Day: November 17, 2023

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is unlikely to agree to a fresh request by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to buy Eurofighter Typhoon jets, as tensions simmer over a number of issues including Turkey’s condemnation of Israel, Bloomberg reports.

Erdogan will probably ask Scholz at a meeting in Berlin on Friday to lift a block on the sale of the fighter planes he needs to refresh an aging airforce, according to Turkish officials familiar with the matter.

Germany produces the Eurofighter in a consortium with three other countries.

Documentary 1489, directed by Armenian filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan, won Best Film in International Competition at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Deadline reports.

The film revolves around the disappearance of the director’s 21-year-old brother, Soghomon Vardanyan, who went missing in the early days of the renewed fighting in 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The awards were handed out on Thursday.

The award comes with a €15,000 cash prize. The jury members of the International Competition were Emilie Bujès, Francesco Giai Via, Tabitha Jackson, Ada Solomon, and Xiaoshuai Wang. 

Jurors called 1489, “A film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see. And ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”

Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly won Best Director in International Competition for his film Life Is Beautiful, an account of how he became stranded in Norway while making his earlier film Ambulance.

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Authorities in New York have seized more than $1bn worth of fake products, said to be the largest haul of counterfeit goods in US history, the BBC reports.

Officials say they seized roughly 219,000 fake handbags, shoes and other luxury items in the massive haul.

Two men have been charged with trafficking the goods, which police say was done out of a storage locker in Manhattan.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

“The trafficking of counterfeit goods is anything but a victimless crime,” New York police commissioner Edward A Caban said in a statement. “It harms legitimate businesses, governments, and consumers.”

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York arrested two men – Adama Sow and Abdulai Jalloh – on Wednesday.

The pair ran “large-scale counterfeit goods trafficking operations” from January 2023 until late October, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

Photos released by authorities show rooms packed with knock-off luxury bags, wallets, sunglasses and more, which amounted to an estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of approximately $1.03bn.

Authorities note that the street value of counterfeit goods typically is significantly lower than the estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

Law enforcement seized over 83,000 counterfeit items from the premises controlled by Mr Sow, estimated at more than $502m.

A search of the premises controlled by Mr Jalloh resulted in the seizure of over 50,000 counterfeit items, estimated at more than $237m.