********** ENTERTAINMENT **********
return to top
The 25 Best Shows on Amazon Prime Right Now (January 2025)
Sat, 11 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000
Citadel: Diana, The Rig, and Fallout are just a few of the shows you should be watching on Amazon Prime Video this week.
Match ID: 0 Score: 30.00 source: www.wired.com age: 3 days
qualifiers: 30.00 (best|good|great) (show|movie)
Behind the Candelabra – the Liberace biopic as sordid as its subject
Tue, 14 Jan 2025 14:00:55 GMT
Steven Soderbergh’s TV film honours the master pianist in the only appropriate way: with lurid spectacle
“We, as gay people, we get to choose our family,” said RuPaul Charles in a frequently cited line from a 2013 episode of Drag Race. On a different channel that year, HBO aired Steven Soderbergh’s TV movie Behind the Candelabra, a film adaptation of Scott Thorson’s memoir of the same name. Published in 1988, a year after Liberace’s death, the memoir was a haunting account of Thorson’s relationship with the spangled, mononymous pianist – an unusual chosen family just begging to be depicted on screen.
Brought to life by an extravagantly eyelinered Matt Damon, Thorson was Liberace’s live-in lover turned chauffeur. They dated for five pyrotechnic years before Thorson’s so-called “employment” was terminated by his celebrity boyfriend.
Continue reading...Chan, now 70, rehearses his trademark action comedy chops playing a film star battling bad guys to protect a CGI panda cub
Fun though it is to see Jackie Chan good-naturedly busting out the classic moves – and very spry he is at 70 years old – this really is a by-the-numbers piece of work. It’s a Chinese action comedy in which Chan plays himself, the adored movie star, who is a little bored with the range of downtime activities on offer for an icon like him.
Then he jumps at the chance to adopt a rare baby panda at the zoo, and shows up just as a kidnap attempt is under way: a battalion of tough guys have been sent in to abduct the CGI creature at the behest of some Middle Eastern businessmen whose obvious stereotypical villainy is finally redeemed by some sentimental tearjerking — and of course Chan has to kick their butts in that unique slapstick way, helped by winsome zoo assistant Su Xiaozhu (Shi Ce). It’s a kids’ film in essence, although oddly the action violence means that it has a 15 certificate in the UK.
Continue reading...It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal
You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now work from home. Half of workers work from home for at least part of the week now, and many workplaces have thrived because of it. Zoom meetings save time and wasteful travel, employers are free to hire talent from anywhere in the country, and employees have escaped escalating property prices in London and steep commuting costs. Working from home (WFH) has been a boon for the climate, too; according to one US study, two to four days of remote working a week lowers carbon emissions by between 11% and 29%.
Yet WFH is now coming under accelerating attack. JP Morgan will now require employees to spend five days a week in the office and other big companies may soon follow suit. A perverse strain of rightwing thought opposes almost any social progress that improves other people’s lives. This Scrooge-like instinct yearns to make work as grindingly hard and low-paid as possible. Recall Jacob Rees-Mogg pacing civil service offices like the Child Catcher, leaving “sorry you were out when I visited” notes on employees’ desks in 2022. The same age-old sentiment prompted the CBI chair, Rupert Soames, to savage Labour’s flagship anti-gig economy employment rights bill on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, warning that the new bill would force businesses to let people go.
Continue reading...The actor soared to fame in the 90s and 00s in Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels and Ally McBeal – navigating a notorious time for women on set. Now, she returns to Hollywood in Steven Soderbergh’s Presence – and says she’s still not afraid of standing up for herself
Boredom is not a feeling with which Lucy Liu is familiar. “Sometimes I wouldn’t mind it,” she says with a smile. “But it feels nonstop. I never get bored because I don’t have time.” If there wasn’t so much to do, she says: “I’m sure I could learn a language, you know, learn how to ride a unicycle. I mean, come on, the list is endless. So it never feels, like ‘What’s left?’ It’s ‘Where do we start?’” Liu is not someone who likes to look backwards. “I think my best work is ahead of me,” says the actor who has done blockbusters (2000’s Charlie’s Angels and its sequel), two Quentin Tarantino movies (Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2), performed on Broadway, shared top billing on a hit TV show (Sherlock Holmes update Elementary, playing a female Watson), all after receiving her big break on another, era-defining series (Ally McBeal).
Liu’s latest film is Presence, one of Steven Soderbergh’s more experimental works. Although nominally a horror, it’s weirder than that, being shot from the perspective of a ghost who watches a new family move into a house. “He’s truly an artist, because he’s willing to experiment and not really afraid to fail,” says Liu of the director. She has been a fan of Soderbergh’s since his 1989 breakthrough Sex, Lies, and Videotape. “I feel like it [Presence] is coming from a very clear place of curiosity, which I enjoy, because that is artistic freedom, isn’t it? You’re not doing it for ‘the Man’. It’s something you are curious about so then you just try it. It’s almost childlike.” The film has little dialogue, and little backstory. Liu’s character is the mother of two teenagers, and there is clearly tension within the family, not least because she seems to favour her son over her daughter. Sometimes there are scenes, in the ghost’s watchful presence, where nothing appears to happen, which feels a little destabilising to a modern audience used to fast cuts and spoon-fed exposition. “We’re so used to being told what to look at, what to do or feel,” says Liu.
Continue reading...
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
Come for wonderful walks on Box Hill and the Happy Valley trail, stay for cosy inns, great food and a sense of discovery
If Surrey were a restaurant, it would be a drive-thru. Sandwiched between London and England’s south coast, famous for its wealthy commuter-belt towns and the great thick scar of the M25, it’s a place people whip through on their way to somewhere else. I’ve spent several decades doing it; back and forth between Sussex and London, occasionally meeting friends in Guildford or Dorking, but never really exploring any further.
My husband and I had our first date in a pub in the Surrey Hills (an AONB since 1958, the second in the country) – the lovely Fox Revived at Norwood Hill – and I remember thinking at the time, “Oh, this is quite pretty.” A decade later, sitting in the same pub, and slightly less distracted by first-date nerves, I decided it was somewhere I really should get to know.
Continue reading...It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal
You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now work from home. Half of workers work from home for at least part of the week now, and many workplaces have thrived because of it. Zoom meetings save time and wasteful travel, employers are free to hire talent from anywhere in the country, and employees have escaped escalating property prices in London and steep commuting costs. Working from home (WFH) has been a boon for the climate, too; according to one US study, two to four days of remote working a week lowers carbon emissions by between 11% and 29%.
Yet WFH is now coming under accelerating attack. JP Morgan will now require employees to spend five days a week in the office and other big companies may soon follow suit. A perverse strain of rightwing thought opposes almost any social progress that improves other people’s lives. This Scrooge-like instinct yearns to make work as grindingly hard and low-paid as possible. Recall Jacob Rees-Mogg pacing civil service offices like the Child Catcher, leaving “sorry you were out when I visited” notes on employees’ desks in 2022. The same age-old sentiment prompted the CBI chair, Rupert Soames, to savage Labour’s flagship anti-gig economy employment rights bill on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, warning that the new bill would force businesses to let people go.
Continue reading...Wang Xing was abducted in Thailand by increasingly bold crime gangs operating in Myanmar, putting an entire tourism industry at risk
Wang Xing thought he was travelling to a casting call with film producers in Thailand.
The 22-year-old Chinese actor, also known by his stage name Xing Xing, had been communicating on WeChat with people he believed were Chinese employees of a major Thai entertainment firm, according to Thai police. One of them greeted him at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and led him through security, before telling him that the plan – to stay at a nearby hotel – had changed. Instead they drove 500km to Mae Sot in western Thailand.
Continue reading...As national populist parties gain ground in the west, progressives must put social and climate priorities ahead of market interests
Different year, same direction of travel. The likely formation of the first far-right-led government in Austria’s postwar history, after the breakdown this month of coalition talks between mainstream parties, is the latest confirmation of the illiberal drift in western democracies. Only a few years ago, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary remained a troublesome outlier in the European Union. These days, variations on Mr Orbán’s ethno-nationalist approach to 21st-century politics are flourishing across the continent. And in a week’s time, Donald Trump will be back in the White House.
In an era of stagnating living standards and rising inequality, the growing appeal of national populism should not come as a surprise. The targeting of immigration, “liberal elites” and globalisation has channelled resentments felt in deindustrialised regions, where good jobs and a sense of identity were lost as capital and investment moved elsewhere. The migration of the less well-off towards parties of the far right is a symptom of times in which trust in mainstream politics has collapsed.
Continue reading...A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Alfred Bourgeois’s daughter is convinced of his innocence. In the four years since his execution, she has waged a sometimes-lonely battle to prove it.
The post She Lost Her Dad to Trump’s Killing Spree. Now She Wants Biden to Clear His Name. appeared first on The Intercept.
“The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences,” said a local activist.
The post LA Budgeted Money For Cop Jobs While Cutting Fire Department Positions. Now the City Is Burning. appeared first on The Intercept.
A new Syria is emerging from the shadow of the brutal Assad regime. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Ayman Abu Ramouz meet people celebrating their hard-won freedom, but also those grappling with a traumatic past. The pair travel to the notorious Sednaya prison, where they meet a former prisoner who was liberated by his family just days before
Resistance was not a choice’: how Syria’s unlikely rebel alliance took Aleppo
'The Syrian regime hit us with chemical weapons: only now can we speak out' – video
Syria’s disappeared: one woman’s search for her missing father
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...Tropical storm batters eastern parts of Africa, including French territory still recovering from Cyclone Chido
Over the weekend, eastern parts of Africa were threatened by Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi. What started as a slight tropical disturbance between Indonesia and Australia on 2 January progressed westwards while developing into a depression over the week that followed.
The depression strengthened into a moderate tropical storm with heavy downpours and gusty winds exceeding 39mph (63km/h) across central parts of the Indian Ocean. At this time, the system was named Dikeledi. It continued westwards and deepened into a tropical cyclone on the evening of 10 January as maximum sustained wind speeds hit 74mph – the equivalent of becoming a category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.
Continue reading...Wang Xing was abducted in Thailand by increasingly bold crime gangs operating in Myanmar, putting an entire tourism industry at risk
Wang Xing thought he was travelling to a casting call with film producers in Thailand.
The 22-year-old Chinese actor, also known by his stage name Xing Xing, had been communicating on WeChat with people he believed were Chinese employees of a major Thai entertainment firm, according to Thai police. One of them greeted him at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and led him through security, before telling him that the plan – to stay at a nearby hotel – had changed. Instead they drove 500km to Mae Sot in western Thailand.
Continue reading...Chan, now 70, rehearses his trademark action comedy chops playing a film star battling bad guys to protect a CGI panda cub
Fun though it is to see Jackie Chan good-naturedly busting out the classic moves – and very spry he is at 70 years old – this really is a by-the-numbers piece of work. It’s a Chinese action comedy in which Chan plays himself, the adored movie star, who is a little bored with the range of downtime activities on offer for an icon like him.
Then he jumps at the chance to adopt a rare baby panda at the zoo, and shows up just as a kidnap attempt is under way: a battalion of tough guys have been sent in to abduct the CGI creature at the behest of some Middle Eastern businessmen whose obvious stereotypical villainy is finally redeemed by some sentimental tearjerking — and of course Chan has to kick their butts in that unique slapstick way, helped by winsome zoo assistant Su Xiaozhu (Shi Ce). It’s a kids’ film in essence, although oddly the action violence means that it has a 15 certificate in the UK.
Continue reading...Tech company rejects as ‘pure fiction’ a report that a deal could take place if it fails to avoid an impending ban
Chinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban.
Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of Chinese parent Bytedance, but have discussed other options including a sale to Musk, Bloomberg reported.
Continue reading...Tokyo remains, in the world’s imagination, a place of sophistication and wealth. But with economic revival forever distant, ‘tourism pollution’ seems the only viable plan
The yen is low, and everybody is coming to Tokyo. If that sounds familiar, it’s not because I’m being coy or hedging my bets; it is the only information to be found in most English-language coverage of Japan’s capital in the aftermath of the pandemic. I can’t stop reading these accounts. After nine years in the country, you’d think I would have learned enough Japanese to liberate myself from the Anglo-American internet, but I’m afraid I’m stuck with flimsy stories about the tourist uptick for the time being.
Part of the reason that so much coverage of the city where I live errs on the side of optimism is that Tokyo remains lodged in the postwar American imagination as a place of sophistication and wealth, good taste and cultural authenticity, with a reputation for deferential hospitality. Never mind that this was the calculated effect of bilateral postwar public relations campaigns, a boom in exportable middlebrow culture and fearmongering about Japanese industrial dominance.
Continue reading...Public investment in technology is the right move. But ministers must not become boosters for an industry that causes harm as well as good
Digital technology companies have reshaped our world and will continue doing so. Sir Keir Starmer knows his government must seek a role in shaping this new order – and avoid ceding all control to the US and China. According to official estimates, the UK is the third-largest AI market. Its universities are important incubators of talent. Google DeepMind, two of whose scientists won a Nobel chemistry prize last year, was a British company until Google bought it in 2014. But the world’s two largest economies, and particularly the US corporations that dominate our online lives, are a long way ahead. The danger for the rest of the world is being swept along in an AI wave over which it has little control.
Expanding Britain’s publicly owned computing resource – a national asset known as sovereign compute capacity – is a necessary step toward securing technological independence. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is right to warn of a coming battle to ensure democratic control of computing. Countering private-sector dominance with new public investment is part of that. Plans to boost the AI industry, beginning with a new growth zone in Oxfordshire, make sense as part of a 21st-century industrial strategy.
Continue reading...Coming of Age Day is celebrated in Japan every January, when those becoming adults dress in formal kimonos, pray at shrines and hear speeches about their new responsibilities. Thousands attended a ceremony in Yohohama
Continue reading...Chancellor’s mission to Beijing weighted with greater expectations
Rachel Reeves hailed a new era of “respectful and consistent future relations with China” as pressure grew on the embattled chancellor to deliver on her government’s central promise to fire up UK economic growth.
After meeting China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Beijing, Reeves said Britain’s relationship with the world’s second largest economy would be “frank and open on areas where we disagree”, while stressing it would be pragmatic in “finding opportunities for safe trade and investment”.
Continue reading...A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
The grand version of the 12-yearly Hindu pilgrimage is expected to draw more than 400 million devotees
The world’s largest religious gathering kicked off on Monday as millions of Hindu devotees gathered on the banks of Ganges in India to mark the beginning of the Maha Kumbh Mela.
The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage takes place every 12 years and is widely seen as the “festival of festivals” in the Hindu religious calendar in India, attended by a vibrant mix of sadhus or holy men, ascetics, pilgrims and tourists. This year’s celebration is particularly significant as the Maha or grand Kumbh Mela only takes places every 144 years, marking the 12th Kumbh Mela and a special celestial alignment of the sun, moon and Jupiter.
Continue reading...News:
A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.
[…]
The study tested the material in an irrigation ditch, a lake, seawater and a pond, where it removed up to 99.9% of plastic. It addressed 95%-98% of plastic after five cycles, which the authors say is remarkable reusability.
The sponge is made from chitin extracted from squid bone and cotton cellulose, materials that are often used to address pollution. Cost, secondary pollution and technological complexities have stymied many other filtration systems, but large-scale production of the new material is possible because it is cheap, and raw materials are easy to obtain, the authors say...
In today’s newsletter: Kyiv’s interrogation footage of captured North Korean soldiers leads to questions about what it might do with the soldiers – and what the PoWs might do for them
Good morning. In a grinding war where significant changes at the front are hard to discern, a video released by Ukraine on Sunday is a rare point of focus: it featured two North Korean soldiers, answering questions from their Ukrainian captors, and weighing the circumstances of their presence in a conflict thousands of miles from home.
The video is, perhaps, not militarily significant. But it is a unique insight into one of the more extraordinary aspects of a conflict that has drawn in actors from all over the world, and is a crucible in which every participant is learning how modern wars are fought.
Economy | Rachel Reeves will remain as chancellor until the next general election, Keir Starmer has insisted, as he warned the Treasury would be “ruthless” over public spending cuts to help meet the government’s fiscal rules.
Gaza | Joe Biden has said his administration is on the brink of sealing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war after more than 14 months of fighting. Biden administration officials have said they believe the deal may be concluded before Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
US politics | Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he had not won the presidential election in 2024, according to the special counsel who investigated him. Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released early on Tuesday.
UK news | A man accused of driving a young mother to suicide through domestic violence has been found guilty of assault and prolonged controlling behaviour but cleared of her manslaughter. Ryan Wellings, 30, was blamed from “beyond the grave” for the death of his partner, Kiena Dawes. Read more about the case.
‘Forever chemicals’ | The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in everything from cosmetics to nonstick pans but are almost indestructible without human intervention.
[It is] unclear if North Korea will even claim the two captured soldiers as their own, given Moscow and Pyongyang’s refusal to officially admit that North Korean forces have been deployed to Russia. At the same time, Russia could claim them as their own and hand them over to North Korea after they are traded with Ukrainian PoWs.
Continue reading...First of five hearings into martial law declaration lasts only minutes, while Yoon Suk Yeol remains holed up inside his presidential compound
The first hearing in the impeachment trial of South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, ended after just a few minutes on Tuesday as Yoon failed to appear at the constitutional court.
The court’s justices have about five months to decide whether to strip Yoon of his presidential duties over his short-lived declaration of martial law on 3 December or return him to office.
Continue reading...Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed coup attempt in December plunged country into worst political crisis in decades
The impeached South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, will receive a pay rise, official documents revealed, as he continues to resist arrest over his ill-fated martial law declaration.
Yoon suspended civilian rule on 3 December, sending soldiers into parliament and plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades. He was forced to backtrack hours later.
Continue reading...Lawyer for suspended president says concerns about ‘potential incidents’ have arisen following thwarted attempt to arrest him at his residence
South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, will not attend the first hearing of his impeachment trial next week because of safety concerns, his lawyer has said.
Yoon has been holed up in the presidential residence and protected by an elite guard force since being suspended and impeached last month following a short-lived declaration of martial law that plunged the country into political chaos.
Continue reading...Billionaires gonna billionaire — and lick the boots of whoever will bring them more riches and impunity.
The post Facebook Fact Checks Were Never Going to Save Us. They Just Made Liberals Feel Better. appeared first on The Intercept.
Under Meta’s relaxed hate speech rules, users can now post “I’m a proud racist” or “Black people are more violent than whites.”
The post Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” appeared first on The Intercept.
Conservatives have been hyperfixated on TikTok content that’s sympathetic with Gaza — and accused the company of algorithmic bias against Israel.
The post The TikTok Ban Is Also About Hiding Pro-Palestinian Content. Republicans Said So Themselves. appeared first on The Intercept.
Quake damaged buildings in Shigatse and could be felt hundreds of kilometres away in Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar
A strong earthquake has struck near Shigatse, one of Tibet’s holiest cities, killing scores of people, damaging buildings, and sending people running to the streets in neighbouring Nepal and India.
Chinese state media said at least 126 people had died, more than 188 had been injured, and about 1,000 houses were damaged in the quake, which hit at 9.05am on Tuesday. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centred in the Tibet region at a depth of about 10km (6 miles). It measured the tremor at magnitude 7.1, while China recorded it as 6.8.
Continue reading...Whether it’s banning articles on X or killing fact checks on Meta, the only constant is that it benefits the powerful.
The post My Ban From X Is About One Simple Thing: Elon Musk Controlling the Flow of Information appeared first on The Intercept.
Critics worry that a sweeping ban based on predictions rather than more concrete proof of TikTok’s security risks sets a precedent in line with repressive regimes.
The post To Ban TikTok, Supreme Court Would Rank “National Security” Before First Amendment appeared first on The Intercept.
The Franco-Haitian artist’s 2002 portrait exemplifies his gift for taking photographs that transcend time and place
Henry Roy’s book, Impossible Island, a survey of 40 years of his photography, is threaded with images of sleepers and dreamers in different corners of the world – Thailand, Tunisia, his adoptive France, his native Haiti. Roy took this picture of a girl making an impromptu cradle of a wheelbarrow in Congo-Brazzaville in 2002. Like all of his most evocative photographs, it asks several questions of the viewer – but the overriding one seems to be: how sleepy do you have to be to take a nap here?
Roy’s photos often work this way: they create little mythologies that seem to take their subjects outside their particular time and place. As he noted of his practice in his 2017 book Superstition, what he is always restless for are images that “murmur the secret language of a world free from what contaminates us”. Here, the vibrant Sunday-best floral prints of the girl, the precision of her hair, seem to elevate her above the clay and dust of her surroundings. It comes as no surprise, looking at Roy’s pictures, that they have been cited as primary inspirations by cinematographers and film-makers, notably Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins, who has suggested that he was inspired to create some of the visual sensuality of Moonlight by looking at Roy’s work.
Impossible Island is co-published by Loose Joints and the Art Gallery of Western Australia
Continue reading...From the Washington Post:
The sanctions target Beijing Integrity Technology Group, which U.S. officials say employed workers responsible for the Flax Typhoon attacks which compromised devices including routers and internet-enabled cameras to infiltrate government and industrial targets in the United States, Taiwan, Europe and elsewhere.
After 30 years of relentless growth and capitalism, a new trend has emerged in China. The search for a simpler, calmer life is leading some Chinese people to seek a life abroad. The trend is so popular that it’s gained its own internet buzzword: the 'run philosophy'.
Chiang mai, in northern Thailand is the country’s second biggest city. It’s a tourist hotspot popular with backpackers but has recently become an unlikely second home for thousands of Chinese people seeking alternative lifestyles.
Continue reading...The prisons are open, the secret files are unlocked. Now Syrians are trying to figure out how to hold war criminals accountable.
The post Searching for Justice and the Missing in the New Syria appeared first on The Intercept.
MP accused of misusing her position to gain influence and illegally acquire land with her aunt Sheikh Hasina
Authorities in Bangladesh have filed a criminal case against the UK Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, accusing her of misusing her position as an MP to gain influence and illegally acquire land with her aunt the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Siddiq has faced mounting calls to resign over her links to Hasina, who was toppled in August after mass protests across Bangladesh and is facing charges of corruption and crimes against humanity.
Continue reading...Ohio has become the latest state to allow police to charge high fees for access to footage.
The post Ohio Puts Police Bodycam Footage Behind a Paywall appeared first on The Intercept.
Anti-money laundering officials ask banks for information on UK minister and seven of her family members
Anti-money laundering officials in Bangladesh have demanded bank account details for Tulip Siddiq, the UK anti-corruption minister, in the latest escalation of the inquiries into her family’s financial interests.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), which investigates money laundering and suspicious transactions, wrote to the country’s main banks on Tuesday asking them to provide account details for Siddiq and seven of her family members.
Continue reading...RSS Rabbit links users to publicly available RSS entries.
Vet every link before clicking! The creators accept no responsibility for the contents of these entries.
Relevant
Fresh
Convenient
Agile
We're not prepared to take user feedback yet. Check back soon!
