Latest news with #Knife
News18
18 hours ago
- General
- News18
Salman Rushdie 'Pleased' That Man Who Attempted To Kill Him Got Maximum 25-Year Sentence
Last Updated: The assailant, Hadi Matar, was sentenced in a New York court for the attempted murder of Rushdie. The attack left the British-Indian author blind in one eye Booker Prize-winning author Sir Salman Rushdie has said he is 'pleased" that the man who brutally attacked him on stage in 2022 has been handed the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The assailant, Hadi Matar, was sentenced in a New York court for the attempted murder of Rushdie. The attack left the British-Indian author blind in one eye. Rushdie later documented the event in his 2024 memoir, Knife. Judge David Foley delivered the verdict in Mayville, near where the stabbing occurred. Following the ruling, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt expressed satisfaction. However, Matar's lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, confirmed that an appeal will be made. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Monday, Rushdie said, 'I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and I hope he uses it to reflect upon his deeds." In 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death over alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses. Following this, Rushdie went into hiding under British protection and later settled in New York, in the United States. The book was banned in 20 countries. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. On August 12, 2022, while about to start a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, Rushdie was attacked by Matar, who rushed onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly, including in the face, neck, and abdomen. Matar was pulled away before being taken into custody by a state trooper; Rushdie was airlifted to UPMC Hamot, a tertiary trauma centre in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery before being put on a ventilator. On October 23, 2022, his agent reported that Rushdie had lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand but survived the murder attempt. Watch India Pakistan Breaking News on CNN-News18. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published:
News18
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News18
AI No Threat To Authors, Says Salman Rushdie, 'Until It Can...'
Last Updated: Rushdie, who was speaking at the renowned Hay Festival in Wales, revealed that he has a simple benchmark for the safety of human authorship At the renowned Hay Festival in Wales, celebrated author Salman Rushdie shared his signature sharp and humorous insights on the hotly debated topic of artificial intelligence's impact on creative writing. Known for his wit and pointed commentary, Rushdie, the acclaimed author of 'Midnight's Children" and his recent memoir 'Knife", reassured writers that they need not worry, at least for now. His simple benchmark for the safety of human authorship? The day a robot successfully crafts a genuinely funny joke. 'I've never tried AI," Rushdie said to the audience with a grin. 'I pretend it doesn't exist. It has no sense of humour; you wouldn't want to hear a joke from ChatGPT." He underscored his viewpoint, stating definitively, 'If there's ever a moment when ChatGPT writes a funny book, I think we're in trouble." This appearance at the Hay Festival was one of Rushdie's most significant public engagements in the United Kingdom since the brutal stabbing attack he suffered in 2022, which left him blind in one eye. Despite this traumatic event, his characteristic resilience and sharp intellect were evident as he addressed contemporary issues in literature and technology. In 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death over alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses. Following this, Rushdie went into hiding under British protection and later settled in New York, in the United States. The book was banned in 20 countries. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. On August 12, 2022, while about to start a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, Rushdie was attacked by 27-year-old Hadi Matar, who rushed onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly, including in the face, neck, and abdomen. Matar was pulled away before being taken into custody by a state trooper; Rushdie was airlifted to UPMC Hamot, a tertiary trauma centre in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery before being put on a ventilator. On October 23, 2022, his agent reported that Rushdie had lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand but survived the murder attempt. The assailant, Hadi Matar, was sentenced in a New York court for the attempted murder of Rushdie. The author later said he was 'pleased" that the man had been handed the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. (With agency inputs)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'I'm over knife attack,' says Salman Rushdie
Sir Salman Rushdie says he has moved on from the knife attack which has seen his attacker jailed for attempted murder. Hadi Matar, 27, was sentenced to 25 years last month after repeatedly stabbing Sir Salman on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Sir Salman, who has a new book out later this year, told the Hay Festival that an "important moment" came for him when he and his wife Eliza "went back to the scene of the crime to show myself I could stand up where I fell down". "It will be nice to talk about fiction again because ever since the attack, really the only thing anybody's wanted to talk about is the attack, but I'm over it." Sir Salman recently told Radio 4's Today programme that he was "pleased" the man who tried to kill him had received the maximum possible prison sentence. The Midnight's Children and Satanic Verses writer was left with life-changing injuries after the incident - he is now blind in one eye, has damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm. Last year, Sir Salman published a book titled Knife reflecting on the event, which he has described as "my way of fighting back". The attack came 35 years after Sir Salman's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which had long made him the target of death threats for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. In November, the author will publish a short story collection, The Eleventh Hour, his first work of fiction to be written since the stabbing. Security was tight for Sir Salman's event, with sniffer dogs present and bag checks leading to a 15-minute delay. He waved at the audience as he entered the stage and humbly gestured to them to stop applauding before joking that: "I can't see everyone - but I can hear them." He said he was feeling "excellent" although there "were bits of me that I'm annoyed about, like not having a right eye. But on the whole, I've been very fortunate and I'm in better shape that maybe I would have expected." In a wide-ranging discussion, Sir Salman also touched on US politics, declaring that "America was not in great shape". In an apparent reference to President Donald Trump, Sir Salman spoke about "the moment of hope, that image of Barack and Michelle Obama walking down the mall in DC with the crowds around them... people dancing in the streets in New York. And to go from that to the orange moment that we live in, it's, let's just say, disappointing. But he said he was still positive about the future. "I think I suffer from the optimism disease... I can't help thinking somehow it will be alright." Speaking about free speech, he said "it means tolerating people who say things you don't like". He recalled a time when a film "in which I was the villain", made around the time of the uproar over Satanic Verses, was not classified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) "because it was in a hundred ways defamatory" but he asked them to allow its release. "So they gave it a certificate... and nobody went, you know why? Lousy movie. And it taught me a lesson. Let it out and trust the audience. And that's still my view. "I think we do live in a moment when people are too eager to prohibit speech they disapprove of. That's a very slippery slope" and warned young people "to think about it." When asked about the effect of AI on authors, Sir Salman said: "I don't have Chat GPT... I try very hard to pretend it doesn't exist. Someone asked it to write a couple of hundred words like me... it was terrible. And it has no sense of humour." Despite being considered one of the greatest living writers, Sir Salman joked that authors "don't even have that much money... except the two of us (him and host Erica Wagner) and those who write about child wizards... the Taylor Swift of literature," referring to JK Rowling. "Good on her." Rushdie 'pleased' with attacker's maximum sentence Salman Rushdie to release first fiction since stabbing Salman Rushdie: Losing an eye upsets me every day Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is writing about rich people again Jacqueline Wilson says she wouldn't return to Tracy Beaker as an adult
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Salman Rushdie says AI won't threaten authors until it can make people laugh
Salman Rushdie has said that authors are safe from the threat of AI – until the moment it can create a book that makes people laugh. Speaking at the Hay festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, Rushdie said he had 'never tried AI' and liked to pretend it didn't exist. But the problem AI had was that it couldn't make up its own jokes, the writer said. 'It has no sense of humour – you don't want to hear a joke told by ChatGPT. If there's a moment when there's a funny book written by ChatGPT I think we're screwed.' Rushdie was making his most high-profile in-person appearance in the UK since a stabbing in the US while he was on stage left him blind in the right eye. The audience was asked to arrive in good time because of the extra security. Police officers stood by in the wings and security staff flanked the stage. Rushdie, 77, said he was glad that his attacker, Hadi Matar, 27, had been convicted of attempted murder and assault and jailed for 25 years. But he said what had given him closure was writing about it in his book Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder. He said: 'I'm glad that trial is over and done with. And that he got the maximum sentence. The closure was more finishing writing about it.' Rushdie said he was also pleased he had new fiction coming out later in the year and writing it 'felt like coming home'. He continued: 'Ever since the attack, really, the only thing anybody's wanted to talk to me about is the attack. And I'm over it. It will be nice to have stories to talk about. 'When I wanted to be a writer, it never occurred to me that I would write about myself. That seemed like the most uninteresting thing of all. I wanted to make stuff up.' Rushdie also spoke about Donald Trump, saying the world was in an 'orange moment'. He said: 'I don't know what to do with it – he was elected', but added: 'So was Hitler, by the way.' Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Rushdie argued that in a world where people struggled to agree on the truth, stories and fables were even more important – and could feel more real. But he said he did not like books that tried to teach him something and preferred ones he could inhabit. He joked that most writers did not make much money – unless they wrote about 'child wizards' and suggested JK Rowling was the Taylor Swift of literature. Rushdie spent years in hiding because of threats to his life after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, a fictional story inspired by the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, in 1988. In August 2022, he was attacked on a New York lecture stage and left with severe injuries including vision loss, damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage. In Knife, Rushdie relived the traumatic events of the attack and its aftermath, describing his eye lolling on his cheek like 'a large soft-boiled egg', but also described his healing and recovery.
Time of India
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Rushdie 'pleased' with his attacker's maximum jail term
LONDON: Salman Rushdie said Monday he was "pleased" with the maximum 25-year jail sentence handed to a man who tried to kill him with a knife at a New York cultural centre in 2022. "I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and hopefully he uses it to reflect upon his deeds," Rushdie told BBC radio in an interview. Hadi Matar was sentenced to 25 years in a New York court on May 16 after being convicted of attempted murder and assault. Video footage played during the trial showed Matar rushing onto stage and plunging a knife into Rushdie that left the British-American author blind in one eye. Last year, Rushdie published a memoir recounting the experience called "Knife", in which he has an imagined conversation with Matar. "If I was to really meet him... I wouldn't get very much out of him," Rushdie said. "And so I thought, well, I could open it by myself. I'd probably do it better than a real conversation would." afp
