On Richard Sharp, the BBC and Israel/Palestine Coverage
Former GoldmanSachs banker Richard Sharp is the new chairman of the BBC chairman. John Mitchell asks: will Richard Sharp the new Chairman of the BBC pursue ‘impartiality’ in the Israel/Palestine coverage?
Richard Sharp the BBC’s newly appointed chairman, begins his incumbency this month against the background of concern over equal pay, the increasing commercial competition from various online streaming companies and brings into focus the question of the licence fee. Whilst not at the forefront of these immediate issues there is a long-standing controversial one which Sharp will no doubt influence – coverage of the Israel/Palestine question.
Denver Community Fridge program expands amid pandemic
By JOHN WENZELJanuary 16, 2021 GMT
Jim Norris is loving the Denver Community Fridge program despite having reservations at the start.
“Any trepidation I had about (negative) neighborhood reactions or people abusing it are gone,” he said recently on the one-month anniversary of the fridge’s debut outside his store at Ellsworth Street and South Broadway. “In fact, I’m surprised at how it’s taken off.”
When 24-year-old Eli Zain, founder of Denver Community Fridge, emailed Norris months ago about hosting the fridge, Norris immediately said “yes.” The idea of stocking fresh, donated food for food-insecure residents and unhoused people was something he was already working on thanks to Mar Williams’ Squash the System, a donation cart offering free, fresh vegetables. (Now, in the winter months, it’s a canned-food program.)
The effort to make free food widely available through self-serve refrigerators around Denver is catching on. One of the groups at the forefront, Denver Community Fridge, unveiled its fourth outdoor fridge on January 10 at Amethyst Coffee, 4999 West 44th Avenue. Several other organizations, including the Little Free Pantry and Little Big Fridge, are also part of the movement. If you give people a chance to care for one another, they will, says Eli Zain, who helped create Denver Community Fridges last summer along with a team from the University of Colorado Denver s Women and Gender Center.
Community fridges operate on the premise of mutual aid: Those who have the means stock food and toiletries, and those who are experiencing food or financial insecurity take what they need. The grassroots exchange allows people to care for their neighbors, and has especially resonated during the pandemic.
Hannibal Boxing
Virgil Akins knocks down Vince Martinez during their fight for the vacant welterweight world title at the Arena in St. Louis on June 6,1958. Akins won by TKO in round four.
Finally, after all the hard years toiling in hothouse gyms and all the years crisscrossing the country as an itinerant journeyman smoke-filled halls, catcalls and hisses when facing the local hero, narrow losses tallied on doubtful scorecard after doubtful scorecard Virgil Akins became one of The Chosen.
It took “Honeybear” more than a decade to win the welterweight title, and when he did, it vaulted him into nefarious proceedings that would lead, ultimately, to the downfall of the capo di tutti capi of boxing himself: Frankie Carbo, aka (depending on the day) Mr. Fury or Mr. Gray. And while Akins never openly rued his limited reign as champion the way his successor, the radioactive Don “Geronimo” Jordan, did, he never saw the title as a blessing: “Some get the breaks, and some don’t
The pandemic hit Denver’s arts and culture scene hard, forcing many businesses, performance spaces, museums and galleries to close, at least temporarily, at the end of March. In the months since, artists and curators have rallied to keep culture alive, to comment on social injustice, and to inspire us all to appreciate essential workers and health-care providers.
Along the way, the scene has shown its grit and ability to stay relevant through the toughest of times, though some longstanding cultural institutions have been wrangling with their own inner demons.
Here are the ten biggest arts and culture stories in Denver in 2020: