Jane Goodall, the British conservationist and primatologist renowned for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees, has died at age 91. Goodall revolutionised the study of humans’ nearest animal relatives and became a global advocate for wildlife and the planet.
Oct. 2 (UPI) —Jane Fonda and other Hollywood actors, directors, writers and producers relaunched the post-World War II Committee for the First Amendment to fight back against the Trump administration’s targeting of free speech.
Originally formed in 1947 by Hollywood heavyweights Gene Kelly, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and others, the Committee for the First Amendment pushed back against the so-called Red Scare political repression of left-wing individuals during the 1940s and 1950s.
In a statement Wednesday, the Committee for the First Amendment said it was relaunching at a time when it sees similar political oppression emanating from the Trump administration.
“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia and the entertainment industry,” the more than 500 entertainment professionals said in a statement.
“We refuse to stand by and let that happen. Free speech and free expression are the inalienable rights of every American of afll backgrounds and political beliefs — no matter how liberal or conservative you may be.”
President Donald Trump and his second administration have faced repeated accusations of using executive authority to suppress opposition and dissent, both within the federal government and broader civil society.
Critics point to Trump’s use of executive orders and investigations targeting political adversaries; immigration enforcement measures, including deportations and visa revocations, which a judge on Tuesday ruled was used to squelch free speech of foreign students’ support for Palestine; executive orders that restrict the rights and recognition of transgender people and directives pressuring universities to abandon inclusive policies or risk penalties.
Following last month’s fatal shooting of conservative activist and provocateur Charlie Kirk, Trump — who campaigned on promises of retribution against his political opponents — also pleaded to intensify crackdowns on what it described as left-wing political violence, worrying critics he might use it to target peaceful protesters.
By the end of the committee’s launch day on Wednesday, Fonda said they had received “hundreds and hundreds of people” in the entertainment industry have called and emailed to join them.
“What it shows me is our industry is ready to mobilize, to resist autocracy, to resist attacks on our fundamental freedoms,” Fonda said in a recorded statement published to Instagram.
“We’re artists. We’re creatives. Freedom of expression is essential to what we do. Many of our fathers and grandfathers fought wars to defend this right and we can’t just sit back and let this happen.”
The White House responded to the launch by stating that Fonda is “free to share whatever bad opinions she wants.”
“As someone who actually knows what it’s like to be censored, President Trump is a strong supporter of free speech and Democrat allegations to the contrary are so false, they’re laughable,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Trump “is focused on left-wing organizations that have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, incited violence all across America.
Celebrated for decades as Hollywood royalty, Jane Fonda could easily be living a comfortable life of extravagance and leisure.
Instead, the 87-year-old actor and Vietnam War-era provocateur is as likely to be seen knocking on voters’ doors in Phoenix on a balmy summer afternoon as sashaying down a red carpet at a glitzy movie premiere.
Politically active for more than a half-century, Fonda is now focusing her energy, celebrity, connections and resources on fighting climate change and combating the “existential crises” created by President Trump.
Calling fossil fuels a threat to humanity, Fonda created JanePAC, a political action committee that has spent millions on candidates at the forefront of that fight.
“Nature has always been in my bones, in my cells,” Fonda said in a recent interview, describing herself as an environmentalist since her tomboy youth. “And then, about 10 years ago … I started reading more, and I realized what we’re doing to the climate, which means what we’re doing to us, what we’re doing to the future, to our grandchildren and our children.
“Our existence is being challenged all because an industry, the fossil-fuel industry, wants to make more money,” she said. “I mean, I try to understand what, what must they think when they go to sleep at night? These men, they’re destroying everything.”
Rather than hosting fancy political fundraisers or headlining presidential campaign rallies, Fonda devotes her efforts to electing like-minded state legislators, city council members, utility board officials and candidates in other less flashy but critical races.
Fonda said her organization took its cue from successful GOP tactics.
“I hate to say this, but you know, in terms of playing the long game, the Republicans have been better than the Democrats,” she said. “They started to work down ballot, and they took over state legislatures. They took over governorships and mayors and city councils, boards of supervisors, and before we knew what had happened, they had power on the grassroots level.”
Fonda said her PAC selects candidates to back based on their climate-change record and viability. The beneficiaries include candidates running for state legislature and city council. Some of the races are often obscure, such as the Silver River Project board (an Arizona utility), the Port of Bellingham commission in Washington and the Lane Community College board in Oregon.
“Down ballot, if you come in, especially for primaries, you can really make a difference. You know, not all Democrats are the same,” she said. “We want candidates who have shown public courage in standing up to fossil fuels. We want candidates who can win. We’re not a protest PAC. We’re in it to win it.”
On Wednesday, Fonda announced that she is relaunching the Committee for the First Amendment, which was initially formed after the blacklisting of Hollywood actors, directors, screenwriters and others who were labeled communists or sympathizers by the House Un-American Activities Committee after World War II.
“The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,” Fonda said. “Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights.”
The Trump administration has pressured media companies, law firms and universities to concede to its demands or face repercussions. The suspension of ABC’s late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel, which has been rescinded, is among the most prominent examples.
“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry,” Fonda said.
Since her birth, Fonda’s life has been infused by political activism.
Her father witnessed the lynching of a Black man during the 1919 Omaha race riots when he was 14, casting him into becoming a lifelong liberal.
Though such matters were not discussed at the dinner table, Fonda’s father raised money for Democratic candidates and starred in politically imbued films such as “The Grapes of Wrath,” about the exploitation of migrant workers during the Dust Bowl, and “12 Angry Men,” which focused on prejudice, groupthink and the importance of due process during the McCarthy era.
But his daughter Jane did not become politically active until her early 30s.
“Before then, I kind of led a life of ignorance, somewhat hedonistic,” she said. “Maybe deep down, I knew that once I know something, I can’t turn away.”
In “Prime Time,” Fonda’s 2011 memoir, she describes the final chapter of her life as a time of “coming to fruition rather than simply a period of marking time, or the absence of youth.”
“Unlike during childhood, Act III is a quiet ripening. It takes time and experience, and yes, perhaps the inevitable slowing down,” she wrote. “You have to learn to sort out what’s fundamentally important to you from what’s irrelevant.”
In 1972, Fonda appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Tout Va Bien,” about workers’ rights in the aftermath of widespread street protests in France four years earlier. It was her first role in a political movie and coincided with her off-screen move into activism.
Fonda’s most noteworthy and reviled political moment occurred the same year, when she was photographed by the North Vietnamese sitting atop an antiaircraft gun.
Actor and political activist Jane Fonda at a news conference in New York City on July 28, 1972. Fonda spoke about her trip to North Vietnam and interviews with American prisoners in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(Marty Lederhandler / Associated Press)
The images led to Fonda being tarred as “Hanoi Jane” and a traitor to the United States, which had deployed millions of American soldiers to Southeast Asia, many of whom never returned. Fonda says it is something she “will regret to my dying day.”
“It is possible that it was a setup, that the Vietnamese had it all planned,” Fonda wrote in 2011. “I will never know. But if they did, I can’t blame them. The buck stops here. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. It was my mistake.”
Fonda’s political beliefs have been a through line in her Hollywood career.
In 1979, she played a reporter in “The China Syndrome,” a film about a fictional meltdown at a nuclear power plant near Los Angeles. The movie’s theatrical release occurred less than two weeks before the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
The 1980 movie “9 to 5,” starring Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, was a biting comedy that highlighted the treatment of women in the workplace and income inequality long before such issues were routinely discussed in workplaces.
Dolly Parton, left, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are harassed office workers in the 1980 movie “9 to 5.”
(20th Century Fox)
Two years later, as home VCRs grew popular, Fonda created exercise videos that shattered sales records.
She urged women to “feel the burn,” and revenue from the videos funded the Campaign for Economic Democracy, a political action committee founded by Fonda and Hayden.
This year, Fonda offered signed copies to donors to JanePAC, which she created in 2022.
“I’m still in shock that those leg warmers and leotards caught on the way they did,” Fonda wrote to supporters in April. “If you’ve ever done one of my leg lifts, or even thought about doing one, now’s your chance to own a piece of that history.”
UCLA lecturer Jim Newton, a veteran Los Angeles Times political journalist and historian of the state’s politics, described Fonda as confrontational, controversial and unapologetic.
“She’s remarkable, utterly admirable, a principled person who has devoted her life to fighting for what she believes in,” said Newton, who quotes Fonda in his new book, “Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening.”
Newton added that Fonda’s outspoken nature certainly harmed her career.
“I’m sure that there are directors, producers, whatnot, especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s, who passed on chances to work with her because of her politics,” he said. “And I’m sure she knew that, right? She did it. It’s not been without sacrifice. She’s true to herself, like very few people.”
A year after Fonda and Hayden divorced in 1990, she married CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner, who she once described as “my favorite ex-husband.” Though Fonda largely paused her acting career during their decade-long marriage, she remained politically active.
In 1995, Fonda founded a Georgia effort dedicated to reducing teenage pregnancy. Five years later, she launched the Jane Fonda Center for Reproductive Health at Emory University.
After Fonda and Turner divorced, she worked with Tomlin on raising the minimum wage in Michigan and then launched Fire Drill Fridays — acts of civil disobedience — with Greenpeace in 2019.
Jane Fonda speaks during a rally before a march from the U.S. Capitol to the White House as part of her “Fire Drill Fridays” rally protesting against climate change on Nov. 8, 2019.
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Fonda said she decided to create her political action committee after facing headwinds persuading Gov. Gavin Newsom to create setbacks for oil wells in 2020.
“He wasn’t moving on it, and somebody very high up in his campaign said to us, ‘You can have millions of people in your organization all over California, but you don’t have a big enough carrot or stick to move the governor. … You don’t have an electoral strategy,’” Fonda recalled. “Since we’ve started the PAC, it’s interesting how politicians deal with us differently. They know that we’ve got money. They know that we have tens of thousands of volunteers all over the country.”
Initially concentrated on climate change, JanePAC has expanded its focus since Trump was reelected in November.
“We’re facing two existential crises, climate and democracy, and it’s now or never for both,” Fonda said. “We can’t have a stable democracy with an unstable climate, and we can’t have a stable climate unless we have a democracy, And so we have to fight both together.”
Fonda’s PAC has raised more than $9 million since its creation through June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission.
In 2024, JanePAC supported 154 campaigns and won 96 of those races. The committee gave nearly $700,000 directly to campaigns and helped raise more than $1.1 million for their endorsed candidates and ballot measures. In 2025, they have endorsed 63 campaigns and plan to soon launch get-out-the-vote efforts in support of Proposition 50, Newsom’s ballot measure to redraw California’s congressional districts that will appear on the November ballot.
Arizona state Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the minority leader in the state’s House of Representatives, recalled Fonda’s support during the 2024 election, not only for his reelection bid but also a broader effort to try to win Democratic control of the state Legislature.
In addition to raising $500,000 at a Phoenix event for candidates, De Los Santos recalled the actor spending days knocking on Arizona voters’ doors.
“It is a moral validator to have Jane Fonda support your campaigns, especially at a time when corporate interests have more money and more power than ever, having somebody in your corner who’s been on the right side of history for decades,” said De Los Santos, who represents a south Phoenix district deeply affected by environmental justice issues.
Voters are often stunned when Fonda shows up on their doorstep.
“I’ve had people walking out of their laundry room and dropping all the laundry,” Fonda said with a laugh.
But others don’t know who she is and Fonda doesn’t tell them.
Jane Fonda
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s amazing. You wouldn’t think that in just a few minutes on someone’s doorstep, you can really find out a lot,” Fonda said, recalling discovering her love of canvassing when she was married to Hayden.”I loved talking to people and finding out what they care about and what they’re scared of and what they’re angry about.”
Fonda does not walk in lockstep with the Democratic party. In 2023, she joined other climate-change activists protesting a big-money Joe Biden fundraiser. They argued that the then-president had strayed from the environmental promises he made when he ran for election, such as by approving a massive oil drilling project on the North Slope of Alaska.
Fonda said she supported Biden’s 2024 reelection despite disagreeing with some of his policies because of the threat she believed Trump poses.
“When you see what the choice was, of course you’re going to vote,” she said. “I get so mad at people who say, you know, ‘I don’t like him, so I’m not going to vote.’ [A] young person said to me, we already have fascism. They don’t know history. You know, we don’t teach civics anymore, so they don’t understand that what’s happening now is leading to fascism. I mean, this is real tyranny.”
But she also faulted Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris after she became the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, as well as 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for failing to speak to the economic pain being experienced by Americans who backed Trump.
“They’re not all MAGA,” she said.
Many were just angry and hurting, she said, because they couldn’t afford groceries or pay medical bills. Fonda believes many now have buyer’s remorse.
Fonda reflected on the parallels between the turmoil in the 1960s and today. In the interview, which took place before the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, she argued that today’s political climate is more perilous.
“I’m not sure that what we have right now in the U.S. is a democracy,” she said. “It’s far graver. Far, far graver now than it was.”
Fonda said she remains driven, not by blind optimism, but by immersing herself in work that she believes makes a difference.
“This is what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life,” she said.
Jane Goodall Institute says primatologist dies in California during US speaking tour.
Published On 1 Oct 20251 Oct 2025
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Jane Goodall, the British conservationist and primatologist renowned for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees, has died aged 91.
The Jane Goodall Institute announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday that Goodall died of natural causes in California during a speaking tour in the United States.
“Dr Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist transformed science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of the natural world,” the institute said.
Jane Goodall, chimpanzee researcher and naturalist, observes through glass some of Taronga Zoo’s 25 chimpanzees in Sydney, Australia [File: Reuters]
Born in London in 1934, Goodall began researching free-living chimpanzees in Tanzania in 1960.
She observed a chimpanzee named David Greybeard make a tool from twigs and use it to fish termites from a nest, a ground-breaking observation that challenged the definition of humans as the single species capable of making tools.
In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which works to protect great apes and their habitat and supports youth projects aimed at benefitting animals and the environment.
Goodall devoted her later decades to education and advocacy on humanitarian causes and protecting the natural world. She was known for balancing the grim realities of the climate crisis with a sincere message of hope for the future.
From her base in the British coastal town of Bournemouth, she travelled nearly 300 days a year, even after she turned 90, to speak to packed auditoriums around the world. Between more serious messages, her speeches often featured her whooping like a chimpanzee or lamenting that Tarzan chose the wrong Jane.
In 2002 she took up a prominent United Nations role when she became a Messenger of Peace.
“Today, the UN family mourns the loss of Dr Jane Goodall. The scientist, conservationist and UN Messenger of Peace worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and nature,” the UN wrote in a post on X.
Jane Pitt, a schoolteacher, philanthropist and the mother of film star Brad Pitt, died on Tuesday at the age of 84.
The Pitt family shared her obituary with KY3, an NBC-affiliated station in Springfield, Mo., where Jane and her husband, Bill, raised their three children — Brad, Doug Pitt and Julie Neal.
The cause of Pitt’s death was not revealed by the family.
Doug Pitt’s daughter Sydney shared a tribute to her grandmother on her Instagram account with a series of pictures.
“We were not ready for you to go yet but knowing you are finally free to sing, dance, and paint again makes it a tad easier,” she wrote.
“I don’t know how we move forward without her. But I know she’s still here in every brushstroke, every kind gesture, every hummingbird. She was love in its purest form,” Sydney added.
In addition to being an accomplished artist, her family said Jane Pitt was an elementary school teacher with the Springfield public school system. In 2009, the Pitts donated $1 million to establish the Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.
She would occasionally make red carpet appearances with her son Brad. The actor’s six children are among the Pitts’ 14 grandchildren, and the family said Jane Pitt treasured her role as grandmother. “The years of ‘Your Special Day’ of one-on-ones with each grandkid are some of their fondest memories,” the family said in her obituary.
The legal team for Sean “Diddy” Combs has moved to get the disgraced music mogul released from prison ahead of his Oct. 3 sentencing. Less than a month ago, Combs was acquitted of the most damning charges in his high-profile sex-trafficking case.
Combs’ defense attorneys on Tuesday filed a motion requesting the Bad Boy Records founder’s release, outlining the terms for his bail, including a $50-million bond and travel restrictions. The motion, reviewed by The Times, is addressed to Judge Arun Subramanian and claims “there are exceptional circumstances warranting a departure from mandatory detention and ensuring that Sean Combs is released.”
In the 12-page filing, Combs’ lawyers make the case for his pre-sentence release, including that he shouldn’t be jailed for his “swinger” lifestyle and that he faces “ongoing threats of violence” at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The 55-year-old music star was cleared earlier this month of racketeering and sex trafficking but convicted on two counts of prostitution-related charges.
Combs was found guilty of violating the Mann Act by transporting male sex workers across state lines, but his attorneys argued that in similar convictions “the defendants were released pending sentencing.” Additionally, the filing puts a new spin on Combs’ relationships with ex-girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and “Jane,” who went by a pseudonym. Each testified about the musician’s orgies known as “freak-offs” and made allegations about his violent behavior. The filing claims that the relationship Combs had with his exes was open, akin to swinging.
“In the the lifestyle he and other adults voluntarily chose, Mr. Combs would be called a swinger,” reads the motion, which later asserts that “Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct.”
Combs’ legal team insists in the motion that Combs “is not a risk of flight nor is he a danger to the community or to any specific people.” The motion also downplays the claims of domestic violence against Combs.
Notably, Combs was seen in security footage kicking and dragging Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel. The accuser identified as “Jane” had accused Combs of forced sex, physical violence and abuse.
Referring to earlier court proceedings, Combs’ attorneys note that the “defense admitted a history of domestic violence” but claimed in the motion that Combs struck “Jane” twice in June 2024 because she “provoked” him. The filing also says Combs enrolled in a domestic violence program prior to his arrest last year.
“As we said in court this jury gave [Combs] his life back, and he will not squander his second chance at life, nor would he do anything to further jeopardize his seven children not having a father, and four of his children not having a parent at all,” his defense team says in the motion, referring to the four children Combs shares with Kim Porter, who died in 2018.
According to the proposed bail package, Combs’ $50-million bond would be secured by his home in Miami, where he will live if released. Combs’ attorneys also say his travel would be limited to specific sites in Florida and New York for attorney meetings, and the airports required to travel between those destinations.
To ensure his release, Combs’ attorneys said he was open to the court adding more conditions — including house arrest, mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment — if deemed necessary.
Times editorial library director Cary Schneider contributed to this report
Jane Austen fans may have missed this adaptation of her works
The Jane Austen adaptation gave a refreshing take on Pride and Prejudice (Image: MIRAMAX)
As Jane Austen marks her 250th birthday this year, fans are revisiting the celebrated author’s works.
Over the years, numerous adaptations of her novels have been created, along with fresh interpretations that draw inspiration from her books, reports the Express.
Some notable examples include Bridget Jones’s Diary, which reimagines Pride and Prejudice in a modern setting, and Clueless, which transposes Emma from Regency England to the complex social hierarchy of a 1990s Beverly Hills high school.
Additionally, there are productions like ITV’s Lost in Austen, where a contemporary woman finds herself in the world of Pride and Prejudice, and Austenland, which follows a romantic as she visits a Jane Austen-themed park in pursuit of her Regency dreams.
However, one lesser-known adaptation, featuring two Virgin River stars, is also worth watching.
On IMDb, one viewer praised the film as “brilliant”, saying: “Vibrant, colorful [sic], hilarious and lively, this movie was a sheer joy to watch. A refreshing take on an old classic.”
Martin Henderson stars in the Jane Austen-inspired movie (Image: MIRAMAX)
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Another reviewer commented: “Well, it’s pretty hard, isn’t it, to write a spoiler for a film which is based on such a well-known, well-loved novel! I will show my hand here and say that I am a Janeite.
“However, I am not a purist and I like many Jane Austen adaptations that many Janeites don’t (for example I like ‘Mansfield Park’).”
One viewer noted: “The script did a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the story whilst playing around with some of the details eg cutting out the fifth daughter whose role in the story is pretty minimal, and making the ‘tyrant’ in Darcy’s life his mother not his aunt (a more realistic situation in its modern setting).”
Another fan chimed in: “Gurinder Chadha has transported Jane Austen’s great novel to India. What a charmer this film turns out to be! The adaptation of the novel is excellent as the new locale is incorporated to the story.”
They continued: “The incredible Indian colors explode in front of our eyes giving the Western viewers such an opportunity to experience a little taste of India [sic].”
Martin Henderson and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Bride and Prejudice (Image: MIRAMAX)
Bride and Prejudice, released in 2004, masterfully blended Bollywood and Hollywood through the lens of Jane Austen.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha of Bend It Like Beckham fame, the film offered a refreshing spin on Austen’s classic tale of Pride and Prejudice.
Bollywood icon Aishwarya Rai Bachchan took centre stage as Lalita Bakshi, who initially butts heads with the suave American businessman Will Darcy, played by Martin Henderson, before they inevitably fall for each other.
Joining Henderson was Daniel Gillies, known for his roles in Virgin River and The Originals, who portrayed his rival George Wickham – a role that amusingly mirrors their respective characters in Netflix’s romantic drama series.
The cast also boasts acclaimed Indian actor Anupam Kher, known for his roles in Bend It Like Beckham and Hotel Mumbai, Naveen Andrews of Lost and The English Patient fame, Namrata Shirodkar from Hera Pheri and Major, Indira Varma who starred in Game of Thrones and Luther, and EastEnders‘ Nitin Ganatra.
Bride and Prejudice is available to watch on Apple TV+
The film was a success when it was released in 1995
The movie came out in 1995 at the height of Jane Austen adaptation mania(Image: COLUMBIA/TRISTAR)
A quintessential adaptation of a timeless Jane Austen novel is now available to watch, reports the Daily Express.
Initially released in 1995, the film garnered widespread critical acclaim, with numerous critics hailing it as one of the finest Austen adaptations ever made.
One IMDb reviewer titled their post: “A classic for all time.”
They continued: “Whoever says they just don’t make the quality of pictures today that they used to hasn’t seen or is ignoring this film.”
A second reviewer described the film as “a subtle masterpiece”, stating: “I saw this movie in a cinema back in 1996 and since that June I have seen it about a dozen times.”
“It is true, that being an ardent lover of the so-called Romantic (as if the 13th century couldn’t be Romantic or 17th, but these things are academic nonsense) period I can enjoy even minor pieces of period cinema, however this is most probably the best film set in the early 19th century.”
The film featured a stellar cast(Image: COLUMBIA/TRISTAR)
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A third review, titled “Faithful, beautiful, enjoyable, one of the best film adaptations of period novels.”, read: “Normally period adaptations need at least a few hours to do proper justice. And so it is usually the television versions that are better for those who like things faithful to text. Film versions usually truncate and romanticise/Hollywoodise which can be frustrating.
“However, films have bigger budgets and better production values so are easier on the eye. However, this is a shining example of 2.5 hour film which packed so much detail in for a real complete sense of the novel, but also with great faithful performances, at the same time as being great to watch with all the production values and cinematography or a big budget movie. One of the better film adaptations of period pieces ever.”
Released amid a flurry of Jane Austen adaptations, the Hollywood hit Sense and Sensibility shared its release year with the BBC’s heralded Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, as well as Persuasion featuring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds – not to mention the contemporary spin on Emma, Clueless, which became an instant hit.
Based on the classic 1811 novel by Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility follows the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (played by Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet), who manifest two opposing approaches to love after facing sudden financial ruin.
The Jane Austen adaption won an Oscar for best writing(Image: COLUMBIA/TRISTAR)
With their fortune gone, the Dashwood sisters are forced to navigate society in search of suitable husbands to secure their futures, encountering numerous unexpected developments along the way.
The film boasted an impressive ensemble cast including the likes of Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Greg Wise, Gemma Jones, Dame Harriet Walter, James Fleet, Hugh Laurie, and Imelda Staunton.
The esteemed British actress, Thompson, not only starred in the film but also penned the screenplay, earning her an Oscar for Best Writing.
Both Thompson and Winslet bagged BAFTA Film Awards for their stellar performances in Sense and Sensibility.
Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee was brought on board to direct the movie, marking his international breakthrough. He later won Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and The Life of Pi.
Despite subsequent adaptations of Sense and Sensibility, including the BBC’s 2008 miniseries, this version is widely regarded as the pinnacle among Austen adaptations.
Sense and Sensibility 1995 is streaming on Apple TV and Prime Video for a fee
Indian tax authorities and market regulator are considering widening their probe of United States trading giant Jane Street Group to investigate it for tax evasion in addition to an earlier charge of price rigging in the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex, according to media reports.
The tax evasion charge comes on the heels of market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), seizing 48.43 billion rupees ($570m) and banning four Jane Street-related entities from operating in the market for alleged price manipulation in the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
SEBI’s order has roiled the Indian markets, raising questions about regulator surveillance and investor protection in the world’s largest options trading market. Trading in India’s weekly equity index options has slumped by a third on the ban on Jane Street, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday.
Trading of equity options lets investors buy or sell a stock at a predetermined price and date. As the Indian market rapidly grew to handle more than half of all global options trades, retail investors entered the market too.
Questions of price manipulation have dogged this rapid rise but remained vacuous until a New York court case in April 2024, where Jane Street alleged that its rival, Millennium Partners, had stolen its algorithms that helped it make in the Indian options market. A whistleblower, Mayank Bansal, then made presentations to SEBI showing Jane Street’s trading patterns. Bansal had agreed to speak to Al Jazeera about his interaction with SEBI on the matter, but then backtracked.
On July 3, in a detailed interim order, the regulator said that “by preponderance of probability, there is no economic rationale that can account for this sudden burst of large and aggressive activity … other than the intent to manipulate the price of securities and index benchmark”.
SEBI has alleged that Jane Street accumulated large long positions in stocks that are a part of the NSE’s Bank Index and built large short positions in index options at the start of trade. Around market closing time, it would reverse its trades in the cash and futures segments, pushing down the index and earning large profits in the options segment.
This activity was blurred by its offshore entities making some of these trades.
“Lawyers [can] push back with SEBI on jurisdiction-related issues, but when underlying [Indian] securities are issued, SEBI can take action,” Joby Mathew, managing partner at the law firm Joby Mathew and Associates and a former legal officer at SEBI, told Al Jazeera.
Jane Street has disputed SEBI’s findings and has hired lawyers to represent it before SEBI in the case. It has deposited the 48.43 billion rupees ($563m) of allegedly ill-gotten gains in an account pending the investigation and final report.
“Such processes typically take eight to 24 months,” especially in “complex manipulation cases”, Sumit Agarwal, a former SEBI officer and cofounder of Regstreet Law Advisors, told Al Jazeera in an emailed response.
But the investigation can only be part of a broader questioning of Jane Street and the regulator’s role in identifying and curbing such trades sooner and protecting retail investors.
‘Highly speculative and volatile’
As India’s options market grew, retail investors were drawn to it, enticed by the growing volumes, the prospect of quick gains and less fettered trades than the equities market, where a rapidly rising stock could hit circuit breakers, leading to a halt in trading to prevent manipulation.
Retail investors were drawn to India’s burgeoning options market [File: Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo]
Mathew says his clients from the options trading segment range from students to award-winning cardiologists who may not have a refined knowledge of the market but were sold on the idea by traders or social media influencers. Most ended up losing money.
Deven Choksey, managing director at the Mumbai-based stock brokerage KR Choksey Shares and Securities, says retail investors form nearly half the Indian options market, while Jane Street and other sophisticated institutions form a little more. “It’s like a bullock cart facing a race car. Their meeting is bound to cause accidents.”
If Jane Street is found to have manipulated the market, its earnings would have come through losses for retail investors.
Bhargavi Zaveri, a financial regulations researcher formerly at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and currently a doctoral researcher at the National University of Singapore, says retail investors have made losses in the options segment, but the total amount is not clear.
Identifying and compensating investors can be hard in such cases. So even if the final order goes against Jane Street and the 48.43 billion rupees fine goes into an investor protection fund, it may be hard to distribute it onwards to retail investors who incurred losses. The best protection may be to stem irregular trades early, experts say.
“SEBI has a surveillance system and they can well monitor the markets in a timely way.,” says Choksey.
SEBI’s interim order is based on trades made by Jane Street between January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2025, a period in which retail investors may have incurred substantial losses, going by SEBI’s estimates.
Regstreet’s Agarwal says, “SEBI’s own 2024 consultations flagged expiry day options as highly speculative and volatile.”
India has fortnightly expiry dates for options, which is when they have to be settled. That is when Jane Street allegedly manipulated prices.
In a February 6 letter, SEBI told Jane Street, “The above trading activity prima facie appears to be fraudulent and manipulative.” But it did not issue its order curbing Jane Street until July 3.
SEBI’s recent measures limiting weekly expiries, tightening spreads and higher margins “reflect a push for greater protection” for retail investors, Agarwal says.
But the best way to protect retail investors would be to have them trade separately from proprietary trading firms in the options segment, Choksey points out.
“India is unique … and in no market will you see so many retail investors. So, SEBI must create product differentiation by customer segment.” to protect retail investors Chiksey says.
Challenges in proving manipulation
In an internal email, Jane Street reportedly told employees it was using “basic index arbitrage trading” and called SEBI’s allegations “extremely inflammatory”. It has hired Mumbai-based law firm, Khaitan and Co, to represent it before SEBI.
Proving price manipulation involves showing intent, which can be hard, and experts are divided on whether a SEBI investigation will be able to demonstrate that. “Trading to incur losses makes no sense, and so it indicates manipulation,” says Mathew, the former legal officer.
But NUS’s Zaveri says it is not so clear. “I think three problems are being conflated here. One, the size of the options segment being manifold the underlying cash segment. Two, that retail investors have made losses on the options segment, which I’m not sure have been quantified. Three, Jane Street arbitraged between an illiquid cash and highly liquid options segment.”
According to her, the three occurrences may not prove the intent to manipulate.
Under Indian law, proving manipulation is challenging and “Jane Street can argue its expiry day trades were legitimate index arbitrage recognised by regulators, making a manipulation finding difficult without clear intent evidence,” Regstreet’s Agarwal says.
Any action by SEBI could affect Jane Street’s reputation. Last month, an investigation by Bloomberg found that Jane Street cofounder Robert Granieri was duped into funding weapons for an attempted coup to overthrow the government in South Sudan.
If SEBI’s final order lays out any action against Jane Street, “they may well have to disclose it in their filings, which will affect them elsewhere in the world”, says Mathew.
The period drama series is a hidden gem worth watching
The show gave a fresh spin on Pride and Prejudice(Image: ITV)
Are you a die-hard fan of Jane Austen adaptations but think you’ve seen them all? Think again, because there’s one gem that might have escaped your notice.
Airing back in 2008 on ITV, this four-part limited series offers a unique twist on the classic Pride and Prejudice tale, reports the Express.
Armchair critics and fans on IMDb have been heaping praise on the miniseries. One user left a glowing 10/10 rating, saying: “I am utterly captivated by this refreshing take on Austen. I used to love romantic periodical novels when much younger, but they have since fallen out of favour with me, as they are all so alike. Here I am quite unaware, as of yet, what may happen and I absolutely adore the suspense.
“The actors are well chosen for their task and I am quickly falling in love with them one by one. I never thought I would see Mr Bingley as adorable, but in this it is quite so.”
Another enthusiast gave a perfect score too, commenting: “Three episodes in and I feel now is the time to say a big well done to all concerned. As a long time Austen lover and a fan of period/costume drama I was unsure what to expect from this reworking of a favourite story.”
“As others have commented this bears similarities with ‘Life on Mars’, a person taken out of modern day life and deposited into the past, albeit Jane Austen’s fictitious one.”
Meanwhile, another viewer remarked: “The mini series was absolutely sweet and funny and it will be appreciated by real Jane Austen fanatics.
“It does resemble the weirdest dream that only authors of fan fiction have had. At times the plot lines turn into silly situations but for most of the time they are quite enjoyable.
The show is a love letter to Pride and Prejudice(Image: ITV)
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“The young actors make the most of it. I wish response has been better so that the series can be longer.”
A fourth viewer rated the programme a perfect 10/10, dubbing their review “Brilliant!”.
They penned: “I just watched the whole thing. I hadn’t even realized it was a mini-series, I simply got the DVD from netflix and popped it in. It didn’t offer me the option to select episodes, it just played the whole thing as one big movie.
“One big, wonderful, delightful film! I haven’t enjoyed a film this much in years. It was a complete treat. I love Pride & Prejudice; I’ve read the book, and seen most (maybe all? ) of the screen adaptations, some multiple times.
“And I’m usually a bit of a purist, but I thought this might be fun, so I gave it a try. It well exceeded my expectations. I’m still aglow with enjoyment [sic].”
Lost in Austen is a cheeky homage to the celebrated author and her best-known novel Pride and Prejudice.
The show trails self-confessed Jane Austen enthusiast Amanda Price (portrayed by Jemima Rooper) residing in modern London during the Noughties.
The ITV series was a period drama with a twist(Image: ITV)
After a less than impressive proposal from her boyfriend, involving a makeshift wedding ring made from a can ring pull, Amanda finds herself mysteriously swapping places with Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton) and landing in the world of Pride and Prejudice through a door in her bathroom.
Amanda’s sudden arrival quickly throws the novel’s events into chaos, as she frantically tries to steer the plot back on track.
During Amanda’s escapades, she encounters Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan), with the pair initially butting heads before sparks begin to fly.
Lost In Austen boasts a star-studded cast, including Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville as Mr Bennet, Doctor Who’s Alex Kingston as Mrs Bennet, Grantchester’s Morven Christie as Jane Bennet, Suits actress Christina Cole as Caroline Bingley, and Tom Mison from Apple TV+’s See as Mr Bingley, among others.
Additional casting includes Lindsay Duncan as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Guy Henry as Mr. William Collins, Michelle Duncan as Charlotte Lucas, Ruby Bentall as Mary Bennet, Pippa Haywood as Frankie, Amanda’s mother, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Pirhana, Amanda’s friend, Daniel Percival as Michael Dolan, Amanda’s boyfriend, and Genevieve Gaunt as Georgiana Darcy.
Lost in Austen is available to stream on Prime Video now
