Latest news with #DanielPerry
Daily Mail
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pro-Palestine protester who staged demonstration at Royal Opera House during curtain call is 'queer dance artist' who attended £48k-a-year school
A pro-Palestine protester who caused a scene at the end of a Royal Opera House performance has been reportedly identified as a self-described 'queer dance artist'. Daniel Perry, a privately educated performer who attended the £16,000-per-term Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, has worked as a dancer since 2013, according to an online biography. The artist - who uses 'they/them' pronouns - caused a scene during the curtain call of Il Trovatore on Saturday as they unfurled the Palestine flag on stage. Perry could be seen resisting a furious attempt by a man identified as Royal Opera director Oliver Mears to yank the flag out of their hands. They pull the flag back towards them, sending Mr Mears stumbling, as Perry's fellow performers awkwardly side-step out of the way of the carnage. The protesting performer then stands with the flag as - in video seen from another angle - a woman appears to remonstrate with them from behind a curtain. Self-described as a 'queer dance artist', Perry has privatised their social media accounts, one of which features the transgender, pride and Palestinian flags alongside a watermelon emoji - a symbol of pro-Palestine protest. A post earlier this month seen by MailOnline showed them standing outside the musical Cabaret in London's Charing Cross in a vest daubed with the slogan 'Free Palestine'. In the caption, they compared the events of the play - which charts the rise of the Nazi party in Germany through the lens of a Berlin cabaret club - to current events. They previously performed as a dancer in an earlier run of the play alongside Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley, as well as West End productions of Mary Poppins and Carousel, according to a biography. An online CV suggests they also worked on a number of cruise lines as a dancer, and appeared in a straight-to-DVD gangster film and a TV advert for crisps. 'I decided to make this top and wear it as a reminder to myself, and to those around me, of the themes of the show and its relevance to our current times,' they wrote. 'I am so disappointed in an industry that I have worked in for over 10 years. Where is your support for those who need our help?' They also called for a boycott of Coca-Cola, which has been a target of the so-called 'boycott, divest, sanctions' movement targeting businesses that continue to trade with Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza. Perry is reported by The Telegraph to have been hired as a freelancer for the Royal Opera's latest run of Il Trovatore - a four-part opera composed by Verdi - which ended on Saturday night. A witness said the dancer unfurled a Palestinian flag during the opera's curtain call. They said: 'Someone from the opera house/company came on stage from the wings to try to remove the flag from the cast member who wrestled it back and refused to give it up during Il trovatore.' It remains unknown whether they have been reprimanded for their on-stage protest. The Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire charges up to £16,000 per term for boarding, or around £48,000 a year. Its alumni include Dame Julie Andrews and Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley. Perry has called for a boycott of businesses that continue to trade with Israel such as Coca-Cola, and compared the events of Cabaret to current events in Gaza Opera fan Stephen Ratcliffe, who was also watching the production, on X added: 'Controversy at end of Trovatore @rbo_org tonight when an extra/chorus member unfurled a Palestinian flag. 'Off stage manager tried to grapple with him but he held his ground. Bet he won't be working there again.' Royal Ballet and Opera - which counts the King as its patron - says the protest was 'spontaneous and unauthorised' and was 'not in line with our commitment to political impartiality'. It has previously staged concerts in solidarity with Ukraine, featuring performers who fled to Britain in the wake of Russia's 2022 invasion. A spokesman said: 'The display of the flag was spontaneous and unauthorised action by the artist. 'It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is not in line with our commitment to political impartiality.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Crawford County Sheriff's Department restoring Project Lifesaver
CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Crawford County Sheriff's Department and Department of Emergency Management are joining forces to re-establish Project Lifesaver. Project Lifesaver is a program that aims to help locate individuals with cognitive disorders or autism should they wander or go missing. Relatives of those who have cognitive disorders can sign up for electronic bracelets that can be located using radio waves. The bracelets can be used to help the caretakers find their wearers if they are lost. 'We used to have it several years ago, and that equipment got outdated and over time, it just quit working,' Crawford County Sheriff Daniel Perry said. 'When I took office, we started looking at grants for it.' The department has received a $6,000 grant from the Alzheimer's Foundation of America to cover the start-up cost, and they plan to renew the grant in future years to pay for any additional equipment they may need as the project expands. The grant will cover about ten bracelets, according to Perry. Van Buren bans roosters within city limits Veronica Robins with the Crawford County Department of Emergency Management said that the program costs nothing upfront for participants, and in the future, will only be an annual fee of $5 when the batteries need to be replaced. The only requirement to join the program is for the patient to have a cognitive disorder, including Alzheimer's, dementia, or autism. 'The time frame of saving someone, especially in a severe weather event, like a cold snap that we just had recently and fixing to have. If you have a person get lost in that weather, time is of the essence,' Robins said, 'The faster we can locate them, the more we're able to save that life. And that's our goal in search and rescue, that's our goal in the sheriff's department, is to bring everybody home safely, and as quick as possible.' The sheriff's department plans to have the program operational by late March 2025. Residents interested in being a part of the program are asked to reach out to either the Crawford County Sheriff's Department by calling (479) 474-2581 or the Crawford County Department of Emergency Management at (479) 471-3260. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge delays decision on whether to dismiss deadly conduct charge against Daniel Perry
After a lengthy and contentious hearing Friday, Travis County Court-at-Law Judge Carlos Barrera said he will announce Tuesday whether he will dismiss a deadly conduct charge against Daniel Perry, who was pardoned by Gov. Greg Abbott after Perry was convicted of murder in the shooting death of a protester in Austin. Perry's lawyer, Doug O'Connell, argued during the hearing that the deadly conduct charge should be dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct that happened both before and after the grand jury proceedings. Former Austin police homicide detective David Fugitt testified Friday that prosecutors told him he could not include evidence in his grand jury testimony that would prove Perry did not run a red light and did not drive intentionally into a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in downtown Austin in July 2020. Prosecutorial misconduct also occurred after the grand jury indicted Perry when Travis County District Attorney Jesus Garza held a news conference saying Perry had declined to testify, O'Connell said. What Garza said violated Perry's Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, O'Connell said. More: Judge to rule on lesser charge for Daniel Perry, who was pardoned after murder conviction Assistant County Attorney Alexandra Gauthier objected to almost everything O'Connell and Fugitt said at the hearing Friday. She said that most of what they were talking about involved secret grand jury proceedings. Barrera overruled most of her objections. Almost an hour after the hearing started, the county attorney's office tried to stop it by filing a writ of mandamus with the 3rd Court of Appeals. The writ asks the appeals court to order Barrera to "reverse his ruling eliciting secret grand jury information during this evidentiary hearing." Barrera didn't stop the hearing after Gauthier told him the writ was being filed but said he would wait for a ruling from the appeals court Monday before making a decision on whether the indictment should be dismissed. The judge also said he hadn't been allowing anything in the hearing that violated grand jury secrecy. More: Daniel Perry released from Texas prison within an hour after Gov. Abbott's pardon A district judge already had decided there was no prosecutorial misconduct regarding Fugitt's testimony, Gauthier said at the hearing Friday. Fugitt didn't know what the other witnesses said at the grand jury hearing, she said. Prosecutors also are not required to present exculpatory evidence at a grand jury proceeding, Gauthier said. Perry was charged with the Class A misdemeanor in 2021 at the same time he was charged with murder and aggravated assault in the death of Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster in July 2020 in downtown Austin. A jury in April 2023 convicted Perry of the murder of Foster, but he was pardoned by the governor in May 2024 and released from prison. He was acquitted of the aggravated assault charge. The deadly conduct indictment said that Perry, who was an Uber driver at the time, placed a group of marchers walking on Congress Avenue on July 25, 2020, in danger of serious bodily injury by texting while driving and turning right at a red light without coming to a complete stop. It also said Perry turned into an intersection where pedestrians were visible in the crosswalk and in the intersection, and that he drove into a group of people in the street. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in a county jail and a fine of up to $4,000. Court records that a judge unsealed after Perry was convicted of murder showed that Perry made several disparaging remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement on social media. The posts included messages such as "Black Lives Matter is racist to white people." O'Connell said Fugitt's testimony Friday did not violate the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. "You don't have to call a witness (in a grand jury proceeding) if you don't want to but what you can't do is tell them they are prohibited from talking about certain types of evidence," he said. Fugitt testified Friday that prosecutors told him before the grand jury met to take out certain slides from his presentation that would have shown Perry was not texting while driving. Fugitt also said police threatened him with an internal investigation if he didn't remove the exculpatory evidence from his presentation to the grand jury. Police threatened Fugitt after they received an angry phone call from Garza, O'Connell said. Gauthier said she couldn't cross-examine Fugitt because he was testifying about grand jury proceedings, which are secret. "He's saying that his stuff was not presented to the grand jury, but he was not in the grand jury for any other testimony," she said. "That's why I will not assume that the grand jury did not hear whatever he was told not to show." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Travis County judge delays decision on charge against Daniel Perry
