Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leading figures from the ruling National League for Democracy were detained by the military early Monday, a spokesman for the party told Reuters and other international news outlets.
Communications in parts of the country, including the capital, also appear to have been cut or hindered, according to reports.
The moves have sparked fears that a coup is underway in the Southeast Asian country after the military disputed the results of the Nov. 8 election. Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD won in a landslide victory, capturing 396 out of 476 seats, allowing the party to form a government for five more years.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party, a military-backed party, won just 33 seats.
Ye Aung Thu—AFP/ Getty ImagesSupporters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party hold posters with the image of Myanmar state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi as supporters celebrate in front of the party’s headquarters in Yangon on November 9, 2020, as NLD officials said they were confident of a landslide victory in the weekend’s election.
On Jan. 29, the country’s election commission rejected allegations by the military that the election was fraudulent.
The same day, several Western diplomatic missions, including the U.S, issued a statement urging “the military, and all other parties in the country, to adhere to democratic norms.”
Joint Statement issued by the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Myanmar: pic.twitter.com/kTEYwxqK2t
Suu Kyi won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent resistance against the military dictatorship that kept her under house arrest for 15 years. But more recently, she faced international scorn for her response to a violent crackdown by security forces against the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority. U.N. investigators determined that the violent campaign of arson, rape and murder was carried out with genocidal intent. But Suu Kyi has publicly rejected accusations that the military waged a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya.
After days of frigid temperatures but little else weather-wise, the Northeast braced for a whopper of a storm that could dump well over a foot of snow in many areas, create blizzard-like conditions and cause travel problems for the next few days.
Three to 5 inches of snow arrived in central Ohio by early Sunday, making for some slippery roads. A few more inches was in the forecast for Sunday, but by the afternoon, the snow was expected to reach Pennsylvania.
Heavy snow falling at an inch to 3 inches an hour was forecast for Monday in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the National Weather Service said. Much of the region could see blizzard-like conditions, with a foot to 18 inches of snow.
Temperatures were expected to be in the upper 20s to lower 30s for New York City metro area.
The snow was expected to start falling in Massachusetts on Monday morning, bringing up to a foot of snow to impact the evening commute. The storm will reach northern New England later that night, meteorologists said.
Winds strong enough to bring down tree branches with gusts ranging from 35 to 50 mph were forecast for the storm.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay counts herself as one of the many people inspired by W.J. Lofton’s powerful visual poem “We Ask For Fire”—in which he repeats the words, “the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor are at home with their families”—as protesters around the world demanded justice following her death last March.
“I was deeply moved,” DuVernay tells TIME. “The idea that one artist was able to unite a very striking written voice with a visual voice—a marriage of the vocabulary it takes to be potent in both forms—was very interesting to me.”
DuVernay has now commissioned Lofton, 28, to create another visual poem for her Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP), which she started in the days after George Floyd’s murder last May in Minneapolis, and aims to call attention to police brutality as well as the code of silence that exists around it. The resulting work, “Would You Kill God Too?,” debuts Sunday. In the poem, Lofton asks a series of questions to three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers—Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove—who conducted a “no knock” warrant raid on Taylor’s apartment late at night on March 13, 2020. During the raid, the officers fired more than thirty shots into her residence, killing her.
“How do you explain this to your children?” he asks the officers. “Did you tell them the blood on your shoes belonged to a Black girl, or is she not worth mentioning?… God was in the room when you made a massacre out of someone’s child.”
“I wanted to confront them like they confronted Breonna,” Lofton says. “It’s so important to constantly name the officers, so they don’t get to go back and just live their lives after they’ve taken someone’s life.”
“Once they kill Black people, do we just accept that they disappear behind a blue shield?” DuVernay asks. “As an artist, I have no domain on how to fight that other than to tell people in this country that we don’t have to let these officers walk away.”
LEAP is a two-year initiative that aims to raise awareness and put pressure on law enforcement through a series of creative works spanning film, theater, photography, poetry, music, sculpture and dance. (Inaugural funders included the Ford Foundation and Ryan Murphy.) Lofton’s piece is the second to be released. DuVernay says that a central challenge of the project has been realigning artists’ creative focus from the victim to the officers. “It’s the opposite of what our culture has trained us to do: It’s okay to say the victim’s name, but we’ve been asked to turn our back on the law enforcement side,” she notes. “We have to think about these cases differently.”
Lofton began writing the poem last September, turning to the music of Nina Simone and the art of Carrie Mae Weems for inspiration. “A life was snuffed out, and having to revisit this every day, having to carry this in my body and feel the weight of it—it was very emotionally difficult,” Lofton says.
After finishing the poem, Lofton then filmed visual accompaniments in Atlanta, where he lives, capturing images of Black love as well as tragedy. Visual references include a hoodie that quotes Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” speech and a confederate flag. “ I wanted to put historical reminders throughout the film that challenge this idea we live in a post-racial society,” he says.
DuVernay hopes to put out a new LEAP piece every month. “We have the funds to identify artists who want to get into the dirt with us and make art that stands in contrast to the standard narrative around police killing Black folk,” she says.
WASHINGTON — A group of Senate Republicans called on President Joe Biden to meet them at the negotiating table as the newly elected president signaled he could move to pass a new $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package with all Democratic votes.
Ten Senate Republicans wrote Biden in a letter released Sunday that their smaller counterproposal will include $160 billion for vaccines, testing, treatment and personal protective equipment and will call for more targeted relief than Biden’s plan to issue $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans.
“In the spirit of bipartisanship and unity, we have developed a COVID-19 relief framework that builds on prior COVID assistance laws, all of which passed with bipartisan support,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. “Our proposal reflects many of your stated priorities, and with your support, we believe that this plan could be approved quickly by Congress with bipartisan support.”
The call on Biden to give bipartisanship negotiations more time comes as the president has shown signs of impatience amid growing calls from the more liberal wing of his party to pass his $1.9 trillion legislation through budget reconciliation, a process that would allow him to move the massive bill with only the support of his Democratic majority.
The Republican lawmakers did not reveal the overall cost of their proposal, though they said it would be smaller than the $1.9 trillion price tag of the Biden package.
“My hope is that the president will meet with us and we’ll be able to work out something that is bipartisan,” said Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, one of the 10 GOP senators signing the letter.
Brian Deese, the top White House economic adviser who has been leading the administration’s outreach to Congress, said administration officials were reviewing the letter. He did not immediately commit to Biden meeting with the lawmakers.
Deese signaled the White House could be open to negotiating with Republicans on their proposal on further limiting who would receive stimulus checks.
“That is certainly a place that we’re willing to sit down and think about, are there ways to make the entire package more effective?” Deese said.
Both Portman and Deese spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, two people familiar with the situation said Saturday.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer with Trump’s defense team. One of the people described the parting as a “mutual decision” that reflected a difference of opinion on the direction of the case. Both insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.
One said new additions to the legal team were expected to be announced in a day or two.
The upheaval injects fresh uncertainty into the makeup and strategy of Trump’s defense team as he prepares to face charges that he incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. However, all but five Senate Republicans this week voted in favor of an effort to dismiss the trial before it even started, making clear a conviction of the former president is unlikely regardless of his defense team.
Greg Harris and Johnny Gasser, two former federal prosecutors from South Carolina, are also off the team, one of the people said.
According to a different person with knowledge of the legal hires, Bowers and Barbier left the team because Trump wanted them to use a defense that relied on allegations of election fraud, and the lawyers were not willing to do so. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation and requested anonymity.
Trump has struggled to find attorneys willing to defend him after becoming the first president in history to be impeached twice. He is set to stand trial the week of Feb. 8 on a charge that he incited his supporters to storm Congress before President Joe Biden’s inauguration in an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power.
After numerous attorneys who defended him previously declined to take on the case, Trump was introduced to Bowers by one of his closest allies in the Senate, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Bowers, a familiar figure in Republican legal circles, had years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford against a failed impeachment effort that morphed into an ethics probe.
Bowers and Barbier did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday evening.
Republicans and Trump aides have made clear that they intend to make a simple argument in the trial: Trump’s trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.
While Republicans in Washington had seemed eager to part ways with Trump after the deadly events of Jan. 6, they have since eased off of their criticism, weary of angering the former president’s loyal voter base.
CNN was first to report the departure of the lawyers.
____
Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
MOSCOW — Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands took to the streets Sunday across Russia’s vast expanse to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. More than 3,300 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and some were beaten.
Russian authorities mounted a massive effort to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of thousands rallied across the country last weekend in the largest, most widespread show of discontent that Russia has seen in years. Yet despite threats of jail terms, warnings to social media groups and tight police cordons, the protests again engulfed many cities on Sunday.
The 44-year-old Navalny, an anti-corruption investigator who is Putin’s best-known critic, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusations. He was arrested for allegedly violating his parole conditions by not reporting for meetings with law enforcement when he was recuperating in Germany.
The United States urged Russia to release Navalny and criticized the crackdown on protests.
“The U.S. condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter.
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected Blinken’s call as a “crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilize the situation in the country by backing the protests.
On Sunday, police detained over 3,300 people at protests held in cities across Russia’s 11 time zones, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests.
In Moscow, authorities introduced unprecedented security measures in the city center, closing subway stations near the Kremlin, cutting bus traffic and ordering restaurants and stores to stay closed.
Navalny’s team initially called for Sunday’s protest to be held on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square, home to the main headquarters of the Federal Security Service, which Navalny claims was responsible for his poisoning. Facing police cordons around the square, the protest shifted to other central squares and streets.
Police were randomly picking up people and putting them into police buses, but thousands of protesters marched across the city center for hours, chanting “Putin, resign!” and Putin, thief!” a reference to an opulent Black Sea estate reportedly built for the Russian leader that was featured in a widely popular video released by Navalny’s team.
At some point, crowds of demonstrators walked toward the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Navalny is being held. They were met by phalanxes of riot police who pushed the march back and chased protesters through courtyards, detaining scores and beating some with clubs. Still, protesters continued to march around the Russian capital, zigzagging around police cordons.
Nearly 900 people were detained in Moscow, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who joined the protest. “If we keep silent, they will come after any of us tomorrow,” she said on Instagram before turning out to protest.
Several thousand marched across Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, and occasional scuffles erupted as some demonstrators pushed back police who tried to make detentions. Nearly 600 were arrested.
Some of the biggest rallies were held in Novosibirsk in eastern Siberia and Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
“I do not want my grandchildren to live in such a country,” said 55-year-old Vyacheslav Vorobyov, who turned out for a rally in Yekaterinburg. “I want them to live in a free country.”
As part of a multipronged effort by authorities to block the protests, courts have jailed Navalny’s associates and activists across the country over the past week. His brother Oleg, top aide Lyubov Sobol and three other people were put Friday under a two-month house arrest on charges of allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions during last weekend’s protests.
Prosecutors also demanded that social media platforms block calls to join the protests.
The Interior Ministry issued stern warnings to the public not to join the protests, saying participants could be charged with taking part in mass riots, which carries a prison sentence of up to eight years. Those engaging in violence against police could face up to 15 years.
Nearly 4,000 people were reportedly detained at demonstrations on Jan. 23 calling for Navalny’s release that took place in more than 100 Russian cities, and some were given fines and jail terms. About 20 were accused of assaulting police and faced criminal charges.
Soon after Navalny’s arrest, his team released a two-hour video on his YouTube channel about the Black Sea residence purportedly built for Putin. The video has been viewed over 100 million times, helping fuel discontent and inspiring a stream of sarcastic jokes on the internet amid an economic downturn.
Russia has seen extensive corruption during Putin’s time in office while poverty has remained widespread.
Demonstrators in Moscow chanted “Aqua discotheque!,” a reference to one of the fancy amenities at the residence that also features a casino and a hookah lounge equipped for watching pole dances.
Putin says neither he nor any of his close relatives own the property. On Saturday, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, a longtime Putin confidant and his occasional judo sparring partner, claimed that he himself owned the property.
Navalny fell into a coma on Aug. 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow and the pilot diverted the plane so he could be treated in the city of Omsk. He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, claiming a lack of evidence that he was poisoned.
Navalny was arrested immediately when he returned to Russia earlier this month and jailed for 30 days on the request of Russia’s prison service, which alleged he had violated the probation of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that he has rejected as political revenge.
On Thursday, a Moscow court rejected Navalny’s appeal to be released, and another hearing next week could turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one he must serve in prison.
(Miss this week’s Leadership Brief? This interview below was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, Jan. 31; to receive weekly emails of conversations with the world’s top CEOs and business decisionmakers, click here.)
While President Joe Biden’s Cabinet and other senior-level appointments have generally received high marks for their overall competence and experience, there is one notable empty seat at the table. At a moment when the health of the nation, and the nation’s economy, is dependent on production and distribution issues, one can’t help but wish there were at least one private-sector business ninja in the Cabinet, ideally a person with manufacturing, logistics and supply-chain experience. Social media is atwitter with facetious calls for Amazon Prime to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine and take care of the problem in two days. My own half-facetious daydream is to put Walmart—which has 150 million people passing through its doors each week and operates more than 5,000 pharmacies, many in underserved areas—in charge of vaccine distribution. If you talk to business leaders, there is a palpable sense of “Put me in, Coach!”
One potent frontline presence is Albertsons, the nation’s third largest food retailer, with more than $63 billion in sales and operations in 34 states. Albertsons also employs 11,000 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and is gearing up to hire hundreds more to help the vaccine effort. “At this point, though, our bottleneck is not qualified technical people to do it,” says Vivek Sankaran, the chief executive of Albertsons. “It’s the vaccine itself.”
Sankaran believes the vaccine’s shaky rollout is contributing to the nation’s anxious mood. “The stress level is up again,” he says. “There’s a realization that this may be a little longer than we all imagined.”
On Jan. 21, Sankaran joined TIME for a video conversation about vaccination logistics, the products that keep selling during the pandemic (lobster, tequila and ice cream), and the growing impatience of U.S. consumers.
(This interview with Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
You are in the vaccine business now. How’s it going?
We’ve always been in the vaccine business. The crazy thing is, we’ve been planning for this for months now. We can do this in parking lots and offices. And so we stand ready; we have 11,000 people who can do it. We don’t have vaccines! So we’re trying to work through the federal and state authorities. But I just think it’s regrettable. It’s gummed up somewhere. And hopefully, we’ll get that distribution really quickly so we can get it. Once we have it, we’re all ready to dispense it. We’ve been allocated 200,000 vaccines, and I think we received 105,000. We’ve already immunized 90,000 people. [UPDATE: As of Jan. 26, Albertsons had administered over 200,000 doses.]
When did you do your first vaccinations?
Two or three weeks ago [in late December]. We started in Alaska.
How has it been working, getting shipments?
It’s a bit sporadic. So, for example, we get 20,000 suddenly in one locale. Then we get another 15,000 somewhere else.
The new Administration is taking a much more active role in vaccine distribution. What has been lacking?
What has been missing is a coordinated federal and state approach to managing distribution. We need to have one set of standards on who gets what when. But right now, we need to focus on speed, focus on scale. We should have established one set of standards, and get the vaccine out to distributorship points. Then the local teams will find creative ways to get people vaccinated. We can do it in our pharmacies. We could open up our parking lots. We vaccinate today in parking lots. You can get a flu shot in a parking lot.
Have you been vaccinated yet?
Nope. I will when my turn comes and I qualify.
Have you been suddenly hearing from people in your life now that Albertsons has the vaccine? Are people emailing you, “Hey, how are you?”
Surprisingly, people have been very good about it. I don’t get those emails trying to get in line.
Switching gears, how has the pandemic affected how people shop and eat, and how much of that changed consumer behavior will persist beyond the end of the pandemic?
It’s a big shift to eating at home, and there’s a lot more cooking at home. Some of that is going to stick because we’re all going to find ways to work more from home. I haven’t met a CEO yet who hasn’t said they’re rethinking the configuration of the office and the balance between working in an office and working at home and providing that flexibility. And if you work two days more at home, or one more day at home, that’s another breakfast and lunch at home. That’s massive numbers.
We don’t have vaccines!”</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">
What are people buying? Are we coming out of this fit or fat?
People are doing both. They’re eating healthy. We’re selling a lot more organic produce. But they’re also indulging. We’re selling more wine and tequila than we ever have. And we’re selling more ice cream and salty snacks than we ever have.
I noticed you have a store-brand Tennessee whiskey that’s very highly rated in taste tests.
Yes, that’s correct. We just launched our own champagne. We have a vodka. Those do well. Actually they’re terribly good.
In terms of fresh products, what’s selling?
Oranges. All fruit sales. Especially oranges. I think there is an orientation toward vitamin C. We’re also seeing an incredible spike in seafood.
Tuna, salmon?
A lot of shrimp. A lot of shellfish, lobsters, crab legs. We’re finding that we sell a lot of what I think of as opposites. They’re buying value in chicken. And at the same time also buying grass-fed beef and lobsters. They’re celebrating through food because what else do we do?
What about breakfast?
People are having a good breakfast. We’re selling more eggs, more pancake mix. Bacon, sausage, bread. We’re selling much more than we did. Breakfast has become an anchor meal in the morning before you jump on your series of Zoom calls.
We’re selling more wine and tequila than we ever have.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">
Any product shortages persisting?
It’s not as dramatic as it was. But it’s the same thing: cleaning supplies, disinfectants and such. We have outages in things that are related to cooking. We have outages in baking flour and certain spices.
We still see some outages now in the things that are packaged in aluminum cans because there’s a shortage there—some beers and soft drinks and some challenges there.
I wasn’t aware of that. There’s an aluminum-can shortage right now?
Here’s what’s happened. You have a shift from consumption in restaurants to consumption at home. Let’s say you have a carbonated drink in the restaurant. It doesn’t show up in a can. It shows up in a box, in a concentrate, and you get it from a dispenser. All of the volume has been shifting to the home, and when you drink it at home, you’re drinking it in plastic bottles and cans. There’s some spike in that demand. That’s what’s creating it.
And do you happen to know what particular spices are out of stock?
You can get the basic ones. But if you go a little deeper for cooking meat, you’ll find that’s something short.
That’s why I can’t find cumin.
Indeed.
Let’s talk about the competition. Give me a two-word characterization of your biggest competitors?
Is this more for fun for you, Eben?
Yes, it is. Ready? Walmart?
Big, strong.
Costco?
Smart merchandiser.
Amazon?
Changes expectations.
How so?
More and more consumers are going to expect that from the moment I order it, I want it within two hours.
In March, when supermarket employees were declared essential workers, you added 30,000 workers, in part by teaming up with companies in the hospitality industry that had laid off or furloughed workers. Why is that hospitality experience so valuable in a grocery store?
The human touch matters so much. We get so enamored with technology today. Being able to do that little extra in a very difficult period for customers, a very stressful time, that’s what hospitality does. I love technology, but we put too much technology into everything we do. The letters I get from customers are because of an exciting or disappointing interaction with a human.
So this is a serious question, but you’ve gone from being a supplier, at PepsiCo, where you had a series of big jobs including running Frito-Lay, to being a customer. Have you used that against your former employer? Have you been able to leverage your knowledge coming from the other side, and to your advantage?
I know all the tricks. All kidding aside, I know that a good CPG [consumer packaged goods] company wants growth. They care about the customer just as much as I do. And so when we can find a way to get mutual growth, magic happens. The pie gets bigger and everybody is happy.
Did you have a favorite product at Frito-Lay that was introduced under your watch?
This February, Zendaya reunites with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson for the Netflix original film Malcom & Marie. The drama, which releases Feb. 5 and is written and directed by Levinson, stars Zendaya and John David Washington as a Hollywood couple reckoning with their relationship over the course of one turbulent night.
The third and final installment of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film series, based on Jenny Han’s YA novels of the same name, will arrive on Feb. 12. In To All the Boys: Always and Forever, eternal romantic Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and her teen-dream boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) consider the future as they graduate from high school and prepare for college.
There’s no shortage of laughs when comedian Tiffany Haddish returns for a second season of her Netflix original comedy series, Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready on Feb. 2. The series, which features six of Haddish’s favorite up-and-coming comedians, boasts a wealth of talent this season, including Saturday Night Live’s Dean Edwards and Late Night with Seth Myers’ Erin Jackson.
Here’s everything new on Netflix this month—and everything set to leave the streaming platform.
Here are the Netflix originals coming to Netflix in February 2021
Available Feb. 2
Kid Cosmic
Mighty Express, season 2
Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready, season 2
Available Feb. 3
All My Friends Are Dead
Black Beach .
Firefly Lane
Available Feb. 5
Hache, season 2
Invisible City
The Last Paradiso
Little Big Women
Malcolm & Marie
Space Sweepers
Strip Down, Rise Up
Available Feb. 10
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman
Available Feb. 11
Capitani
Layla Majnun
Red Dot
Squared Love
Available Feb. 12
Buried by the Bernards
Nadiya Bakes
Hate by Dani Rovira
To All The Boys: Always And Forever
Xico’s Journey
Available Feb. 15
The Crew
Available Feb. 16
Animals on the Loose: A You vs. Wild Movie
Available Feb. 17
Behind Her Eyes
Hello, Me!
MeatEater, season 9 – part 2
Available Feb. 18
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan
Available Feb. 19
I Care A Lot
Tribes of Europa
Available Feb. 20
Classmates Minus
Available Feb. 23
Brian Regan: On The Rocks
Pelé
Available Feb. 24
Canine Intervention
Ginny & Georgia
Available Feb. 25
Geez & Ann
High-Rise Invasion
Available Feb. 26
Bigfoot Family
Caught by a Wave
Crazy About Her
Here are the TV shows and movies coming to Netflix in February 2021
This February, there’s a wealth of original content to stream on Amazon Prime Video, including Bliss, a reality-bending romance starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek that drops on Feb. 5, and The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, a rom-com and highly anticipated adaptation of Lev Grossman’s time loop short story of the same name, which releases on Feb. 12.
Ahead of the upcoming Amazon Prime original sequel Coming 2 America sequel in March, the hilarious original film joins the streaming platform on Feb. 1. Starring Eddie Murphy as Prince Akeem and Arsenio Hall as his hapless best friend, the movie follows as the royal searches for his queen in Queens, New York.
Music fans are in luck this month, with new documentaries about industry icons added to the streaming service. Whitney: Can I Be Me, an intimate 2017 documentary that features previously unreleased footage of the legendary singer, is available to stream starting Feb. 1. A four-part docuseries, Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, also joins the platform on Feb. 1 and tells the story of how the NYC-based hip-hop group formed to become one of the most influential musical movements in the world.
Here are all the series and movies available on Amazon Prime Video this month.
Here are the new Amazon Prime Video originals in February 2021
Available Feb. 1
Tell Me Your Secrets, season 1
Available Feb. 5
Bliss
Available Feb. 12
Map Of Tiny Perfect Things
Here are the movies streaming on Amazon PrimeVideoin February 2021
Available Feb. 1
Antz
Australia
Be My Valentine
Burn Motherf**ker, Burn!
Coming To America
Courageous
Dazed And Confused
Down To Earth
Hitsville: The Making of Motown
How She Move
Imagine That
Just Wright
Kiki
Love by Accident
Love by the 10th Date
Moulin Rouge
Notes On A Scandal
Shanghai Noon
SMOOCH
Spy Next Door
The Haunting In Connecticut
The Ides Of March
The Last Appeal
The Prestige
There’s Something About Mary
The Village
Whitney: Can I Be Me
Available Feb. 16
Catfish
The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi
Available Feb. 18
Sonic The Hedgehog
Available Feb. 26
The Informer
Here are the TV shows streaming on Amazon Prime Video in February 2021
Available Feb. 1
19-2, season 1
African American Lives, season 1
Billions, seasons 1-3
Black in Latin America, season 1
Butter and Brown, season 1
City on a Hill, season 1
Civil War Journal, season 1
Faster With Finnegan, season 1
Finding Your Roots, season 1
For the Love of Jason, season 1
Genealogy Roadshow, season 1
I Killed My BFF, season 1
I Married Joan, season 1
Mercy Street, season 1
One On One, season 1-5
Raiders of Ghost City, season 1
Safe House, season 1
The Game, seasons 1-3
The White Princess, season 1
What’s New Scooby-Doo?, season 1
WuTang Clan: Of Mics and Men, season 1
Available Feb. 5
Little Coincidences (Pequeñas Coincidencias), season 3
Available Feb. 12
Clifford
Available Feb. 19
The Boarding School: Las Cumbres, season 1
Available Feb. 26
Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers, limited series
A version of this article appeared in this week’s It’s Not Just You newsletter. SUBSCRIBE HERE to have It’s Not Just Youdelivered to your inbox every Sunday. And send comments to Susanna@Time.com
Well hello! I’m so glad you’re here. This week: a letter to parents of teens, many of whom are struggling, a selection of expert pandemic parenting advice, plus some evidence of human kindness.
DEAR PARENTS: IT’S NOT JUST YOU, THIS IS HARD.
Over the last few months, I’ve gotten so many emails from parents of teens—both readers of this newsletter and friends. And while the details vary, I can hear the thrum of fear in each one as they describe a child who seems to be slowly crumbling, or is in crisis. So this is a letter for all of you:
You’re not alone. You’re not the only one feeling lost or like you’re the worst parent you know. So many of us have been where you are now, especially in an unimaginably fractured and stressful year, one that has made everything that’s already difficult about adolescence that much harder.
I have woken up at 2 or 3 a.m. and found myself parsing the day, thinking how I’d said exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time to a kid I wanted to connect with. Somehow I’d closed a door I’d hoped to open, or missed something I would have seen if I’d been better at this. Other times I’ve caught a glimpse of sadness and distance in the eyes of my child that made my heart shudder.
The feeling ismore than worry; it’s a kind of subterranean unease that ebbs and flows with the moods of your kid, and your own attempts at balance. So often we have no clue what’s really going on with these mostly-grown creatures of ours. It’s like trying to find your way using stars that keep moving and morphing. And who knows how much of this angst is related to the strange circumstances of this era, and how much is organic to your family, your kids, your decisions.
There’s just no precedent for us to draw on, no guide to parenting teenagers in the middle of a once-in-100-years pandemic paired with an economic catastrophe. And so we press on, trying to focus on the usual things like college applications or screen time.
Some days it feels like we’re all in that Star Wars trash compactor, but we keep going, telling our kids, “Just do your schoolwork; ignore the noise.”
Decades from now, I imagine we might think it was all madness,this clinging tobits of normalcy.
From increased anxiety and stress to rising loneliness, Gen Z teens and young adults have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to theAmerican Psychological Association’s latest survey,Stress in America 2020. It is an exceptionally vulnerable stage of life anyway, and thisis a generation that has grown up with school-shooter drills and built-in angst about the long-term effects of climate change. So it isn’t surprising that too many are now grappling with serious depression, becoming self-destructive, or losing motivation for school.
I wish I had a list of quick fixes to add here: Meditate with your kid every day! Enroll them in an outdoor exercise class! Binge watch Gilmore Girls! But of course, there isn’t a prescription that will make it all O.K.
Still, there are things you can do: Forgive yourself, first of all. Take breath. This is hard, but you get to start fresh every day. And it’s good to remember that for many teens, having an adult who’s not you to talk to, someone they trust (and will text), can make a huge difference.
And there’s one small ritual that might help keep the lines of communications open in your house, as it has mine. You could ask everyone in the family to say two good things about their day, and maybe one bad thing. It’s like a gratitude exercise, but also an opening for a conversation.
If all you get is a list and no conversation, you still learn something about your kid, and they about you. And if a grilled cheese sandwich was a good thing that happened, there’s more than a little comfort in knowing that.
Yours, Susanna
💌 P.S. Iasked my kids and some of their college friends what advice they’d give to parents, and here’s what they had to say.
“Talk to us in the in-between times,” they said, “not just when you’re worried and want to know if we’re O.K., or you want us to do something. Take an interest in the shows and videos we’re watching, or the books we bring home. Ask us to explain why we like this stuff.
“Don’t get defensive and take what we say about what’s going on in our lives as a reflection on you personally. You can’t assume our problems are your failures. It’s not always about you.
“You might want a reason why we’re doing something destructive, but we probably can’t give you a single reason. Focus on the emotion behind what we’re doing instead.Validate the way we feel; don’t try to tell us all the reasons we should feel better.”
This week’s Coping Kit, below, offers some expert resources, seminars, and teachings for parents of teenagers and younger children. And if you think your kid’s issues are acute, trust your gut and call the emergency numbers listed, get support.
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Therapist-Created Courses for Parents: Videos on helping children with depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and coping with grief. Plus an “Ask a Therapist” section with videos of therapists answering tough audience questions like: “My child is suicidal. What should I do to help?” with transcripts you can download.
CRISIS TEXT LINE: Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the United States, anytime. A live, trained Crisis Counselor will help you move from a hot moment to a cool moment.
<strong>Once we stop wishing it were summer, winter can be a glorious season in which the world takes on a sparse beauty and even the pavements sparkle. It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment. </strong>The Kids Are Not Alright: A TIME cover on the rising epidemic of teen depression and anxiety.
Check out Wintering, a lovely meditation on finding purpose in this overlooked part of the year from Katherine May.
Here’s your weekly reminder that creating a community of generosity elevates us all.
When a Pandemic of Love volunteer coordinator reached out to Tracy Fink, a leadership coach in Boston, to ask if she was still interested in being matched with someone in need, Tracy said “of course!” The volunteer explained that Tracy was being matched with a local woman named Jennifer who was struggling with bills, and instructed her to focus on making the connection and then to decide how she could best help Jennifer.
At the end of the conversation, Tracy said that the volunteer thanked her for being brave. At first, Tracy was perplexed by the comment, but then, upon receiving the email from her match, she started to get nervous and thought, “What if this is too much? What if I can’t help her? What if I can’t go to her pain?” Spiraling, she took a step back, and then channeled her courage and read Jennifer’s email which began: “Even if you can’t help me, just the fact that I know there is somebody out there that cares, makes all the difference.”
After connecting a few times, Tracy learned that Jennifer was months behind in rent which seemed daunting. But because Jennifer receives some housing assistance, the amount she owed was within Tracy’s means to pay not just for one month, but for two. So moved by the impact of this act of kindness, Tracy shared the experience with her son, Adam, who offered to pay Jennifer’s rent for a third month.
Tracy believes that her donation helped her as much as it did Jennifer. Instead of worrying about her own pain or concerns, she explains that this connection to Jennifer and the chance to embody the action of giving helped her get out of her own head and into her heart. She adds that this story, which she shared on her Instagram is really about how two people saved each other.
Our weekly acknowledgment of the animals that help us make it through the storm. Send your comfort creature photos and stories to me at: Susanna@Time.com
Meet JAMES who is 32, and as his owner JAN says, there’s nothing more comforting than an old pony.
LONDON — Sophie, the Grammy-nominated Scottish disc jockey, producer and recording artist who had worked with the likes of Madonna and Charli XCX, has died following an accident in the Greek capital of Athens. She was 34.
In a statement, U.K. label Transgressive said the musician, whose full name was Sophie Xeon, died in the early hours of Saturday morning.
“Tragically, our beautiful Sophie passed away this morning after a terrible accident,” the statement said. “True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell.”
A police spokesperson in Athens confirmed that Sophie slipped and fell from the balcony of an apartment where she was staying and no foul play was suspected in her death. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still ongoing.
Sophie, who was born in Glasgow, began releasing music in 2013 and was best known in the early part of her career for being one of the writers of Madonna’s 2015 single “Bitch I’m Madonna.”
She first used her own image and vocals for the October 2017 single “It’s Okay To Cry.” The recording paved the way for Sophie’s debut album, “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides.” Released in June 2018, it received a Grammy nomination for best dance/electronic album.
Tributes have poured in from across the LGBT community Sophie, who was transgender and widely considered one of the most pioneering artists in the music industry.
French singer/songwriter Christine and the Queens described Sophie as a “stellar producer, a visionary, a reference,” who rebelled against “the narrow, normative society by being an absolute triumph, both as an artist and as a woman.”
She added: “We need to honor and respect her memory and legacy. Cherish the pioneers.”
Discussing gender identity in a 2018 interview with Paper magazine, Sophie said, “Transness is taking control to bring your body more in line with your soul and spirit so the two aren’t fighting against each other and struggling to survive.”
“On this Earth, it’s that you can get closer to how you feel your true essence is without the societal pressures of having to fulfill certain traditional roles based on gender,” she said.
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Demetris Nellas contributed reporting from Athens.
