AFP

Colombian superstar Shakira inched closer to standing trial in Spain for tax fraud after a Barcelona court dismissed an appeal from the singer, in a ruling made public Thursday.

Prosecutors accuse the 45-year-old “Hips don’t Lie” songstress of defrauding the Spanish tax office out of 14.5 million euros ($15.5 million) on income earned between 2012 and 2014.

Prosecutors say she moved to Spain in 2011 when her relationship with FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique became public but maintained official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015.

Her defence team argues she moved to Spain full time only in 2015 and has met all tax obligations.

They say that until 2014 she earned most of her money from international tours, did not live more than six months a year in Spain and was therefore not resident under tax law.

But a Barcelona court ruled that “documentation provided to prove” tax residence overseas “does not appear to sufficient”.

“We can consider that the appellant had her usual residence in Spain,” the court added in a ruling made public on Thursday.

The ruling ratifies a prior court decision issued in 2021.

Prosecutors now need to present an indictment before the court can order a trial.

Shakira’s lawyers insisted Thursday that her “conduct on tax matters has always been impeccable in all the countries she had to pay taxes”.

She has “no debts to the Spanish tax authorities” and paid any sums claimed by the tax authorities “as soon as she became aware of the amount,” they added in a statement.

Shakira, who has sold over 60 million albums, lives with Pique on the outskirts of Barcelona. The couple have two children.

Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is facing sexual assault charges in the UK, police and prosecutors said on Thursday, after a review of allegations against him.

The two-time Oscar winner for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” was artistic director of The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015.

Allegations against him first emerged in the wake of the #MeToo movement that saw numerous claims of sexual assault and harassment in the movie industry.

That prompted an investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police, and a review by The Old Vic of the 62-year-old Spacey’s time in charge there.

The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement that it had “authorised criminal charges” against the actor “for four counts of sexual assault against three men”.

“He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent,” said Rosemary Ainslie, from the service.

“The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” added Ainslie, who heads the special crime division.

The Met said separately that the first two counts of sexual assault date from March 2005 in London, and concern the same man, who is now in his 40s.

The third is alleged to have happened in London in August 2008 against a man who is now in his 30s. The same man is alleged to be the victim of the separate charge.

The fourth sexual assault charge is alleged to have occurred in Gloucestershire, western England, in April 2013 against a third man, who is now in his 30s.

None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law.

The CPS, which brings prosecutions in England and Wales, and the police both referred to Spacey by his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler.

Legal restrictions are in place limiting what the media can report until the case comes before a jury to avoid prejudicing any trial.

The CPS said that when considering whether to approve charges, it makes “fair, independent and objective” assessments about whether a case should go to court.

Claims against Stacey in 2017 led to the end of his involvement in the filming of the final season of the political drama “House of Cards”

He was also dropped from a Gore Vidal biopic on Netflix and as the industrialist John Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World”.

Christopher Plummer was brought in as a last-minute replacement.

Stacey, considered one of the finest actors of his generation, has previously denied similar charges in the United States.

Ukraine said Thursday the war in the east of the country had hit its fiercest level yet as it urged Western allies to match words with support against invading Russian forces.

Moscow’s troops are pushing into the industrial Donbas region after failing to take the capital Kyiv, closing in on several urban centres including the strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

Russian forces also shelled Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, killing four people, after Moscow’s efforts to capture the north-eastern hub were repelled by heavy battles early in the war. 

Britain and Germany both said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin must be defeated in the conflict, now in its fourth month, but Kyiv called on the West to urgently supply more heavy weapons for its outgunned forces.

“The fighting has reached its maximum intensity,” Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar told a press briefing about the battles in the east.

“Enemy forces are storming the positions of our troops simultaneously in several directions. We have an extremely difficult and long stage of fighting ahead of us.”

Pro-Moscow separatist groups have controlled parts of Donbas, the industrial basin comprising Donetsk and Lugansk regions, since 2014 but Russia now appears set on taking the whole region.

Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said that “heavy” Russian bombardments on Lysychansk had done extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, including a humanitarian aid centre.

– ‘Show me one Nazi!’ –

Three people died in recent Russian attacks on Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which stand on the crucial route to Ukraine’s eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk, Gaiday said.

In Kramatorsk itself, children roamed the rubble left by Russian attacks as the sound of shellfire booms.

“That was a 22 (122-mm artillery),” said Yevgen, a sombre-looking 13-year-old who moved to Kramatorsk with his mother from the ruins of his village Galyna. 

“I am not scared,” he declared as he sat alone on a slab of a destroyed apartment block. “I got used to the shelling.”

Four civilians were killed in shelling in the Donetsk region around Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian presidency said.

Fresh shelling around Kharkiv in the northeast killed another four people, with officials warning residents to take to air raid shelters.

“The occupiers are again shelling the regional centre,” the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram. 

Russia’s rationale of a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and de-Nazify” Ukraine draws a snort of derision in one village near Kharkiv.

“Show me one Nazi in the village! We have our nation, we are nationalists but not Nazis nor fascists,” says retired nurse Larysa Kosynets.

– ‘Putin must not win’ –

As the toll mounted, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to add to the billions of dollars in weaponry it has already poured in, and blasted suggestions a negotiated peace could include territorial concessions.

“We need the help of our partners — above all, weapons for Ukraine. Full help, without exceptions, without limits, enough to win,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had earlier told Davos that his country “badly” needs multiple-launch rocket systems to match Russian firepower.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has faced criticism over Berlin’s slow response, underscored the “resolve and strength” of the West.

“Our goal is crystal clear — Putin must not win this war. And I am convinced that he will not win it,” the German chancellor told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Scholz added that it was a “matter of making it clear to Putin that there will be no dictated peace.” 

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss echoed the German chancellor’s comments and warned against offering “compromise or appeasement” to Putin.

“We need to make sure that Putin loses in Ukraine and that Ukraine prevails,” Truss told reporters during a visit to Sarajevo, saying that Kyiv needed to be supported without “backsliding”.

– ‘Illegal’ sanctions –

The Ukraine conflict has sparked fears of a global food crisis, on top of the political and economic shockwaves that have already reverberated around the world since the February 24 invasion.

The Kremlin on Thursday accused Western countries of stopping grain-carrying vessels from leaving ports in Ukraine, rejecting accusations that Russia was to blame.

“We accuse Western countries of taking a number of illegal actions that have led to this blockade,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meanwhile poured cold water on an Italian peace plan to end the war.

The Russian central bank cut its key interest rate to 11 percent from 14 percent following an emergency meeting, as authorities sought to rein in the ruble which has surged in value despite the conflict.

Moscow slapped strict capital controls to boost the economy after the imposition of the sanctions and since then the ruble has staged a spectacular rebound — but Russia fears a strong ruble can hit budget revenues and exporters. 

The Kremlin is also seeking to tighten its grip over the parts of Ukraine it occupies, including fast-tracking citizenship for residents of two southern regions that are mostly under Russian control.

The United States branded the plan an “attempt to subjugate the people of Ukraine”.

burs-dk/jm

Witnesses to the Texas school shooting rampage on Thursday questioned the early police response to the massacre, as bereaved parents said they pleaded for officers to storm the building and stop the bloodshed — to no avail.

As the town of Uvalde mourned 19 children and two teachers killed in America’s latest mass shooting, Jacinto Cazares, whose daughter Jacklyn died in Tuesday’s massacre, said he raced to Robb Elementary School in the small town of Uvalde when he heard about the shooting.

“There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth but didn’t do a darn thing (until) it was far too late,” Cazares told ABC News Wednesday night, joining other grief-stricken parents quoted in US media as saying they urged police to act more forcefully, as America’s worst school shooting in a decade unfolded.

“The situation could’ve been over quick if they had better tactical training, and we as a community witnessed it firsthand,” said Cazares.

Daniel Myers and his wife Matilda — both local pastors — told AFP they were at the scene, and saw parents growing frantic as police appeared to wait on reinforcements before entering the school.

“Parents were desperate,” said Daniel Myers, 72. “They were ready to go in. One family member, he says: ‘I was in the military, just give me a gun, I’ll go in. I’m not going to hesitate. I’ll go in.'”

“So there was desperation there, there was time lapse,” he told AFP at a makeshift memorial outside the school, where wooden crosses have been erected with victims’ names.

The tight-knit Latino community was changed forever when an 18-year-old with a history of being bullied entered the school with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Officials say the gunman, Salvador Ramos, wearing a military-style vest, was confronted by a school resource officer, but was able to enter through a back door. Ramos then made his way to two adjoining classrooms and started shooting.

Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw told CNN Ramos was inside for about 40 minutes before police managed to shoot and kill him.

US Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz, meanwhile, said the force’s agents “didn’t hesitate.”

“They came up with a plan. They entered that classroom and they took care of the situation as quickly as they possibly could,” Ortiz told CNN.

– ‘I have no words’ –

Speaking out for the first time, Ramos’s mother Adriana Reyes told ABC News her son could be aggressive when he got really angry but was “not a monster.”

“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?,'” she told ABC Wednesday evening.

“We all have a rage, that some people have it more than others,” Reyes said.

Reyes expressed sympathy for the slain children and their parents, saying she was not aware that her son had been buying weapons.

“Those kids… I have no words,” Reyes said through tears. “I don’t know what to say about those poor kids.”

A teacher who was in the school building and spoke to NBC on condition she not be named said she had not been able to eat since the tragedy.

She said her students were watching a Disney movie to celebrate the imminent end of the school year, when she heard gunfire down the hall. She told the kids to get under their desks and rushed to lock the door.

“They knew this wasn’t a drill,” the teacher said, referring to the so-called active shooter exercises sadly common in US schools. “We knew we had to be quiet or else we were going to give ourselves away.”

Eventually police broke her classroom windows from the outside and helped the kids to safety.

Authorities have said Ramos shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face before heading to Robb Elementary School with an AR-15 rifle.

According to Uvalde’s justice of the peace Eulalio Dia, anguished families waiting for news of their children had to provide DNA samples to help in the identification process.

“Some of the children were not in good shape,” Diaz told the El Paso Times.

– ‘Common sense’ –

Pressed Wednesday on how the teen was able to obtain the murder weapon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott brushed aside suggestions tougher gun laws were needed in his state — where attachment to the right to bear arms runs deep.

But in the shooting’s wake President Joe Biden — who will head to Uvalde in coming days — has called on lawmakers to take on America’s powerful gun lobby and enact “common sense gun reforms.”

The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s long-awaited fever dream of a biopic about the King of Rock’n’Roll, “Elvis”, split Cannes down the middle on Thursday between cheering admirers and barb-throwing critics.

The epic features a star-making turn by young actor Austin Butler as the swivel-hipped, rule-breaking cultural pioneer and Tom Hanks as his exploitative manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

As one of the hottest tickets this year at the world’s top film festival, the movie drew a 12-minute standing ovation at the premiere attended by Kylie Minogue, Shakira, Ricky Martin and the late rocker’s ex-wife Priscilla Presley.

But as the first reviews emerged, the glowing portrayal of an American icon and the top solo recording artist of all time divided Cannes.

Robbie Collin of London’s Daily Telegraph called it “indecently entertaining” and set for a “big” box office this summer. 

“Elvis Presley grooving down 1950s Beale Street to the sound of (American rapper) Doja Cat and singing Viva Las Vegas in the style of Britney Spears?” he said of the movie’s head-spinning musical mashups. “Man, it’s good to have Baz Luhrmann back.”

Oscar-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro tweeted that the film was “dazzling, bold and moving…Loved it. Loved it. Loved it”.

– ‘Deliriously awful’ –

The New York Times’s Kyle Buchanan said fans of Luhrmann, the brashly flamboyant director of “Moulin Rouge!”, “The Great Gatsby” and “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”, would get exactly what they came for.

“Overcranked, glittery, silly, fun, ridiculous… sometimes all of those within the same five seconds! The only variables are lead actor Austin Butler (better than expected) and Tom Hanks (much worse!),” he said.

France’s Le Figaro called it a “departure from the conventional biopic” while its “baroque touch does the rest” to make it a crowd-pleaser.     

The picture traces the King’s life from his dirt-poor childhood living in a black neighbourhood in the segregated Deep South to his final, drug-addled years as a bloated shadow of himself during a lengthy residency in a Las Vegas hotel.

It trains a spotlight on the role of blues, gospel and soul in shaping his music, showing Elvis as a respectful and devoted admirer of black culture rather than a white profiteer ripping it off.

In a scathing review, US movie website IndieWire zeroed in on what it called its historical whitewashing.

“Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination is framed as something that personally happened to Elvis Presley, and made him feel very sad,” reviewer David Ehrlich wrote, calling the film “deliriously awful”. 

The Guardian was similarly unimpressed: “Incurious yet frantic, Luhrmann’s spangly epic is off-key – and Austin Butler flounders in those blue suede shoes.”

– Not a Bond baddie –

At a news conference, Luhrmann said he was unfazed about occasionally being panned. 

He said he was most concerned about the reaction of Elvis’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, an actress and film-maker screening her new feature “War Pony” at Cannes, and Priscilla Presley. Both have given their blessing to the film.  

“Criticism of anything you make — I’m used to it,” Luhrmann said. 

“No critique, no review was ever going to mean more to us than the review of the woman who was married to Elvis Presley.”

Hanks said he didn’t take on the role of Colonel Parker as a typical villain. 

“I’m not interested in playing a bad guy just for the sake of ‘Before I kill you Mr Bond, perhaps you’d like a tour of my installation?'” he said, joking about the cartoonish evildoers of the 007 movies.

“What Baz tantalised me with right off the bat was: here was a guy who saw an opportunity to manifest a once-in-a-lifetime talent into a cultural force.

“I give Colonel credit for doing that very thing.”