federal charges of corruption. Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner handed himself in to police in Trinidad after a warrant for his arrest was issued by US authorities and still more FIFA members.

It is alleged that FIFA had a culture of corruption with $150 million in bribes and payoffs over 24 years among 9 officials and 5 corporate executives at FIFA. The group faces indictment for allegations of racketeering, money laundering and corruption. It's believed former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer provided the key information that lead to the arrests.

Response


Since the arrests and allegations surfaced there have been serious questions raised by sponsors with VISA threatening to leave the multi-billion dollar soccer empire costing millions in sponsorships. With events costing in the millions many are asking questions about previous decisions and future venues including hosting win by Qatar with Australia asking questions after their bid for the 2022 event failed.

From the individual standpoint current FIFA President Sepp Blatter in now also in the cross airs after the allegations, however, he is expected to win the vote for president despite his close ties to those under investigation and calls for him to resign. Former Argentina captain Maradona believes the money accepted in bribes should go to training camps in Africa while Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the US of meddling with FIFA.


22 May 2015

Red Carpets Saturated with Celebrities

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The entertainment world was filled with buzz as the Cannes Film Festival continued to delight and the Billboard Music Awards kept celebrities on their toes.

Events & Awards


We begin this week with the Cannes Film Festival and the red carpet where we saw the lovely Emma Stone in Oscar de la Renta and Charlize Theron in leather at the Mad Max: Fury Road screening along with a bevy of other beauties all groomed especially for the spotlight. The beautiful Natalie Portman had tongues wagging in a sheer dress along with Cate Blanchett in one of Giles Deacon's designs. But even with so many glamorous celebrities there has been some controversy of the fashion kind after some women were told they couldn't wear flat shoes on the red carpet annoying many. Onto the movies themselves, Woody Allen found success with his "Irrational Man" while Natalie Portman made her directorial debut with "A Tale of Love and Darkness" and though most films were well received Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey was booed at the screening of his film "Sea of Trees". Elsewhere in France the 22nd amfAR Cinema Against Aids Gala held in France presenting another opportunity to dazzle on the red carpet as most did.

Over in the States the Billboard Music Awards were held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas with performances by Simple Minds and Estelle along with Meghan Trainor and John Legend performing a duet. On the awards front winners included Sam Smith for top new artist saying thanks via cue cards and Taylor Swift who was the biggest winner of the night also releasing her highly anticipated new music video for bad blood.

Farewells, Sad and Soon to Be


This week also saw the end of an era when the Late Show with David Letterman came to an end with much fanfare and with many celebrity appearances from a celebrity filled top 10 list to Bill Murray covered in cake and more. TV land lost another great in the form of the Mad Men finale which also aired this week and closed on the famous ad jingle "I'd like to buy the world a coke".

Finally we end this week with careers in jeopardy as controversy surrounded George Stephanopoulos with his $105 million contract and Bill Cosby met his match with model Janice Dickinson suing him for defamation.

15 May 2015

Wild West Business

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This week in the world of money it was a mixed affair from art prices setting records to lawsuits costing millions.

The Good


We begin with a new record being set in the art world with the sale of Pablo Picasso's "Les femmes d'Alger" for $179 million but that wasn't all for the art world with Christie's reportedly selling over $1 billion worth of art work in just 3 days. It wasn't just the art world shaken by new revelations as it seems streaming music services have now outpaced downloaded music for the first time signaling a new era. The highs continued with the CEO of Chinese conglomerate Tiens Group taking 6400 of his best salespeople on holiday to France.

The Bad


There were lawsuits a plenty as Goldman Sachs was ordered to pay $80 million plus interest due to breaches associated with the sale of mortgage-linked securities and Duke Energy was ordered to pay $102 million after pleading guilty to criminal violations of the federal Clean Water Act. There was still more to come with 5 Big banks expected to plead guilty for rigging the price of foreign currencies and the GM ignition death toll continued to climb hitting 100 after GM claimed only 13 known cases. The bad news continued when it was revealed this week that the Baltimore riots had cost as much as $9 million with over 30 businesses suffering and things only got worse after an Amtrak crash killed 7 people two of whom where high up in the business world.

The Ugly


When it came to the world of politics things got ugly with President Obama's trade deal running into drama with the senate blocking the initial version but later agreeing on a revised version while elsewhere in the world Greece made progress with their financial bailout but warned of future problems.


8 May 2015

Nights Out with Beauties & Beasts

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This week saw a contrast between Beauties and Beasts as the sporting, celebrity and fashion world's collided at two big night's out.

The Beasts


We begin with what was touted as the fight of the century between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao but turned out to just be the match up of the century with a rather boring end to an expensive and over hyped event. But where there's hype there will be celebrities and so they descended turning the local airports into a parking lot for private jets as the rich and famous arrived to watch the fight. Bets were made with Diddy and Mark Wahlberg making an outrageous $250,000 bet before the fight. The night kicked off with Jamie Foxx performing the national anthem which was of questionable quality for a fight of equally questionable quality.

Since the fight there has been some controversy with Manny admitting to a shoulder injury and undergoing surgery this week however since admitting to the injury he has been hit with a lawsuit and could face fines from boxing organizations.

The Beauties


It wasn't all blood, sweat and tears this week with the Met Gala taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with every beautiful celebrity you can imagine clamoring for the spotlight. We begin with couples in the lime light on the red carpet as Chrissy Teigen and John Legend made their entrance followed by George and Amal Clooney close behind and newly engaged couple Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs also making an appearance.

However the night was focused on a few celebs who shone brighter with 45-year-old Jennifer Lopez gaining attention while revealing a naked hip and Jennifer Lawrence looking gorgeous in Dior along with Selena Gomez who also garnered attention in a white Vera Wang dress. However not all celebrities fared well gaining attention because of questionable choices in wardrobe with Beyoncé leaving little to the imagination with a see-through dress followed by a battle for best meme between Rihanna's dress compared to a pizza and omelets and ending with Sarah Jessica Parker and her outrageous headpiece compared to multiple cartoon characters.

1 May 2015

Tragedy Shakes the World

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After a terrible end last week it seems we are doomed to endure more after a massive earthquake hit Nepal and violence broke out in Baltimore over police brutality.

Nepal Earthquake - photo by Krish Dulal - Own work

Earthquake in Nepal


A 7.8 earthquake struck in the Gorkha district of Nepal on Saturday, 25 April causing widespread damage throughout the region including affecting climbers on Mt. Everest. Following the quake nearly 2000 bodies were found with fears of landslides  in the future, the UN estimated that nearly 8 million people were affected by the earthquake with the death toll passing 4000 early in the week, a day later 6.7 magnitude tremor hit leaving fears for those still trapped on Mt. Everest. On Mt. Everest hundreds of climbers were stuck with at least 10 people killed on the mountain, a video of the earthquake and avalanche filmed by German climbers captured the moment of impact.

As the death toll rose over the following days Nepal grappled with a humanitarian disaster with many hospitals overwhelmed. As search efforts carried on people were being found trapped under rubble days later with one man was found trapped in a room for 80 hours with 3 dead bodies and a baby being pulled from the rubble after 22 hours but even with the best efforts anger grew due to the slow pace of support and help with victims in remote areas struggling to find aid.

Baltimore Protests - photo by Veggies

Protests in Baltimore


While some struggled with mother nature the other side of the world was thrust into chaos with protests turning to riots after Freddie Gray died in police custody on 19 April after falling into a coma, later reports would claim Freddy had slammed his head against the police van causing the fatal injury. While the initial protests were peaceful they soon deteriorated with shops being looted and other casualties of the protests including a senior citizen home which was burnt down along with police cars being vandalized. Arrests were made outside the Camden Yards baseball stadium while those inside were asked not to leave while other games in the area were played in empty stadiums. As protests grew a state of emergency was declared with curfews introduced and the national guard called in, as temper flared and protestors defied the curfews the police fired gas canisters into the crowds echoing the events of Ferguson mere months earlier.

In other parts of the US protestors took to the streets outside the Chicago police headquarters to protest police brutality along with protests in Philadelphia and Cincinnati and more. While the approach used to tackle rioters was considered a disaster Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defending their actions but while politician's argued and protestors and police fought unlikely figures stood out including Vietnam veteran Robert Valentine who stood between the two waring parties and a mother who became famous for her tough love approach slapping her son for joining the protestors. As the incidents and protests continue to grow and spread across the US it is clear that the current approach isn't working.