Lifestyle
Maduro declares Christmas in October amid Venezuela’s post-election strife
![Maduro declares Christmas in October amid Venezuela’s post-election strife Maduro declares Christmas in October amid Venezuela’s post-election strife](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c6d4b015ff2e9c893de91b70fcc5b5d3763d796a/414_434_1753_1052/master/1753.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=255798f51deb59294e7ab1dc0d841779)
“Whatever happened to Christmas?” Frank Sinatra once asked. In Venezuela, the answer is that it has been brought forward to October.
The country’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, made the curious announcement that this year’s festivities would begin in October on Monday, in the midst of a political bleak midwinter for his crisis-stricken land.
“It’s September and it already feels like Christmas. So this year – as a way of paying tribute to you and thanking you – I’m going to decree that Christmas be brought forward to 1 October,” Maduro proclaimed during one of his frequent TV appearances.
Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, who is facing what experts call the greatest political challenge of his turbulent 11-year rule, promised all Venezuelans a Christmas of “peace, happiness and security”.
That is unlikely given the uncertainty and anger produced by Maduro’s decision to claim victory in July’s presidential election without providing proof. A growing body of evidence suggests Maduro actually lost the election badly to his opposition rival Edmundo González – hence his refusal to release detailed voting tallies from polling stations. On Monday authorities issued a warrant for González’s arrest.
Whenever it starts, Christmas is likely to prove a cold winter’s night for senior members of Maduro’s ever-more authoritarian regime.
On Monday Bloomberg reported that the US was poised to announce individual sanctions against 15 senior administration figures for their alleged obstruction of “the holding of free and fair presidential elections”. Those expected to be targeted reportedly include the foreign minister, Yván Gil, the supreme court president, Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez Rodríguez, and a top member of the electoral council, Rosalba Gil Pacheco.
Military officials responsible for a harsh post-election clampdown nicknamed Operación Tun Tun (Operation Knock Knock) are also expected to face sanctions as a result of the repression that saw more than 20 people killed and 1,700 thrown in jail as authorities moved to snuff out post-election protests.
That crackdown was given a yuletide soundtrack by security chiefs, though one distinctly lacking in Christmas cheer. A propaganda video produced by Venezuela’s military counterintelligence unit, DGCIM, set the arrest of one government target to the sinister music of a horror-film adaptation of Carol of the Bells.
The song’s adapted Spanish-language lyrics warn naughty children that a devil-like creature called Krampus is coming for them at Christmas. “If you’ve done wrong, then he will come!” the carol goes. “He’ll look for you! You’d better hide!”
While unusual, Maduro’s decision to move Christmas celebrations forward is not unprecedented. The politician has done the same on several occasions since taking office after the premature 2013 death of his mentor, Hugo Chávez. The Christmastide manoeuvre appears at least partly designed to shift attention from the woes of an administration that has overseen one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern history.
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Lifestyle
Beloved 'Russian spy whale' Hvaldimir is found dead under mysterious circumstances
![Beloved 'Russian spy whale' Hvaldimir is found dead under mysterious circumstances Beloved 'Russian spy whale' Hvaldimir is found dead under mysterious circumstances](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x3375+0+327/resize/1400/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fec%2F11%2Fdb6d57a34b3a83b2391fd10f2f3b%2F2gg120e.jpg)
Hvaldimir pictured in Hammerfest, Norway, in 2019. He lived there for much of that year before traveling along Norway’s coast and even surfacing in Sweden.
Al Armiger/Alamy
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Hvaldimir, a beloved whale believed to have escaped a past life as a Russian spy, was found dead over the weekend in what animal rights organizations say were unnatural circumstances.
The beluga — whose name combines the Norwegian word for whale (hval) and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first name — rose to international prominence after he was discovered by fishermen off the coast of Norway in 2019 wearing a camera harness that read “Equipment St. Petersburg.”
Theories about his mysterious past sparked headlines and intrigue, but it was his friendly demeanor that won him scores of admirers in the years that followed.
![An alleged Russian spy whale is in Sweden — and danger. Here's why his tale matters](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/05/31/p9070946-1-_sq-4f5cadc9aa2f4c3e175d032601efc68b4634b59c.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
Hvaldimir worked his way along the Norwegian coast, frequenting fish farms and actively seeking out human interaction in the process. He was “very interested in people and responded to hand signals,” according to the nonprofit Marine Mind.
The gentle giant, who measured some 13 feet long and weighed about 2,000 pounds, even went viral several times: for retrieving a kayaker’s dropped GoPro camera, playing fetch with a rugby ball and playing with an underwater drone.
But Hvaldimir’s encounters with people weren’t always positive. He bore scars from being hit by multiple boats, and experts warned that he faced lower odds of survival as a “solitary sociable individual.” Concerns grew when he was spotted last year in Sweden, which has more people and fewer fish than Norway.
Hvaldimir’s case inspired the work of at least two nonprofits dedicated to marine conservation and Hvaldimir’s protection specifically.
OneWhale, founded in 2019, advocated for Hvaldimir’s protection from “tourism and other dangers.” Other marine biologists, concerned about the impact of relocating the whale, formed Marine Mind, which tracked Hvaldimir’s movements but also focuses on raising awareness about marine species more broadly. NPR has reached out to both organizations for comment.
With the permission of Norway’s government, OneWhale was actively working to relocate Hvaldimir to a wild beluga population in the Arctic, where belugas are normally found. The organization had recently announced plans to transport him in the coming weeks.
![A Russian naval base is defended by dolphins. It's not as unusual as it sounds](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/04/29/04_ukraine_29april2022_wv2hd_sq-e4853ee07048da1d1ef618b9c8f7cb0edc50ee59.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
But hopes for Hvaldimir’s safety were dashed on Saturday, when he was found dead in what OneWhale called the “heavily trafficked waters just outside of Stavanger, Norway.”
“This morning, after receiving a sighting report from a local, our team arrived to find Hvaldimir floating peacefully in the water,” Marine Mind announced on Instagram. “It is not [immediately] clear what caused his death, a necropsy will be conducted to determine his early passing.”
Hvaldimir was believed to be between 14 and 15 years old when he died. The average lifespan for a beluga whale is upwards of 30.
The Norwegian Veterinary Institute will conduct the necropsy — an autopsy for animals — and release the results in “two or three weeks,” the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said in a statement to People.
In the meantime, theories and tributes are flooding social media.
Many questions remain about Hvaldimir’s life and death
OneWhale said in its announcement that it suspects Hvaldimir’s passing “was not a natural death.”
In a series of video messages later posted to Instagram, founder Regina Haug referenced “holes pouring with blood from his body” and said that out of a team of marine biologists and veterinarians who had looked at pictures of Hvaldimir’s injuries, “not one of them believe that Hvaldimir died of natural causes.”
“We got to visit Hvaldimir today ourselves and see him and say goodbye, and there was no question that he was dying from something very unnatural and heartbreaking,” she said tearfully, before casting blame on those who worked to “block his move” and spread misinformation about the extent of his injuries.
![How scientists are using facial-recognition AI to track humpback whales](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/02/28/martin_van_aswegen_mothercalf_maui_1-1-_sq-a7379562280728eaeac105a47b37fa0fad5791d0.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
Sebastian Strand, the founder of Marine Mind, told AFP that there were no visible injuries on Hvaldimir’s body.
Strand also told the scuba diving publication Divernet that “we would prefer not to talk about human rifts in a time of mourning Hvaldimir,” adding that “people had different ideas of how to best safeguard him.”
“For now, we work toward a final dignity of making sure he is kept well and examined so his death will not be a mystery,” he added.
While authorities work to answer questions about Hvaldimir’s death, it’s likely much about his early life will remain a mystery.
It is widely believed that he escaped captivity in Russian waters. Many, pointing to the label on his camera harness and his responsiveness to humans, believe he was involved in espionage.
The Russian navy has been known to use marine mammals like whales and dolphins for intelligence purposes (the U.S. has a history of similar programs), though the Kremlin has never commented publicly on Hvaldimir.
Others theorize he was a missing Russian therapy whale named Seymon, who lived in an enclosure and sometimes performed for children with disabilities.
![Indigenous leaders want to protect whales by granting them legal personhood](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/04/04/gettyimages-1621490545_sq-de57514b3f821ff59d11f788c43cff785f99457d.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
What’s certain is that Hvaldimir’s playfulness and resilience both amused and inspired many. Environmental groups say his story shed a light on the plight of beluga whales and, by extension, other marine species struggling to survive.
Marine Mind credits Hvaldimir with touching tens of thousands of lives over the last five years and bridging “the gap between humans and wild animals in a way that few can.”
“His presence taught us about the importance of ocean conservation, and in doing so, he also taught us more about ourselves,” it added.
Lifestyle
The SMACKDOWN: Video Games vs. Journalism vs. Robert Frost : It's Been a Minute
![The SMACKDOWN: Video Games vs. Journalism vs. Robert Frost : It's Been a Minute The SMACKDOWN: Video Games vs. Journalism vs. Robert Frost : It's Been a Minute](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/08/30/smackdown-concord_wide-dc5e9c20d78b343b4ce066b5649f35e2dea8ec51.png?s=1400&c=100&f=png)
Concord, New Hampshire. The first video games. The roots of Journalism. Robert Frost.
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
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Concord, New Hampshire. The first video games. The roots of Journalism. Robert Frost.
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Who will win today’s cage match?
Welcome to The Smackdown! For the next several weeks Brittany is hosting debates in cities and regions across the United States to find out who and what are the most influential things from those places.
This episode Brittany lands in Concord, New Hampshire, the Granite State, and debates with New Hampshire Public Radio reporters Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, the hosts of the excellent podcast Civics 101. There will be winners. There will be losers. There will be surprises.
This episode was produced by Barton Girdwood, Alexis Williams, Corey Antonio Rose and Liam McBain. It was edited by Jessica Placzek. Our executive producer is Jasmine Romero. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni.
Lifestyle
TMZ TV Hot Takes: Nikki Bella, Brad Pitt, Ricky Pearsall
![TMZ TV Hot Takes: Nikki Bella, Brad Pitt, Ricky Pearsall TMZ TV Hot Takes: Nikki Bella, Brad Pitt, Ricky Pearsall](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/04/16by9/2024/09/03/041093ebcfb94350a797599163d30341_xl.jpg)
Nikki Bella is lawyering up, Brad Pitt is making a big debut and Ricky Pearsall is recovering from a gunshot wound … all this on today’s TMZ TV Hot Takes.
TMZ Live
![090324_tmz_live_nikki_artem_kal](https://imagez.tmz.com/image/b5/16by9/2024/09/03/b56b8a99d69344dab8c8163441ffb7ab_md.jpg)
TMZ.com
First up on “TMZ Live,” Harvey and Babcock explain why Nikki may be pulling the plug on her marriage to Artem Chigvintsev any day now … because she’s on the hunt for a divorce lawyer in the wake of her husband’s arrest for domestic violence.
TMZ on TV
TMZ.com
Meanwhile, over on “TMZ on TV,” our crew reacts to Brad’s debut with Ines de Ramon at the Venice Film Festival.
TMZ Sports
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And on “TMZ Sports,” Michael and Mojo have the latest on the San Francisco 49ers rookie WR who was shot during an attempted robbery.
Check your local listings for when TMZ is on in your area or catch up on past episodes!
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