BEIJING: Poker faces were in short supply after Lady Gaga met the Dalai Lama, with Chinese social media users erupting in fury Monday.
The pop star met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader at the United States Conference of Mayors in Indiana, where the Nobel laureate gave the keynote speech.
After Lady Gaga posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram, the image was inundated with abusive comments.
“The way the Chinese feel is just like you were shaking hands with Bin Laden,” one poster wrote.
Another said: “This is proof that she can love and respect a Chinese terrorist. She fundamentally looks down on Chinese fans, and even all Chinese people.”
Asked by AFP if the meeting would lead to a “bad romance” between Chinese authorities and the singer, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei did not recognize the recording artist.
“Who?” he asked. The Dalai Lama was “touting his Tibetan independence policies around the world” he said, adding: “We hope people can see through to his true nature.”
The Dalai Lama’s speech mainly focused on hope for the future, US reports said.
“Now, the time has come that America should be the leading nation in the promotion of human compassion, human love in order to achieve compassionate world,” he said, according to the Indianapolis Star newspaper.
“I think in my lifetime we can achieve that. But effort must start now.”
Gaga who? Outrage in China as singer meets Dalai Lama
Gaga who? Outrage in China as singer meets Dalai Lama
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
