President Barack Obama will honor actors Mel Brooks and Morgan Freeman with the 2015 National Medal of Arts, the White House said Wednesday.
The artists and other leading creative figures have been invited to receive the medal at a White House ceremony on Sept. 22. First lady Michelle Obama also plans to attend.
The White House said Brooks was being honored for "a lifetime of making the world laugh." The actor, director, writer and musician is one of the few artists to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy.
Freeman will be honored for his work as an actor, director and narrator.
"His iconic stage and screen performances have brought to life characters from the whole spectrum of the human experience, moving audiences around the world, and influencing countless young artists," the White House said in a statement.
Other winners this year include composer Philip Glass, actress and singer Audra McDonald, author Sandra Cisneros and painter Jack Whitten. Musician Santiago Jimenez Jr. and playwright Moises Kaufman are also on the list.
The White House also announced that celebrity chef Jose Andres is among the 2015 recipients of the National Humanities Medal. So are jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, public radio host Terry Gross and author James McBride.
Others receiving the National Medal of Arts:
- Record producer and songwriter Berry Gordy
- Dancer and choreographer Ralph Lemon
- The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
- Playwright and actor Luis Valdez
Others receiving the National Humanities Medal:
- Author Rudolfo Anaya
- Author Louis Menand
- Author Ron Chernow
- Prison University Project, Higher Education Program
- Physician and author Abraham Verghese
- Historian and author Elaine Pagels
- Journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson
- Poet Louise Gluck
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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