A 5.7-magnitude quake jolted Puerto Ricans out of their beds Monday morning, the strongest quake yet to hit the U.S. territory that has been shaking for the past week.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The home on the left is from Guayanilla and the one on the right from Guánica, #puertorico. Cars parked underneath were crushed. #TemblorPR M5.7 pic.twitter.com/A1jBhPd50b
— John Morales (@JohnMoralesNBC6) January 6, 2020
The quake struck just south of the island at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (over 6 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Service. There was no tsunami threat, officials said.
Power outages were reported in some parts of Puerto Rico following the quake, Angel Vazquez, the emergency management director for the southern coastal city of Ponce, told The Associated Press.
“This is one of the strongest quakes to date since it started shaking on Dec. 28,” he said. “It lasted a long time.”
No injuries or structural damage were immediately reported, although some residents reported small landslides that prompted crews to temporarily close roads along parts of Puerto Rico’s south coast.
Dr. Sindia Alvarado, who lives in the southern coastal town of Penuelas, said she was petrified.
“My entire family woke up screaming,” she said. “I thought the house was going to crack in half.”
The flurry of quakes in Puerto Rico’s southern region began the night of Dec. 28, with quakes ranging in magnitude from 4.7 to 5.1. Previous quakes of lesser magnitudes in recent days have cracked homes and led to goods falling off supermarket shelves.
 
​

…

The global benchmark for crude oil rose above $70 a barrel on Monday for the first time in over three months, with jitters rising over the escalating military tensions between Iran and the United States.
The Brent contract for oil touched a high of $70.74 a barrel, the highest since mid-September, when it briefly spiked over an attack on Saudi crude processing facilities. Stock markets were down as well amid fears of how Iran would fulfill a vow of “harsh retaliation.”
“The market is concerned about the potential for retaliation, and specifically on energy and oil infrastructure in the region,” said Antoine Halff, a Columbia University researcher and former chief oil analyst for the International Energy Agency. “If Iran chose to incapacitate a major facility in the region, it has the technical capacity to do so.”
The U.S. killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on Friday. Early Sunday, as Iran threatened to retaliate, President Donald Trump tweeted the U.S. was prepared to strike 52 sites in the Islamic Republic if any Americans are harmed.
Fears that Iran could strike back at oil and gas facilities important to the U.S. and its Persian Gulf allies stem from earlier attacks widely attributed to Iran.
The U.S. has blamed Iran for a wave of provocative attacks in the region, including the sabotage of oil tankers and an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure in September that temporarily halved its production. Iran has denied involvement in those attacks.
“Targeting oil infrastructure could raise prices and bring worldwide economic pain and put Iran on the front burner,” which might be exactly the kind of message its leaders are looking to send, said Jim Krane, an energy and geopolitics researcher at Rice University.
Compared to other methods of attack, targeting energy sites also “doesn’t kill a lot of people,” Krane said. “It’s capital-intensive, it’s not people-intensive. It’s a safer option in terms of the virulence of reprisal.”
It would still wreak havoc on the global economy, he said, because of the way that oil markets affect other energy-intensive industries such as airlines, shipping and petro-chemicals.
Global stock markets have been sliding since Friday. European indexes were down over 1% on Monday after Asia closed lower. Wall Street was expected to slide again on the open, with futures down 0.6%.
Brent crude was up $1.07 at $69.67 a barrel, putting it up almost 6% since before the Iranian general’s killing.
At the same time, some experts say the effect of a Middle Eastern geopolitical crisis on oil prices may not be as great as it once was. The U.S. energy industry, for instance, can ramp up shale oil production in places such as Texas.
“We’re in this new territory where the world oil markets are more dynamic and can tolerate this disruption more than they used to,” said Michael Webber, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have steadily intensified since Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal and restore crippling sanctions.
But after the attack on Saudi Arabia’s crucial Abqaiq oil processing facility in September, Halff said the “market was able to dismiss it pretty quickly, partly because there was a perception that shale oil was pretty abundant.”
After that incident, the price of oil surged over 14% in a day, but lost those gains over the next two weeks.
Halff said the killing of Iran’s top general is different.
“This is not something that can be repaired,” he said. “You can repair a facility. You can’t bring somebody back to life. There’s no turning back.”
       
 
 

…

The 77th Golden Globes were meant to be a coronation for Netflix. Instead, a pair of big-screen epics took top honors Sunday, as Sam Mendes’ technically dazzling World War I tale “1917” won best picture, drama, and Quentin Tarantino’s radiant Los Angeles fable “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” won best film, comedy or musical.
The wins for “1917” were a surprise, besting such favorites as Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” (the leading nominee with six nods) and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” Both are acclaimed Netflix releases but they collectively took home just one award, for Laura Dern’s supporting performance as a divorce attorney in “Marriage Story.” “The Irishman” was entirely shut out.
“1917” also won best director for Mendes. The film was made in sinuous long takes, giving the impression that the movie unfolds in one lengthy shot.
“I hope this means that people will turn up and see this on the big screen, the way it was intended,” said Mendes, whose film expands nationwide Friday.
Though set around the 1969 Manson murders “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” was classified a comedy and thus had an easier path to victory than the more competitive drama category. Brad Pitt won for best supporting actor, his first acting Globe since winning in 1996 for “12 Monkeys,” padding his front-runner status for the Oscars. Tarantino also won best screenplay.
“I wanted to bring my mom, but I couldn’t because any woman I stand next to they say I am dating so it’d just be awkward,” Pitt said.
Throughout the night, those who took the stage used the moment to speak about current events including the wildfires raging in Australia, rising tensions with Iran, women’s rights, the importance of LGBT trailblazers, even the importance of being on time.
Patricia Arquette, a winner for her performance in Hulu’s “The Act,” referenced the United States’ targeted killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying history wouldn’t remember the day for the Globes but will see “a country on the brink of war.” She urged all to vote in November’s presidential election.
Ricky Gervais, hosting the NBC-telecast ceremony for the fifth time, opened the show by stating that Netflix had taken over Hollywood, a fair appraisal given the streaming service’s commanding 34 nominations coming into the Globes. “This show should just be me coming out going: `Well done, Netflix. You win everything tonight,” he said.

Ricky Gervais, left, and Jane Fallon arrive at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif.As it turned out, he was wrong. Netflix won only two awards: Dern’s win plus one for Olivia Colman’s performance in “The Crown.” It was a definite hiccup for the streaming service, which is aiming for its first best-picture win at the Academy Awards next month.
Instead, the awards were widely spread out among traditional Hollywood studios, indie labels like A24, cable heavyweights like HBO and relative newcomers like Hulu.
Renee Zelleweger (“Judy”) took home best actress in a drama, as expected, notching her fourth Globe. But, as always at the Globes, there were surprises. Taron Egerton, a regular presence on the awards circuit this year, won best actor in a comedy or musical for his Elton John in “Rocketman” – an honor many had pegged for Eddie Murphy (“Dolemite Is My Name”).
Awkwafina, the star of the hit indie family drama “The Farewell,” became the first woman of Asian descent to win best actress in a comedy or musical. “If anything, if I fall upon hard times, I can sell this,” said Awkwafina, holding the award.
The winners were otherwise largely white, something the Globes have been criticized for before – including even in Gervais’ opening monologue, in which he called the Hollywood Foreign Press Association “racist.’’
No other category has been more competitive this year than that for best actor. Joaquin Phoenix won for his loose-limbed performance in the divisive but hugely popular “Joker” in a category that included Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) and Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”). Phoenix gave a rambling speech that began with crediting the HFPA with the vegan meal served at the ceremony.
Michelle Williams, who won best actress in a limited series for “Fosse/Verdon,” stood up for women’s rights in her acceptance speech.
“When it’s time to vote, please do so in your self interest,” Williams said. “It’s what men have been doing for years, which is why the world looks so much like them.’’
Dern’s best supporting actress award for her performance as a divorce attorney in “Marriage Story,” was her fifth Globe. Her win denied Jennifer Lopez, the “Hustlers” star, her first major acting award.
The first award of the night went to a streaming service series. Ramy Youssef won best actor in a TV series comedy or musical for his Hulu show “Ramy.” Best actor in a limited series went to Russell Crowe for the Showtime series “The Loudest Voice.” He wasn’t in attendance because of raging wildfires in his native Australia.
“Make no mistake, the tragedy unfolding in Australia is climate-changed based,” Crowe said in a statement read by presenters Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge followed up her Emmy haul by winning best comedy series and best actress in a comedy series. She thanked former President Barack Obama for putting “Fleabag” on his best-of-2019 list. With a grin, she added: “As some of you may know, he’s always been on mine.”
Waller-Bridge’s co-star Andrew Scott (of “hot priest” fame) missed out on the category’s supporting actor award, which Stellan Skarsgard took for HBO’s “Chernobyl.”

Stellan Skarsgard, left, and Jared Harris, from the cast of “Chernobyl,” winners of the award for best television limited series or motion picture made for television, pose in the press room at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards.HBO was also triumphant in best TV drama, where the second season of “Succession” bested Netflix’s “The Crown” and Apple TV Plus’ first Globe nominee, “The Morning Show.” Brian Cox, the Rupert Murdoch-like patriarch of “Succession,” also won best actor in a drama series. “The Crown” took some hardware home, too, with Olivia Colman winning best actress in a drama series, a year after winning for her performance in “The Favourite.’’
Best foreign language film went to Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” the Cannes Palme d’Or winning sensation from South Korea. Despite being an organization of foreign journalists, the HFPA doesn’t include foreign films in its top categories, thus ruling out “Parasite,” a likely best picture nominee at next month’s Oscars.
“Once you overcome the inch-tall-barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” Bong said, speaking through a translator.
Tom Hanks, also a nominee for his supporting turn as Fred Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” received the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. The Carol Burnett Award, a similar honorary award given for television accomplishment, was given to Ellen DeGeneres. She was movingly introduced by Kate McKinnon who said DeGeneres’ example guided her in her own coming out.
“The only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV,” said McKinnon.
Hanks’ speech had its own emotional moment when he caught sight of his wife and four children at a table near the stage and choked up.
“A man is blessed with the family’s sitting down front like that,” Hanks said.
Elton John and Bernie Taupin won the evening’s most heavyweight battle, besting Beyonce and Taylor Swift. Their “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” won best song. “It’s the first time I’ve ever won an award with him,” Elton said of his song-writing partner. “Ever.’’
The Golden Globes, Hollywood’s most freewheeling televised award show, could be unusually influential this year. The roughly 90 voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have traditionally had little in common with the nearly 9,000 industry professionals that make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The HFPA is known for calculatingly packing its show with as much star power as possible, occasionally rewarding even the likes of “The Tourist” and “Burlesque.’’
Sunday’s show may have added to that history with an unexpected award for “Missing Link” for best animated feature film over films like “Toy Story 4” and “Frozen 2.” No one was more surprised than its director, Chris Butler. “I’m flabbergasted,” he said.
But the condensed time frame of this year’s award season (the Oscars are Feb. 9) brings the Globes and the Academy Awards closer. Balloting for Oscar nominations began Thursday. Voters were sure to be watching.

…

Five people were killed and about 60 were injured on the Pennsylvania Turnpike early Sunday morning, when a loaded bus went out of control on a hill and rolled over, setting off a chain reaction that involved three tractor-trailers and a passenger car.
The injured victims, ranging from 7 to 67 years old, are all expected to survive, though two patients remain in critical condition, authorities and hospital officials said Sunday afternoon. The crash, which happened at 3:40 a.m. on a mountainous and rural stretch of the interstate about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh, shut down the highway in both directions for several hours before it reopened Sunday evening.
The bus, operated by a New Jersey-based company called Z & D Tours, was traveling from Rockaway, New Jersey, to Cincinnati, Ohio, Pennsylvania State Police spokesman Stephen Limani told reporters.
He said the bus was traveling downhill on a curve, careened up an embankment and rolled over. Two tractor-trailers then struck the bus. A third tractor-trailer then crashed into those trucks. A passenger car was also involved in the pileup.
Photos from the scene show a mangled collision of multiple vehicles including a smashed FedEx truck that left packages sprawled along the highway.
“It was kind of a chain-reaction crash,” Limani said.
FedEx did not provide any other details besides that they are cooperating with authorities. A message seeking comment was left Sunday with the bus company.
Limani would not identify those killed or say which vehicles they were traveling in.
“I haven’t personally witnessed a crash of this magnitude in 20 years,” Pennsylvania Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo told WTAE, calling it the worst accident in his decades-long tenure with the turnpike. “It’s horrible.”
Excela Health Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant said it treated 31 victims, transferring a child and three adults to other facilities.
Hospitals brought in teams of social workers and psychologists to deal with the mental trauma, said Mark Rubino, president of Forbes Hospital, which treated 11 victims.
“The people coming in were not only physically injured but they were traumatized from a mental standpoint as well,” he said. Most were covered in diesel fuel when they arrived. The hospital treated fractured bones, brain bleeds, contusions, abrasions and spinal injuries.
The victims included students and people returning from visiting family in New York City. Many traveling on the bus were from outside the United States, Limani said, some of whom do not speak English and who lost their luggage and passports in the wreckage.
The Tribune-Review reported Leticia Moreta arrived at a hospital about 11:30 a.m. to pick up her children — Jorge Moreta, 24, and Melanie Moreta, 16 — who were on the bus.
She said her children, returning from visiting their father in New York, were in stable condition.
“I was devastated,” she said.
Exactly what caused the crash remains unknown, and Limani said it could take weeks or months to determine. The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team to investigate.
Officials said it was too early to determine if weather was a factor in the crash.
Angela Maynard, a tractor-trailer driver from Kentucky, said the roads were wet from snow but not especially icy. Maynard was traveling eastbound on the turnpike when she came upon the crash site and called 911.
“It was horrible,” she told The Tribune-Review. She saw lots of smoke but no fire. She and her co-driver found one person trapped in their truck and another lying on the ground.
“I tried to keep him occupied, keep talking, until medical help arrived,” Maynard said. “He was in bad shape. He was floating in and out of consciousness.”
The crash left families terrified and scrambling.
“I was crying,” said Omeil Ellis, whose two brothers were on the bus. “I was like crazy crying. I’m still hurt.”
Ellis, from Irvington, New Jersey, told The Tribune-Review that his brothers were traveling to Ohio for work. He was planning to meet them a few days later. But both of his brothers, one of them 39 years old and one 17, were sent to hospitals.
“I’m just weak right now,” he said.

…

The Golden Globes are famously unpredictable, but a few sure things seem to be in store for Sunday’s awards: Streaming services will play a starring role; five-time host Ricky Gervais will snicker at his own jokes; and Brad Pitt is all but assured of taking home an award.
Plenty of question marks remain for the 77th Golden Globe Awards, though. Will Jennifer Lopez score her first Globe? Who will win best song in the face-off between Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Elton John? Just how many “Cats” jokes are too many?
Stars began arriving Sunday at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, ahead of the ceremony, which is due to start at 8 p.m. EST and be broadcast live on NBC. Among the standouts on the red carpet was, predictably, Billy Porter. The “Pose” star, who made such an impression at last year’s Oscars, arrived in a gleaming white suit with a long feather train that needed an assistant to carry it.
Whatever the cat drags in Sunday, the Golden Globes — Hollywood’s most freewheeling televised award show — should be entertaining. But they also might be unusually influential.
The roughly 90 voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have traditionally had little in common with the nearly 9,000 industry professionals that make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The HFPA is known for calculatingly packing its show with as much star power as possible, occasionally rewarding even the likes of “The Tourist” and “Burlesque.”
But the condensed time frame of this year’s award season brings the Globes and the Academy Awards closer. Balloting for Oscar nominations began Thursday and ballots are due on Tuesday. Voters will be watching.
Netflix comes into the Globes with a commanding 34 nods — 17 in film categories and 17 in television categories. Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” leads all movies with six nominations, including best film, drama. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” with five, is up for the same category. The box-office smash “Joker” may be their stiffest competition.
The path is more certain for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” which is competing in the comedy or musical category. It could easily take home more trophies than any other movie, with possible wins for Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio — a 12-time Globes nominee and three-time winner — and Tarantino’s script. Tarantino is also up for best director, though he faces formidable competition in Scorsese and “Parasite” filmmaker Bong Joon Ho.
The dearth of nominations for female filmmakers has stoked more backlash than anything else at this year’s Globes. Only men were nominated for best director (just five women have ever been nominated in the category), and none of the 10 films up for best picture was directed by a woman, either.
Time’s Up, the activist group that debuted at the black-clad 2018 Globes, has been highly critical of the HFPA for the omission, calling it “unacceptable.”
Last year, eventual Oscar best picture winner “Green Book” took best comedy, while “Bohemian Rhapsody” unexpectedly won best drama. This year, one of the likely best picture nominees at the Academy Awards wasn’t eligible. Despite being an organization of foreign journalists, the HFPA doesn’t include foreign films in its top categories, thus ruling out the South Korean sensation “Parasite.”
On the TV side, series like “Fleabag,” “The Crown,” “Succession” and “Chernobyl” are among the favorites. The recently launched Apple TV Plus also joins its first major awards show with “The Morning Show,” including nominations for both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
The show will be watchable beyond the traditional NBC broadcast. With a cable or satellite TV login, the three-hour show can be streamed on NBC.com or on Hulu (with live TV), YouTube TV, Sling TV or PlayStation Vue. The official red carpet will be streamed on Facebook, beginning at 6 p.m. EST.
Last year’s telecast, hosted by Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, held steady in TV ratings, averaging 18.6 million viewers. Along with the returning Gervais, scheduled presenters include Tiffany Haddish, Will Ferrell and last year’s best actress winner, Glenn Close.
Tom Hanks, also a nominee for his supporting turn as Fred Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” will receive the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. The Carol Burnett Award, a similar honorary award given for television accomplishment, will go to Ellen DeGeneres.

…

Australia continues to battle wildfires that have scorched millions of hectares across three states.
Cooler temperatures and lighter winds Sunday brought little relief from the fires that firefighters have battled for weeks, but New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fizsimmons warned residents against complacency as nearly 150 fires continue to burn across the state.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.  “We can’t pretend that this is something that we have experienced before.  It’s not.”

Thousands of people are living in campsites and an estimated two thousand homes have been destroyed. Twenty-four people have died since the blazes began.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticized for his handling of the emergency, especially after traveling to Hawaii for a family vacation during the emergency. On Sunday, he said  the blame game is unproductive and “now is the time to focus on the response that is being made.”
Morrison has also been criticized for not adequately consulting local authorities before deploying 3,000 Australian Defense Force reservists to New South Wales in an effort to help combat the devastating fires. Morrison also committed $14 million to lease fire-fighting aircraft from other countries.
A Bushfire Recovery Agency has been established to help Australians recover from the disaster.
Pop star Pink and Australian actress Nicole Kidman have both pledged to donate $500,000 to support the fire-affected communities.

…

 The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said the U.S. military in the Middle East “will pay the price” in response to the death of a powerful Iranian commander in a U.S. strike.
During a televised speech on Sunday marking the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and several Iranian-backed Iraqi militia leaders on Friday in a U.S. drone-launched missile that targeted his convoy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, Hassan Nasrallah said responding to the killing of Soleimani was also the responsibility of Iran’s allies in the region.
“When the coffins of American soldiers and officers begin to be transported… to the United States, [U.S. President Donald] Trump and his administration will realize that they have really lost the region and will lose the [2020 U.S. presidential] elections” Nasrallah added.
The militant leader noted that U.S. civilians in the region “should not be touched.”
The Shi’ite Lebanese group is a close ally of Iran, receiving financial and military support from Tehran.

A man holds a picture of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei with Iranian Revolutionary Guards top commander Qasem Soleimani (L) during a demonstration in Tehran, Jan. 3, 2020 against the killing of the top commander in a US strike in Baghdad.Iranian leaders, including Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, have vowed a “crushing response” to the killing of Soleimani who led Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Other Iranian-backed militia leaders in Iraq and Yemen have also pledged to retaliate against Soleimani’s death.
Potential attacks on Israel?
Considering Nasrallah’s speech on Sunday, experts said Hezbollah has a wide set of options that it could use for vengeance against the U.S. and its interests in Lebanon, Israel and the broader region.
Hezbollah “has a rocket arsenal of over a hundred and thirty rockets and mortars and a history of conducting attacks both against the U.S. and other targets within Lebanon and elsewhere,” said Thomas Abi-Hanna, a global security analyst at  Stratfor, an intelligence firm based in Austin, Texas.
“Potential attacks against U.S. interests, diplomatic personnel and others in Lebanon are one potential threat they could pose,” Abi-Hanna told VOA, adding that Hezbollah could also choose to launch attacks against neighboring Israel.
“Given the group’s animosity towards Israel and Israel’s close alliance with the U.S., they could attempt to strike either American or Israeli targets within Israel using that same set of rockets,” he said.  
Since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the two sides occasionally have exchanged attacks. In the wake of Syria’s civil war, Israel has also hit Hezbollah targets inside Syria, where the Lebanese group has been fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
On Saturday, Gholamali Abuhamzeh, a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Iran has identified 35 U.S. targets across the Middle East, including in Israel, which could potentially be attacked by Tehran and its proxy forces.
But Israeli security analyst Eli Nisan told the U.S.-funded Alhurra TV Sunday that Israel has taken all precautionary measures in this regard.
“Israeli intelligence and air force are ready to defend the country and will respond to any assault from Iran, Hezbollah or [the Palestinian] Islamic Jihad,” he said.  

FILE – Hezbollah security forces stand guard as their leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah speaks via a video link on a screen in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sept. 10, 2019.Lebanon at risk
Other experts said that Nasrallah’s threats could be seen as a “declaration of war” against the United States and its allies.
“Using such a language by the head of the Hezbollah militia puts Lebanon at stake,” Lebanese affairs analyst Luqman Selim told Alhurra Sunday.
“What Nasrallah is doing is basically throwing Lebanon’s people and its institutions into an unpredictable labyrinth,” Selim said, noting that “Hezbollah is a non-state actor and its actions are not sanctioned by the will of the Lebanese people.”
Hezbollah was designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997.
Ezel Sahinkaya contributed to this story from Washington.
 

…

Hollywood’s biggest party, the Golden Globes, kicks off the showbiz awards season Sunday, with streaming giant Netflix expected to be popping champagne corks through the night.
Stars will don couture gowns and extravagant jewels before they hit the red carpet at the luxury Beverly Hills hotel where the calendar’s second-most important — but rowdiest — prize-giving gala takes place.
Victory at the Globes ensures key momentum for the Oscars, which are a little more than a month away.
Netflix and its expensively assembled roster of A-listers are far ahead of the traditional studios with 17 Globe film nominations.
The streaming giant secured an equal number of nods in the often-overlooked television categories, where it also leads the pack, ahead of HBO at 15.
Netflix has two frontrunners to scoop the night’s most prestigious film prize, best drama — Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic “The Irishman” and heart-wrenching divorce saga “Marriage Story.”
“Certainly Netflix is pouring everything they can into this and has a good shot in the drama category,” said Deadline’s awards columnist Pete Hammond.
“That would be a big deal for Netflix, definitely.”
Vatican drama “The Two Popes” is also in contention for the streamer, while Warner Bros. dark comic tale “Joker” and Universal war epic “1917” round out the category.
Netflix only began producing original movies in 2015, but has spent billions to lure the industry’s top filmmaking talent — and to fund lavish awards season campaigns.
It also has Eddie Murphy’s comeback vehicle “Dolemite Is My Name” in the best comedy or musical race — unlike the Oscars, Globes organizers split films into two categories.
But “Dolemite” is expected to face stiff competition from frontrunner “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.”
Quentin Tarantino’s homage to 1960s Tinseltown has resonated with the 90-odd veteran entertainment reporters of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which doles out the prizes.
In 2019, they correctly picked the Oscar winner in every film category except for best musical score.
“Last year, they had by far the best track record of any other show,” said Hammond.
Oscar nominations voting is already under way, but does not close until Tuesday, meaning Academy members may be tempted to wait for the Globes to conclude before casting their ballots.
“Momentum is ready to be built out of this,” added Hammond.
Firing line
British comedian Ricky Gervais returns for a record fifth time as Globes host.
His provocative barbs have both riled and delighted Hollywood stars in previous years.
This time, he has promised to “go after the general community” rather than individuals, telling the Hollywood Reporter that “pretension and hypocrisy” will be in his firing line.
The starry list of award presenters include nominees Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio (both from “Once Upon a Time…”) and Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”).
In the drama acting categories, Joaquin Phoenix is leading a crowded field for his radical portrayal of the villainous anti-hero in “Joker.”
But Adam Driver’s intense turn in “Marriage Story” has generated significant buzz, while the ever-popular Antonio Banderas has been hailed for a career-best performance in “Pain and Glory.”
“I’m very happy to be a nominee and to be with all of these wonderful actors in a pack, and we’ll see what happens,” Banderas told AFP at a pre-Globes event in Beverly Hills.
Renee Zellweger looks in a formidable position to pick up the best actress gong with Judy Garland biopic “Judy.”
Newcomer Apple will be hoping to make waves in the television categories, where its #MeToo drama “The Morning Show” has multiple nominations.
But it must fend off Netflix’s flagship “The Crown,” boasting a new cast led by Oscar winner Olivia Colman.
Hollywood heavyweights
And early signs suggest a breakthrough year for Asian filmmaking.
Asian-American actress Awkwafina is favorite to collect best comedy actress for “The Farewell,” while South Korean black comedy “Parasite” is expected to bag the award for best foreign language film.
Bong Joon-ho, the filmmaker behind “Parasite,” goes head-to-head with Hollywood heavyweights Tarantino and Scorsese in the best director category.
But the HFPA drew stinging criticism for its failure to nominate any female directors.
HFPA president Lorenzo Soria defended the all-male list, insisting that members of his organization “don’t vote by gender” but “by film and accomplishment.”
Sam Mendes (“1917”) and Todd Phillips (“Joker”) round out the category.
 
 
 

…

No one knows where Iran may strike to avenge the killing Friday of its top general in a U.S. drone strike, but few believe Tehran won’t retaliate, and it has plenty of possible targets to pick proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen to carry out reprisals, warn analysts.
U.S. allies – some of whom complain they weren’t forewarned of the plan to eliminate Gen. Qassem Soleimani — are drafting contingency plans to cope with the fallout. President Donald Trump has warned the U.S. will strike Iran “very fast and very hard,” if it takes retaliatory action, saying the Pentagon has identified 52 Iranian targets, including some “very high level” cultural sites.  
British military chiefs are counseling Downing Street to consider dispatching more soldiers to bolster security for the 400 servicemen the country already has in Iraq, and the more than one thousand stationed across the Gulf.   
That advice so far has been rejected with Prime Minister Boris Johnson instead ordering British troops in Iraq to be given heavier weaponry and for their mission to be switched from training local forces to guarding British diplomats from revenge strikes by Iran after the assassination of Soleimani, who was seen in Washington and London as a terror chief.  London fears that Iranian proxies could storm the British embassy compound in Baghdad to kill or abduct British citizens.  
Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, ordered Sunday two Royal Navy warships in the Gulf to begin “close escort” of oil tankers amid fears that Iran could seize or sink western ships. “We have a plan A and a plan B and a break the glass’ plan, if it all kicks off. Our forces in the region have been told to reorientate towards force protection,” a senior British official said.  
France and the Netherlands have followed the U.S. example and ordered its citizens to leave Iraq, where on Saturday rockets landed near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. At various levels Washington’s European allies have expressed frustration with the strike against Soleimani, while acknowledging, too, that he was directly involved in terrorist activity. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo said Saturday that Britain and other European allies were not “as helpful as I would wish,” adding, “the Brits, the French, the Germans all need to understand that what we did saved lives in Europe as well.”  
Israeli military chiefs are tightening their defenses and are bracing for Hezbollah to respond to the killing of Soleimani, Iran’s master-fixer in the region and head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Threats from Hezbollah
A Lebanese Hezbollah official, like other Iranian clients in a chorus of angry threats, said Saturday the response of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance” would be decisive. His threats echoed the words of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who says Tehran will react with “harsh revenge” to the killing of Soleimani, a personal friend and a man he once dubbed a “living martyr.”  
Most analysts suspect Iran will take a leaf out of Soleimani’s own playbook and aim to target Americans across the Middle East and Afghanistan, where Iran has been observing a marriage of convenience with the Taliban. Soleimani was a master-manipulator of Iranian-backed forces in the region and strove to drive up the death toll of U.S. troops in  the Mideast in a bid to drain the American resolve to fight.   
Gen. Gholamali Abuhamzeh, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Soleimani’s native province of Kerman, in southern Iran, raised the prospect Saturday of a possible renewal of an offensive against oil ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz.    
“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there,” he told an Iranian broadcaster. But like Iran’s para-military proxies in the region, who appear to be lining up to exact revenge, he painted the a grim picture of reprisals across the region. “Vital American targets in the region have been identified by Iran since a long time ago … some 35 U.S. targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach,” he said.  
Immediate retaliation
The most immediate arena will likely be in Iraq, where Tehran and its Iraqi Shi’ite proxies have already made clear they want to force U.S. troops to abandon the country.   
That effort was underway before the drone assassination of Soleimani with Shi’ite militias launching a dozen attacks on U.S. troops since October. Those attacks — including an assault no the U.S. embassy in Baghdad — was the trigger for Friday’s assassination of Soleimani, according to U.S. officials. Qais al-Khazali, a powerful pro-Iranian Iraqi militia leader, has ordered his fighters to be on high alert, saying on Iranian television the price for the drone strike must be “the complete end to American military presence in Iraq.”
“Retaliation, in the first instance, is likely to be focused on Iraq,” said Toby Dodge, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. But Western troops stationed in Syria’s Kurdish regions in the north are also vulnerable to attacks from Iran-commanded Shi’ite militias, fear Western officials.   
But outside Iraq and Syria, the target list is worryingly long and military and intelligence officials on both sides of the Atlantic are scrambling to assess when and where Tehran will most likely strike amid the heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran,. Western companies are operating in the Gulf are restricting their employees travel in the region, say security consultants.  
Unnamed U.S. officials told the broadcaster CNN Saturday that they’re seeing signs of Iran stepping up readiness to launch short and medium-range ballistic missiles.   
Other analysts predict Iran will want to lash out, too, at U.S. allies in the region, to make their backing of Washington as costly and disruptive as possible.   
Qatar dispatched Saturday its foreign minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to Tehran, seemingly in a bid to mollify Iran. The Reaper drone that fired a Hellfire missile killing Soleimani flew from a U.S. military base in Qatar. “No such similar action was taken in the past, which is why we are very uncomfortable and worried,” Al Thani told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani according to official reports.   
Rouhani in statement after the meeting said Tehran expects neighboring countries explicitly condemn this murder by the U.S.   America’s Gulf allies, notably Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, privately have welcomed Soleimani’s death, say Western diplomats. They have long condemned him role in the region, and see his slaying a blow to Iran. But diplomats based in the region say their official reaction is reserved as trey are nervous about Iran’s response. Washington and Riyadh blamed Iran for missile and drone attacks in September on Saudi oil facilities.  
Iranian targets
Qatar is unlikely to be on an Iranian target list as Doha has been supportive of various Iranian diplomatic initiatives in the region, say Western officials and analysts. But both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, sworn enemies of Iran’s Shi’ite regime, are braced for attacks.    
“Beyond the immediate environment [of Iraq], Israel may reap serious security repercussions and U.S. allies in the Gulf, particularly Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi, could all fall victim to Iranian retaliatory measures,” says Charles Lister, an analyst the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank.   
Any reprisals on Saudi Arabia and UAE would likely come from Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, where Iran and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in a long-running proxy war.
European intelligence officials are also fearful of Iranian cyber-attacks. In 2017 Iran was suspected of being behind a cyber-attack on the British parliament’s computer system, which compromised the email accounts of British ministers.   
At this stage the European ally likely to be singled is Britain, a British intelligence official told VOA. “I don’t think Tehran will want to hit out at other European states — Iran is more interested in widening transatlantic rifts between Washington and the Europeans,” he said.  
 

…

Jeff Seldin and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday staunchly defended the drone attack that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, but refused to publicly offer any evidence supporting the American claim that he posed an imminent threat to U.S. forces and officials in the Mideast.
Pompeo, in one of a string of interviews on news talk shows, told ABC that senior U.S. leaders who had access to all of the intelligence before the attack on Soleimani had “no skepticism” about the necessity of killing him.
“The intelligence assessment made clear that no action allowing Soleimani to continue his plotting and planning, his terror campaign, created more risk than the action that we took last week,” the top U.S. diplomat said. “We reduced risk.”

FILE – In this Sept. 18, 2016 photo released by the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran.But Pompeo several times declined to reveal evidence of the threat the U.S. believed that Soleimani posed.
“There are simply things we cannot make public,” Pompeo told Fox News. “You’ve got to protect the sources providing the intelligence.”
On CNN, Pompeo said U.S. officials would continue to disclose information about the drone attack, but only “consistent with protecting our sources and methods and importantly our capacity to continue to understand what’s going on in presenting threats. You don’t want to risk that intelligence.”
The war of threats between Washington and Tehran in the aftermath of Soleimani’s killing was unabated.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that the U.S. has identified 52 sites in Iran, including “some at a very high level & important … to the Iranian culture,” that the U.S. would strike “very fast and very hard” should Iran attack any U.S. personnel or assets in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani. The number 52 represents the 52 American hostages taken by Iran in 1979 and held for 444 days.
Under the Geneva Conventions laying out the legal constraints of war, attacking another country’s cultural sites is a war crime. But Pompeo, while not rebuking Trump’s Twitter comment, told ABC, “We’ll behave lawfully. We’ll behave inside the system. Every target that we strike will be a lawful target and it will be designed at the singular mission of protecting the American people.”
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed “severe revenge” against the killing of Soleimani. His top military adviser, Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, told CNN, “The response for sure will be military and against military sites.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a televised news conference, “Iran is not seeking a war but is ready for any situation.” He said the final decision in response to Soleimani’s killing would be made by “the system’s leadership.”
He said Iran would try to “devise a response in a way that would both make the enemy regret” Soleimani’s killing and “not bring the Iranian nation to a war.”

In this photo provided by ISNA, the flag-draped coffins of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his comrades who were killed in Iraq in a U.S. drone strike, are carried on a truck surrounded by mourners during their funeral in Ahvaz, Iran.Tehran said a million people poured into the streets of Mashhad, the country’s second city, to mourn Soleimani’s death. Because of the ongoing program there, authorities canceled a planned event in Tehran, instead urging Iranians to attend a ceremony honoring Soleimani at Tehran University on Monday.
 
 In the U.S., Republican lawmakers voiced support for Trump’s order to kill Soleimani. But opposition Democrats said that while they believed that Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. forces in the Mideast, Trump’s action increased the threat of a U.S.-Iran war and complained that a military intervention like that against Soleimani required congressional approval.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Fox, “We’re now headed very close to the precipice of war.”  He said that “you just can’t go around and kill” world figures the U.S. opposes. “The president is not entitled to take us to war” without congressional authorization.”
Larry Pfeiffer, the director of the Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University and a former senior director of the White House Situation Room, rebuked Trump’s threats  against Iranian cultural sites. He told VOA, “This is not how America should behave and would likely violate international conventions and norms.” Pfeiffer said Trump’s threats “sound like something that would be issued by an autocratic regime like North Korea.”   
“When the U.S. president makes it open season on cultural sites, he offers false justification to adversaries to do the same,” Pfeiffer said.
Trump said Friday that Soleimani’s killing was long overdue.     
“We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “However, the Iranian regime’s aggression in the region, including the use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors must end and it must end now.”
Trump claimed Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, Iraqis and Iranians, saying the longtime Iranian general “made the death of innocent people his sick passion” while helping to run a terror network that reached across the Middle East to Europe and the Americas.
Analysts say any retaliatory actions against the U.S. by Iran would likely come after the three days of mourning that were declared Friday.
On Saturday, the White House formally notified Congress of Friday’s drone strike. Under the War Powers Act, the notification is required within 48 hours of introducing U.S. forces into an armed conflict that could lead to war.
The classified document was sent to congressional leadership, officials said. It would likely describe the Trump administration’s justifications for the strike against Soleimani, as well as intelligence information behind the decision and the expected scope of the military involvement. It is not known if the information will be released to the public.
Soleimani’s body is being moved late Sunday to Tehran, before he is buried Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman.

…