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Uber terms mean couple can’t sue after ‘life-changing’ crash

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Uber terms mean couple can't sue after 'life-changing' crash
Georgia McGinty  A selfie of Georgia and John McGinty smiling at the cameraGeorgia McGinty

Georgia and John McGinty were seriously injured in an Uber crash in 2022

A couple who were left with life-changing injuries after their Uber crashed have been told they cannot sue the company because of the terms they accepted when using the app.

Georgia and John McGinty, from New Jersey, in the US, are bound by a clause saying they could not take the case to a jury in a court of law.

State judges ruled they had clicked a “confirm” button on the app on more than one occasion when asked if they agreed with Uber’s terms of use.

The McGintys argue they had not understood they were forfeiting their right to sue the company.

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They told the BBC the most recent time the terms were agreed to was when their daughter, then 12, had accepted them prior to ordering a pizza on Uber Eats.

“How would I ever remotely think that my ability to protect my constitutional rights to a trial would be waived by me ordering food?” said Mrs McGinty.

Uber told BBC News: “Our Terms of Use are clear that these types of claims should be resolved in arbitration. It’s important to highlight that the court concluded the plaintiff herself, not her daughter, agreed to Uber’s Terms of Use on multiple occasions.”

Arbitration means the dispute is settled through a third party rather than in court – in this case a lawyer appointed by Uber.

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Legal experts say it tends to result in smaller financial settlements.

The case has parallels with Disney’s attempt to avoid being sued over a death at Disney World – in its case over the terms of a Disney+ membership – before the company changed its mind.

Pain every day

In March 2022, Georgia and John McGinty were riding in an Uber in New Jersey when it crashed, and they suffered extensive injuries.

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Mrs McGinty’s injuries included spine fractures and traumatic injuries to her abdominal wall.

“I was in the critical care unit for a week,” she told the BBC.

“I had a horrible post-operative infection and almost died during this time, I wasn’t able to care for my child who was suffering from unrelated injury,” she said.

John fractured his sternum and sustained injuries to his hand.

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“I shattered my wrist, broke my hand, and I have a steel rod with about nine pins in it. I don’t have full function of my left hand,” he said.

“I am in pain every day.”

He added that they “accumulated a tremendous amount of medical debt” and still need further medical treatment in the future, including a possible third operation for Georgia.

Michael Shapiro The Uber car after the crash, with the bonnet destroyed and the engine extensively damagedMichael Shapiro

A photo of the Uber car in the scrapyard after the crash

The couple attempted to sue Uber over the crash, citing the seventh amendment of the US Constitution, which grants people the right to a trial by jury.

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But the tech firm argued that the couple could not take the case in front of a jury because of a clause in Uber’s US Terms of Use.

New Jersey’s Supreme Court agreed.

“We hold that the arbitration provision contained in the agreement under review, which Georgia or her minor daughter, while using her cell phone agreed to, is valid and enforceable,” its judgement says.

The judgment found the child had clicked the button to say she was 18 despite not being.

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Referring to her daughter’s use of Uber Eats, Mrs McGinty says she does not know how it can be right that she is considered to have “authorised my child to waive our rights to go to a trial if we’re injured in a car accident.”

“I don’t know how anybody makes that leap,” she said.

How does arbitration work?

Arbitration clauses are “very common,” especially when dealing with large corporations, said Ted Spaulding, a personal injury lawyer based in the state of Georgia.

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An arbitrator is “most often a lawyer who does this for a living,” he said, who can “act like a judge and a jury”.

They decide on an outcome after weighing up arguments from both sides, and their fee is often split between both parties.

In the US, the enforceability of arbitration clauses differs state by state.

In its case, Disney used the arbitration clause in their terms to argue that a man whose wife died at Disney World could not sue them in a court of law.

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Jeffrey Piccolo filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney after his wife, Dr Kanokporn Tangsuan, died following an allergic reaction at a restaurant, run by a third party, at Disney World Florida in 2023.

Disney said Mr Piccolo had waived his right to a jury trial when he signed up to a free trial of Disney+ in 2019.

Disney later withdrew its claim to arbitration and opted to proceed with a jury trial after media coverage of the lawsuit.

“We believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” Disney executive Josh D’Amaro told the BBC in a statement in August.

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Mr Spaulding says: “The law understandably says, ‘Look, you have the duty to know what you’re signing’,” referring to the terms and conditions people often accept when using a product or a service.

However, he says “the scope should be within the transaction that you’re agreeing to”.

John McGinty Georgia McGinty in a hospital bed in a neck brace, with her dog lying next to herJohn McGinty

Georgia McGinty during her recovery

Georgia and John McGinty say the Uber case has been “absolutely devastating” to their family.

Georgia says their daughter, now 14, “suffered a lot of trauma as a result”.

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She had a separate physical health issue which she was going through at the time, which her parents found difficult to help with while going through their own injuries.

“Years of her life with her parents… were taken away,” she says.

“Luckily, she’s a fighter, like her parents are,” says John.

“We are inadvertently teaching her adversity and strength and family and prayer and resilience.”

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Uber told BBC News: “The court concluded that on multiple occasions the plaintiff herself agreed to Uber’s Terms of Use, including the arbitration agreement.”

The company added: “We are dedicated to road safety.”

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Toby King admits Warrington Wolves return hesitation after total transformation

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Toby King admits Warrington Wolves return hesitation after total transformation


King is back at Warrington after spending the 2023 season on loan at Wigan Warriors.

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Andrea Orcel, the ambitious UniCredit chief eyeing his next deal

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Back in the 1980s, Andrea Orcel’s university thesis was about hostile takeovers. Almost four decades later, the ambitious UniCredit chief finds himself at the heart of the biggest European banking drama in years — taking on the German government in what could be the first big cross-border banking deal in Europe since the financial crisis.

This week the Milanese lender raised its stake in rival Commerzbank to 21 per cent, pending approval from the European Central Bank. This would make UniCredit the largest shareholder, overtaking the German government. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called the stake-building “unfriendly” and “hostile” but Orcel has said he had no plan to engage in a fist fight with Berlin.

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“Andrea isn’t naive, he’s a tactician and I think he’s well aware of what he’s doing . . . he knows exactly how he plans to reach his end goal . . . we may not know exactly, but he does,” says Alessandro Profumo, the former CEO of UniCredit.

Berlin’s refusal to negotiate has reportedly frustrated Orcel, who does not usually take no for an answer. Rising before dawn for his daily sports session, he has been working nonstop with bankers at Barclays and Bank of America to find a way through.

His devotion to the job, coupled with his ability to advise CEOs on near impossible deals, have built Orcel, 61, a reputation as both smart and ruthless. “Andrea is pragmatic and articulate . . . because he’s very demanding, people can feel he’s too demanding . . . but what he asks from others he asks from himself,” says Andrew Gazitua, the former chief operating officer of investment banking at Merrill Lynch, where Orcel cut his teeth. He can also be down to earth — he goes by his first name in a country where many CEOs demand more formality.

Raised in Rome where his mother worked for the UN and his Sicilian father ran a small leasing company, Orcel went to the prestigious Lycée Français Chateaubriand, home to the children of aristocrats and diplomats. While on holiday from Rome’s La Sapienza university, he decided he wanted to become a banker instead.

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After stints at Goldman Sachs and Boston Consulting Group, Orcel joined Merrill Lynch in 1992, where — after a 20-year streak of successful M&A deals including the €21bn merger of Italy’s Credito Italiano with UniCredito to create UniCredit — he was dubbed “the Cristiano Ronaldo of bankers”.

“He was extremely knowledgeable and always available, plus he built a network of personal relations that facilitated access to the decision makers,” says Profumo who helmed Credito Italiano at the time.

Along the way, Orcel, who was president of UBS from 2014 to 2018, struck up friendships with the likes of late Santander chair Emilio Botín — whom he advised on acquisitions that transformed the lender into a global banking group. But he also racked up enemies.

His relationship with the Botíns soured in 2018 when Santander withdrew its offer to make him CEO over pay. When Orcel launched a multimillion-euro lawsuit, the world of high finance thought he was crazy. But the courts ultimately awarded him €43.5mn. “He just does what he thinks is right even if it makes him look like an arse but he’ll always be accountable for his actions . . . I hate to say it but most of the time he’s right,” says a senior banker in London.

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One time he may have been wrong was when he advised on the disastrous acquisition of ABN Amro by RBS in 2007. He once told the FT that “with the benefit of hindsight we should have done things differently. I cannot help but feel responsibility for my role.”

His transformation of UniCredit, with the share price climbing almost 400 per cent since he joined in 2021, is his most important one yet. Securing the Commerzbank deal would earn him a lasting place in Europe’s financial firmament. Yet, German finance minister Christian Lindner told lawmakers this week that “in terms of their style and their communication, UniCredit’s actions didn’t contribute to strengthening the trust of the government”.

It is not the first time Orcel, who has little time for diplomacy, has locked horns with public institutions. In 2021, Mario Draghi’s government in Italy had hoped to sell Monte dei Paschi di Siena to UniCredit. The parties failed to clinch a deal and Orcel walked away. Since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Orcel has also been at odds with the ECB on how to deal with UniCredit’s ongoing Russian presence. “Andrea is no politician, he’s a no bullshit guy,” says Davide Serra, founder of asset management firm Algebris, friend and longtime UniCredit investor. “Moral suasion doesn’t work with him . . . which is why those who don’t like him say he has a bad character.”

Commerzbank may well be worth the latest fight. Orcel’s preferred option, say insiders, would be to merge it with UniCredit’s existing German subsidiary HVB. At the right price, it would be hard for the Germans to refuse. This time, the Italian government also has his back.

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Orcel may be divisive — “he’s a bit like Marmite: either you hate him or you love him,” says Amir Hoveyda, who worked with him at Merrill Lynch and UBS. But he has once again managed to leave his counterparty’s weaknesses exposed. A master of game theory, his latest move will force a reckoning among regulators that have pushed for greater EU banking integration for years. As for those rivals who have long wondered if an Italian bank — even an enlarged one — will ultimately be enough for such an extraordinarily ambitious executive, they may not stop looking over their shoulders just yet.

silvia.borrelli@ft.com

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I stayed at one of the world’s best hotels with chocolate rooms and helipads – and there’s one like it in the UK

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The Peninsula was named one of the best hotels in the world

THE best hotels in the world have been revealed, from beachfront resorts to towering city skyscrapers.

And I was lucky enough to visit one during my trip to Hong Kong, when I stayed in The Peninsula.

The Peninsula was named one of the best hotels in the world

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The Peninsula was named one of the best hotels in the worldCredit: kara godfrey
The main lobby is famous for its afternoon tea

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The main lobby is famous for its afternoon teaCredit: kara godfrey
I visited the hotel during a trip to Hong Kong - and was blown away by the amenities and staff

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I visited the hotel during a trip to Hong Kong – and was blown away by the amenities and staffCredit: kara godfrey

The Telegraph recently named the prestigious hotel as one of of the world’s best, after looking at everything from in-room perks, personal reviews and staff-to-guest ratios.

The Peninsula, which came in fourth, is the oldest in Hong Kong having opened in 1928, and nicknamed the “Grande Dame of the Far East.”

They certainly show you on arrival why they are the creme de la creme.

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All guests get picked up from the airport in their own branded Rolls-Royce cars in Peninsula green, as well as a complimentary newspaper inside.

It’s not always faster, what with Hong Kong traffic sometimes making the public transport a quicker option.

But it’s certainly one in style.

The grand Art Deco lobby is rather breathtaking too, with huge marble columns and glass chandeliers lining the corridors,

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I was stunned that all of the staff seemed to know my name by day two of staying (and not because of any bad behaviour).

The rooms

With 300 rooms, the best ones are the suites overlooking the river.

My room had its own lounge, bedroom and two bathrooms (one for ‘guests’) with the main one having a corner bath overlooking the city.

Britain’s best hotel according to TripAdvisor

My bedroom even had its own telescope for looking out to the waterfront.

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One very exciting element I had never seen were drawers that had their own chargers in, as well as wireless chargers.

The food and drink

There is enough to explore in Hong Kong but the hotel does its best to keep you there.

There is its own on-site chocolate shop, where you can watch as they make everything in house.

I was greeted by a different chocolate work of art in my room most days, from planes to passports… all handcrafted.

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You won’t get hungry with the huge number of restaurants on-site either.

There is the one Michelin-star Gaddi’s, serving French cuisine, as well as the Michelin-starred Spring Moon serving traditional Cantonese.

The bathtub definitely had some amazing views

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The bathtub definitely had some amazing viewsCredit: kara godfrey
Their suites overlooking the waterfront are some of the best at the hotel

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Their suites overlooking the waterfront are some of the best at the hotelCredit: kara godfrey
The breakfast buffet highlight was the cold noodles and congee

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The breakfast buffet highlight was the cold noodles and congeeCredit: kara godfrey

A Swiss-themed restaurant will take you straight to the Alps, or you can go to the Japanese restaurant Imasa.

The rooftop bar Felix is a must too with even more amazing views, abd tge miost deliciously fresh melon yuzu cocktails.

I dined with their nine course menu with all of the decadent dishes you can think of – by that I mean truffle gnocchi and juicy scallops.

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What we didn’t realise was there is often an evening light show, which was an amazing surprise as we finished off our drinks.

I also tried the hotels’ amazing breakfast buffet in the Verandah restaurant, which blew me away with the choice.

Already a dim-sum obsessive, every morning i gorged on juicy prawn dumplings, refreshing cold noodle soups and my favourite – congee (think a savoury rice porridge).

Of course there were also Western options if you don’t fancy the local cuisine.

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The only sad thing was not being able to sit outside, but there was nothing tempting me to be in the humidity.

What is it like to go to Hong Kong?

The Sun’s Deputy Travel Editor Kara Godfrey visited Hong Kong – and found amazing food and stunning beaches.

Hong Kong is the perfect stopover destination between trips to Australia and New Zealand, and is easier to get around that London.

The Metro is simpler than the London Underground and you can even hop on a “ding ding,” one of the many double-decker trams.

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But exploring by foot, a food tour let me explore everything from mango tofu puddings, egg waffles and milk teas.

If you fancy a quieter hike, less than an hour from the city centre is Sai Kung, known as the “back garden of Hong Kong”.

The region’s bright-blue waters and hiking trails, as well as the golden sandy beaches surrounded by huge green slopes, made me feel like I was in Hawaii.

Its bar scene is unmatched too, from the Early Grey Caviar Martinis at Quinary named one of Asia’s best bars, or Ozone, the highest rooftop bar in the world.

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The amenities

The Peninsula has is its own shopping arcade, albeit with expensive designer brands such as Chanel and Prada.

And the extremely beautiful swimming pool on the ground floor comes with ornate water fountains and sun loungers.

Make sure to check out the spa with massages also overlooking the Hong Kong skyline.

You can even tour its helicopter pads on the roof which only the elite guests use.

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Even if you can’t stretch to a stay at the hotel, you can book its famous Afternoon Tea, loved by the locals and with live music.

Can’t quite swing to Hong Kong? The Peninsula London opened last year, becoming the city’s first billion-pound hotel.

Otherwise here’s a hotel in Greece that was named the best in the world by TUI.

And this hotel has one of the best views in the world.

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Full list of Telegraph’s World Best Hotels

  1. Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok – Bangkok, Thailand
  2. Ballyfin – County Laois, Ireland
  3. Ellerman House – Cape Town, South Africa
  4. The Peninsula Hong Kong – Hong Kong
  5. Les Prés d’Eugénie – Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
  6. Awasi Patagonia – Chile
  7. Hotel Santa Caterina – Amalfi Coast, Italy
  8. Southern Ocean Lodge – Kangaroo Island, Australia
  9. The Maybourne Riviera – Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
  10. Palace Hotel Tokyo – Tokyo, Japan
  11. Sterrekopje – Franschhoek, South Africa
  12. Belmond Hotel Cipriani – Venice, Italy
  13. Son Blanc Farmhouse – Menorca, Spain
  14. Al Moudira Hotel – Luxor, Egypt
  15. Nay Palad Hideaway – Siargao, Philippines
  16. Borgo Santo Pietro – Tuscany, Italy
  17. Estelle Manor – Oxfordshire, England
  18. La Casa del Califa – Cadiz, Spain
  19. Banyan Tree Buahan – Bali, Indonesia
  20. Kisawa Sanctuary – Mozambique
  21. Six Senses Yao Noi – Thailand
  22. Lundies House – Highlands, Scotland
  23. The Hotel Britomart – Auckland, New Zealand
  24. Asaba – Izu Peninsula, Japan
  25. Soneva Fushi – Maldives
  26. Singita Kruger National Park – South Africa
  27. Amangalla – Galle, Sri Lanka
  28. Four Seasons Astir Palace – Athens, Greece
  29. Hampton Manor – West Midlands, England
  30. Riad Mena – Marrakech, Morocco
  31. Hotel Endsleigh – Devon, England
  32. Palácio Príncipe Real – Lisbon, Portugal
  33. Susafa – Sicily, Italy
  34. Hotel Esencia – Mayan Riviera, Mexico
  35. The Goring – London, England
  36. Post Ranch Inn – Big Sur, California, United States
  37. Shinta Mani Wild – Cambodia
  38. Castle Hot Springs – Arizona, United States
  39. The Calile Hotel – Brisbane, Australia
  40. The Brando – French Polynesia
  41. Qualia – Hamilton Island, Australia
  42. Chicago Athletic Association – Chicago, United States
  43. Nooishof – Sinclair Nature Reserve, Namibia
  44. Zannier Bãi San Hô – Phu Yen, Vietnam
  45. Hôtel Grand Powers – Paris, France
  46. Hotel César Lanzarote – Lanzarote, Spain
  47. The Shinmonzen – Kyoto, Japan
  48. Jamaica Inn – Ocho Rios, Jamaica
  49. Kahani Paradise – Gokarna, India
  50. Fogo Island Inn – Newfoundland, Canada

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Glenview man arrested for aggravated battery, hate crime

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Glenview man arrested for aggravated battery, hate crime

GLENVIEW, Ill. – A Glenview man was arrested for beating a person with a pipe and uttering a racial slur toward his victim.

The Glenview Police Department said at around 9:20 a.m. Friday, officers arrested 69-year-old Randy Velleff for an incident of aggravated battery on June 30 in the 1700 block of Grove Street.

‘This has been really painful’: Suburban family left with mounting medical bills after-hit-and-run crash

The investigation revealed Velleff used a metal pipe to batter the victim during an argument in the parking lot. The victim was taken to Glenbrook Hospital where they were treated for bruising and released, according to investigators.

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Police said Velleff also used a racial slur toward the victim.

Velleff has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and hate crime. He is scheduled to appear in court Saturday.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.

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What happens when art and science collide? PST Art in Los Angeles has the answer

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It is now 65 years since the British writer and scientist CP Snow gave his famed Cambridge lecture on “The Two Cultures”, in which he lamented the seeming intellectual divide between the humanities and the sciences. The mood of the lecture, and the subsequent book, was subdued, bordering on gloomy. “There seems . . . to be no place where the cultures meet,” wrote Snow, citing his personal experiences of sterile High Table conversations at his Cambridge college. “I am not going to waste time saying that this is a pity. It is much worse than that.”

Flash forward to present-day Los Angeles, where Snow’s thesis is receiving an unlikely multimillion dollar stress test. It comes in the form of PST Art: Art & Science Collide, a months-long collaborative series of exhibitions across Southern California, involving more than 70 galleries and some 800 artists, opening this month.

The Getty foundation-funded exercise, comprising $20mn worth of grants, brings a bewildering diversity of works and themes to the exploration of the Two Cultures debate. Is it possible for the arts and sciences to move constructively forward, or are they doomed to permanent irreconcilability? Where Snow’s melancholy observations seem steeped in the claustrophobia of the senior common room and focused on literature, PST: Art finds cause for a sunnier outlook, through a series of arresting visual art shows. 

A painted sketch of a neon-lit city at night for a film
A concept drawing by Syd Mead for ‘Blade Runner’ (1982), featured at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures exhibition ‘Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema’ © Syd Mead, Inc

“The title was a provocation,” says Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation. “It was partly to get the attention of audiences, and get them to ask that question — do [art and science] really collide? And you will see various interpretations and answers being offered here. The general view of the community is that, of course, they have long had something to do with one another. But there was this rupture that was created [by Snow’s book]. It was a kind of mythology which has had an amazing hold for a long time.”

There are some well-known areas of mutually rewarding collaborations: one of them is explored in the Palm Springs Art Museum’s radiant show Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science 1945-1990, which explores the influence of space-age technology on painting and sculpture. The imagery and highly polished finishes used in locally based aerospace technology had a powerful effect on artists of the time.

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Frederick Eversley’s sleek, subtly hued sculpture “Untitled (Black)” (1978), mesmeric in its dense opacity, owes much to the artist’s training as a designer of labs for Nasa’s Gemini and Apollo missions in the late 1960s. His experiments were mathematically inspired; few artists of the time knew what a plano-concave cylindrical parabolic lens was, let alone how to make one and turn it into a thing of beauty.

A photograph of a smooth black pill-shaped object
‘Untitled (Black)’ by Frederick Eversley (1978) at Palm Springs Art Museum’s exhibition ‘Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science, 1945–1990’ © Sánchez/Solstream Studios

Co-curator Sharrissa Iqbal explains that West Coast Abstract Expressionism took its cue from the climate of scientific experimentation. “It is less about interior emotion than it is about atomic physics,” she says. “[The Californian minimalist painter] John McLaughlin differentiated himself from the East Coast painters by saying they were expressing themselves in their paintings, while he wanted viewers to see the work first of all, and then look inward and see themselves.”

At the UCR Arts centre, in Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World, there are examples of early digital trials that were scientifically inspired, yet coincidentally sparked the interest of local artists. “They knew something was happening in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at Nasa, and said, ‘Hey, what are those people doing, and how do I get into that lab?’” says Douglas McCulloh, who conceived the show.

Once inside the action, there was conflict rather than collusion, he says. “There is some hilarious correspondence from the scientists essentially asking, ‘What the hell are they doing here — this is a misuse of our technology!’ But they didn’t really know how to take advantage of what they were creating, or what to do with it.” Artists, on the other hand, became enraptured by the immediacy, and even the otherworldly glitches, of the nascent digital technology. 

Two artists hold up tapestry weavings in front of their faces against a backdrop of a Californian town in the desert
‘Blood of the Nopal’ by Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez at the Fowler Museum at UCLA © Javier Lazo Gutiérrez

The blockbuster show of PST Art is at the Getty Center itself, and takes a richly historical view of art’s obsession with light. Lumen: The Art and Science of Light digs deep into medieval and Renaissance scientific theory, and how it enmeshed with the theological beliefs of the time. It was an era in which geometry and philosophy were innately twinned, and its artists responded with breathtaking originality and skill.

A 14th-century pinnacle of an altarpiece by Giotto shows two angels on either side of God, who are peering towards him using darkened glass frames, a symbolic reminder of our inability to perceive him. In an illustration of The Miracle of Mount Gargano, shortly after 1053, an archer pulls the string of his bow only for the arrow to enter his own eye. What looks comical to the 21st-century viewer has a humbling allegorical explanation: it is the arrow of truth that invades his body, enabling his soul to acquire spiritual vision.

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Among the few contemporary works littered among this feast of images is Anish Kapoor’s “Non-Object Black” (2018), coated in “Vantablack”, the darkest material known to us, which absorbs 99.965 per cent of visible light and dramatically reduces our ability to perceive depth and texture. Here is another rendition of the unknowable, science deployed not to clarify but to portray transcendence. Not so different, perhaps, from the artistic travails of 1,000 years ago. Has science now become the new religion?

A vibrant presence in PST Art is that of indigenous technology, which is based on tradition and continuity, rather than the constant urge to innovate. In Blood of the Nopal at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Mexican-American artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez deliver powerful ecological messages using natural fibres and dyes including cochineal, a red pigment derived from a tiny insect which has been used by the Zapotec people since about 500BC.

It is Aguiñiga’s contemporary work that most captures the eye however: “Exercises in Understanding” (2020) uses pulverised rust from the US-Mexico border fence — another natural dye — to draw a blood-red ladder on to a wide strip of cotton, winding its pointless way up the gallery wall. “We feel we do not have the right to imagination,” she tells me of the precarious sociopolitical plight of her people. “It is really hard and really sad. But is so important for us to let the entire world know that we are here.” 

Weinstein describes the number of indigenous projects put forward for inclusion in PST Art as a “wonderful surprise. One of the things that we have been able to think about is, ‘What is that relationship between indigenous knowledge and western science?’ I like the fact that, while some of the exhibitions are looking to the ancestral past, others are looking towards an indigenous future.

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A Californian desert scape featuring some buildings and a lens-like object in the middle of the sky
‘Emplacement’ by Marcus Zúñiga (2023) at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College © Marcus Zúñiga

“The climate crisis has created an acknowledgement of how much we need to learn from indigenous technology. Particularly here in California, scientists are turning to indigenous communities to understand things like cultural burns, ritual burning that is meant to control fire, knowing when to cut back, when to let growth continue. It is very humbling.”

She cites the words of the New Mexico-based artist Cannupa Hanska Luger: “He says, ‘People are trying to figure out how to live through a dystopian present, well, look at us, we have been living through your dystopia for quite a long time now! We are the ones who can imagine a different future.’” 

The dizzying array of viewpoints in PST Art is a smart fit for Los Angeles. It is hard to imagine any other city in the world that could pull it off with such zesty aplomb. Katherine Fleming, president and chief executive of the J Paul Getty Trust, speaking at its formal launch, went so far as to compare the city to “fin-de-siècle Vienna or Periclean Athens” in its ability to capture the cultural moment of the 21st century. She also announced that the event, now in its third incarnation following similar series of shows in 2011 and 2017, will become a regular fixture to be held every five years.

Opening celebrations were concluded at the LA Coliseum with a stunning five-act firework performance devised by the Chinese pyrotechnician Cai Guo-Qiang, with the aid of artificial intelligence powering more than 1,000 aerial drones. The artist gave a running commentary on the show which ended with two thunderous blasts of “divine wrath”. “Humans forever vacillate between fear and hope for salvation, with courage and unease, determination and doubt coexisting,” he recited. “This is the current state of our exploration of AI.”

It might have been described as art, or science, or both; but the collision of the two cultures finally meeting was palpable for miles around.

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Details of exhibitions at pst.art

Four (more) shows to see at PST

Lightscape

Doug Aitken

© Doug Aitken Workshop

Aitken is an astute and versatile observer of LA popular culture. Lightscape is described as a “shape-shifting act of contemporary storytelling” unfolding in various stages: a feature-length film, a multi-screen fine art installation, and a series of live musical performances. The film version, featuring the LA Phil New Music Group and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, premieres at Walt Disney Concert Hall on November 16; the exhibition follows at the Marciano Art Foundation from December 6.


Free the Land! Free the People!

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Crenshaw Dairy Mart

An exhibition of eco-pods, loosely based on the work of Buckminster Fuller, channels the hippy spirit of California. Crenshaw Dairy Mart styles itself as an Inglewood-based artist collective “dedicated to shifting the trauma-induced conditions of poverty and economic injustice” through its designs for self-sufficient modular geodesic domes. To February 15 2025


Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics

LA Municipal Art Gallery

© Courtesy of the Beatriz da Costa Estate

Stars of the show in this homage to the late Da Costa, an interdisciplinary artist who combined robotics and microelectronics with political interventions, are the (stuffed) pigeons carrying mini-rucksacks on their backs. These were employed in Da Costa’s PigeonBlog (2006-08) to upload air quality data as they were flying around LA. To January 5


Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema

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Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Outcasts and rebels fight against political corruption and berserk technology against spectacular dystopian backdrops: the Academy museum, a newcomer to the LA scene, traces the history of one of the more stylish movie genres of the past half-century, starting with 1982’s Blade Runner and brought right up to date with the Afrofuturism of 2021’s Neptune Frost. To April 12 2026


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The Project Censored Newsletter – March 2024

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State of the Free Press 2024 in the News

Mickey Huff appeared on The Thom Hartmann Program to discuss State of the Free Press 2024 and the importance of independent journalism and critical media literacy amid a rise in news deserts. Mickey also spoke about this year’s book with Steve Grumbine for a recent episode of Macro N Cheese.

Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn interviewed the Project’s Mischa Geracoulis for Law and Disorder Radio, where they discussed pro-Israel media bias in US newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

Payday Report celebrated its #6 spot in Project Censored’s Top 25 list of Censored Stories in State of the Free Press 2024. Project Censored recognized Payday Report’s Mike Elk for his coverage of the significant role that workers of color have played in “driving labor’s current upsurge.”

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Francesca Rheannon of Writer’s Voice hosted Andy Lee Roth for a discussion about trust and partisan bias in journalism, the influence of intelligence agencies on Big Tech, and the State of the Free Press 2024.

Project Censored and the Censored Press attended the Tucson Festival of Books March 9-10. Our staff was so grateful to connect with longtime supporters and others excited to learn more about the Project, and, of course, be able to give away some fresh new stickers and buttons to fellow champions of media literacy.

Alongside the Media Education Foundation, Project Censored co-sponsored the Silver Screen War Machine: Decoding the Military-Entertainment Complex. The event featured experts on US militarism and propaganda, including Mnar Adley, Robin Andersen, Fatooma Saad, and Roger Stahl, with the Project’s own Mickey Huff as moderator and host, to discuss Theaters of War: How the Pentagon & CIA Took Hollywood, a recent documentary about the US military’s editorial control of Hollywood films and TV.



Upcoming Events

Mickey Huff will be a featured speaker for Independent Media Week in Ashland, Oregon, April 17-18. He will be giving talks at several venues, including Southern Oregon University and the Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library, on the state of the free press and the importance of critical media literacy education. Stay tuned for more details!


The Censored Press Happenings

The Progressive published Julian Assange’s Last Chance to Avoid Extradition by Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism. In his Progressive article, Gosztola warns, “Prosecuting Assange gives a green light to countries around the world that it is possible to protect their government secrets by charging international reporters or editors with crimes.” For more on Kevin’s latest activities, see the sections on Dispatches on Media and Politics and The Project Censored Show, below.

Going Remote: A Teacher’s Journey, which the American Library Association recently recognized as one of the best graphic novels of 2023, was just featured at Authors on the Move. Adam Bessie, who wrote Going Remote, and Peter Glanting, who illustrated it, along with Mickey Huff from the Censored Press, were at “Sacramento’s Premier Literary Event,” hosted by the Sacramento Literacy Foundation and now in its 22nd year. Follow this link for more information.

The Electronic Intifada published an article by Omar Zahzah, “Kidnapped” Posters Serve Genocidal Sentiment. The posters depicting Israeli captives taken during the launching of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October “have played a concerning role in the targeting of activists for Palestine across the country,” Zahzah writes. Zahzah’s forthcoming book, Terms of Servitude, an in-depth examination of links between Zionism, Silicon Valley, and digital colonialism in the Palestinian liberation struggle, will be published by the Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

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Allison Butler, coauthor of The Media and Me, was quoted in an article, Building Media Literacy into School Curriculums Worldwide, published by News Decoder, a global news education service for young people.


Project Censored Dispatches on Media and Politics

Steve Macek examines the potentially damaging effects of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in his latest Dispatch, Despite Its Popularity, The Kids Online Safety Act Won’t Help Young People, It Will Hurt Them. Although the latest iteration of the bill has been celebrated by conservative groups as a means to guard children “against the harms of sexual and transgender content,” Macek argues that KOSA “represents a massive expansion of government censorship that will cut young people off from legal and, in some cases, potentially life-saving content.”

In his most recent Dispatch, The Press Freedom Case of the Century, author Kevin Gosztola updates readers on the stagnated case of Julian Assange, who has been confined in London’s Belmarsh prison since 2019, despite a continuous global outcry of support. Gosztola cautions, “If the US government puts the WikiLeaks founder on trial, it will not only threaten the First Amendment in the United States but also imperil investigative journalism everywhere around the world.”

avram anderson and Shealeigh Voitl authored Blueprint for Regression: Project 2025 Targets Vulnerable Communities, Politicizes Independent Institutions, and Quashes Dissent, which explores the implications of the Heritage Foundation’s regressive and anti-democratic Project 2025, endangering the country’s most vulnerable communities. “The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 aims to transform, if not dismantle, fundamental civil and human rights that form the bedrock of a just, inclusive community,” write anderson and Voitl.

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Eleanor Goldfield, cohost of the Project Censored Show, published I’ve Been Unhoused. It Could Happen to You. Let’s Stop Criminalizing It. Her article, posted at Truthout, exposes the “nefarious web of legislative brutality” that criminalizes unhoused people, warning that these policies are threats to all of us. For more on the topic, see the Project Censored Show from March 11, noted below.


The Project Censored Show

Follow the links for each episode to learn more about the Show’s featured guests and content. Find the comprehensive archive of Project Censored Show episodes here.

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