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Lawyers for 252 Venezuelans deported by US President Donald Trump’s administration and imprisoned in El Salvador for two months alleged Friday that the migrants are victims of physical and emotional “torture.”A law firm hired by the Venezuelan government said that it had been unable to visit the migrants in the mega-prison where they are locked up.The lawyers are seeking “proof of life,” but say they have come up against a wall of silence from President Nayib Bukele’s administration and the Central American nation’s justice system.Grupo Ortega filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court on March 24 seeking an end to what it calls the “illegal detention” of the Venezuelans, but is still waiting for a ruling.”They are treating them like common criminals,” lawyer Salvador Rios said, after the migrants were shown dressed in prison clothing, shackled and with shaved heads.”This is torture,” both physical and psychological, Rios said in an interview with AFP.The lawyers delivered a letter in early May to Bukele, a key ally of Trump, requesting authorization to visit the Venezuelans, but so far without success.AFP sought a comment from the Salvadoran presidency about the case and the lawyers’ efforts, but has not received a response.Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa told French media outlet Le Grand Continent that his government merely provides a “service that we could call prison accommodation.”- Psychological damage -Trump’s administration has paid Bukele’s government millions of dollars to lock up migrants it says are criminals and gang members.Trump invoked rarely used wartime legislation in March to fly migrants to El Salvador without any court hearing, alleging they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, a charge that their families and lawyers deny.The Venezuelans, as well as 36 deported Salvadoran migrants, are being held in a maximum security prison built by Bukele to house thousands of suspects arrested during his sweeping crackdown on street gangs.Images of the Venezuelans entering the CECOT mega-prison in shackles illustrate the brutality, Rios said.”The damage is not only physical, but also psychological,” Rios said.In their letter to Bukele, the lawyers sought permission to interview the prisoners, either in person or virtually, which could serve as “proof of life.”They asked Bukele to release the list of the 252 Venezuelans, something that Washington has not done either.One Salvadoran migrant who was initially incarcerated in CECOT — but in April was moved to a prison farm — is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a US resident deported due to what the United States itself admitted was an administrative error.A Venezuelan identified in US court documents as “Cristian” was also mistakenly expelled.In both cases, US judges unsuccessfully asked the Trump administration to facilitate their return to the United States.- ‘Complete powerlessness’ -UN human rights chief Volker Turk said this week that the situation “raises serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights that are fundamental to both US and international law.””Families we have spoken to have expressed a sense of complete powerlessness in the face of what has happened and their pain at seeing their relatives labelled and handled as violent criminals, even terrorists, without any court judgment as to validity of what is claimed against them,” he said in a statement.Isael Guerrero, another lawyer with Grupo Ortega, described the detentions as “completely illegal” because the Venezuelans “are not being legally prosecuted in any court” in El Salvador. The firm’s head, Jaime Ortega, said they are “100 percent migrants.””Not a single one of them is being prosecuted” in the United States for their alleged membership of the Tren de Aragua gang, he said.The fate of the Venezuelans now depends entirely on Bukele, as “the expulsion completely nullifies US jurisdiction,” Ortega said.In April, Bukele offered to trade the 252 Venezuelans for an equal number of political prisoners held by President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

President Donald Trump used his down time on Air Force One Friday to insult “obnoxious JERK” Bruce Springsteen and declare Taylor Swift “no longer HOT” in social media blasts against the music giants.Trump — returning from a whirlwind Middle East diplomatic trip — took to his Truth Social platform to feud with Springsteen, who this week told a British concert audience that his homeland is now ruled by a “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”In return, the 78-year-old Republican said the legendary rocker, nicknamed “the Boss,” is “Highly Overrated.””Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” Trump wrote in the lengthy tirade.”This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just “standard fare.” Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”Springsteen is an outspoken liberal critic of Trump and campaigned for Democratic president Joe Biden’s ultimately abandoned reelection run last year.While in Manchester on his “Land of Hope & Dreams” tour Wednesday, he told fans that “my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years” is in danger.”Raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring,” Springsteen said.Trump also had strong words for Swift, who endorsed Biden’s replacement as the Democratic candidate in 2024, Kamala Harris.In a separate post, which provided no context, the US president said: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?'”He appeared to be referencing a post in September last year when he declared “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”Swift, 35, is the wealthiest female musician on the planet, with an estimated personal wealth of $1.6 billion, 14 Grammys and 30 MTV Video Music awards.

American R&B singer Chris Brown, former boyfriend of superstar Rihanna, was Friday remanded in custody until June 13 by a UK court, charged with assault over a 2023 incident.The judge’s decision to reject his bail request throws into doubt the start of Brown’s next tour, with shows already sold-out in the Netherlands on June 8 and Germany on June 11.Brown, a two-time Grammy winner who has sold tens of millions of records worldwide, was arrested in the early hours of Thursday at a Manchester hotel and charged over the alleged assault at a London nightclub in 2023, police said.The 36-year-old appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where District Judge Joanne Hirst remanded him in custody until a plea and trial preparation hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court on June 13.Brown is due to play in Germany that day, and has a series of shows planned in the UK and Europe during June and July, before heading to the United States.Wearing a black T-shirt, Brown spoke to confirm his name, age and the address of the hotel where he was staying.The singer is known for mid-2000s hits such as “Kiss, Kiss”, as well as a litany of legal troubles including a felony conviction for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.He has also faced criminal accusations including sexual assault and domestic violence.- Hotel arrest -Brown was charged with “grievous bodily harm with intent” in relation to “an assault” that allegedly took place at a venue in Hanover Square in London on February 19, 2023, police said.Prosecutor Hannah Nicholls told the court the alleged victim was at the bar in the Tape nightclub in central London when he was struck several times with a bottle in an “unprovoked” attack.”The defendant then pursued him to a separate area of the nightclub where the victim was punched and kicked repeatedly by him and another,” she added.Brown was touring the UK at the time of the alleged assault.He reportedly flew into Manchester airport by private jet on Wednesday afternoon.Police detained him at the five-star Lowry Hotel in Manchester, according to media reports.Brown rose from a local church choir in Virginia to sudden fame with his rich R&B voice and later rap, but his reputation has been tarnished by allegations of domestic violence and other abuse.He was convicted of having beaten Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy Awards, forcing the pop star to miss the annual gala.In 2012, Brown was involved in an altercation at a New York nightclub with members of hip hop star Drake’s entourage, during which French basketball star Tony Parker suffered an eye injury after being hit by a thrown glass bottle.Two years later, Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting a fan in Washington.Brown was also arrested in 2016 after a woman alleged he pointed a gun at her.

World Press Photo said Friday it removed US-Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut’s name as the person credited for one of history’s most iconic pictures, the Vietnam War image “Napalm Girl”, amid doubts over its authorship.The organisation, which awards one of the world’s most prestigious photojournalism prizes, said it carried out its own investigation into the haunting 1972 photo — which shows a nine-year-old girl fleeing naked from a napalm strike — after the premiere of the film “The Stringer”.The documentary chronicles an investigation into rumours that the image, which helped change global perceptions of the US war in Vietnam, was taken by a little-known local freelancer, not Ut, the Associated Press (AP) staff photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo.World Press Photo, which awarded its Photo of the Year prize to Ut in 1973 for the black-and-white image — whose official title is “The Terror of War” — said the film had “prompted deep reflection” at the organisation.After investigating from January to May, it determined that “based on analysis of location, distance, and the camera used on that day”, two other photographers “may have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut”.”World Press Photo has suspended the attribution of ‘The Terror of War’ to Nick Ut, from today,” it said in a statement.”It is possible that the author of the photograph will never be fully confirmed. The suspension of the authorship attribution stands unless it is proved otherwise.”The Amsterdam-based organisation named the two other potential authors as Nguyen Thanh Nghe and Huynh Cong Phuc, both present for the infamous scene in the southern village of Trang Bang on June 8, 1972.Nguyen said he was certain the photo was his in interviews for “The Stringer”, which premiered at the Sundance film festival in January.AP, which said earlier this month it would continue crediting the photo to Ut, said in a statement it stood by that decision.But it acknowledged its own investigation had raised “real questions that we may never be able to answer” about the picture’s authorship.”We have found that it is impossible to prove exactly what happened that day on the road or in the bureau over 50 years ago,” it said.Ut insisted the image was his in a February Facebook post, calling claims to the contrary “a slap in the face”.The girl in the picture, Kim Phuc, survived her injuries, and is today a Canadian citizen and outspoken advocate for child war victims.World Press Photo emphasised that the authenticity of the image itself was not in question.”It is without question that this photograph represents a real moment in history that continues to reverberate in Vietnam, the United States, and globally,” said executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury.

American R&B singer Chris Brown, former boyfriend of superstar Rihanna, was Friday remanded in custody until June 13 by a UK court, charged with assault over a 2023 incident.The judge’s decision to reject his bail request throws into doubt the start of Brown’s next tour, with shows already sold-out in the Netherlands on June 8 and Germany on June 11.Brown, 36, was arrested in the early hours of Thursday at a Manchester hotel and then charged over the alleged assault at a London nightclub in 2023, police said.He appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where District Judge Joanne Hirst remanded him in custody until a plea and trial preparation hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court on June 13.Brown is due to play in Germany that day, and has a series of shows planned in the UK and Europe during June and July, before heading to the United States. The singer is known for mid-2000s hits such as “Kiss, Kiss” as well as a litany of legal troubles including a felony conviction for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. He has also faced criminal accusations including sexual assault and domestic violence.- Hotel arrest -Brown was charged with “grievous bodily harm with intent” in relation to “an assault, which reportedly took place at a venue in Hanover Square in London” on February 19, 2023, police said.Brown allegedly attacked music producer Abe Diaw with a bottle at Tape nightclub in London’s exclusive Mayfair district, The Sun daily reported.The singer, who has sold tens of millions of records worldwide, was touring the UK at the time of the alleged assault.Brown reportedly flew into Manchester airport by private jet on Wednesday afternoon.Police detained Brown at the five-star Lowry Hotel in Manchester, according to media reports.The two-time Grammy winner rose to fame at a young age with his rich R&B voice and later rap, but his reputation was later tarnished by allegations of domestic violence and other abuse.He was convicted of having beaten Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy Awards, forcing the pop star to miss the annual gala.In 2012, Brown was involved in an altercation at a New York nightclub with members of hip hop star Drake’s entourage, during which French basketball star Tony Parker suffered an eye injury after being hit by a thrown glass bottle.Two years later, he pleaded guilty to assaulting a fan in Washington.Brown, who rose from a local church choir in Virginia to sudden fame, was also arrested in 2016 after a woman alleged that he pointed a gun at her.

Russians and Ukrainians sat face-to-face for under two hours Friday in Istanbul for the first direct talks in over three years aimed at ending their war, with expectations low for breakthroughs.Kyiv is seeking an “unconditional ceasefire” in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II which has also destroyed large swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions of people.Moscow says it wanted to address the “root causes” of the conflict and revive failed 2022 negotiations in which it made sweeping territorial and political demands of Ukraine.Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan sat at the head of a table in front of Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian flags at Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace — with Russian and Ukrainian delegations facing each other, footage from the room showed.The talks concluded around 1220 GMT after just over 90 minutes, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.While the talks were ongoing, a Ukrainian diplomatic source told AFP that Russia was making “unacceptable” territorial demands in a bid to derail negotiations.Further talks may take place later on Friday but are not planned, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.Speaking at a European summit in Albania, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged a “strong reaction” from the world if the talks fail, including new sanctions.The two sides spent the 24 hours before the talks slinging insults at each other with Zelensky accusing Moscow of sending “empty heads” to the negotiating table.- Putin ‘afraid’ -Nevertheless, the fact the meeting was taking place at all was a sign of movement, with both sides having come under steady pressure from Washington to open talks.Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to travel to Turkey for the talks, which he had proposed, sending a second-level delegation instead. Zelensky said Friday Putin was “afraid” of meeting, and criticised Russia for not taking the talks “seriously”.Both Moscow and Washington have also talked up the need for a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump on the conflict.”Contacts between presidents Putin and Trump are extremely important in the context of the Ukrainian settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday, adding that “a meeting is undoubtedly necessary.”Trump had said Thursday that nothing would be settled until the two leaders met.”Our number one priority is a full, honest and unconditional ceasefire,” Zelensky said as talks were underway.”This must happen immediately to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy.”If a ceasefire cannot be agreed, “it will be 100 percent clear that Putin continues to undermine diplomacy,” he added.And in that case, “the world must respond. There needs to be a strong reaction, including sanctions on Russia’s energy sector and banks,” Zelensky said.- Rubio in Istanbul -Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian officials in Istanbul held meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg and the national security advisors of Britain, France and Germany.Rubio urged a “peaceful” end to the war and said “the killing needs to stop”, according to State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.A Ukrainian diplomatic source in Istanbul told AFP the delegation also wanted to discuss a possible Putin-Zelensky meeting.But while the talks were ongoing, the source said Russia was advancing hardline territorial demands.”Russian representatives are putting forward unacceptable demands… such as for Ukraine to withdraw forces from large parts of Ukrainian territory it controls in order for a ceasefire to begin,” the source said.They accused Moscow of seeking to “throw non-starters” so the talks end “without any results”.Leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Mark Rutte slammed Putin for skipping the Istanbul talks.Putin sent Vladimir Medinsky — a former cultural minister who is not seen as a key Kremlin decision-maker.Rubio acknowledged that the Russian representation was “not at the levels we had hoped it would be at” and downplayed expectations for a breakthrough. Russia’s Medinsky said Moscow saw Friday’s negotiations as a “continuation” of failed 2022 talks, which he led — a sign that Moscow’s hardline demands have not changed.But he pushed back against Zelensky’s criticism and insisted the Russian delegation has a mandate from Putin to “find possible solutions.”Russia has repeatedly said it will not discuss giving up any territory that its forces occupy. Kyiv’s chief negotiator is Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who has roots in Crimea, the peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. Russia continued its attacks in the hours ahead of the talks, with Kyiv saying at least two people were killed.burs-jc/cad/jm

World Press Photo suspended on Friday the credit for who took one of the most iconic pictures in history, the Vietnam War image “Napalm Girl”, after doubts were raised over the photograph’s authorship.The organisation, which awards one of the world’s most prestigious photojournalism prizes, said it carried out its own investigation into the haunting 1972 photo — which shows a nine-year-old girl fleeing naked from a napalm strike — after the premiere of the film “The Stringer”.The documentary chronicles an investigation into rumours that the image, which helped change global perceptions of the US war in Vietnam, was taken by a little-known local freelancer, not the Associated Press (AP) staff photographer Nick Ut, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo.World Press Photo, which awarded its own Photo of the Year prize to Ut in 1973 for the black-and-white image — whose official title is “The Terror of War” — said the film had “prompted deep reflection” at the organisation.After investigating from January to May, it determined that “based on analysis of location, distance, and the camera used on that day”, two other photographers “may have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut”.”World Press Photo has suspended the attribution of ‘The Terror of War’ to Nick Ut, from today,” it said in a statement.The organisation named the two other photographers as Nguyen Thanh Nghe and Huynh Cong Phuc, both present for the infamous scene in the southern village of Trang Bang on June 8, 1972.In “The Stringer”, which premiered at the Sundance film festival in January, Nguyen told the documentary’s makers he was certain the photo was his.AP, which said earlier this month it would continue crediting the photo to Ut, said in a statement it stood by that decision.But it acknowledged its own investigation had raised “real questions that we may never be able to answer” about the picture’s authorship.”We have found that it is impossible to prove exactly what happened that day on the road or in the bureau over 50 years ago,” it said.Ut insisted the image was his in a February Facebook post, calling claims to the contrary “a slap in the face”.The girl in the picture, Kim Phuc, survived her injuries, and is today a Canadian citizen and outspoken advocate for child war victims.World Press Photo emphasised that the authenticity of the image itself was not in question.”It is without question that this photograph represents a real moment in history that continues to reverberate in Vietnam, the United States, and globally,” said executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury.

Hundreds of Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs over the coming days, campaigners said, as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the US government-backed news service’s parent agency.Most of VOA’s roughly 1,300 staffers have been placed on administrative leave and its broadcasts suspended after a March 14 executive order gutted the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees US-funded international media.The Trump administration decided to terminate “hundreds of contractors over the following days,” advocacy group Save VOA wrote on social media on Thursday night. Some of the terminations affect J-1 visa holders who will have to leave the country within 30 days, it added in a statement.”Several of these journalists come from countries where they could be arrested or worse because of their reporting for VOA,” Save VOA wrote, adding that it was working with lawyers to try and reinstate the contractors. US President Donald Trump’s appointee to oversee USAGM, Kari Lake, told the Washington Post that 584 employees across the federal agency had been terminated, the majority from VOA. “In accordance with President Trump’s executive order dated March 14, we are in the process of rightsizing the agency and reducing the federal bureaucracy to meet administration priorities,” Lake told the Post.VOA director Michael Abramowitz said in a Facebook post that he was “heartbroken to learn about today’s mass terminations of personal service contractors.””Some of VOA’s most talented journalists have been [personal service contractors] — many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America’s story of freedom and democracy,” he wrote. VOA supervisory editor Fatima Tlis posted on social media on Thursday that her “entire team got terminated today, all of us granted political asylum by US administrations.” “How does throwing on the streets the journalists you brought in on a promise of liberty and security help the American people?” she wrote.Almost all of the networks affected by the March executive order — including VOA — have sued, accusing Trump of executive overreach. Created during the Second World War as an instrument of American soft power, USAGM is an independent agency tasked with promoting democracy and countering propaganda overseas through entities that include VOA, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Before suspending service, Washington-based VOA broadcast in 49 languages to a weekly audience estimated at 354 million people. The White House has criticised the news service for its alleged leftist bias, dubbing it “Voice of Radical America” in official documents.

An American-Lebanese man will be sentenced on Friday for trying to kill novelist Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack at a New York cultural center.Hadi Matar, 27, faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder and assault charges in February this year.During the trial, Rushdie told jurors about Matar “stabbing and slashing” him during an event at the upscale cultural center.”It was a stab wound in my eye, intensely painful, after that I was screaming because of the pain,” Rushdie said, adding that he was left in a “lake of blood.”Matar — who shouted pro-Palestinian slogans on several occasions during the trial — stabbed Rushdie about 10 times with a six-inch blade.He previously told media he had only read two pages of Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” but believed the author had “attacked Islam.”Matar’s legal team had sought to prevent witnesses from characterizing Rushdie as a victim of persecution following Iran’s 1989 fatwa calling for his murder over supposed blasphemy in the novel.Iran has denied any link to the attacker and said only Rushdie was to blame for the incident.- Severe wounds -The optical nerve of Rushdie’s right eye was severed in the attack, and he told the court that “it was decided the eye would be stitched shut to allow it to moisturize. It was quite a painful operation — which I don’t recommend.”His Adam’s apple was also lacerated, his liver and small bowel penetrated, and he became paralyzed in one hand after suffering severe nerve damage to his arm.British-American Rushdie — now 77 — was rescued from Matar by bystanders. Last year, he published a memoir called “Knife” in which he recounted the near-death experience.His publisher announced in March that “The Eleventh Hour,” a collection of short stories examining themes and places of interest to Rushdie, will be released on November 4, 2025.Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai but moved to England as a boy, was propelled into the spotlight with his second novel “Midnight’s Children” (1981), which won Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.But “The Satanic Verses” brought him far greater, mostly unwelcome, attention.Rushdie became the center of a fierce tug-of-war between free speech advocates and those who insisted that insulting religion, particularly Islam, was unacceptable under any circumstance.Books and bookshops were torched, his Japanese translator was murdered and his Norwegian publisher was shot several times.Rushdie lived in seclusion in London for a decade after the 1989 fatwa, but for the past 20 years — until the attack — he lived relatively normally in New York.

There are not many fans of Donald Trump’s dream to save Hollywood with tariffs among the dealmakers at the Cannes film festival — even among those who voted for him. Unlike Robert De Niro — a vocal critic who called Trump “America’s philistine president” at the festival’s opening ceremony — they told AFP they have no political or personal axes to grind with him.But they see his idea of 100-percent tariffs on movies produced “in foreign lands” as a “massive potential disaster” for an industry already shaken by streaming platforms.”I don’t see any benefit to what he is trying to do. If anything it could really hurt us,” Scott Jones, the head of Artist View Entertainment, told AFP.”A lot of people are out of work right now, and this is not going to make it better. There needs to be method to the madness,” said the producer, in Cannes with a Tennessee-shot Civil War epic “The Legend of Van Dorn”.Trump’s own “special ambassadors” to the industry, actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, both signed a letter Tuesday thanking him for drawing attention to “runaway” US productions being shot overseas, but asking for tax breaks to keep them in the United States rather than tariffs.A wide coalition of Hollywood producers, writers and directors groups also put their names to the call.”More than 80 countries offer production tax incentives and as a result, numerous productions that could have been shot in America have instead located elsewhere,” they said.The biggest American film at Cannes is Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” — which was mostly shot in Britain and South Africa.- ‘Catastrophic’ -“Hollywood movies are made all over the world,” said Louise Lantagne, head of Quebecreatif, which supports the Canadian industry. And producers have been going north to make movies in Canada for decades “because we are cheaper and we have tax credits, great facilities and really top technical talent”, she added. “Of course it is going to be hell if (tariffs) happen,” she told AFP,  but “for the moment it is just a tweet — even if everyone is really stressed by these declarations”.Many, like American sales agent Monique White of California Pictures, think tariffs are “unfeasible” and Trump will quietly drop the idea. “Tariffs are legally and technically impossible without changing the law in Congress, which doesn’t look likely,” she told AFP.But others worry that the damage has already been done.One veteran producer who voted twice for Trump, and asked not be named, said the threat of them alone has already been “catastrophic for confidence”. “Investors, particularly foreign ones, don’t want to get burned down the line. He’s killing us,” he told AFP.- ‘Too expensive’ -Even if Trump manages to push tariffs through, Lantagne argued it would be a “bureaucratic nightmare to rule on what is a US film”, as financing and talent is now so international.Sylvain Bellemare, who won the Oscar for sound editing in 2017 for “Arrival”, gave two clear examples from his own recent work.He is in Cannes for the red carpet premiere of the US film “Splitsville” starring Dakota Johnson.”It was completely shot in Quebec,” he told AFP, but with American money.And last year he worked on the Paramount film “Novocaine”, which was set in San Diego but shot in South Africa with its post-production in Quebec.American producers “do not have the money anymore to shoot in the US like they used to in California, it is so expensive”, he told AFP.California’s governor Gavin Newsom has been struggling to push through plans to double tax breaks to $750 million (670 million euros) a year to stem the flight — a sum White said “is still way too small”.Meanwhile, Cannes’ bustling industry market is crammed with countries offering generous fiscal incentives to tempt US movie and TV makers their way.