Graham Greene, Dances with Wolves actor, dies aged 73 | Film | The Guardian

Graham Greene, Dances with Wolves actor, dies aged 73 | Film | The Guardian

Graham Greene, Dances with Wolves actor, dies aged 73

The trailblazing Canadian First Nations actor, who was nominated for an Academy Award, died in Toronto after a long illness

Dee Jefferson

Tue 2 Sep 2025 01.27 BST

Graham Greene, the prolific Oscar-nominated Canadian First Nations actor and Hollywood trailblazer, has died aged 73 in a Stratford hospital after a long illness.

“He was a great man of morals, ethics and character and will be eternally missed,” Greene’s agent, Michael Greene (no relation), told Deadline. “You are finally free.”

Greene was born in 1952 in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada. He fell into acting while working as a recording engineer, after a friend persuaded him to read his script. He started on stage, performing in Canadian and English productions in the 1970s, before making his screen debut in 1979 in an episode of the Canadian drama The Great Detective. His first film role was in the 1983 biopic Running Brave.

Greene’s Hollywood breakthrough came when Kevin Costner cast him as real-life Lakota Sioux medicine man Kicking Bird (Ziŋtká Nagwáka) in his Academy Award-winning 1990 western Dances with Wolves. Greene’s performance landed him an Academy Award nomination and launched his Hollywood career, which included roles in Thunderheart (1992), Maverick (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), The Green Mile (1999) and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009).

Actor Graham Greene at the 2018 Toronto International film festival. Photograph: The Canadian Press/Alamy

More recently, Greene appeared in Taika Waititi’s FX series Reservation Dogs, HBO’s dystopian series The Last Of Us and Taylor Sheridan’s series 1883 and Tulsa King.

Prolific across his career, he worked until the end, with multiple projects yet to be released.

Greene won Grammy, Gemini and Canadian Screen awards across his career and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame. In June he received the Canadian governor general’s performing arts award for lifetime achievement.

Reflecting on his career in a 2024 interview for Canada’s Theatre Museum, Greene said: “When I first started out in the business, it was a very strange thing where they’d hand you the script where you had to speak the way they thought native people spoke. And in order to get my foot in the door a little further, I did it. I went along with it for a while … You gotta look stoic. Don’t smile … you gotta grunt a lot.

“I don’t know anybody who behaves like that. Native people have an incredible sense of humour.

“And that’s what I said to Kevin [Costner]. I said, you know, the people in this film [Dances with Wolves], in this village, they have an incredible family, incredible relationship and fun has always been part of that. Fun is 50% of how they live and enjoy things. Family is family, no matter what.”

Greene is survived by his wife of 35 years, Hilary Blackmore, his daughter, Lilly Lazare-Greene, and grandson Tarlo.

 This article was amended on 3 September 2025. Graham Greene died in a hospital in Stratford, Ontario, not in Toronto as an earlier version said.

You've read 6 articles in the last year

Article count

Any support you give us today will benefit our annual climate appeal. As denialist politicians join with fossil fuel companies to dismantle climate progress, journalism is a critical line of defence for our planet. Please help fund this vital work.

17,880 of 40,000 readers

They’re fighting dirty, we’re fighting back … 

Across the planet, decades of progress towards a healthier planet is being threatened by a global resistance in the form of far-right politicians and governments, fossil fuel influence and corporations empowered by the political winds to roll back their green pledges.

A growing lobby of economic and political denial has been empowered by a US administration that has declared war on climate progress and wider environmental protections.

One powerful way to do that is by funding strong, independent journalism that can help stand up to this tide.  

The Guardian doesn’t bow to political pressure and we don’t take advertising from fossil fuel companies. Our work is funded by readers just like you. For our annual environment support campaign, we are asking 40,000 readers to back our journalism with a one-off or recurring amount. If you can afford it, please consider doing so today, it takes less than a minute to sign up.

He’s the ‘Mozart’ of Math and Trump Killed His Funding

He’s the ‘Mozart’ of Math and Trump Killed His Funding

The latest casualty in the administration’s assault on higher education is a legendary researcher who embodies the best of America.

JONATHAN COHN AUG 6 ∙ PREVIEW

READ IN APP

(Composite / Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)

TERENCE TAO MAY BE ONE OF THE SMARTEST human beings on the planet. That’s not an exaggeration.

Now a UCLA professor, Tao has been a mathematics superstar for pretty much his entire life, going all the way back to the early 1970s when he was a 2-year-old with building blocks showing the other kids how to count. He was 7 when he started calculus, 13 when he became the youngest person ever to win the International Mathematical Olympiad, and 19 when he started his Ph.D. at Princeton.

Tao’s work on prime numbers has provided crucial insights into random-number generation, which is the way computers produce figures that cannot be predicted and that has implications for cryptography. His research into the math of imaging has helped to make MRIs faster and smarter.

In 2006 Tao was awarded the Fields Medal—math’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, as anyone who has watched Good Will Hunting knows. In 2017, National Geographic included Tao in its “Genius” issue alongside Michelangelo, Darwin, and Einstein. And among his many admirers Tao is known as the “Mozart of Math”—a term of affection in a sometimes cutthroat world, where Tao has a reputation for mentoring young, still undiscovered scholars and sharing credit generously.

He is pretty much the platonic model of an intellectual, innovator, and teacher—the best of America, in so many ways. And now he’s a cautionary tale too, because he just lost his funding in the latest wave of Trump administration cuts. It has left him questioning the future of American STEM research, and his place within it.

“A year ago I was absolutely sure I would be staying at UCLA for the foreseeable future,” Tao told me. “But now that there are existential risks . . . I cannot make any long-term predictions.”

The wave hit on Sunday, when...

U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t understand economics - Victoria Times Colonist

U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t understand economics - Victoria Times Colonist

Comment: Donald Trump doesn’t understand economics

Beyond the international trade issues, Trump also has a faulty understanding of monetary policy.

Ralph W. Huenemannabout 10 hours ago

President Donald Trump announces new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein, AP

Listen to this article

00:05:39

A commentary by a retired ­professor of economics at the University of Victoria.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s shallow, contradictory understanding of economics — a blend of truths, partial truths, untruths and strategic silences — leads to many unhealthy economic ­policies.

On international trade issues, Trump has two obsessions: foreign trade deficits (which Trump believes, incorrectly, are entirely the foreigners’ fault) and tariffs (which Trump believes, also incorrectly, are paid by foreigners).

Trump fails to understand that at the aggregate ­(macroeconomic) level, a deficit in the government budget (a purely domestic problem) must be offset by some combination of savings that exceed ­investments or imports that exceed exports.

A surplus of savings over investment could finance the budget deficit, leaving foreign trade balanced.

However, as Stephen Roach has argued, “Trade deficits are a painfully visible ­manifestation of America’s myopic ­unwillingness to save for the future.”

If a savings surplus is taken out of the picture as a ­balancing force, the budget deficits and trade deficits must move together.

As a consequence of the ­passage of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB), the American budget deficit will be about $3.4 trillion more than it otherwise would have been over the decade from 2025 to 2034 (Congressional Budget Office estimate).

A corresponding persistence in the foreign trade deficit will be unavoidable.

This brings us to Trump’s second obsession: tariffs (which he refers to — bizarrely — as “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”)

Trump believes that tariffs will solve the trade imbalances (by restricting imports) and will also offset the income tax cuts in OBBB by collecting revenues.

What he never mentions is that these two results conflict with each other.

High tariffs seriously reduce imports and, therefore, may not generate much revenue.

Trump is still engaged in bullying negotiations, so it remains to be seen what the longer-term tariff rates will be.

If the rates ultimately average 25%, somewhere between the 15% on EU and 35% on Canada, on 2024’s imports of $4.12 trillion, the revenues would be a maximum of $1.03 trillion, or only about 55% of the budget deficit — and in fact substantially less than this because tariffs this heavy will certainly impede some imports.

Before we leave tariffs, we have to ask: Do foreigners pay the tariffs? In general, the answer is no.

As argued by Chad Bown and Douglas Irwin, “multiple independent studies of Trump’s first-term tariffs found that importers passed along the effect of border taxes to U.S. businesses and households. In the end, Americans paid the tariffs, not foreign companies.”

Beyond the international trade issues, Trump also has a faulty understanding of monetary policy.

Recently, he has begun to attack Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, arguing that the current interest rates (around 4.5%) are much too high and should be cut to 2% or even 1%.

His justification for this is that lower interest rates would make it much easier for the federal government to cover the interest costs of the national debt. Viewed in isolation, this is certainly true, but it is a partial truth.

The problem with such low interest rates, unmentioned (perhaps unnoticed) by Trump, is that such strong monetary stimulus, especially combined with the fiscal stimulus of OBBB’s proposed income tax cuts, would increase employment (a positive result) but would also push price inflation higher (a negative result).

Balancing unemployment with price inflation is a continuous tight-rope walk and was particularly difficult after the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2019.

U.S. unemployment shot up to 6.7% in 2020 and real GDP decreased by 1.0%, but then — as a result of former president Joe Biden’s crisis response package and the rapid development of vaccines — GDP growth and employment recovered but price inflation topped out at 8.0% in 2022, and the bitter memories of that inflation almost certainly contributed to the defeat of the Democrats in the 2024 election and brought Trump back to office.

Trump doesn’t put the economic pieces together.

The three-pronged inflationary pressure of the tariffs’ impact on prices of imports, the fiscal stimulus of OBBB’s major tax cuts and the monetary stimulus of dramatically lower interest rates will almost certainly put the U.S. economy through another episode of serious price inflation, thereby endangering Republican prospects in the 2028 election.

Perhaps Trump simply doesn’t care about 2028, since the 22nd Amendment prevents him from seeking re-election.

However, he is already talking about having one of his children succeed him in the Oval Office.

From this perspective, it seems that Trump doesn’t understand what his policies will do either to the American economy or to his children’s political ­prospects.

 

Trump is Wrecking our Travel Industry

Anti-Trump fervor threatens foreign tourism and travelers between our border states, anticipating a poor showing at the forthcoming World Cup and Olympic games

Jennifer Rubin Jul 24

READ IN APP

Donald Trump’s vicious anti-immigrant agenda, trade wars, international bullying, and contempt for allies come with a price tag. The United States will lose international talent (both students and workers) to other countries. Americans are already paying higher prices on goods made (partially or in whole) overseas. Less noticed, but equally troubling: The U.S. is already losing billions in tourism while bracing itself for an underwhelming 2026 men’s World Cup and 2028 Olympics.

“[A] study from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) that analyzed the economic impact of tourism in 184 countries revealed the U.S. was the only country forecast to see international visitor spending decline in 2025,” Forbes reports. “The WTTC projects the U.S. to be on track to lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending this year compared to last year, according to the research.” That represents a nearly $30B swing from a projected $16.3B increase.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest downturn comes from Canada, the source of about ¼ of international tourism in 2024. “Last year, Canadians spent $20.5 billion—nearly twice what Americans spent at McDonald’s restaurants in all of last year,” Forbes noted. “In May, Canadian visitation dropped 38% by car and 24% by air compared to the same month in 2024.” Trump’s tariffs coupled with his obnoxious chatter about Canada becoming the 51^st state have, predictably, convinced many Canadians not to visit.

The fallout disproportionately hits northern states such as Maine, a tourist destination that lies on the border. “Maine’s Office of Tourism says that Canadian visitors spent about $497.7 million in the state in 2024,” an NBC TV affiliate reported earlier this month. “But now state officials warn that up to 225,000 Canadian tourists could be lost in 2025 — a shortfall that could cost the state hundreds of millions in tourism revenue.” In May alone, 85,000 fewer Canadians came in than during May 2024.

At a June 16 summit hosted by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, governors from six New England states plus New York sat down with Canadian officials. WBUR reported: “In Massachusetts, it’s about a 20% decline, Healey said. Vermont reports hotel reservations by Canadians are down 45% and credit card spending is down 36%.” Between February and April, Maine’s tourism experienced a 26% decrease, according to Maine Gov. Janet Mills. “It’s not the tariffs that affected them so much as the hurt pride for Canadian citizens. And I understand that.”

Upgrade to paid

The downturn is not limited to the Northeast. CNN reported in June that North Dakota had lost an estimated $13.4 million in spending from Canada while Canadians’ hotel bookings in Montana dropped 73% in the first three months of the year.

Nor is this limited to border states. At the end of May, the Wall Street Journal reported on a nationwide drop in tourist bookings from overseas. “Flight bookings to the U.S. from Europe are down by about 12% through August. San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are seeing even larger decline.” Trump and his noxious policies are the most obvious cause for the travel downturn: “Some cite the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and reports of foreign visitors being detained or deported from the U.S. Others say they want to signal their discontent with the White House’s policies, echoing boycotts of American-made products by Canadians and Teslas in Europe.”

While New York City has been able to sustain its tourism, other parts of New York state, including Buffalo, have been slammed. The Buffalo Bills, according to the New York Times, have 8,000 Canadian ticket holders (more than 10% of the stadium capacity). The franchise and surrounding businesses have grounds to worry whether the Bills will be playing to patches of empty seats. No Buffalo sports team can afford to ignore recent signs that Canadian traffic has slowed. (Canadian crossings for a recent Toronto Maple Leaf’s game in Buffalo Sabers dropped more than 30% from a game last March.)

As bad as things have been to date, Trump’s impact on attendance at the men’s World Cup in 2026 (cohosted with Mexico and Canada) and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will likely be devastating. Earlier this month, 90 civil society groups implored FIFA to use its influence with Trump “to push the Trump administration to guarantee the rights of millions of football fans looking to attend the World Cup next summer.” (Even if he does, why would anybody trust a Trump “guarantee”?)

If foreigners run the risk of being barred entry, hassled, detained, or deported (including to third countries where they have no attachment) hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of fans may stay away. Trump’s travel bans (which by then may be expanded to more countries) could be used to prevent fans, players, team officials, and others from entering the games, something that even other human rights miscreants like China and Russia have not tried to pull. With matches spread among Canada and Mexico, fans could decide to visit only those countries, shunning the U.S. (FIFA almost certainly will not move matches out of the U.S. unless teams and major sponsors threaten to stay away—an unlikely development, given the sort of retribution Trump could exact.)

The 2028 Olympics may be even more dicey considering Trump’s animus toward Los Angeles and willingness to deploy military forces there. If even a fraction of the foreign visitors stay away, the enormous investment (over $70B) required to host the event could be put at risk. The Olympic organizers insist Trump will not interfere with travelers, but as with FIFA, no one can ensure Trump will keep any promise. (Visitors know this as well, which will prompt many to simply avoid the hassle and watch from home.)

International visitors have figured out that they can register their outrage over a racist, authoritarian bully simply by voicing their dissent with their feet and their wallets. (And really, who could blame them?) But American hospitality businesses, event promoters, sponsors, advertisers, athletes, and fans—not to mention all those invested in the international image of the U.S.—will take it on the chin.

The Contrarian is reader-supported. To join our growing community and assist us in the court of law and courts of public opinion, become a free or paid subscriber.

Upgrade to paid

How does the Bureau of Labor Statistics gather the monthly jobs report? | USAFacts

How does the Bureau of Labor Statistics gather the monthly jobs report? | USAFacts

The latest edition of the Bureau of Labor Statistics's (BLS) monthly jobs report, released August 1, 2025, reported “little change” in jobs numbers since April. Citing the report, President Trump directed his team to fire the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer.

Does Microsoft Teams Support VoIP?

 

Does Microsoft Teams Support VoIP?    

Yes! Microsoft Teams is more than just an internal collaboration tool. It is a fully capable VoIP phone system that supports both internal and external calling over the internet.  

With Microsoft Teams Phone, users can place and receive calls over the internet to external numbers such as landlines and mobile phones.   

Its intelligent call routing and call forwarding features, voicemail, calling queues, and auto-attendants enable it to function as a complete replacement for traditional PBX phone systems.  

Thanks to its deep integration with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and support for third-party VoIP providers, Teams becomes a centralized communications hub that supports on-site, remote, and hybrid work environments.  

Will journalism become impossible in the U.S.?

Will journalism become impossible in the U.S.?

Don’t just take my word for it. The Reporters Without Borders organization compiles a World Press Freedom Index that shows how the United States is slipping. On a scale of 0 to 100, Norway ranks as the top country for press freedom with a rating of 92.31. The United States went from 76.15 in 2020 to 65.49 in 2025 – from “satisfactory” to “problematic.” The United States now ranks just below Sierra Leone, Romania, and Liberia.