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Screen unveils the 2020 Stars of Tomorrow Source: Venice Film Festival / El DeseoThe Human VoiceFilmNation has sold most of the world on Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice at the virtual TIFF following the short film’s world premiere in Venice.Tilda Swinton plays a woman awaiting a call from the lover who has abandoned her. Almodóvar’s adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s monodrama marks the Spanish filmmaker’s first work in the English language.Rights to The Human Voice have gone in UK and France (Pathé Distribution), Germany (Studiocanal), Italy (Warner Bros.), Spain (Wanda Vision and Avalon, via El Deseo), CIS (Volgafilm), and Scandinavia (Scanbox).Sales have also closed in Japan (Kinoshita Management Co.), South Korea (Challan), Singapore (Shaw Renters PTE), Taiwan (Filmware International Co. Ptd.), Benelux (Cineart S.A.), Portugal (Pris Audiovisuals), Bulgaria (Pro Films Ltd), former Yugoslavia (Cinemania Group), Poland (Gutek Film), Hungary (Cinetel Ltd.), and Romania (Independenta Film).Odeon acquired rights for Greece, Lev Cinemas for Israel, and Yeni Bir Film Ltd for Turkey. As previously announced, Sony Pictures Classics took North America.Almodóvar shot The Human Voice in Spain in July during the pandemic lockdown and wrote the screenplay in Spanish before it was translated into English.“At the beginning, it was difficult working in a different language,” he said recently in Venice. “But as soon as the character became [Swinton’s], it was brilliant, it was beautiful. I had never heard that musicality before.”Agustin Almodóvar and Esther García served as producers on the El Deseo production, which played recently at New York Film Festival and screens at BFI London Film Festival next month. read more

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Solicitors have handed back more than £1.5m to injured former miners under a new voluntary repayment scheme after wrongly deducting fees from miners’ government compensation awards – and this figure could rise further as the project rolls on, the Gazette can reveal. Seven law firms that handled coal health compensation claims have sent 33,000 letters to former miners, under a process instigated by the Legal Complaints Service. The letters explain that the miners may be eligible to recover success fees that were unfairly deducted from their damages awards. Some solicitors pocketed the success fees, while others passed them to miners’ unions as payment for referrals. The LCS is monitoring the repayments made by firms. It estimates that complaints triggered by the letters have led to eligible miners receiving £400 each on average. Two more firms are currently writing to former miner clients, and another two are poised to begin mailouts. The LCS estimates that 50,000 eligible miners are still to be contacted. The repayment project was rolled out nationally from last October, following a pilot in the Rother Valley area in 2007. National firm Thompsons is one of the seven firms that has already contacted former miners. Tom Jones, head of policy and public affairs at the firm, said: ‘It is only right that those firms which made deductions and put them in their back pocket – as well as being paid by the government – should repay [them] to their clients. Although all the deductions we made were paid to our union clients… we recognised the public ­disquiet around the issue and… wrote on a number of occasions to all clients offering them the deductions back.’ LCS chief executive Deborah Evans said that most law firms are willing to work with the LCS, but warned: ‘If any firm does not want to work with us, we will send the letters out ourselves.’ The LCS cannot name the firms involved because of confidentiality agreements. read more

Measuring 34 m x 17 m, the modular hoverbarge will have a hover height of 1.8 m and will be built by ST Marine. It can be self propelled by adding two modular propulsion units.Hovertrans Solutions is a subsidiary of ST Marine and a leading designer and manufacturer of hoverbarges for heavy lift in difficult terrain in the global oil and gas, and specialist transportation industries, formed with experienced partners with 40 years of design and construction experience in the Hoverbarge marketplace.Hovertrans says that this amphibious hoverbarge is capable of carrying cargo or equipment over swamps, wetlands, tundra, ice and shallow water, opening up exciting possibilities for oil and gas exploration and remote field development adding that a significant advantage of the hoverbarge is that it only exerts 1psi ground pressure whilst on hover, thus minimising any environmental footprint and in many cases will be the only platform that can be used for the tasks.Manufactured from cold weather steel and with a specialised skirt system, this hoverbarge can operate in temperatures ranging from 40 to -40 degrees celsius. The hoverbarge is designed using a modular concept and involves connection of ISO container sized pontoon units and a skirt frame. This enables the hoverbarge to be shipped around the world using most conventional shipping, thus keeping transportation costs down for customers. Re-assembly and commissioning of the hoverbarge can be completed within a day. This modularity also opens up access for inland operations that require the use of a hoverbarge read more

Senior Trump appointee fired after critical comments Published: February 20, 2017 12:11 AM EST Updated: February 20, 2017 12:12 AM EST Craig Deare (Photo via National Defense University)WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior Trump administration official was fired following criticism in a private speech of President Donald Trump’s policies and his inner circle of advisers.Craig Deare, whom Trump appointed a month ago to head the National Security Council’s Western Hemisphere division, was on Friday escorted out of the Executive Office Building, where he worked in Washington.A senior White House official confirmed that Deare is no longer working at the NSC and has returned to the position he previously held at the National Defense University. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an incident not otherwise made public, and provided no further details.White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday that Deare “was sent back to his original position.” Asked if government employees should be concerned that they could be fired for criticizing the president, she said: “I don’t think any person that is there in order to carry out the president’s agenda should be against the president’s agenda.”Current and former administration officials say Deare’s termination was linked to remarks he made Thursday at a private talk at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.According to one person who attended the discussion, Deare slammed the Trump administration for its policies on Latin America, specifically its rocky start to relations with Mexico. That person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private event.Trump signed an order in the first week of his presidency to build a border wall with Mexico, jumpstarting a campaign promise. The move prompted Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto to cancel his trip to Washington in late January.The person who attended the Wilson Center discussion also said that Deare openly expressed frustration over being cut out of most of the policy discussions about Mexico, saying that members of Trump’s inner circle, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, have not consulted with NSC directorates as the White House formulates policy.Deare has been on the faculty of National Defense University in Washington since 2001. He joined the university’s College of International Security Affairs in 2010 and most recently served as dean of administration.The person who attended the Wilson Center talk also noted that Deare made several remarks about how attractive Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, appeared, remarks that person described as “awkward.”Deare did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials with the Wilson Center also declined a request for information, saying the discussion was off the record.Deare is the second senior NSC official to leave in under a week. On Monday, Trump’s national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, resigned after revelations that he discussed sanctions with a Russian diplomat before Trump was sworn in, then misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of those conversations. SHARE Author: Associated Press Do you see a typo or an error? Let us know. read more

Canada: Canadian Pacific Railway reported record earnings in 1999 for the fourth year running. Excluding special items, operating income was up C$42m to C$763m and tonne-km rose 4%.China: Hong Kong MTR has accepted the bid of Sun Hung Kai Properties for the Airport Railway Kowloon station Package 3, the last residential portion of the Kowloon development. Plans call for construction of 1020 apartments and 684 parking spaces.Europe: Eurotunnel reported net profit of £202m for 1999, after payment of interest, on account of exceptional profits from financial operations. Despite a 27% drop in retail and other income due to the ending of duty-free sales, operating revenue was 3% higher thanks to a 31% jump in shuttle revenue. This was due entirely to the 19% increase in lorries carried, as the number of cars and coaches declined (RG 3.00 p140). Executive Chairman Patrick Ponsolle said ’full coverage of interest charges by cash flow after capital expenditure’ was a realistic target for 2002.Romania: The Ministry of Transport is seeking European Union funding worth 212m euros to meet 75% of the cost of upgrading the 42 km Bucuresti Baneasa – Fundulea portion of the Bucuresti – Constanta main line. read more

ITALY: Privately owned open access operator Arenaways launched its first passenger service on November 15, competing with state-owned passenger operator Trenitalia between Milano and Torino.Arenaways received confirmation of its two daily paths in each direction on November 12, however it did not obtain approval to call at intermediate stations because of regulatory concerns that this would compete with Trenitalia’s subsidised regional services, rather than commercial inter-city trains. Areneways founder Giuseppe Arena said this meant the initial service would not be competitive, but the company will continue to try to secure ‘fair competition’ in Italy. The service uses E483 Traxx electric locomotives leased from Alpha Trains and new coaches built by Astra Vagoane Calatori of Romania. Tickets are sold online and onboard, with a single fare of €17. Arenaways began rail operations in May, hauling DB AutoZug services between the Italian border and Alessandria. read more

BELGIUM: Freight operator SNCB Logistics has provided all its drivers with Samsung tablet computers under the Rail Information Train Assistant project.RITA eliminates the need to carry heavy documentation such as manuals and details of timetable updates. It speeds up the completion of time sheets and driver’s reports, with all information now available centrally to enable deeper and wider-ranging analysis. Safety messages can be sent automatically and simultaneously to all drivers, who are now required to acknowledge the messages so that the company can track who has confirmed receipt. The improvement in communication has also facilitated more flexible deployment of staff. ARC supplied the mobile device management suite, while I-Explore turned the outline concept into a mobile application and Mobistar provides the 3G data interchange. ‘By equipping a traditional job like a train driver with the latest communication equipment, we have made significant progress in terms of quality and safety’, said Rik Vos, COO at SNCB Logistics. ‘The drivers themselves are enthusiastic about the user-friendliness of the tool. Since they can communicate with our central services in real-time, we can react much faster to any problems, which enhances the reliability of our operational performance.’ read more

GERMANY: Mindener Kreisbahnen has ordered two Vectron Dual Mode electro-diesel locomotives from Siemens Mobility.These will be able to operate from the 15 kV 16·7 Hz overhead electrification or by using a 2 400 kW diesel engine on non-electrified routes.The locos are scheduled to be delivered in the first quarter of 2021 for use on MKB’s existing freight services as well as to haul new traffic.‘The freedom to operate on non-electrified tracks offers cost advantages and makes Vectron Dual Mode ideal for MKB’, said Managing Director Johannes Marg on March 26. ‘The performance and efficiency of this locomotive perfectly matches our strategic orientation in freight transport.’Mindener Kreisbahnen traces its history to 1898. It is 100% owned by the Minden-Lübbecke district authority, and has a 40 route-km network around Minden with 29 private sidings taking it to 50·7 track-km. Its freight traffic in 2018 totalled 614 200 tonnes and 94·5 million tonne-km. The company also owns local bus operator MKB-MühlenkreisBus. read more